What makes a compelling offer? The best answer to that emerges from testing, of course. But B2Bs typically are dealing with relatively low traffic volumes, so testing can take what feels like forever while your business stays in the doldrums. So some practical shortcuts to get you in the zone are in order.
Here are our top two, and they’re pretty straight-up…
Don’t use your offer to try to sell anything.
Do use it to educate your prospect.
Bear in mind that most prospects who hit your site are typically… in the very earliest, information-gathering stages of their buying cycle. Trying to sell them your product or service at this stage will only turn them off. Giving them thought-leadership material that helps them understand their industry or business problem in a different way is exactly what they’re looking for, and will vault your company over all of your competitors who just couldn’t resist selling.
In this vein, we came across some nifty additional advice from Marc Blumer over at the terrifically named B2B Marketing Made to Measure blog. He suggests using the following criteria to evaluate whether or not your planned offer hits the mark:
- It must answer a compelling question for the target prospect
- It must provide information or a viewpoint unavailable elsewhere
- It must show thought leadership through the topic and content
- It should leverage the topic to “subtly” reinforce your company’s value proposition
- It should have a narrow focus that acts to “self-qualify” prospects
Great stuff… and not easy to do. It will take dedicated time and resources, and perhaps bringing in an outside writer who specializes in content development.
But the rewards are definitely there. As Marc puts it: “Prospects early in the buy cycle are starved for good information. Provide it to them and you’ll get far more at-bats for your sales team over time.”
