A compelling offer that delivers true value to your current or potential customers is an essential component of any marketing strategy. But it’s even more important in acquisition email marketing, where you’ve yet to develop a relationship with the recipient of your marketing emails.

At first glance, building a compelling offer can seem daunting, but it’s really a matter of researching your customer and capitalizing on their pain points in a unique way.  Here are five steps to get you started with your offer development initiatives.

1. Know your customer. Understanding your customers is the first step in developing an offer that they’re going to like. What kind of products are they interested in? Have they bought a product like yours recently or ever? Have they visited one of your brick and mortar stores? These are just some of the questions you should ask before developing an offer. The answers will determine the “bribe” of your offer. Will it be content, a free consultation, or a discount?  
2. Key in on your customers’ pain points. What kind of market pain is your potential customer feeling and how does your product cure that pain? This question ties nicely with step one. Understanding exactly what your potential customers’ frustrations are, and how your product fits into that picture, serves as excellent criteria to judge your offer against.
3. Understand the competition. Study the competition.  What kind of offers do your competitors send to their customers?  Understanding the competition can help you develop a unique offer that better resonates with your customers even though your product/services may be similar to another company’s.
4. Know best practices.  Gain a thorough understanding of best practices as they relate acquisition email marketing. There are a number of criteria related to copy, design, and coding that can make or break the success of your campaign. We have plenty of great resources that can help you with best practices, but if you want a more hands on approach, contact Marketfish Creative Solutions. 
5. Test and measure. As we’ve said before, acquisition email is a process of testing and refining until the desired results are achieved. The same notion applies to your offers. Create several and run smaller test campaigns. As you test your offers, be sure to test across the usual factors like subject-line, design, and audience. Once you know the combination of factors that’s most effective, roll out a larger campaign.   

I hope you found these steps helpful. Developing a compelling offer can present one of marketing’s greatest challenges. But gaining a detailed understanding of your customer and the competition is a great start to continued success with your acquisition marketing campaigns. And remember, always test, measure, and refine the results.

Now it’s your turn.  How do you go about building offers for your email and direct mail acquisition campaigns?