Prime Minister David Cameron and Business Secretary Vince Cable are in India right now doing deals. True, they are encouraging inwards investment in the UK from one of the world’s fastest growing economies, but while they are in the country, they are doing a deal or two.Some £700m has been agreed for the BAE Systems Hawk jet, for instance. Not bad for a day’s work is it?
The rhetoric and posturing is all well and good, but it is the deal that is what both sides are really after. India wants the jets and we want the money. So there’s no point in pussy footing around – just get on and do the deal. And your website visitors are not much different. They know you want to sell something to them, they are not daft. So just get on and do it – offer them a deal.
The deal, of course, is something whereby your customers reckon they have “beaten you” in some way. In India, the Air Force is probably delighted at only paying around £12m per aircraft – a comparative bargain in today’s aeronautics world. On your website people also want a bargain, a discount, a two for one offer – it matters not how you dress it up, just “do a deal”.
New research confirms the necessity for making online deals. The email marketing company Exact Target has identified 12 online personas and amongst the data is revealed the number-one reason why anyone wants to connect with your business – “to get a discount”. That’s right, they are not just interested in your products or services, but really rather more concerned with “getting one over” on you. Two thirds of people cite this factor as their main reason for signing up to mailing lists.
The research also shows that the second most important reason is getting something free. The concept of the “squeeze page” where you offer a free report or other download in return for an email address is so valued by the Internet world that over half of people cite this as THE reason for signing up.
In other words, if you offer people something free on your website AND you then given them some kind of discount or bargain offer as well, you will have them well and truly hooked. And once you do that, they will want to show their appreciation. The market research company Morpace has found that the main reason why people sign up as “fans” of a company page on Facebook is to demonstrate to their friends that they like your products and services.
This means if you have a free offer on your website, if you then follow that up with a discount deal and you also have a fan page on Facebook you are venturing into the territory that online consumers want you to be in. These are powerful motivators for your customers and potential customers and should not be ignored. So all you need is a simple three step process:
- Offer something free
- Provide a discount or some other kind of “deal”
- Encourage people to join your Facebook fan page
Do these three things and you will find more people wanting to join your mailing list, become fans, encouraging more list joiners as a result and so on. Gosh, it’s almost like perpetual motion…!
