7 Ideas to Offer a Bonus to Increase Your Bottom Line!

7 Ideas to Get You Started Offering a Bonus in order to Increase Your Bottom Line!

What is a bonus you say? If you’re saying that, we probably have not sat down yet and done a 1-On-1 Marketing Planning Meeting. Regardless, a bonus is something you offer as incentive at the end of a sales page/letter/email/web page to really add value to whatever you’re selling or offering and entice them to buy now. What you’re selling could be online or offline services and the bonus could be given offline or online, depending on how to save your time and money by giving it.

Consult with a Marketing specialist for more info if you’re confused or want help on how to figure out how to add this to your marketing because everyone can, no matter what the business or industry.

1. Special Report
Think of some information that relates to what you’re offering that would be very helpful for the customer. Exciting titles with numbers are shown to work best, like “31 Easy and Fast Ways to Get More Clients” or “5 Mistakes Most Families Make When Choosing a Puppy.” Write it in Microsoft Word, format it so it looks nice, and then use Adobe Acrobat to save it as a PDF file for easy downloading. (Be sure to promote your business and website in there too – remember it may get passed around.)

2. Resource List
Compile a list of your personally recommended resources, websites, books, and vendors that are related to your product or service. You can set this up as a PDF file as well, or create a password-protected area of your website that customers and clients can access. Example: One bonus that comes with my JumpStart Your Marketing Mentor Programis access to Kat’s Big Money Marketing Rolodex. It’s simply a select collection of links to websites and tools that can help my customers grow their lists and run their offline or online businesses.

3. Checklist
Are there any checklists that would be a good tie-in to what you offer? That help people do what you’re teaching them to do, better or easier? Example: I have a program called my JumpStart Your Website Consultationand one of the bonuses is the checklist that I myself use when I help someone revise or update their website! My customers love it because it makes it super easy for them to think ahead to what they need.

4. Collection of Articles
Hopefully you write articles or tips on a regular basis for your own ezine or newsletter, and you may even have them posted at your website as well. Why not package your favorites into a PDF document and title it your “Top 10″ or “Best of” collection?

5. Action Guide
Look at the principles, strategies, and tactics you teach in your program, and put together a separate guide to help the user do assignments, stay on track, and document their progress. (Some marketing experts say calling it an “action guide” or “success journal” is better than “workbook,” because “work” can subconsciously deter people.)

6. Audio Class
Record a 10, 30 or 60-minute audio introduction or orientation to your program. If you already offer a free introductory teleclass or do live speeches, you can simply record that. Offer it online as an MP3 download, or even better, let people listen right from the website.

7. Consultation With You
A consultation is a great bonus to offer, for several reasons. First, it lets you get to know your customers better and hear the questions they ask and issues they face. This will help you further improve your products and services to offer what they want. Second, it’s a great opportunity to upsell these folks to a higher-priced program at the end of the call. For example, if they enjoyed the advice you provided on the call, they may be interested in your six-month coaching program. Don’t fear that everyone who buys your product will actually take advantage of your free consultation – they won’t. It’s estimated that less than 20% of the people who buy programs like this actually schedule a follow up call or consult. But do this over the phone to save your time.

Digital or Physical?
I’m a big fan of digital bonuses because they cost nothing to create and there’s no packaging or shipping involved. But of course you can also go with physical bonuses, especially if you’re already shipping the main product to the customer anyway. Now, when I do a trade show or do a giveaway I offer my e-books which are basically longer articles I’ve written that I sell online too but they can be emailed a link to download it so it’s easy to give’.

I’m currently working on my Do It Yourself Marketing Planning Guide and that will have all kinds of printed bonuses in it such as the recordings on CD of all the Teleclasses I’ve done that pertain to this product.

If you’re offering printed material as a bonus, don’t go crazy spending a ton of money making it look great. “Good” is okay! A simple report that you have printed and bound cheaply at a copy shop is fine. Remember that people are paying you for the information you provide.

What’s most important is the cover — even if you only produce a digital report or audio product, having a graphic of it will help increase your response and make you look more professional. I use and recommend Killer Covers

Give Your Bottom Line a Bonus This Month
So get YOUR bonuses in gear! Make a note of how your sales have been so far, and then add some bonuses and watch the numbers rise.

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