This is the fourth article of my 5-part series in which I show you how to monetize your own unique skills or knowledge to create a profitable online business.
Using a 4-step framework, I show you how to:
- uncover a profitable niche and validate your business idea
- attract your ideal customers
- create your irresistible offer
- successfully launch your business
If you haven’t checked out the first three articles of the series, you can find them here:
- How to Start a Skill- or Knowledge-Based Online Business
- How To Find a Profitable Niche and Validate Your Business Idea
- How to Attract Your Ideal Customer Like a Magnet
Assuming you’re all caught up, let’s talk about the 5 steps for creating an irresistible offer, one that will have your ideal customers screaming, “Take my money!”
Here’s are the 5 steps you’ll learn today:
- Choosing your product or service idea
- Outlining your offer
- Positioning your product or service
- Naming your product or service
- Deciding on a pricing strategy
You can learn more by watching this video or reading below.
(This post contains affiliate links, which means—at zero cost to you—I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you for your support!)
The 5 Steps for Creating an Irresistible Offer
The previous article in this series showed you how to attract your ideal customers so that when you create your offer you’ll have a pool of potential customers ready to buy from you.
During that process, you talked directly to your ideal customers and asked them questions to determine exactly what they are looking for so you’re not left guessing. Now that you know what they’re looking for, it’s time to create it!
If you skipped the previous step, please go back! Taking the time to understand the needs of your target market will save you a lot of money and time. It’s absolutely critical that you speak to real members of your target audience so that you can hear straight from them what their biggest frustrations and pain points are. This will position you as the best business to offer them the exact solutions to their problems.
Now let’s take a look at each step you’ll take to create your irresistible offer.
Step 1: Go back to your validation stage discussions with your ideal customers and review your early product or service ideas
Analyze the results of these discussions, focusing on:
- Which products or services resonated with them the most? In other words, which product ideas elicited a “Hell, yes!” response when customers were asked if they’d be thrilled to buy it right now?
- If the only responses you received were “maybe” or “I’m not sure” or “probably,” you haven’t found your product or service idea just yet. That’s okay. Review your discussions with your ideal customers:
- What were their biggest problems? Remember—the more urgent, dire, or painful the problem is, the more likely someone will be to be actively searching for a solution to that problem.
- How will your product or service make this problem go away?
Step 2: Re-validate the results
Once you’ve got an offer in mind, I encourage you to reach out to your ideal customers again if you need further information to validate your newly chosen offer idea.
Find out if they’ve ever paid for a similar product or service. Ask them:
- What worked?
- What didn’t work?
Further, ask these questions:
- If I could create a product or service that was absolutely perfect for you (related to your offer idea), what would that look like?
- What is your preferred means of delivery for this product? This could be in the form of a coaching session, a digital course, a monthly membership, an e-Book, a live or virtual event, or any other format your ideal customers may suggest.
Step 3: Outline Your Offer
Once you’ve collected all of this information and you’ve got a clear plan on what your offer will be and how you’ll deliver it, it’s time to start working on the details.
Starting with the end in mind, ask yourself:
- What is the result that my offer promises?
- What burning pain am I trying to solve?
- What information does my ideal customer need in order to get this result?
Develop a step-by-step process by which your ideal customers can get that result. You’ll likely make adjustments to your outline as you develop your offer further, and that’s fine; it’s not set in stone at this point. Just map it out as best you can and refine as you go.
Step 4: Consider Positioning
Essentially, positioning refers to how your target customers view your product or service relation to your competitors. You want to clearly define what differentiates you from others in your space, and how you will stand out.
Using my own personal example, I mentioned in the previous article <link> that I’m not the only person on YouTube who helps people create and sell low-content books on the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform. However, many people gravitate to me because of the emphasis I place on quality over quantity. My “slow and steady wins the race” approach is what resonates with some people.
Meanwhile, others may gravitate toward one of my competitors because of their knowledge of ads, or perhaps their overall methods just resonate more with some people. Figure out what makes your offer different and lean into these differences when creating your offer.
Step 5: Give your product or service an awesome name
The name you choose should:
- Clearly state the problem it solves, while also sparking curiosity.
- Be distinctive rather than descriptive. Descriptive names cannot be trademarked so you should do some research about descriptive versus. distinctive names in relation to trademark law.
- Get your ideal customer to exclaim, “I want that!”
Pricing Strategy
Once you’ve completed the previous steps, you’ll want to think about your pricing strategy before you begin building your offer. The price doesn’t have to be set in stone at this point but you should have a ballpark idea.
Here are a couple of things to think about when setting your pricing strategy:
- Don’t be tempted to devalue your offer or yourself. Remember when you put in the work of asking your ideal customer what pain or frustration they were experiencing? If you come up with a solution to their problem they will happily pay for it. If your offer is truly the solution for their pain points, ask yourself what it might cost your customer if they don’t purchase your offer.
- Resist the urge to focus on undercutting your competition. Basing your price on how much your competitors are charging puts the focus on them rather than on the value you’re bringing.
Let’s Build That Offer!
Now that you’ve:
- decided on your product or service idea
- outlined your offer
- considered your positioning
- named your product
- decided on a price tag
… it’s time to get to work and build it! Once it’s ready to go, you’ll need to set up your delivery infrastructure and plan your launch. This is what I’ll cover in the next article.
If you’d like all of the information I’ve been talking about in this series in written form, I invite you to download my free guide, The 4-Step “No Time to Waste” Online Business StartUp Blueprint.
[…] you have an irresistible product or service offering that’s ready to be launched into the world, then this online business launch checklist is for […]