Written by: Pedro Campos, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Your offer is one of the pillars of paid traffic. It can literally make or break an advertising campaign. It`s the single most important aspect to consider before even thinking about spending a dime on ads. The offers we`re going to cover here might be a little bit different from what you´re used to. Let me explain.
Remember the last time you registered for a webinar. that you probably didn`t show up to? The webinar is an example of an offer. A video series is another example. An offer isn´t necessarily an invitation to purchase something. When it comes to paid acquisition, the offer is meant to make you click the ad and take a certain action on a landing page or other destination.
Your initial offer will be designed with your core or main offer in mind, and most of your cold acquisition campaigns will start off with the initial offer in mind. No great copywriter is going to sell a bad offer, by the way, I don`t care who he or she is.
This article is gonna show you some of the most effective offers you can use to capture leads and generate sales. Some can be used throughout the entire funnel.
These work especially well on paid social or native, but you can use them on any advertising platform. So without further ado, let`s break down some of the strongest offers you can put out there when launching your ad campaigns to drive leads and sales for your business.
Coupon Or Discount Code
Everybody likes a discount, right? This offer could be promoted through a simple ad, with a short copy just telling people that you`re giving away a coupon or a discount. You can also inject some urgency, letting them know that the promotion ends on a specific date. This offer works really well for low ticket, entry-level products and it has become a classic for e-commerce.
Want to know a secret? Impulse buyers can’t resist a coupon they love them. Make sure you`re as direct as possible with this offer. You have something that will save people money. Just tell them that, no need to overcomplicate it. Ecommerce stores use this all the time to convert cold traffic into customers. It`s just an excellent offer and works really well if you`re targeting the right people, as with any type of advertising.
Blog Post Or Branded Content
Create an epic blog post with really good information, insert other offers within the content and promote it. This has two main benefits: it builds awareness around your brand and allows you to create retargeting lists of people you can show other relevant offers down the line.
Especially on social media or native platforms, these value-driven blog posts tend to perform really well as long as your content is relevant to the audience. Some people say that short blog posts do better than long ones because people are not going to spend a lot of time reading. This is just like saying: Is it better to have a 30-second or a 6-minute video?
Here`s my take on its number one, test it and number two, as long as the content is valuable and relevant to the audience you`re targeting, who cares about the length?
This type of offer will obviously attract people that prefer written content. If you can get someone to spend 5 or 10 minutes on your website reading a post, that is one qualified person you can later show ads with other offers, such as a free mini-course, for example. And one person after another multiplied by a bunch creates an excellent audience for you to show lead magnet or paid offers to down the line.
Checklist, Swipe File, Or Cheat Sheet
The reason why this works so well is that people love quick wins. That`s exactly what you`re giving them when you offer a checklist, swipe file, or cheat sheet. It`s easily consumable and highly practical and it`s a great way to deliver value upfront. Don`t forget to make it as simple as possible. This type of offer works really well if you`re selling any kind of digital or education-based product, for example, coaching or courses. It´s great for cold traffic but can also be used for warm audiences.
It plays with our ingrained condition as human beings to want things now and to want things that are simple to understand. You`re not explaining the whole course or program here; you`re just solving a specific problem that your avatar might have and giving them a quick win, as we`ve discussed.
Quiz Or Survey
This type of offer has somewhat of a personal touch to it. It is mainly led by curiosity.
People always love to find out what their specific situation could look like. It`s very powerful because your prospects get a chance to engage at an early stage of the funnel. They get involved, and we know that`s a plus when trying to move them to the next step of the customer journey.
The law of involvement plays a huge role when it comes to influencing someone to take a certain action. It`s a well-known technique in sales. It`s considered a great offer because, again, you`re giving the prospects a quick win, and sometimes you`re helping them get to know themselves better in the case of quizzes. If you can help someone discover something about themselves that they haven`t seen, they`re more likely to trust you, and that`s why this is such a powerful offer.
Free Book + Shipping
One of the most popular lead magnets, especially for experts or coaches, is the free book plus shipping. A book that took hours for someone to write and he or she gives it to you for free. The shipping, most of the time, is not even an issue. It costs less than if they were to buy the book themselves in a library or online.
It`s typically a no-brainer, as people always like to get a deal. In fact, that´s what drives most purchasing decisions.
This is an amazing offer to start a relationship on the right foot. If you`re an author, leverage this one for sure. Both parties win the author gets exposure, gets his or her book out there, gets a chance to attract leads into the funnel, and is still able to deliver value in a great way by giving away a piece of their work. Also, remember that paying customers are always more valuable than leads that don´t buy anything, even if they just give you $1.
Product Or Sales Page
A word of caution here. Long, educational-type videos to sales pages where you sell people a low ticket product are ok. Sending cold traffic straight to a sales page without educating the audience or building enough trust is risky and can be very costly.
Most beginner advertisers tend to completely screw this one up. They don`t understand that it`s crucial to take the time to build relationships with the audience, especially if your core or main offer is in the thousands of dollars.
It`s quite easy to fall into the trap of wanting to sell too fast. Taking cold audiences to sales pages is a strategy you can apply as long as you educate the audience and if what you`re selling isn`t too much of a big ask, as a high ticket product.
Don`t take people to a sales page for a high ticket offer unless it`s a warm audience and they`re already familiar with your brand. Video ads tend to work like magic with this type of offer, again if the product is something that people want at a reasonable price.
Offer Or Not To Offer
You might think some marketers don´t really offer anything, except maybe value. Those are often called brand marketers. Some of them refuse to ask you for a bigger commitment in hopes you´ll buy at some point just because you got so much value from them.
This is surely a good approach if you´re an established brand with deep pockets. It takes a long time to see results and is very costly upfront.
For most businesses, the wisest approach is to always offer something. Whatever offer type you choose, your ultimate goal should be to turn strangers into customers, as fast as possible at a profit. This doesn´t mean you won´t invest in brand awareness campaigns. Your efforts will simply go more towards lead and revenue generation.
Pedro Campos, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Pedro is a Portuguese-born who fell into the media buying world by chance after watching an ad online. Despite being mentored by some of the best advertisers in the world early on, his first attempts to succeed at digital media left him bankrupt three times. He then realized in this industry, there was a bigger price to be paid to obtain mastery. That's the price he's helping companies avoid. He's the founder of Advertongue, a native advertising agency helping global brands grow and scale efficiently online. Over the years, he's been responsible for million-dollar budgets and made appearances in publications such as Content Marketing Institute, G2, and Funnel Magazine, to name a few.
