It doesn’t matter how good your advertising is, get this one piece of the puzzle wrong and the whole lot will be wasted.
We talk a lot about ‘offers’ in marketing, but what does that mean, what actually is an offer, and how do you create one that’s totally irresistible?
Ally had an OK business. A small hairdressing salon. It was paying the bills, keeping her occupied and some staff employed and making a small profit. Like most businesses there were ups and downs, good months and bad, times of anxiety and uncertainty along with the wins.
Overall it was good but Ally was frustrated, felt like she was working just to pay the bills and if that’s all there was, she may as well have a regular job.
So she reached out to us for help.
She told us her staff were getting paid more than she was. The months where the P&L was in minus were more frequent than the months in the positive. There were really good months, but they were eroded by the bad ones. Ally was fed up and asked us what she was doing wrong and how to fix it.
Every good marketing campaign has lots of moving parts, but there’s one that is head and shoulders above the others when it comes to having massive success. The kind of success that can genuinely change your life. The kind of success we see others posting about on social media with their luxury cars, beautiful homes and constant overseas holidays.
That one thing is your offer. And no, I’m not talking about a discount. I’m talking about the thing you want people to say ‘yes’ to.
What is an offer?
An offer is simply the product, or the service, we use as business owners to solve a problem for our customers. It’s the thing we want people to download, to sign up for, or to buy. It’s the promise you make that people just can’t say no to.
Create something irresistible and you’ll have people knocking down your door to get it. Miss the mark and it doesn’t matter how good your ads are, how much AI you include in your process, how many reels and stories you post with trending audio, you’re just never going to reach the level of success we all want.
So what does that actually look like?
Start by calling out a pain point.
‘Tired of making an appointment with your hair stylist only to sit and wait for 45 minutes so you can see them for 5 minutes and be handed off to the first year apprentice?’
Then make a promise that directly addresses that problem
‘At Beauty Boutique our personalised booking system means you’ll never wait more than 10 minutes, and you’ll always see the stylist you booked to see.’
Let’s take a look at other example…
Call out a pain point…
‘Are you spending too much time (and too much money) on digital ads that just don’t generate a return?’
Make a promise that addresses the pain point
‘At Orbit our Smart Boost blueprint allows us to fast track your growth by creating and implementing a customised marketing plan unique to your business and tailored to your clients and your goals. You’ll see real growth in your leads and sales in under 90 days, leaving you free to get on with running your business!’
If you’re not sure how to formulate your offer, here’s some questions to ask yourself that will help…
- Does my offer solve a problem that needs to be solved, and that enough people are willing to pay for? Have you spoken to your clients, your potential clients and past clients to understand exactly what’s keeping them awake at night? What is worrying them, frustrating them, or annoying them that you can help fix. The deeper your understanding of this, the more compelling you’ll be able to make your offer.
- Is there something unique about my offer? Most people you’re advertising to will have tried something to fix the problem before. Your offer needs a ‘secret sauce’, something that has your prospects saying to themselves ‘a-ha, that’s what I’ve been missing! That’s why XYZ thing I did before didn’t work.’ It might be a genuinely unique feature, it might be something that others do but aren’t’ talking about or it might just be that you find a creative way of presenting it. All three are legitimate marketing tactics and can help create desire and intent to purchase.
- Does my offer deliver real value in a way that’s clear and tangible? People buy results. They buy outcomes, they don’t buy features. Be sure your offer delivers an outcome people are prepared to pay for, and be sure that outcome is clearly articulated in your offer.
So, back to Ally.
When we dug a little deeper we could see her offer was quite generic. She’d been using discounts to attract clients. Not a terrible approach, but if there’s nothing unique about your business, the first time someone else does a price drop, you risk losing that client.
Her offer didn’t really target a specific problem. Sure it addressed the need for a cut, colour and treatment, but it didn’t deal with the frustrations people had with their existing salon.
So we spent some time with Ally to understand what was really annoying people about their salon experience, and how Ally could fix that.
Eventually we settled on the frustration that came with booking to see their stylist, then sitting in the waiting room for 45 minutes, and after all that time, being handed off to the apprentice!
In Ally’s salon they booked appointments with the stylist who looked after their own client start to finish. Not necessarily unique but certainly something to work with. Ally also decided to book appointments further apart and to allocate longer, or shorter appointments depending on the client. Again, not unique but something we could build an offer around.
Ally’s go to market strategy was a winner and with her new, and more strategic offer, the salon was booked within weeks. Ally was offering fewer discounts, had time with each client to upsell and add on product sales and went from an OK business, to a salon she was super proud of and business that gives her the life she wants.
The great thing about this is it’s not an isolated story, or overly complicated. You too can have this if you just get your offer right.
If you need help getting your offer right, of if you want to see how our Smart Boost blueprint can fast track your sales growth reach out for a chat today.