Are Your Compelling Offers Actually .... Compelling?

Pete Caputa
Pete Caputa

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Last month, at the internet marketing workshop we co-produced, we explained how to generate leads on a small business's website.

There are three components to a successful small business lead generation strategy.

  1. Compelling free educational offers available on the site.
  2. Well-designed landing pages that require the visitor to complete the form in order to get the offer.
  3. Prominently placed calls to action on a website to guide visitors to the landing pages.

The hardest part of this process is designing compelling offers.

 

Is My Offer Compelling?

During the event, a woman who sells insurance asked me, "Is our request a quote form a compelling offer?"

NO. NO. NO. Here's a list of forms that are NOT compelling offers.

  • Contact Us
  • RFQ forms
  • Request a Demo
  • Download our Product Specs
  • Free Trial
  • Request a Free Consultation
  • Enter to Win (unless the chances are really good)
  • Save 50% When You Buy Today

These are not compelling offers.

Website visitors will share their contact information with you when they believe that you understand their challenges, problems and goals.

They could care less about your product or your pricing until they think you understand.

 

How to Design a Compelling Offer 

So what IS a compelling offer?

I've run into this situation enough times that I now have a series of questions that I can ask someone about their business, in order to help them create compelling offers.

Here are the questions:

  1. Who do you sell your products or services to? (Be specific. Pick one market and one decision maker in the buying process if your sale is complex.)
  2. What problem do you solve for them?
  3. How do you solve that problem? How do you do it better than anyone else? (If you can avoid it, don't mention your product features. Use industry terminology only.)

Ok. Now that you have that, create a sentence that goes like this:

How [insert who you sell to] can [insert verb] [insert the problem] through [insert solution].

If that's too confusing, here's an HubSpot example:

How small business owners can turn their brochure websites into lead generation machines by leveraging SEO, social media blogging and website design best practices . (Yes, that's a link to the landing page.)

 

Does it Pass the WIIFM Test?

WIIFM stands for " What's In It For Me?"

When your visitor arrives at your site, they're most likely looking to solve a problem. In order to grab their attention and inspire them to share their contact information before they leave your website (and probably never come back), your compelling offers should make the WIIFM clear.

In other words, they should start with "How to Solve [insert prospect's problem here]"  

Websites that do this well can convert 10-20% of their traffic into leads. If you don't do this well, you will convert 1-5% of your traffic into leads. If you want some help measuring these conversion rates, try out HubSpot new free tool, Action Grader .

What are your most compelling offers? Do you need help? In the comments below, answer the 3 questions listed above. We'll help you formulate the title for your next white paper, webinar or ebook.

How to Generate Leads for Small Business

lead generation for small business

Learn how small businesses can level the playing field and generate leads efficiently by leveraging inbound Internet marketing strategies and tools.

Download our Lead Generation for Small Business Webinar .


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