So I’ve been on quite a “health kick” lately. I haven’t eaten sugar, drank caffeine, or ate white flour for the past 25 days (Yes, I’m counting the days). A far cry from this post, but thankfully I kicked the habit.
Anyway, I’ve been frequenting a health food store that creates ready-made healthy meals. The meals are usually $9-10 each, and by the time I buy the Stevia soda, protein cookie, and salmon dish, I end up spending $25 or so per trip.
So the lady behind the counter said to me, “So, have you heard about our 2-day sale?”
“No I haven’t”, I said.
“Well, between February 7-9th, depending on how much you buy, you can save some money!”
“Great,” I said. “Lemme see the coupon!”
The coupon was this: If I bought $30 worth of food, I would save 5%. If I bought $60 dollars worth of food, I’ll save 10%. And if I buy $90 of food, I’ll save 15%!
I took the coupon in my hand and walk out of the store puzzled. I quickly did the calculation in my head. If I buy one more meal than I usually do to make my total over $30, I’ll save a whopping $2.50!
Needless to say I wasn’t very impressed. That didn’t motivate me enough to take action and buy at least $30 for the deal…just to save a measly $2.50!
In other words, the offer sucked. Now if they offered a “Buy-2-Get-One-Free” deal I would be all over it like white on rice. Or even 25% off.
Chances are, I’ll still go to the store. But it reminded me of an important lesson when it comes to copywriting.
Good copy cannot sell a bad product. I have turned down potentially lucrative projects because the offer stunk. Or there wasn’t anything “exciting” about the product.
Why? Because I could write the best sales letter in the world, but it won’t sell a product nobody wants. And that’ll make me look like the “bad guy” because my copy didn’t sell the product.
Also, the offer has to be irresistible. One of my clients, Michael X at http://www.mapsmagic.com sells a system that allows businesses to get to the top of Google Maps—which are usually shown above organic listings in Google.
Now THAT’s a fantastic offer! Ask any small business owner who isn’t on top of the search engines if they would like to appear ABOVE the organic search results in Google in as little as 14 days. Chances are, they’ll say yes!
I’m already a repeat customer at this health food place.But if a new customer got that coupon, they probably wouldn’t have come back to take advantage of that coupon to save a measly $2.50 for a $30 order.
So when creating your product, think of an offer your prospects will jump over hot coals to get. Otherwise, you’ll just be a “me-too” copycat marketer whose doing the same stuff everyone else is.
And for Pete sakes…don’t shortchange your customers and prospects by having them save a measly $2.50. 🙂
Until next time,
Kevin Hill
“The Professor Of High Response”