The First Offer
As a small business owner, there are multiple tasks that you must attend to before you can finally open the doors to your business. There is

• The product or service to be prepared
• Accounting to be handled
• Legal issues to be accounted for
• Employees to be hired
• Prepare Marketing material

and so on. But the day does come and you are finally ready to open your doors. What is going to bring those customers in?

Being smart, you have already begun your marketing campaign and have made an Introductory Offer to your customers:

"$5 off customers doing business with you for the first 30 days!"

You know that this effectively underprices you compared to the competition, and in fact you will lose money on your business - but you are sure this will bring in the customers. And it does!

But what happens after 30 days?

The End of the Offer

In small business advertising, springing negative surprises on the customer is to be avoided as far as possible, and for something that is so much under your control as the Offer, it should be absolutely abjured. Furthermore, offering a price that actually causes you to lose money does not make good business sense except in vary rare cases. Avoid this approach as far as possible. Instead substitute it with additional service - perhaps home delivery, or extended care warranty, or money back for 30 days and so forth. Additional service is generally well appreciated, and except in businesses that are acutely price sensitive, the additional service will often translate to better revenue and customer satisfaction.

What can you Offer?
The Offer is limited only by your imagination:

• The standard 2 for 1!
• 50% (or any %) off the second purchase
• Money back guarantee for 30/60/90 days or 1 year!
• Increased subscription time
• Bonus products - free phone, juicer, e-book, perfume (virtually any applicable product!)
• Free Shipping & Handling
• Free Trial

And almost anything else you can dream up!

However, as another principle of small business advertising, unless you are selling a well known product, make sure that the offer is made well after the original product or service has been thoroughly advertised to the customer. The customer must want to purchase the original product at the price indicated. The function of the Offer is to:

• Sweeten the deal
• Remove any lingering doubts
• Move the "on the fence" customer to make the purchase

Also always include a "Call to Action" with every Offer to let the customer know what they should actually do, now that they like your offer! And track the results of your Offer at all times - marketing without tracking will not give you any real insights about the success of your Offer.

Guidelines to the Offer in Small Business Advertising
Following these few simple guidelines can help with setting up your Offer:

• Keep it simple - Offer should be easy to understand
• Keep it simple to follow through - Asking customers to go to the Internet to get their coupon code when they are reading your physical sales letter is too complex
• Try to make your Offers with additional services rather than price
• Make sure you can follow through on your Offer!
• Always include a Call to Action with your Offer
• Track the results of the Offer

Once you track your Offers and see superior response for one over the other, fine tune your other Offers around the successful one to continue to attract additional customers.

At this stage, you have found at least one piece of the puzzle to your marketing success!