Re: Give Aways?

From: Bruce Koren <bruce_at_citymarketing-sf.com>
Date: Sat 20 Nov 1999 01:00:17 -0800

MARCIA YUDKIN WROTE:
> Is it wise to give away items, information
> or services to attract prospects and begin
> to turn them into buyers?

Marcia,

Generally I think I would have to agree with your
subscribers that premiums or "the offer" will lift
response rates. But your question was, is it a wise
way to attract and convert prospects into buyers. If
you were my client and you asked that question, I think
I would have to answer, "Let's set up an Opt-in Email
campaign as a way to test those things."

I don't think we should try to answer those questions
ourselves unless we have specific experience with the
target audience. Let's assume we're trying to
determine whether to use a printed booklet or a premium
as the offer. If the advertiser is selling wine, an
offer of a booklet on wine and food paring might
out-pull an offer of a corkscrew. But if the
advertiser is selling video games, I'd think that any
mouse pad, T-shirt, or baseball cap would out-pull the
most detailed printed offer of video game strategies.
The audience determines what will be the most
successful offer. And any marketeer who tries to
outguess the audience and push a particular premium
without testing it is being foolish.

I also suggest that you explain to your subscribers
that thinking of the offer as "free bait," is really
doing a dissections to the whole concept. Whether
you're communicating on a banner or an Email, you're
not trying to pull in fish with "free bait." You're
trying to establish a relationship whereby you can know
the needs of your new clients and help them acquire the
things that satisfy those needs. An exchange of
valuable information or a premium might involve several
opportunities to communicate in a positive way with
your new business lead: a confirmation Email, a
shipping notification, a "thank you for shopping" note
from the company president, etc. If each of these has
a link to the advertiser's site, and another incentive,
there's that many more opportunities to purchase.

The trend here is not to suck in buyers for a large
share of the market. The trend is to target your
audience and communicate with them in a way that
develops a trusting relationship so you can get a large
share of that new customer's business.

Bruce Koren
bruce_at_citymarketing-sf.com

City Marketing
415 398.0303
http://www.citymarketing-sf.com
City Marketing, your official creative resource
for the new millennium.





Received on Sat Nov 20 1999 - 03:00:17 CST