This issue is part two of our tiny two-part series on credibility. If you missed the first issue, you can read it here.
Can you think of a more irritating, positively annoying, and soul-draining feeling than having your offers declined or ignored? If you’ve been in business for a while, you know how that feels.
Sometimes, failure is out of your control, like when a direct competitor launches a similar offer at a better price or with a bigger marketing budget. However, more often than not, the effectiveness of your offers is within your control.
There are a few elements that make or break the success of your offer.
What’s in an IRRESISTIBLE offer?
1. Product-market fit
The world’s best product is irrelevant to the wrong audience.
You can’t sell ice at the North Pole, just like Cédric Grolet himself wouldn’t be able to sell his famous croissants to people with Celiac disease.
I often see it with my clients: they have a great offer, it’s fairly priced, but it’s shouted at the wrong people.
Don’t have an audience yet? I wrote about building a relevant audience here. There’s a checklist in there to help you figure out if you’re barking at the wrong tree and a playbook on how to build the right audience.
Selling to an existing audience? Then you already know a thing or two about your ICP. Start with these two questions:
- Do they need it? [A good primer on building products with your audience and making sure you’re not trying to sell ice at the North Pole.]
- Can they use it? I mean this quite literally: every product or service requires some skills in order to make the most of them. Does your audience have those skills?
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The second question takes us to our second point:
2. Is your offer credible?
Alex Hormozi’s famous offer equation says the time and the effort required to reach the desired outcome add friction. Here’s the formula:
They do, of course: everyone wants things quickly and with zero effort. But that’s rarely possible and your buyers know that.
So mentioning the time and the effort required to your offer adds credibility, not just friction.
Neal O’Grady does this very well in nearly every pitch I’ve seen him publish. He emphasizes the outcomes BUT also mentions that they don’t happen overnight. In the post below, for instance, he gives examples of timelines and mentions an 11-step framework. Just seeing that you need to take 11 steps to reach [outcome] is enough to add credibility to the offer.
He sets reasonable expectations: 100K followers in 6 months is a massive achievement (which is why it’s so rare). But would you have believed him if he removed friction entirely and said: “get 100K followers in just 1 hour per day”?
Yeah, me neither.
Moreover, it answers the question above: can they do it? No product is for everyone.
Some of those reading Neal’s post may want the 100K audience, but they can’t or won’t take the 11 steps required. Adding “friction” pre-qualifies your buyers and ensures that you won’t end up with hordes of unhappy clients on your hands.
How to use this to build irresistible offers: If you’re selling to a savvy audience, friction is your vehicle to credibility. If you only rely on impulse purchases, then friction needs to go. Price and audience matter a lot here. Cheap products for an unrefined audience (remove friction) vs expensive products for smart buyers (add friction to build credibility).
3. Emphasize outcomes (but don’t forget about features either)
Neal’s post has a text-book structure: it leads with outcomes. Who doesn’t want a bigger audience?
However, there are thousands of solutions that promise a bigger audience and most of them are scams. Neal also adds the features (the 11-step framework). Aside from pre-qualifying buyers, this step tells you exactly what’s asked of you to get to the outcome.
Avoiding the features so you can focus on the outcomes or benefits is very common (and enraging!) in SaaS and it’s a practice that has unfortunately migrated to most industries. You promise more money, free time, productivity, and the moon but you never tell people HOW your solution achieves that.
SyncApps, a company in iPaaS and my agency’s client does this really well on their homepage:
You get an inklink of how their solution works just by reading the outcomes (“point & click with no code”). If they get your attention, you can find the features in the dedicated product page, so you know exactly what you’re signing up for and what’s asked of you to get to the desired outcome.
How to use this to build your own irresistible offers: don’t get lost in a sea of empty promises. Lead with outcomes but tell people how you’re going to take them there. The journey matters too, not just the destination.
Think about it this way: if you’re selling exotic holidays, you’re gonna lead with the outcome — “relax on a stunning beach with white sand and crystal-clear blue waters”. Great, you’ve got their attention! But if it takes them 36 hours to get to that beach and multiple flights, a lot of your prospects are going to bow out.
Tell them how long it takes to get to paradise-on-earth. It’s better to be transparent than to have to refund 50% of the sales you’ve made.
4. Social proof + your own credibility
As you may know, this is my favorite thing to talk about: social proof can make or break any deal.
Here’s how Marie Forleo adds social proof to her emails.
The social proof takes up more space than the actual pitch. Marie knows that people trust their peers more than sellers, so she’s not holding back on social proof.
SyncApps does this beautifully too (call me biased, but they do). Right below the outcome text block on their homepage, they address the objection on everyone’s mind: does the outcome you promise really happen? They don’t use their own words to answer it, but their users’ words:
This goes beyond audience mirroring, which is why it’s even more effective.
There’s one extra level, something that complements social proof perfectly: injecting your own credibility to any offer you make.
Katelyn Bourgoin enjoys an insane level of credibility. She worked extremely hard for it and she’s smart enough to know it’s a bad idea to waste it all for a couple hundred dollars. This tweet of hers perfectly sums up why you need a spine to be a credible business leader.
There are other ways to inject your own credibility into any offer you make. My favorite: making it clear why buying a solution from you is a no-brainer.
Usually, this means mentioning your background/experience/achievements.
I use this tactic for every single one of my products:
- The pre-written launch email sequence: I’ve been running a copywriting and content writing agency for 8+ years. My team and I have written thousands of emails, we know what we’re doing.
- The Guided Strategy Template: it’s the distillation of “35,360+ hours of marketing expertise in a single document” –> that’s 17 years as a marketing strategist turned into hours. You know you’re not getting advice from a rookie who happened upon success.
- The 1:1 Strategy Session with me: I worked with 400+ brands of all sizes and in dozens industries to date. Once again, you’re not getting advice from a rookie, but from someone who knows what successful businesses are made of.
These are just a couple of the things I mention on my landing pages, in my emails, and in my social media posts. Coupled with social proof and a relevant audience, they make the trifecta of offers that you can’t easily refuse.
Cool, you’ve got the 4 pillars of effective offers — a framework of sorts. You can get by on these alone.
Want to create even better results? Add a few bells and whistles — not all of them, just a couple, OK?
Nice-to-haves aka things that delight buyers
- Bonuses and little extras: very popular for courses and other digital products. For instance, my email sequence has a bonus section on writing compelling subject lines and my Guided Strategy Session has a few additional resources to help you understand marketing better.
- Killer customer support: things go wrong ocassionally, so you need a way to fix things quickly for your customers. Plus, you need to answer questions about your products. Depending on your sales volume, you may need a dedicated department.
- Ease of buying: don’t hide your prices and make people contact you to purchase something that can be purchased with three clicks. Also, make the checkout as quick and seamless as possible. Borrow a page from eCommerce’s playbook: don’t ask for more personal information than you absolutely need and let people check out without creating an account on your website.
- Risk reversal: money-back guarantees are popular but not always possible. If that’s the case, strengthen your offer with discounts, bonuses, and a lot of social proof. Also, make sure that your website offers secure payment options!
- Champion a cause: donate part of your profits to a cause you believe in. You’ll attract more people who believe in the same cause. You’ll also be more likeable!
- Pre-empt their objections: what might make potential buyers bow out? Too long to get to the desired outcome? Offer too expensive? Explain why it takes so long and why the price is set that way. Do it on your landing page, don’t wait to be asked about it.
That’s it! That’s everything that goes into a compelling offer. After reading this, what would you add to yours/delete from it?
Hit reply and let me know — I may be able to help!
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Adriana’s Picks
- I’m speaking at Masters of Email Marketing on October 19th. It’s an all-day virtual event by Smaily. If you’re serious about email marketing, you’re going to love the line-up of hand-picked experts! My presentation will be about growing and monetizing an email list in a crowded space. Join me here, it’s 100% free!
- Gen Z takes their financial advice from TikTok and YouTube. But they take it with a huge grain of salt.
- Threads will launch a Trends feature. Yup, they’re still trying to replace X.
That’s it from me today! See you next Thursday!
Here to make you think,
Adriana
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Need me in your corner? There are three ways I can help you:
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