Getting traffic to your website is great, but it’s just the beginning. Once you’ve attracted prospects to your site, you must convert them.
After all, conversions are what pay the bills.
No matter what channels you use—PPC, social media, email, etc.—most of your leads are probably funnelled to your website.
If your sales numbers aren’t where you want them to be, you’re in luck. I’m going to share with you the single most important component of any successful marketing campaign. I’m also going to show you how you can use it to maximize the effectiveness of your website…all in less than 30 minutes.
But more on that later…
Let’s talk about pizza for a minute.
You’re probably wondering what pizza has to do with conversions. Bear with me.
Did you know that there are 5 billion pizzas sold worldwide every year? The 3 billion of those pies sold in the U.S. account for $38 billion in annual sales. The pizza industry is extremely competitive and 3 companies sit atop the heap—fighting for supremacy.
What can we learn from 3 of the biggest players in one of the most competitive niches in business?
Let’s see…
Why Your Marketing Fails and the “Big 3” Succeed
If your current marketing isn’t getting the job done and you don’t know what to do next, take a page from the playbook of three businesses that have figured out the cornerstone to conversions.
Domino’s
Back in 1973, the current #2 pizza chain began promoting a “30 Minutes or Less” delivery guarantee. If you didn’t receive your pizza within a half hour of placing your order it was free. Domino’s goal was to produce and deliver a product faster and more efficiently than their competition. This helped them gain a reputation for quick service which led to increased market share.
Little Caesars
In 1979, Little Caesars debuted a powerful marketing campaign, “Pizza! Pizza! ®”, which referred to customers getting two pizzas for the equivalent price of a single pizza from other pizza chains. The iconic branding effectively communicated the chain’s great value. Although the guarantee was eventually discontinued in the US for PR purposes, the momentum was enough to help skyrocket Little Caesars to the #3 spot in the pizza rankings.
Pizza Hut
The world’s largest pizza chain is the leader of the pizza industry. As competitors began to hack away at their market leading position the company looked for ways to stay on top. This led to a multichannel marketing approach with a focus on web and mobile strategy. With an audacious goal of allowing customers to complete an order in as little as ten seconds and other improvements such as location-based offers and the development of an iPhone app, Pizza Hut successfully streamlined their ordering process and improved their overall customer experience.
It’s interesting to note that the strategies these three brands used to dominate the highly aggressive quick-service restaurant category have little to do with their product (pizza). Their strategies do make great use of the critical component of every successful marketing campaign I alluded to earlier.
Let me explain…
You Know What Your Problem Is?
If you’re like most people, you’re not paying close attention to the most critical component of your marketing campaign…your offer.
But there’s good news.
As I promised earlier, I’m going to help you.
So, you might wonder… how?
Well, drawing on the top 3 pizza chains as inspiration I’ve come up with an easy-as-pie framework you can use to improve your offer right now.
The Single Most Important Part of Your Marketing Campaign
First things first: let’s talk about exactly what an offer is and why it’s critical to marketing success.
In layman’s terms, an offer is simply everything that you’re “offering” a person in exchange for their hard-earned money. Keep in mind, when I say “everything” I mean everything.
Let’s make this clear with an example. When you order your child a Happy Meal at McDonald’s their offer consists of: consistent menu offerings from store to store, child-sized portions, a burger, French fries, a soft drink, a toy, kid-friendly packaging, fast service, and hopefully a smile from the cashier. If you wanted to feed your child a healthy meal, you’d probably eat at home. But you didn’t choose Mickey D’s for the quality of their burger. You’re there for the offer. When you’re in a rush and on the go, McDonald’s is exactly what you need.
Of course there are different kinds of offers. Neil Patel wrote a great post with his tips for creating a powerful offer and within that post he breaks down 6 of the more commonly used types of offers.
I’ve said several times that your offer is the most important part of your marketing campaign. In some cases, even more important than the product. Can this be true?
Let me ask you this: Do you have a local pizzeria that knocks the socks off of Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Little Caesars?
I know I do.
I love my local shop run by an Italian family from Philadelphia that has passed down their pizza recipe for generations. The only thing is, even though they have way better pizza than the “big guys”, there are plenty of times I don’t order from them. Know why? They don’t deliver to my house. They don’t have an app or website for me to order on the go. Their telephone line is often busy forcing me to call repeatedly to place my order. And sometimes, they don’t even open on time!
So, there are plenty of times when I want better quality pizza (the product) but the big chains’ superior offers trump the Italian family’s superior product.
That’s why your offer is so important. Because in a situation where the product is similar one of the easiest ways to separate yourself from the competition, convert more traffic, and make more sales is to make your offer irresistible.
So hang on while I explain…
7 Ways to Improve Your Offer
Conversion rates are all over the place. They typically range from 2% to 10%. The average e-commerce conversion rate is 3%. MarketingSherpa has a great breakdown of the average conversion rates broken down by industry. This will help give you a baseline from which to improve.
Use the following 7 tips as a framework to rethink your current offer.
Offer a guarantee
In business trust is essential and online it’s even more important. Offering your customers a rock-solid guarantee is a great way to ease their minds. If they’ve never done business with you they’re likely hesitant to part with their cash. A strong guarantee—preferably a full 100% money-back guarantee—is an excellent way to add “risk reversal” to your offer (Check out Lands’ End for one of the strongest guarantees I’ve ever seen!).
In other words, you take away the buyers risk and you take all of the risk. If you have faith in your product and are marketing to the right people, very few people should take you up on the guarantee. Adding risk reversal to your offer in the form of a strong guarantee will almost surely get you better conversions.
Offer a bonus
One way to nudge people into taking action is to offer a bonus that’s worth more than the price they’ll actually pay for the product. This increases the perceived value of your product. You see this all the time on those commercials that come on late night TV (“Call now and you’ll receive not only the Sharp-o-Matic Steak knife set, but we’ll throw in a knife sharpener, a cutting board, and a set of cookbooks…all for $9.99!”).
Always look for bonuses that complement your main product offering and make the value outweigh perceived or real cost.
Provide a reason to act now
Adding an element of scarcity to your offer can get people to take action today instead of putting it off until some future date. Is your product in short supply or a limited edition? Is your offer is only available for a short time? Most people tend to make decisions when they’re forced to so adding scarcity to your offer can prompt procrastinators to get off the fence and act.
Improve your user experience
Just like Pizza Hut sometimes gets my business because my favorite pizza joint isn’t always the easiest to order from, you can steal some of your competitors’ customers by making your offer more convenient. If others in your vertical only offer web ordering, let your customers order by web and telephone. Offer a variety of payment options at checkout. (Example: PayPal’s Bill Me Later financing allows your customers to pay in full or spread out their payments over time.) Many people will actually pay more for a better customer experience.
Improve your distribution
If you can follow Domino’s example by making and delivering your product faster and more efficiently than your competition, you’ll stand out. Distribution can be a way to gain a competitive advantage since most people want to get a product they purchase in their hands as fast as possible. If “the other guy” can’t deliver for 2 weeks and you offer 2-day delivery, who do you think is more likely to get the sale?
Customer service/follow-up
If there’s one thing that can make people forget all about a great product, it’s horrible customer service. Get a leg up on other companies by making sure you follow up and address any customer concerns. Don’t forget about your customers after the sale. Provide ongoing support or offer product updates at no additional charge.
Take a long term perspective. Remember, eating the cost of a sale or shipping fees for a return is nothing compared to the lifetime value of a satisfied customer.
Don’t forget to ask for the sale
Part of any compelling offer is actually asking your customer to take action. Remember our Sharp-o-Matic Steak knife set? Well, the only way to get it is to “call now.” Many marketers assume that when they lay out all of the benefits of their product everyone will rush to buy. This way of thinking has helped plenty of people go out of business. You must include a clear call-to-action that prompts people to take advantage of your offer.
Domino’s, Little Caesars’, and Pizza Hut’s respective offers are so strong that their product is almost an afterthought. So what are they actually marketing?
- Domino’s: speed of distribution
- Little Caesars: value
- Pizza Hut: ease of use
I offered to help you improve your offer and conversion rates and I’d love for you to take me up that. I want you to set a timer for 30 minutes. Use that time to really break down your current offer. Think about how to improve your offer and generate more sales by making an offer your prospects can’t refuse. Your goal is to make your offer so tight, so powerful, and so irresistible that it cannot be ignored. Then you’ll want to track, test, and continue improving your offer.
I’d love to know if you found this information helpful. How many ways were you able to improve your offer in 30 minutes? Let me know in the comments.
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