Copywriter Michel Fortin recently published a post titled “Customers Won’t Discount Your Dishonesty”. It’s about the marketing tactic of making an “Exit Offer” at a discounted price as a last ditch effort to squeeze some revenue from the traffic.
Now, there is a “wrong way” and a “right way” to make this kind of offer. Briefly, simply offering a discount is likely to result in all sorts of problems. If you offer a discount there needs to be a credible “Reason why”. Usually, it involves a “Downsell” or offering a more limited version of the product at a reduced price. Read the whole post for more details.
However, even if you do things the “right way” there’s still a risk with this tactic. Let me illustrate with a personal example.
Over the weekend I purchased a new affiliate marketing course. it was reasonably priced and there were a couple of things in the course that intrigued me so I went ahead and purchased.
Later that day, I went back to the sales page to make a copy for my swipe file. I often do that when I see a letter that I think is effective, especially when I’ve bought the product (I look through the letter to see what it was that got me to buy and note points that I can use in my own letters).
After I’d printed the letter, when I went to leave the page, guess what? There’s an exit offer at a much reduced price! Now, I was absolutely livid! I was so angry in fact, that I considered getting a refund or demanding a discount, something that I rarely ever do. The amount involved wasn’t much ($30) but nobody likes the feeling that they’ve been a sucker!
Now, the interesting point is that when I calmed down and looked more closely at the exit offer, in fact they were offering a “reduced” version of the product at the lower price. So even though they had made the “exit offer” the “right way”, they still managed to antagonise me!
Now, of course, that’s only my personal reaction but I’d guess I’m not that different from most people (Hey, what do you think? Please leave a comment about your view on “exit offers”).
Now, if you’ve adopted a “churn and burn” strategy and don’t care about building a relationship with your customers, then it’s not such a problem (although even in this situation, the tactic has some drawbacks as pointed out in Michel’s post).
But if you’re building a list and interested in the long term health of your business, then this tactic can be toxic. Be careful how you use it.