Email marketing is a great way to put across what is lovingly called the ‘One Time Offer’ to customers. Basically put – once someone has bought something from you, or are going through the buying process – it’s a great time to try to sell them something else.

A “one-time offer” is a way of convincing your customer to buy on the premise that this is a special offer – usually discounted on with excellent bonuses – that will NEVER come their way again. If this don’t buy this time they won’t get chance to again. Ever.

The more dubious readers among you may assume that the one time offer will actually always be available because a sale is a sale after all, and there’s no doubt that this goes on – you get an email offering you an OTO only to find out that it’s actually available to everyone and anyone.

This doesn’t instill confidence in the marketer and it’s not recommended but of course it goes on.

Now a OTO is usually presented during the sales process. You press the buy button and either just before or just after you complete the sale you’re redirected to another page that offers you a related product or upsell or whatever as a one time only offer.

I use them myself to great effect.

However they’re not as widely used in email marketing as they could be, and I think a lot of marketers are missing sales because of it.

If you offer a genuine OTO, this is what you’re saying to your customer:

#1. It will cost much more later

#2. They won’t get the free, juicy bonuses if they buy the product later

#3. And they will never have the option to buy that offer, at that price, or with those bonuses, again.

One thing to consider, though, is the possible attitudes your one-time offer might generate with your new customers. They might consider the typical OTO ‘urgent’ tone and “Do This Right Now!” message to be aggressive and offensive since they just bought your product or signed up to your email course.

So what I do is send an email (already set in my follow-up list so it goes out automatically after a sale) that says something like – ‘thanks for your sale. As a thank you for –purchasing I’d like to offer you an opportunity that won’t be repeated ……’

This works very well because it’s not too ‘in your face’ or aggressive and takes a gentler tone that isn’t invasive. Best of all it’s automated.

If your customer is a new opt-in though you might not want to scare them off with more sales emails after they’ve just bought. So are their alternatives?

One valid option is to create a separate mailing list after a few weeks on a new topic and present the one-time offer there. Your new customers will be more receptive to your OTO at that time because you will have already become someone they are familiar with. In this way they can choose if they’re interested by either signing up for or ignoring any offers you make inviting them to join a list on another subject.

It’s a fine line and one that you’ll only get right by trying both methods (hence the chart to keep records) – do you offer them another product in the forum of a OTO whilst they’re in the middle of, or have just completed the buying process?

Or do you build a second mailing list by asking buyers if they’d like information on a new topic, then introducing your OTO this way?

The main problem here is how to offer them a second product (at a discount) while they’re still in the process of buying the first?

How to motivate them to buy not scare them away at the same time?

Here’s a some thoughts:

Special Price Offers:

Offering your main product at a special price sounds easy and like a sure winner for your wallet, but think carefully about it before you do it.

Here’s what happens if they go for it:

• People come to your sales page
• Buy your product
• You email them with your OTO
• They buy it at a discount

What’s wrong with that? Well your customers had received your follow-up emails, they probably would have purchased the product at the regular price anyway (because of course all your products are factored into and added to your follow-up message list)

You just discounted and “one-time offered” yourself out of a chunk of your profits.

Don’t give away the ranch before you have to is something to keep in mind. If they’ve already bought your product and then they buy you or 2^nd product at a discounted OTO who’s to say they wouldn’t have buy it anyway, and at FULL PRICE?

The answer is to split your list into 2 identical ones, and offer one the OTO and one the 2^nd product at full price later in the follow-up messages sequence.

Of course the argument THEN would be that the OTO gets them to buy while they’re ‘hot’ in the middle of a purchase.

You starting to see why a simple record keeping method is the only real way to optimise your profits?

Standard Price Upsell Offers:

If you have an upsell on your main product, you could offer the upsell at the normal price only for the one-time offer. Tell people that if they decide to buy later, the upsell will still be available, but at a higher price. Again you need to stay honest and make sure that happens. This covers you against the OTO being available later. I like this method because it’s honest and up front.

And tell them how much they’ll save by buying now – show them the actual dollar-value they’ll save.

Time-Limited Or Quantity-Limited Bonus Offers:

This approach is on websites and in email offers all over the Web. Telling your customer to “Buy Now and get this bonus, or Buy Later and don’t get it” is an incentive that works. Don’t forget to remind them that the bonus is not available anywhere else, if that’s true.

Next: Using Marketing Partners To You Build Your List

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