The Irresistible Offer: The Glue That Holds Your Customer Journey Together

By Dan Grech

At BizHack Academy, we pride ourselves on giving participants the opportunity to reap the benefits of “a course that pays for itself.” With the average small business owner who goes through our program spending $17,386 in ad sales and generating $502,441 in long-term sales, our award-winning course has a 3.3x ROI. 

While these metrics may just seem like statistics meant to market our company and its programs, they actually embody so much more. These numbers and promises  are our company’s irresistible offer: the third pillar of our proven Lead Building System™ and an offer that marketer and entrepreneur Mark Joyner says “you’d be a fool to pass up.” 

In his book, The Irresistible Offer, Joyner goes in depth into what makes a company’s offer effective in attracting customers and irresistible to your audience. We leverage his insights to help small businesses craft irresistible offers that turn prospects into customers.

In short, the irresistible offer is the glue that binds your customer journey and digital marketing campaigns together. 

How can you leverage the third pillar of our proven methodology in your small business marketing? 

TL;DR: Use these three types of irresistible offers to efficiently convert your prospects to loyal customers.

There are three types of irresistible offers that small businesses can use in their digital marketing to catch the attention of their prospects and customers. Each type has a different goal, but works in tandem with the rest of your campaign to systematically transport your customer through each stage of the customer journey. 

• The free irresistible offer raises awareness of your company and helps you begin building a relationship with your prospective customer. 

• The foot-in-the-door offer generates leads and inspires your customer to purchase your product or try your service. 

• The upsell offer aims to increase your customer’s lifetime value and encourages them to recommend your business to their inner circle. 

Whether it’s a “buy one, get one” sale or a free consultation, leveraging the power of an irresistible offer ensures that your customers witness all your business has to offer and keep coming back for more. 

What Is an Irresistible Offer?

An offer is an incentive you provide to your customers and prospects to get them to stay in touch with your business or make a purchase. 

Philip Kolter, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, defines marketing as “a process to obtain what you want by creating, offering, and exchanging products of value with others.”

At its core, an irresistible offer is a fundamental building block of marketing as a whole. Offers engage your customers, sell your product, and build your business, making them essential when conducting your digital marketing campaign and thus, one of the critical pillars of our Lead Building System™.

Irresistible offers will be different for different types of organizations:

• B2C businesses may include a free first class or a discount on a purchase.

• B2B businesses may offer an education opportunity for customers or a resource in which your company shares its expertise. 
• Nonprofits may offer the promise that a donor’s contributions will go towards making someone’s life better. 

Customize your irresistible offer to fit your business and its goals, as dictated by your business story and campaign objective. 

Make Your Offer Irresistible

There is a difference between making an offer and making an irresistible offer to your customer. Our digital marketing methodology works when small businesses craft an offer that is simply too good for their prospect or customer to pass up. 

In his book, Joyner outlines several concepts that small businesses should consider and use as they craft their customized irresistible offer:

• Urgency compels your customer to act quickly when engaging with your offer. When small businesses indicate that their offer may expire soon or the price may increase, prospects are more likely to act to ensure that they don’t lose the opportunity.

• Added Value is created when businesses give their customers an added bonus as part of making a purchase. This could be a discount or repeat purchase deal that makes their engagement with your company more valuable to them.

• Risk Reversal removes your customer’s risk when interacting with your business. An example of this is Domino’s promise that if your pizza isn’t delivered in 30 minutes, you will receive a refund. It gives customers an opportunity to get their money back if they are not satisfied with their experience. 

• Your Unique Selling Proposition emphasizes what is special or impactful about what your company provides the community. This aspect of your irresistible offer gives the impression that what you offer cannot be found anywhere else in the industry. Keep your company’s “Three Uniques,” or three major selling points in mind. 

• Your Value Proposition refers to where your business stands in its respective industry and the value it provides. For example, many people are willing to pay more for an Apple iPhone or a Ferrari because of these brands’ reputations. Capitalize on what makes your business reputable when marketing your irresistible offer. If you need help outlining your value proposition, you can use Strategyzer’s Value Proposition Canvas. This gives your company a clear picture of who you are marketing to and how you can help this audience. 

Using the above criteria, small businesses can leverage the three different types of irresistible offers based on their customer’s position in the customer journey. Next, we’ll take a deeper look into the three types of irresistible offers: the free irresistible offer, the foot-in-the-door offer and the upsell offer.

The Free Irresistible Offer

The free irresistible offer aims to increase brand awareness in your market and begin to build a relationship with your prospect. This type of irresistible offer transfers your prospects from the Discover phase of the customer journey to the Learn phase. 

At this stage in your marketing campaign, it is critical that you share what makes your company unique and important, and inspire your prospect to share their contact information with you. Leverage your unique selling proposition and brand value!

Your company’s free irresistible offer doesn’t have to be a discount or a giveaway. It can be anything from a survey to a blog post to a webinar. This type of irresistible offer simply aims to get your name out in the community and show your prospects the high quality information you have to offer. 

As you create your free irresistible offer, ask yourself, “If I were to put a price on this, would somebody pay me for it?” If the answer is yes, your offer is valuable and likely to attract members of your target audience who are hungry for the expertise you provide.

Your company’s free irresistible offer can be anything from a survey to a blog post to a webinar. 

Free irresistible offers can be characterized as “lead magnets,” or gated content that requires an extra step from prospects before they gain access to your business’ offer. This “gate” is often a contact form that effectively achieves your goal of gaining a prospect’s contact information. Using this information, you can continue to help them along in their journey with your company, next focusing on converting them into a paying customer. 

The Foot-In-The-Door Irresistible Offer

Once you have received your prospect’s contact information, you can move to executing the foot-in-the-door offer, which exists to generate leads and gain customers. 

At this stage in the customer journey, your prospect transitions from the Learn to Try phase and your small business marketing works to deepen your relationship with this potential customer.

Your foot-in-the-door offer could be an audit, consultation, personalized review or trial membership.

Your foot-in-the-door offer could be an audit, consultation, personalized review or trial membership. When leveraging this type of irresistible offer, a custom touch that appeals to the personal characteristics of your customer helps apply your expertise to a specific type of person. 

At this stage in your irresistible offer strategy, your campaign is about more than generating leads—it’s about getting the first sale that will transform first-time customers into returning customers who are loyal to your brand. 

The Upsell Offer

The upsell offer works to increase your customer’s lifetime value to your company and to encourage them to come back and bring their friends! 

When you provide your customer with an upsell offer, your business cements a relationship with this individual and increases the chances that they will refer your company to a member of their inner circle. First-time customers can effectively be transferred from the Use phase to the Advocate phase of the customer journey. 

The upsell offer can be the most profitable for your business.

The upsell offer could be a loyalty club, a rewards card, package pricing, or a referral program. While this type of offer can be easily forgotten by customers, it can also be the most profitable for your business. 

By using the upsell offer in your small business marketing, you transition your company’s goals for the customer to retention and referrals, which generates future customers and revenue. 

Crafting an Irresistible Offer

As you work to craft your irresistible offer, consider two questions:

• What does your small business have to offer your customers?

• How will you entice them to engage with you?

Leverage what makes your small business unique when creating an offer that is guaranteed to attract customers, generate leads and earn profit. They’d have to be a fool to pass your company up!