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In the highly competitive world of online business, it’s an uncomfortable truth that a large part of your success hinges on your ability to create offers that resonate with your audience. Because while your expertise, skills and experience are the foundation of your business, it’s the job of your messaging to make it obvious why these skills are relevant to your potential clients.
In this article, we’ll explore the intricacies of offer creation and I’m handing over the framework I use with all my 1:1 clients so you can get a headstart on crafting an irresistible offer.
Offer Development: First Things First
Before diving into the nuts and bolts of actually crafting an offer, I just want to make sure we’re on the same page with what we’re actually talking about when I say “Offer Development”.
What we’re covering here is understanding how to create the messaging around your offer, so that you can create relevant resources later.
The reason I’m even mentioning this is because I see time and time again people get excited about creating an offer and automatically just go into “build mode” before thinking about how they’ll eventually sell it.
The result? A potentially incredible offer that nobody buys.
And it breaks my heart to see this happen because when we’re figuring out the messaging, we’re not just figuring out how to sell something. We’re actually getting a grasp on how to make what we do relevant to the people we help.
That’s why you won’t find me talking about things like how long your offer should be, the optimum pricing, whether there should be a downloadable resource to go along with it… because honestly? It entirely depends on who your offer is for and the problem it’s designed to solve. And you’ll only know that once you’ve clarified the messaging strategy for it, which yes – is exactly what we’re talking about here.
The Offer Matrix: The 8 Key Aspects To Creating An Offer
Identifying Your Intended Audience
You probably guessed I was going to start with “ideal client” right? Snooorreeee, lolz.
If you’ve been around the internet for more than 2seconds you’ll have been slapped in the face with talk about your “Ideal Client Avatar” more than you would like. Well, I’d like to offer a slightly more nuanced take.
When considering who the perfect person is for the offer you’re creating, I want you to get crystal clear on all of the details that matter about them, and forget the rest.
If their age is irrelevant, don’t spend any time thinking about it. If their gender has no bearing on what you do, again, don’t stress about defining it.
For example, in my own business, age, gender & location don’t matter (although they must be able to speak English because I can’t remember a thing from GCSE Spanish or French). What is important to me however is things like their values. They must be action-orientated, self-led and willing to make decisions without having all the answers.
At a later date, I will be doing an in-depth article on this entire subject but for now, when it comes to identifying the perfect audience for your offer – get super specific on the details that matter, and ignore the rest.
Delving into Audience Desires
Once you’ve determined your intended audience, shift your attention to their desires. Whether it’s achieving a goal or overcoming an obstacle, what is it that they yearn for?
And this is the first bit where you might get a little uncomfortable because to make your offer easy for people to say yes to, I want you to zero in on ONE specific desire.
Yup, you heard me. I want you to pick ONE thing, and one thing only. The more precise, the better.
As a rule of thumb, if the desire you choose is broad, then you will be better served in getting more specific with the intended audience. If however you already have a very specific intended audience, then you can likely afford for the desire to be broader because the way that desire shows up for them will likely be pretty specific anyway.
The reason for this btw, is that the more specific you are, the easier it becomes for potential clients to relate and ultimately buy because they can hear what you say and go “OMG, yes! That’s me!”
Identifying the Obstacles: The Problem in the Way
Once you know what your audience wants, the next thing to do is to identify why they haven’t achieved it yet a.k.a why they’ll be interested in what you offer.
And once again, to create an effective offer, we want to hone in on one main problem that they’re experiencing. The way to know which problem to select here is to look at the one which you are best placed to solve. This will then perfectly line you up to present what you do later on in a way that makes sense to the people you’re trying to help.
Understanding How The Problem Manifests
This particular step in crafting offer messaging that makes it easy for people to say yes is designed to get you once again into the details. We want to look at how specifically your intended audience experience the problem, because remember – we all experience the world in unique ways.
Make it tangible by describing specific scenarios and experiences.
Exploring Past Solutions
Highlighting what hasn’t worked in the past is another crucial aspect of offer creation. Because if your clients have a certain desire, chances are they’ve already tried to do something about it or already considered alternatives but haven’t taken the leap yet.
It’s your job to explain why those alternatives fell short and not in a blaming way, but in a very honest way.
For example, with The Offer Studio, a lot of my clients have tried to create offers in the past by themselves but haven’t managed to crack it yet. And 10/10 it’s not because they aren’t smart, incredible humans… it’s because they’re too damn close to their business to see the wood for the trees. Which is why presenting them with the opportunity to collaborate with me on it and get that unique perspective makes perfect sense!
Presenting Your Master Plan
Now that your audience understands the problem and why previous solutions might have failed, it’s time to introduce your master plan.
Quite simply, this is where we want to explain how your approach will help them overcome the obstacle and achieve their desires whether other things haven’t. This is also the part that sheds light on what should actually be included in your offer as well.
I do recommend however that initially, you draft up a really simple overview of the way you help. This might end up being a sentence or two, or if you’re feeling fancy you can articulate a “3-step plan” that gets them where they want to go.
Articulating Tangible Results
I know this can be a really sticky one sometimes, particularly if you fall on the more empathy & integrity side of the spectrum (which I definitely do!) but the key here I believe is honesty. It’s looking specifically at what people will get from working with you and being clear about it.
And again, we want *tangible* and *specific* here. Whether it’s knowledge they’ll gain, a framework they will have completed, a toolset they can use, whatever it is – define it. The more concrete and measurable the results, the more compelling your offer becomes.
Beyond this, you can then illuminate how having that *tangible result* will potentially ripple out into their life.
Why Now: Urgency and Timing
Finally, it’s about addressing the question of timing. Why should potential clients invest in your offer now rather than later?
This isn’t about trying to convince somebody to invest before they’re ready, but more understanding what the signs are that somebody is ready now and how they might be able to recognize it.
Also, if you’re thinking here “Well, my clients could invest in 2 months and it wouldn’t matter” then I would argue that you’re not zoned in enough on your intended audience. Because those people are the ones who are ready for what you offer. They might just need some loving honesty and to borrow some courage.
I like to consider this question of “Why Now” and think about what I would say to a close friend who I knew wouldn’t misinterpret me.
By following this comprehensive offer creation framework, you’ll not only make the process easier for yourself but also increase the likelihood of crafting irresistible offers that truly resonate with your audience.
Offer development is not just about what you provide but also how you present it, and with the right strategy, doing so successfully is within your grasp.
I will eventually be releasing a Workbook to go along with this, so make sure you’re subscribed to my Newsletter if you want to know when that’s available.
Likewise if you’d rather skip straight to the good stuff, go check out The Offer Studio now and we can work on this together.
