You’re in business… trying your best
to sell your cleaning service, so here’s a friendly piece of
advice. Always make an offer. Make offers in your ads, on the phone,
when you network with people, at your sales counter, on delivery runs,
and even in your email correspondence. Every chance you get… make
an offer.
A bad thing happens when you don’t make
offers… NOTHING!
If you don’t make an offer, you’ll
never get a sale. On the other hand, if you make frequent, targeted
offers to prospects and customers and if you make your offers
irresistible, the sales will roll in.
Here is a brief checklist of offer ideas to help
boost your response rate.
1. In any direct mail marketing campaign, the
offer is the second most important component.
The first is your target or list. The third is
your copy. It follows that you should spend at least as much time
tinkering with your offer as with your headline.
According to Claude Hopkins, the father of modern
advertising, “When you’re prospecting, you should make your
offers so great that only a lunatic would refuse to buy.”
2. There are only three reasons why prospects
won’t buy from you.
First, they may not want or need what you offer.
If that’s the case, don’t waste your time trying to get
their business.
Second, they can’t afford your service,
which is a big problem for them if they have a “dryclean
only” wardrobe.
The only other reason why people don’t buy
is they don’t believe you. You haven’t established enough
credibility with your prospects. And one of the best and most effective
ways to establish this credibility is to let them in on your inside
secrets. Let them in on the reason why you’re doing what
you’re doing.
If you’re offering your service at a
particularly low price, tell your prospects why and tell them the
truth. Don’t try to make it sound like you’re slashing
prices just because you’re a nice guy, or that you’re doing
it simply because you like them. They won’t believe it.
Are you celebrating a special anniversary or
event, or introducing a new service? Are you tying your offer to a
seasonal holiday?
Are you offering your service at cost for a
limited time in order to win new customers?
Whatever the reason, merchandise it to the hilt
and your response will rise. If you don’t have a reason to run a
special offer, come up with one. A believable reason gives your offer
traction.
3. With a few exceptions, try not to sell more
than one thing at a time.
Cleaners are famous for offering the
“kitchen sink” and putting every service they provide on
sale. This weakens the proposal. Instead, target one service and sell
it thoroughly. Doing so will get a better response.
4. Test the same type of offer being repeated by
your competitors.
There’s a little bit of “spy versus
spy” going on here. You know what your competitor is up to.
You’re watching him. And if he happens to be running the same
offer over and over, it’s probably working. Right? If so, you
might want to craft an offer like his but use a little of Claude
Hopkins’ advice and make it outrageously irresistible.
5. Make a guarantee and make it as strong as you
can.
Unfortunately, the drycleaning business is known
for its many problems — such things as wrinkles, spots, broken
buttons and work not done on time. A money-back guarantee attached to
an offer will often be enough to attract a prospect who might otherwise
be skeptical about your business.
6. Attach a time limit to your offer.
A hard deadline after which no orders will be
accepted will significantly boost your response. Whatever the limit you
set, don’t fudge or give in to greed by accepting orders beyond
the limit. If you do, your customers will eventually discover that your
deadlines mean nothing and you will have killed this golden goose.
7. Offer an extra bonus for a fast response,
sometimes called an “early bird bonus.”
This works best if you mail your offer by
first-class postage. The delivery date of standard mail is hard to
predict and, at times, the early bird date will have already passed by
the time the mail hits the neighborhood, so be cautious of your cut-off
date.
8. Always try to offer a unique or appealing
premium, which is something given free or at a reduced price with the
purchase of a product or service. Including an attractive premium in
your offer not only boosts your response rate but will cost you a lot
less than a discount on service.
9. If you’re like most cleaners, you want
to know whether to give 25 percent off or seven pieces for $29.95 or $3
off on a $15 order or perhaps an unconditional $10 in free service?
The actual offer you make is something that must
be tested. For example, which of these offers do you think pulled best?
Please note that all are identical but expressed differently…
A. 50% OFF!
B. Half Price!
C. Buy One, Get One Free!
These three offers have been tested quite
extensively and “C” always wins hands down. In fact,
“Buy One, Get One Free” consistently out pulled the other
two offers by more than 40 percent.
Make your offers as effective as possible by
combining as many of the above ideas together as possible. To view an
example of an ad that incorporates almost all of these elements, please
see the Mak Marketing Direct Mail ad on page 48 of this National
Clothesline issue.
