For Your Next Lead Generation Campaign, Give Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse.

You can have a great list of prospects.

You can have the perfect product.

But your campaign will fail without an offer your prospect can’t refuse. We call this the Godfather Offer. It’s a must-have in your lead generation toolkit.

In this article, we will explore the two pillars of an irresistible offer:

• market research and

• offer creation

Do Your Homework: Laying the Foundation for Your Godfather Offer

Before you start crafting your offer, spend time reviewing 4 key market research factors:

#1: Understand your competition.

You have to know where they are positioned and their offers. Don’t copy their lead generation offers. Instead look for unique twists that support your positioning.  

#2: Understand your audience.

There are two different types of buyer persona – economic and user.

Align your offer carefully for the one you’re targeting. For example, an executive probably wouldn’t be attracted to a relatively inexpensive, low-tech device. However, they may find value from a well-researched case study.

A clear understanding of your buyer persona will make this process easier.

Knowing the buyer persona helps with offer development. Should it be something personal or intellectual? One prospect might be motivated by iPad while another by an intellectual offer like a white paper.

#3: Factor in company size

For example, with a small or medium-sized company, a personalized offer may be more successful. In smaller organizations, you are more likely to know the buyer. Your approach should be different in a larger company. Larger organizations may have “gifting policies”.

Hint: For organizations with gifting policies suggest they donate the item to a local charity.

#4: Evaluate your return on investment (ROI).

Review your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) metrics.  

Make sure your offer doesn’t turn your product your into a loss-leader.

Pay specific attention to your customer Lifetime Value number. A high LTV could justify an expensive upfront offer. In this case, the higher cost is recouped over time.

This is a high-level overview of what to consider when creating your offer.  Use our Offer Strategy Assessment tool to conduct a more in-depth review.  Click here to download and start using the tool.

Define Your Offer: Crafting the Characteristics of Your Godfather Offer

Determine what type of offer to present. You will want to consider these questions:

1. Is it going to be something with a strict dollar value?

2. Is it something that can present a value-add?

3. Will it help your buyer overcome a major issue they have?

When developing your lead generation offer consider whether to:

• Demonstrate the value of the offer with social proof,

• Place time restrictions (scarcity) to enhance engagement,

• Align to something that’s trending in the marketplace,

• Use creative images, visual, and messaging on promotions, or

• Use gated or ungated (for established prospects) offers.

Applying scarcity to stimulate response can work, in some markets. But remember that not all buyers react favorably. Research and test the use of scarcity before any major rollout.

Don’t forget.

Develop the lead generation offer as early as possible. Don’t just drop it in as an afterthought. Early crafting ensures consistency of offer across the copy, creative, and implementation.

Aligning your offer with the buying process

Early in the sales process, a personal offer might help attract attention. If you are already on their radar, maybe a mixture of personal and intellectual offers can help with credibility building.

Late in sales process, you might consider an intellectual offer directly, to bolster trust, prove prior results, or illustrate the solution rollout.

Always remember to match your lead generation offer exactly to where the buyer is in the buying process. You should measure and test to make sure your offer is fully optimized and will hit the mark.

Rolling out your lead generation offer

Your prospect is going to view your offer in one of three ways.

1. Does it stack up against other offers in the market?

2. Can they reuse a personal offer in their business environment?

3. Can your intellectual offer help them improve business productivity?

Many parts of your company must rally around the campaign. This makes the research, development, and the roll-out of your lead generation offer integrate seamlessly. Marketing, technology, and sales collaborate as “the offer that cannot be refused” comes together.

Knowing you have an offer that cannot be refused

If your sales team cannot wait to launch, if word of the offer spreads organically, if you have ideal prospects jumping onto your waiting lists…

You know you have a killer offer.

Remember that the lead generation offer is the second most important (expensive) factor in lead generation. You have to research the offer early, crafted it properly, and launched it effectively.

Not to mention measure and test it throughout.