How to Make Offers Irresistible with Sweeteners

This is something I just learned from The Foundation that I want to share — using sweeteners in deals to make them irresistible.

The first part of an offer is a deal. But what seals is it a sweetener that makes it so good it gets someone off their couch to get their credit card right away.

An irresistibly sweet offer speaks to the customer and answers everything they need, speaking to their hopes and aspirations. They’re based on existing demand, and not made up.

Gary Halbert, the famous copywriter, explains how important it is to create a killer offer. See Part 1 and Part 2 on the archives of the Gary Halbert website.

How to Use Sweeteners

After you have a killer offer, you have to think how to sweeten the deal.

The goal of the sweetener is to tip the scale in your favour, encouraging immediate action. If done right, they can have a lot of leverage.

Below are all the sweeteners that advertisers use to make deals irresistable.

Switching sweeteners

• Offer an “we cover X cost” incentive. (e.g. advertising costs, moving costs, installation costs etc.
• Offer a free ride / test / trial period.
• Offer to deliver and install the product yourself.
• Offer to take care of the next step that THEY were gonna have to do themselves.
• Offer exclusive training on how to use (or benefit from) what you’re selling.

Payment sweeteners

• Offer payment over a period of time.
• Offer lifetime pricing, e.g. $19/mo, $149/year, $249/lifetime (with other sweeteners thrown in)
• Offer an authentic discount.
• Offer bundle pricing
• (Don’t discount!)

Value sweeteners

• Offer to take care of a separate problem that they have currently.
• Offer to DOUBLE what they thought they were going to get for the same price.
• Offer to give something at only half the original cost. (the word “half” alone is irresistible)
• Offer to bundle two things for the price of one.

Product sweeteners

• Offer early access to beta versions and new features
• Offer first dibs on other offerings you will have in the future
• Offer an add-on for something they really want, e.g. an integration into another system.

Guarantee sweeteners

• Offer a money-back guarantee.
• Offer a store credit guarantee.
• Offer a success-only fee structure. (No cost if they don’t get results).
• Offer a % of current payment to be “rolled” into future purchases.

Wrap Up

Note that sweeteners can never “fix” a bad offer. But they can make a good offer absolutely irresistible.

There’s a lot more detail that you can add to the above, but hopefully it has given you a taste.