Yesterday we talked about bonuses in a general sense, especially with regards to how you can use them to add value to your offer. Today we’re going to continue our discussion of bonuses, this time with an eye on how to deploy strategic bonuses.
What do we mean by “strategic bonuses?” What we’re referring to is how to use bonuses to achieve specific goals such as:
· Overcome objections.
· Retain members.
· Boost customer satisfaction.
Let’s look at these three items in more detail…
Overcome Objections
As they read your sales letter, your potential customers are always going to have some objecting niggling them at the back of their mind. You need to raise and handle these objections in order for these customers to place their order. And one way to handle some of these objections is by offering a bonus that overcomes that specific objection.
For example, some people who look at your PLR offer are going to tell themselves not to purchase your offer because they don’t know how to use PLR content. You can overcome this objection by providing training on how to make the most of the content. (See Day #8 for ideas on how to do this.)
A common objection for content the user tends to sell is that they don’t have time or money to create all the needed marketing materials. You can overcome this objection by including a “promo pack,” which includes a sales letter with graphics, an autoresponder series, a lead magnet to get people onto the list, and blog articles that also pre-sell the product.
Another possible objection is that the customer says they don’t have time to tweak the content to make it unique. You might offer a bonus such as a discount coupon for a freelancer to tweak the content for them.
You’ll need to do some brainstorming about what sort of objections your audience might have, and then create a bonus to help overcome that specific objection.
Next…
Retain Members
Another way to strategically use bonuses to retain members is by delaying some of your bonuses. For example, you might give one bonus immediately after someone joins your site, and then offer a new bonus every two months.
The key here is that your customers need to know that they’ll be getting bonuses every couple months. Be sure to build anticipation for these bonuses, so that members remain active in order to collect the bonus.
Boost Customer Satisfaction
A good offer paired with a good bonus tends to boost customer satisfaction. If you’re looking to really surprise and delight your customers, then do this: offer some unadvertised bonuses.
Yes, you should advertise some of your bonuses on your sales page, which will help with conversions. However, by offering surprise bonuses (unadvertised), you can accomplish two things:
1. Further boosts customer satisfaction. In turn, this helps retain customers and may even get them to refer their friends.
2. Train customers to open all emails from you. Your customers will eagerly open every email just to be sure they don’t miss out on anything. And when customers open and read all your emails, you’ll get a higher conversion rate on any backend offers you promote via email.
You can offer a surprise bonus on the first batch of content your customers download, as well as occasional surprises thereafter (as often as once a month).
TODAY’S TASK: Your task today is to think about your prospective customers’ common objections to joining your site, and then determine if there is a bonus you can offer to help overcome that objection. Then decide exactly what sort of bonuses you’re going to offer to your customers (refer back to Day #8 for more information if needed).