The Small Business Online Marketing Handbook: Converting Online Conversations to Offline Sales

Chapter 4

Online Offers That Convert into Lasting Business

The tricky thing about offering deals to acquire new customers is that much of the “deal shopper” segment has already been conditioned to keep looking for new bargains for similar services and products. This makes customer loyalty even more difficult to maintain when targeting this segment. Companies who successfully leverage offers and promotional campaigns to drive business are continually working to balance new customers against existing ones, as well as striving to consistently deliver exceptional service. We'll spend some time talking about deal-driven new customer acquisition here; however, we'll dedicate most of the conversation to discussing offers that provide you with a greater chance of retaining customers after the deals are over. But before we get into the details of designing deals specific to new customer acquisition or achieving your retention targets, let's first take the time to look at the anatomy of a deal.

Anatomy of a Deal

Every deal, whether it's delivered through online or offline channels, is comprised of four basic components that we'll break down in detail. No matter what time of year, how big or small the deal, what kind of company you are, or what medium you use to inform others about your promotion, every single offer must provide the following the four Ws to prospective customers: who, what, why, and when.

Follow this simple formula every time, and at a minimum you will publish offers that ...