Summary:
Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, the author revised their brand marketing strategy, introducing micro-offers© as a transformative tactic. By breaking larger offers into smaller, more accessible chunks, they responded to evolving customer needs, such as offering a one-week immunity program. Hyper-focusing on practical solutions and crafting low-cost, low-risk offers were also emphasized to adapt to the current market. As uncertainty looms, proactive revision of brand strategies can be pivotal for business growth, potentially doubling sales in the future.
Want to double your sales – even during COVID19? Try creating Micro-Offers© Your Brand Marketing Strategy will thank you. Click To TweetWhen the crap really hit the fan in March and it became clear that COVID-19 was about to become a much bigger deal than any of us could have ever imagined, I immediately started revising my brand marketing strategy.
Past experience had taught me that in times of market contraction, moving quickly is key. Within the first few weeks I took all the expected actions:
- Contacted past clients and offered to provide a complimentary branding consultation.
- Followed up with potential clients to offer a special rate given the current economic situation.
- Began offering complimentary webinars to raise brand awareness.
All of these were solid brand marketing strategy to dos, but the real transformation happened when I started to make micro-offers©.
Break your bigger offer into smaller chunks.
One way to do this is to break up the bigger whole of what you offer into smaller pieces. Propose ways to work with you (or buy from you) at less scale and at levels that work better for your clients’ current needs. Think of these as sliders, not a Big Mac.
The idea is to reevaluate the pain points your customers are currently experiencing and then cater to those. Your goal should be to come up with a smaller idea or version of what you already offer, and angle that in a way that will make a large impact.
For example: a client of mine, a licensed nutritionist and health coach, had a three-month immune boosting program she regularly sold to CEOs and other top executives. Within weeks of the crisis, she began getting strong resistance to her three-month proposition.
We discussed the problem and decided that she needed to create a micro-offer©. She started presenting potential clients with a one-week program designed to boost their immunity while on lockdown and stuck inside for most of the day.
Within another few weeks, her business was not only back up to previous levels, but also edging above it.
The type of flexibility my client showed is something we all have to get used to as part of the post COVID-19 business world. With many businesses facing limited resources, the ability to buy the services and products they need in small chunks rather than large pieces is core.
Hyper focus on one particle idea.
Another way to create a micro-offer© is to hyper focus on one practical solution to a problem instead of a big abstract resolution. Many businesses right now are in survival mode and so their concerns are oriented more around today than tomorrow.
For example: I have a client who does leadership development work, but was continuing to speak about what they do in a conceptual way, as in… “With COVID-19 It’s more important than ever for the leaders in your company to create a culture of teamwork…” Blah, blah blah.
I’m all for teamwork and creating culture, but one has to look no further than Maslow’s hierarchy to realize that self-actualization is not what’s driving leadership right now. What is driving them is the far more practical reality of managing huge work forces from home.
I suggested they shift their language to be more along the lines of “Five specific ways you can keep your staff focused instead of fearful during the crisis.” The precision of that message resonates much better with their clients in the current environment.
The result was a revised brand marketing strategy (and a new offer) that had not existed before but was proving to be popular with existing and potential clients.
Make your offers relatively low cost and low risk.
Another way to create micro-offers© is to build your brand with new, relatively low cost, and low risk offers. The idea here is to make it easy for people to say yes and create products and services that don’t require your customer to struggle with the question, “Can I afford this or is the benefit worth more than what it will cost me?”
What are your micro-offers©
- What are some ways you can offer a small piece of what you sell and not the whole?
- How can you hyper focus on one practical idea over a bigger abstract one?
- What are some offers you can make that are relatively low cost and low risk?
we move forward into re-opening the country
Even as we move into re-opening, the future remains uncertain. A second wave and economic challenges (and let’s not forget that upcoming Presidential election) all influence the state of the market. To stay relevant for where we are now, be proactive in revisiting and revising your brand marketing strategy. Who knows? It could be just the thing that transforms your business and doubles your sales in the years to come.
