In one of my previous posts, I showed you how to increase your response rates overnight—simply by targeting the right prospects.
That alone can have a huge impact your bottom-line profits. But there’s something else that’s just as powerful.
Your offer.
Or more specifically, how you present your offer.
As a professional copywriter and marketing consultant, I work with a lot of business owners. Many of them write their own copy. Some of it’s good. Some of it’s “OK”. And some of it…well, it stinks. Boring, uninteresting, and without any clear benefit to the reader. The kind of copy that prospect quickly click away from…or crumple up and throw in the trash.
So how do you keep that from happening to you? Just tune into your favorite radio station.
The Most Popular Radio Station in the World
You’ve probably heard the expression “WIFM” throw around in marketing circles. It’s almost a cliché. And it’s also 100% true.
We’re all walking around listening to our own radio station, called “What’s In It For Me?”, aka WIFM. In fact, “WIFM? “is a question we all ask ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, hundreds of times a day. And based on our answer to that question, we just about everything into one of 3 categories:
1.) What we MUST pay attention to right now
2.) What we can ignore entirely
3.) What we’ll “get around to later”
Obviously, you don’t want your prospects sticking your website, sales letter, or ad put in the last two. If they do, that’s it. Because even if they think “Oh, that’s interesting…but I’m kinda busy. I’ll get around to buying that ____ later.” chances are they won’t. They’ll forget, get busy again, or just lose interest.
What “The Godfather” Can Teach You About Marketing
So how do you get your prospects to pay attention? Simple. You make them an offer they can’t refuse.
I call that the “Don Corleone Offer”. Although hopefully you won’t put a horse’s head in someone’s bed if they refuse to buy.
To make your “Don Corleone Offer” you need three things:
1.) A powerful “must have” benefit
2.) Strong emotion that creates an “us against them” reaction in the reader
3.) A negative consequence if they don’t take action NOW
To make this simple, I’m going to restrict my examples to headlines and opening copy. But you can use these concepts throughout your ads—and I think you’ll like the results.
For instance, let’s say you have a real estate business specializing in helping investors purchase foreclosures. A great offer might be something like…
Attention Frustrated Foreclosure Investors:
How to Get Free, Instant Access to the “Secret List” of Foreclosures
Banks Don’t Want You to Know About!
Dear Fellow Investor,
If you’re sick and tired of missing out on the best foreclosure deals around, then I’ve got great news for you.
For the next 3 days, we’re opening up 5 slots in our exclusive “Foreclosure Finder” program.
Unlike other foreclosure lists, these homes are brand new to the market. You’ll be the first to know about them—and the first to see them.
And these great foreclosure deals are exclusive to the investors on our list. You see, we make an “end run” around the banks and start working with homeowners months before they lose their homes. So these homeowners are ready to sell…and they’re actually happy to see you. In fact, many view you as their savior!
Not only that, these homes are available for massive discounts. That’s because we negotiate with the bank in advance…and then we give you the low-down, inside info on what they’re really willing to settle for. And it’s much less than they’ll ever admit.
How much less? Well, look at what our investors paid for these homes…
123 Main Street
Market Price: $150,000 Bank’s Price: $125,000 Sale Price: $95,000
Locked-In Profit: $55,000
345 Maple Street
Market Price: $200,000 Bank’s Price: $170,000 Sale Price: $125,000
Locked-In Profit: $75,000
678 Elm Street
Market Price: $100,000 Bank’s Price: $85,000 Sale Price: $65,000
Locked-In Profit: $35,000
Now you can get access to these same kinds of amazing deals, too. But you have to act fast.
Because once these 5 spots are gone…they’re gone. And we won’t open up another any membership slots for at least 6 months.
And there’s a good reason for that. You see, one of the reasons our system works so well is because we severely limit membership.
We only work with 30 investors at a time. And we simply can’t let too many people know about these great deals. After all, if everyone knew about them…they wouldn’t be great deals anymore.
And we expect these slots to fill up quickly…because they’re free. That’s right—free.
——————-
As you can see, the copy above makes a strong offer. There’s a clear benefit—the opportunity to make tons of money for “free”. And there’s a negative consequence, too…because if the prospect doesn’t take action, they’ll lose out on that golden opportunity.
Of course, this is just an opening. If I were writing this as an actual letter, I’d include lots of testimonials (with pictures). Social proof is key to making an offer like this one work. After all, the prospect may have been scammed before. So even if my fictional foreclosure service is 110% legitimate, I still need to prove it.
I’d also expand on the offer and explain why the “Foreclosure Finder” program is so great. I may tell the prospect that we have access to special financing. I might go into detail about the fact that all of the homes on our list are pre-screened by our staff to make sure they’re great deals. And I might mention that we can refer them to a great contractor to help with any rehab work a house might need.
In short, I’d cover all the possible objections the prospect could have. I’d make it impossible to say no. And that, my friends, is what I call “The Don Corleone Offer”.
My challenge to you is to spend some time thinking about how you can do the same thing in your business. A really good offer can skyrocket your response rates. And when you combine it with the right prospects…the sky’s the limit.
See you next time!
