If you’re selling online, you have one end goal: Conversion.
But getting a visitor to buy doesn’t just happen because he or she clicked an ad or organically landed on your site.
In general, conversion happens over time and there’s a lot that happens between first touch and final sale (more on that in this article here).
While you can’t always predict how customers will behave throughout the process, you can entice them to take desirable actions by offering them what they want, when they want it.
In this article, we’ll cover what you need to know about your customers so you can present the most enticing offer at the right time.
Let’s dive in.
Before choosing your offer, you must know these 3 things…
✓ Referral source
Where are visitors coming from? How did they arrive on your site or landing page?
✓ Stage of Awareness
How familiar are they with your brand/product/solution?
✓ Level of Intent
How likely are they to take action? How badly does their pain hurt?
Once you have the answers to those 3 things, you should have a better idea of where your customers are within the sales funnel, and thus, which offer to choose.
Take a look at the chart below to see what I mean (I apologize, but I cannot, for the life of me, remember where I found this image — if you know the source, please let me know!):
While the chart above is very high-level, it should give you a general idea of how this works.
In general, people who are at the top of the sales funnel are not typically ready to buy at first touch and therefore, you must give them something other than a “Buy now” CTA to get them to take action and/or maintain their interest.
Similarly, people who are at the bottom of the sales funnel are much more prepared to buy and therefore, presenting them with your main offer, the price and a discount is more in line with what they expect.
Another way to consider this concept is through the idea of “channel temperature” (cold, warm, and hot leads), which KlientBoost demonstrates beautifully in the visual below.
As you can see, asking for the sale or presenting purchasing options only happens when the lead is hot (or lava hot in this case) — up to that point, it’s only about building the relationship through content or other free offers.
Now that you know that your offers must vary throughout the customer journey, let’s explore the various offers you can try out.
#1: Offers for the Top of the Funnel
Customers who are at the top of the funnel are typically Low Awareness (“Unaware” or “Pain” Aware) and Low Intent.
This means they’re less likely to be familiar with your brand/product and may not even be actively searching for a solution (they may feel the pain, but aren’t doing anything about it yet). They may have discovered you through an ad, social media content, a viral video, or something similar.
At this stage, customers are typically looking for information, answers, free resources, educational materials, research reports, data, opinions, and insight.
They may not be ready to buy, but many times, they’re ready to take a “low barrier” action like read something, download free content, or subscribe to your newsletter in exchange for a discount.
Here are some examples of free offers you can try using for customers who are at the top of the funnel:
- eBook
- Checklist
- Blog posts
- List of tips
- Calendar
- Infographic
- Cheat sheet
- How-to video
- Social content
- Educational webinar
- Whitepaper or report
- Newsletter subscription
- Email course or challenge
- Newsletter subscription in exchange for a discount
#2: Offers for the Middle of the Funnel
Customers who are in the middle the funnel typically have Moderate Awareness (“Solution” or “Product” Aware) and Medium Intent.
This means they’re more likely to be familiar with your brand/product and may be actively searching for solutions. At this stage, many are in the “evaluation” stage where they’re doing their research and comparing solutions.
Again, they may not be ready to buy at this point, but there is plenty of opportunity to nudge them further down the funnel toward the point of conversion with the right offer.
Here are some examples of offers you can try using for customers who are in the middle of the sales funnel:
- Quiz
- Free sample
- Case studies / Customer success stories
- Worksheets
- In-depth guides
- Templates
- Tools (i.e. – calculator, spreadsheets, etc)
- Giveaway / contest
- Comparison pages
- Product webinar
- Demo video
- Access to a community
- Invitation to an event
- Swag
#3: Offers for the Bottom of the Funnel
Customers who are in the bottom the funnel have higher awareness (“Product” or “Most” Aware) and intent.
They know who you are, they know what you sell, and they’re interested. Over time, they’ve gotten to know you, they’ve compared the options, and you’re one of the top contenders.
At this point, they’re looking for information that reaffirms their choice, an incentive to sweeten the deal, and/or help getting started.
Here are some examples of offers you can try using for customers who are at the bottom of the sales funnel:
- Free trial
- Live demo
- Audit
- Estimate / quote
- Consultation
- Bonus content / add-ons
- Coupon / discount / limited-time offer
Which offer is right for your audience?
Getting your customer to buy from you is more about patience than any thing else.
It’s about resisting the urge to ask for the sale upfront (or all the time) and balancing your approach with lower barrier offers throughout your sales funnel, so you don’t lose valuable leads along the way.
Remember, just because a customer isn’t buying from you today doesn’t mean he/she/they won’t buy from you when the time is right. Present the right offers at the right time, be patient, and success will follow!
Need help developing your lead magnet? Still not sure which offer to go with? Reach out to me directly and I’ll guide you in the right direction: annie1maguire@gmail.com.
