Broaden Bonuses for Better Business

Providing bonuses has become a key part of the online marketer's arsenal for a simple reason: they work. Since there are many ways to incorporate bonuses into your marketing strategy, limiting yourself to one or two could be hurting your bottom line.

Here are twelve (and two no-cost extras) ideas to make use of bonuses for more effective marketing:

1. To encourage repeat web site traffic, offer regular time-limited bonuses. As well, you could up the ante by linking two or more bonuses together. Make it so part one is not so useful without parts two and three.

2. Provide a bonus coupon to anyone who buys your product. It can be a discount on a second purchase of your product or one you can offer through a joint venture.

3. Exchange discount coupons with other marketers to be used as direct or unannounced bonuses.

4. Offer one of your branded products to other businesses in the same target market to use as a bonus. The other businesses get a free add on of value and you gain the gratis advertising.

5. Create a series of reports connected to your prime sales items and offer them for free to others to use as bonuses.

6. Employ bonuses to pull in and retain ezine subscribers or to increase membership in a forum.

7. Exchange merchandise with other marketers so you can offer bonuses that top the price of your own product.

8. Be sure to list the price of your bonus, whether it be in your advertising or in your offers.

9. If you are promoting merchandise that must be shipped, make use of a downloadable item to give customers an immediate reward for buying.

10. Short on bonuses? Here are a few possibilities. You might generate some by excerpting from your ebooks. Or you could offer 30 minutes of consultation for a specified time. Or you could produce a members only section loaded with valuable resources, then provide it as a bonus to buyers.

11. Be kind to your most valued purchasers. Give purchasers of a costly item a powerful unlisted bonus. The bonus could lessen the impact of the big expenditure, enhance the value for your product and trim refund demands. And don't overlook the veteran buyers. Their loyalty is invaluable and ought to be rewarded.

12. Create a sense of urgency by providing specific bonuses for a limited period. You can do this with merchandise, services and newsletter subscriptions.

13. Since we all like a surprise, use this emotional pull in two ways. Declare a surprise bonus in your sales copy to help clinch the sale. But also deliver a bonus that wasn't announced to boost customer satisfaction and encourage more purchases.

14. Link up with other vendors to blend items and create a powerful bonus pack that's exclusive. All of you can then employ it to sell big merchandise.

Todd Kenovas is Marketing Manager for Webways Media, the PPC marketing resource. See http://www.webwaysmedia.com for more information.