If you’ve ever launched a new product or offering and heard crickets, start doing it.
Have you ever launched a new product or offering and heard crickets? You’ve spent all this time making sure you’re offering the best there is, but when you release it to the world, people barely pay attention. Not only can that be frustrating and confusing, but it can also make you believe that no one wants what you have to offer, which isn’t true.
People may seem uninterested for a variety of reasons: they just took a screenshot of your offer and saved it for when they can buy, or maybe they just made a mental note of your offer, got sidetracked, and forgot about it.
Here are two ways to increase engagement on your offers.
1. Give rewards to people
A surefire way to motivate someone to do what you ask is by increasing the value of the reward they’ll receive. Consider giving your offer away for free to a select number of people in exchange for testimonials or referrals. This also works if you offer them lifetime access to something or give them something at an extreme discount. Imagine Apple giving away free AirPods to those who rate and review their products—the response would be huge.
However, the key to offering this type of incentive is to make sure it’s actually worth the effort you want people to put in. What does this look like?
As an example, think about when you were a kid and had chores to do. You would have given your whole life to skip them and go to a friend’s house. So, naturally, if you were told, “You can go to your friend’s house if you do your chores,” not only would your chores get done, but they would be done perfectly.
Make your incentive a real incentive.
Additionally, you can offer to pay. People generally respond to a cash incentive. One way to do this is to set them up with an affiliate link, which allows them to receive a percentage of sales generated by customers who click on that link. This offer could say something like this: “Receive a 25% commission for each person you bring who signs up for our service.” Affiliate links work well because you can use the same strategy for multiple offers. You can also offer cash for referrals. This is similar to the affiliate system in that people are paid, but the referral system typically pays them a fixed amount per referral.
Determine what people want to receive and then deliver it.
2. Make it easy for people to say yes
When you make your request to someone, make it as easy as possible for them to say yes. Be clear about what you’re asking for, what your incentive is, and include all the necessary information with the request. Consider how you might react if a friend asked you to support their new venture but never told you exactly what that meant. It leaves too much up in the air, and more often than not, we end up not showing support in the best way possible.
Take this incomplete question, for example: “I just started a new podcast and would like your support.” Instead, it would be more effective to say, “I just started a new podcast and would like you to download, rate, and subscribe. Here’s the link, and let me know if you’d like me to text you a reminder.”
In addition to making your request clear and low-effort, creating scenarios where you have things in place, such as 30-day money-back guarantees, free trials, or low-cost investments, increases the likelihood that people will engage with your offer.
Here’s an example: “I just created a new self-help app that I’d love for you to download, rate, and review. In exchange for your prompt download, rating, and review, you’ll receive free access to the app’s premium features for two weeks. Have your friends download the app too and receive free access to premium features for up to six months! Here’s the link to the app in the App Store and the Google Play Store.”
Many people want to support our efforts, but they just need a little help to do what we need them to do, in the time we need them to do it.
