March 26th, 2012
How to be sure your offer doesn’t suck (a.k.a. stuff to do before you even THINK about launching)
If you’re online a lot — say starting or running an online business…then you probably get hit with a ton of offers…especially if you are planning to launch something soon (or for the first time!).
Offers for info products, ebooks, coaching programs, free webinars, ecourses, live events, come to this thing, better grab this offer before it disappears forever ….1 more day left for EVERYTHING…
It’s kind of enough to make you insane in the membrane.
But then there are the offers that stand out – that wake you up in the middle of the night – make you consider how it could change your life – ones that get you so juiced up that you pull out the credit card before you finish reading the sales page.
What makes those offers speak to you?
How can you be sure what you are offering to the world makes people take notice – and CLICK the button?
And…is there a way to make sure your product and online offers are solid before they go out the door?
It’s All About Simplicity + Knowledge
When it comes to your offer – it all comes down to some pretty basic stuff.
You need to know what people want and you need to be able to describe that NEED/WANT in a simple, non-confusing way, so they are convinced you can help them.
Here are the top 3 simple ways to un-suck your offer:
1. Get to know your audience. Survey them, watch them, track their movements through your emails and how often they click. When do they leave comments and share your posts with other people? Don’t stop this step ever or you’ll lose touch with them.
It makes sense, right? Pay attention to what people are responding to most – and do more of that.
3. Ask people if they’re interested in what you want to offer. This requires something we often forget to do while working on line – talking to actual people. Find someone who you trust, sit with them face to face and talk about your offer. Allow them to ask you questions, clarify anything that confuses them…and take notes.
Hint: Walk in expecting to feel a little uncomfortable when someone challenges your offer idea. You want to be challenged… challenge will force you start looking at the offer from another perspective (your audience’s perspective!).
3. Bring it down to earth. What you’ll discover right away is that confusion is your biggest enemy. Don’t try to create a flowery, hard to figure out what it’s all about, high concept tag line that means nothing to the normal person.
Even in niches which are full of people who are using language that’s new age-y or more ethereal (I think you know what I mean, but if you don’t, email me), you still need to speak in CLEAR, SIMPLE language.
Make it super easy for someone to look at your offer page and understand what they’ll get if they sign on with you.
Side note: I think about my own tagline on a daily basis and have wondered if it’s too “out there” to mean anything specific. And while it might be…funny thing happens on the days I’m about to change it – I get an email from someone saying how it really spoke to them.
The “Spaghetti Stick” Method
With all of above in mind, there are times when you will still need to make and test offers to find out which ones work and don’t work. You won’t know if your offer needs work or a complete overhaul until you actually put it out to the world.
I highly recommend planning on these test launches at least a few times per year. Do the work and plan it just like a normal launch, but make sure your launch goals are clearly defined as a test to see if something works.
I’m not saying to just put all of your ‘ole half baked idea out to the world OVER AND OVER AGAIN – put an offer out and if it flops, do the work to figure out why it didn’t work. Meet with your peers, encourage people to be straight about it.
Don’t stop digging until you figure out what went wrong – so you can avoid the same mistake the next time.
Your Turn
Do you have an offer that you tried but didn’t work? We’ve talked about this a lot in my Fearless Launching course…but you can get feedback here too! Share in the comments below – and let us know what you learned from the experience and how you’ll apply the “what went wrong” to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Know someone who’s struggling with their offer, but not quite sure how to help them? Share this post with them!
Excellent advice! No doubt, the test launch is what has helped me understand how to refine my offering. I almost feel that a test launch (a.k.a. the first pancake) is a MUST in order to refine and move to the next level. Recently, I went through my first test launch and once I was in the thick-of-it, I realized that my offering was too general and needed to be packaged for 3 different buyers. I immediately changed my offering in a way that spoke clearly to a specific audience, and wouldn’t you know it…it sold easily (and a higher price point). Thanks to your FL course, I no longer fear the test launch. Instead, I welcome it and enjoy the ride!
Excellent article, Anne. Thanks!
I did a “test launch” on my product itself. I took a handful of volunteers through my curriculum. My experience was similar to Michelle’s in that I realized I needed to be more focused in how I present the materials to customers. Most valuable lessons:
1- It gave me the opportunity to practice actually talking about my materials rather than them being so “in my head.”
2- It totally changed how I structure the course materials.
3- It changed the product itself from being purely online / digital to being half online and half one-to-one “in person” time.
Despite some nervousness about the next one, I’m actually REALLY looking forward to it.
Very exciting Lauren. I think the key is to look for those things you learn each time. We’re still learning at LKR .. and of course I learned a ton by getting Fearless Launching out to the world.
It’s been amazing, but now I’m excited to do another launch with everything I’ve learned.
-So glad to hear about your progress!
Anne
Michelle,
Who knew burning pancakes was so much fun and you’d learn so much!
Love it!
Anne 🙂
Hi Anne,
Been learning so much from you!
A while back I saw you talked about how to compile a survey together and had a link to another website to help us write the most successful survey but can’t find it… do you mind redirecting me to that article? Getting ready to launch a launch LOL.
Grateful,
Danielle.