Let’s start with the basics: What is a marketing offer?

A marketing offer is a free or deeply discounted sample product or service provided to customers in exchange for their contact information so you can follow up in the future to eventually convert them into a sale.

There are so many options that you can give away to your audience, including free samples, gifts, ebooks, guides, slideshows, templates, tools, trials, product demos, and $ off coupons.

To maintain a positive brand image, we recommend an intelligent marketing approach that:

1. Separates discounted or free products/services from your core offering.

2. Targets different types of customer demographics, focusing on emphasizing the brand and value of your products/services.

3. Promotes positive reviews of the discounted or free sample product/service you’re offering. 

As you start to think about what you want to offer to potential customers, here are four quick tips to help guarantee your next marketing campaign will be successful:

Tip #1 – Keep it simple.

Your offer should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. It shouldn’t take more than a second or two for any customer to be able to figure out what you’re offering so they can decide if it’s something they’re interested in. The best offers are low risk, and don’t have a long term commitment.

By making it low risk and cost-effective for your business, you won’t be taking a loss if 100% of customers don’t convert from the campaign. If it’s not a binding commitment, you’ll actually find that people are more likely to return.

Tip #2 – Make the offer valuable and important to your audience.

Valuable offers are so critical in your content marketing strategy. When you’re not offering something your customers want, the offer is pointless, meaning that few prospects will actually redeem the offer.

Put yourself in the eyes of your customer… is your offer something that YOU would sign up for? Creating irresistible offers will naturally create more leads and generate more interest, driving more traffic, sales, and brand awareness for your company.

Tip #3 – Solve a problem.

The best way to get customers to come back to you is showing them that your product or service fixes a problem for them or answers a question they haven’t been able to solve.

If what you’re offering to customers isn’t helpful, then it’s not worth offering. Any marketing offer you create should align with your business values & goals and be meaningful to your audience.

Tip #4 – Target the right people.

If you launch a marketing offer without proper audience targeting, your campaign is likely to fail, BIG TIME! Effective targeting goes hand in hand with understanding your target audience.

When marketing on social media, it is important to first define the audience(s) you’re marketing to and then target them with your marketing offer. For more tips on Facebook Advertising, check out our guide here.

You can reach people near your business, or even those who have shown a previous interest in the products and services you sell.

Start with the prospects who are most likely to buy what you’re selling and you’ll have better luck at turning those clicks into loyal customers.