Advice on Offering
Something for Nothing in Business
Something for nothing - too good to be true?
Something for nothing?
- Really? It is important to make your prospects
really want to deal with you and send in their order or reply card
quickly. Your mailing should therefore be as irresistable as possible.
If your sales letter does not excite you, it will not excite your
prospect either.
One of the easiest ways to
excite your prospect and to grab their attention is to offer something
for nothing. the word FREE is extremely powerful and cannot really
be overdone in direct mail. We all like something for nothing don't
we?
Offering something for
nothing is appreciated Offering a free gift with the customer's
order is a well-tried and successful route to success. The gift
should be worth having, yet may actually cost you very little. Printed
note pads are a case in point - from only 18p each they are
affordable, yet always welcome. It could also be an extra supply
of what they are already ordering, "Two months supply of tablets
for the price of one". Or it could even be something that you
or your supplier may wish to get rid of, like a book that has not
sold very well or a booklet on an interesting and relevent topic.
It could be a free sample of a different product, which is sent
with an order form for a larger quantity, thus generating an extra
sale. This is called cross-selling.
If you spend a lot of money with an existing supplier,
try to get them to supply you the free gift for nothing. This is
what the supermarkets do. (No, it's not the shop giving you two
bottles of pop for the price of one, it is their supplier). This
way everyone wins. You are able to offer a good deal to your customer
and your supplier gets larger orders (and gets to keep your business
as well). Try it. Asking costs nothing. Just make sure that your
free gift is somewhere along the lines of what you are offering.
It is no good sending a free baby feeding bottle to someone who
has just ordered a fishing video.
Something for nothing on
service Perhaps you are offering a service, rather than
products. This makes offering a free gift even easier. Offer fifteen
months servicing for the price if twelve. Or offer to add an anti-corrosion
product while servicing their boiler. You could offer a free survey,
a demonstration of an alternative item or just a very special price
for an early reply. Think it through and you will come with an appropriate
offer quite easily. Just make sure that you tell everybody!
Something
to keep - something for nothing
It is quite likely that many of the people that you are mailing
do do not not need your product or service at the moment. Please
don't assume that they will keep your mailing until they do. However,
if you include a printed
note pad, a business card, postcard or even a small calendar
or conversation table, you increase the chances of your name being
kept in front of them. This would particularly apply to a plumbing
service, an electrical company, a garden contactor or a roller shutter
door repairer. It applies equally well to many other businesses
and services.
Thank you for reading this article,
which, hopefully has proved useful to you. If you would like further
advice on any specific aspect of leaflet production or direct mail,
please feel free to contact
us.
Please feel free to reproduce
this article elsewhere if you wish, as long as all links remain
intact.
