If you search any of the copywriting and internet marketing forums out there, you’ll realize that many of the copywriters get an ego by claiming that, “It’s all about the copy.” You see, you can have the ultimate product and the perfect list, but if the copy doesn’t sell the product, then the promotion will be pointless.

In the words of the in famous Don Corleone, the core function of the business is to “Make an offer you cannot refuse.” The one important thing you should know being a marketer, is that your job is to create an offer that is potent, and so irresistible, that your customers would be crazy not to take you on it.

What Is An Offer?

An offer is a trade for a product or service that at least equals the initial transaction in return on investment (ROI). For example, if I paid $997 for a home study course on how to make money online, I expect to get this benefit as a return on my initial investment. This is one of an important aspect you need to think about before you do any marketing, advertising, and anything else in your business. You see, if you don’t have a compelling offer, then your’s is just another “same” business that’s selling the “same” widgets as everyone else.

Below are some examples of good offer:

Dominoes Pizza: “Fresh Hot Pizza Delivered To You In 30 Minutes Or It’s Free!”

When dominoes Pizza started out , they use to be a small pizza shack in the middle of nowhere until they came up with this attention-catching line. They found out the fact that people were sick and frustrated of getting their pizza delivered to them an hour after the initial order and when the pizza actually arrived, it was like eating a piece of cardboard. As you can see, this offer was unique, and exploited everybody’s innate desire to “have it right now!”

Fedex: “When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There Overnight!”

You see, this was a killer offer that catapulted the company over it’s rival, UPS. They were the first to ever institute overnight delivery, and as a result, captured huge mind share as the go-to service reliable shipping.

John Alanis: “How To Have Women Approach You… No Matter Your Age, Look, or Income!”

Just in case you doesn’t know who is John Alanis, he’s a Den Kennedy disciple who’s an outrageous heavy hitter in the dating market. You see, when he started his business, he realize that many of the players in the dating market focused on picking women in bars and using seduction, but he turn the table by making his killer offer and that is, showing you how to get women to approach YOU instead. As a result, he is now making $1million a year just three years after starting his business.
What Do Great Offers Have In Common?

You see, if you sat down and analyzed each of the killer offer I just listed above, you’d realize that they have the following critical characteristics:

1. High Return On Investment: As you know, the best offers have a high return on investment. In other words, the customers get what they paid for or even more. Let’s take Dominoes Pizza as an example, the return on investment of $12 was a fresh, hot pizza delivered in less then 30 minutes. You see, if we compared to other pizza joints, this return on investment was irresistible, and ensure a repeat customer


2. Believability: I know that you will ask, is the return on investment too good to be true? To be honest with you, the better your offer, the more “red flags” will appear in people’s mind. And because of this, you will need to provide proof in your copy that will make your prospect believe what you’re saying. You can provide proof like testimonials, endorsement by famous people and experts and listing awards and recognition.


3. A Statement Of Benefit: As you can see, all business with irresistible offers are able to communicate them with a succinct sentence that leaves absolutely no question in the prospect’s mind about it’s value. And if you do this right, it’s a matter of holding your prospect’s hand until they do the inevitable action which is buy you product.

Let’s take Dominoes Pizza as an example again, the tag line “Fresh Hot Pizza Delivered In 30 Minutes Or Less, Or Its Free,” is a statement of benefit. As you can see, there is no ambiguity as to what the customer is going to get, and also what the return on investment is going to be. So what makes this statement of benefit work? Lets take a deeper look:

Simplicity: You see people already have enough things to worry in their lives and the last thing they want to do is decipher some arcane statement of benefit. Especially if it’s from someone trying to sell something.
Brevity and Clarity: Here’s one interesting principle that is use in marketing - Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS). A good way to stick to this is to keep it pithy.
Immediacy: To be honest with you, this is an offshoot of the above characteristics. As you know, the statement of benefit is communicated clearly enough that the customers can see the value themselves, in other words there will be no pitching and no resort to trickery.

On the next article, which is part two of this, I will share with you how to construct an offer.