4 STEPS TO CRAFTING THE PERFECT MEMBERSHIP OFFER

Private clubs, just like any other business, need well-crafted offers in order to recruit new members.  

But too often clubs confuse ‘Offers’ with ‘Incentives’ or ‘Discounts’ and don’t understand the proper sequence required for an offer to be effective.

By following these 4 basic steps you’ll be on your way to developing offers that are both brand enhancing and effective in gaining new members.

1. FIGURING OUT YOUR SEQUENCE:

The first step to creating an offer is outlining your sequence. But first, let’s reiterate that an offer is not just one straight shot, it’s multiple steps that should mirror a human relationship. We call this the customer journey.

You want your prospect to go from being clueless as to who you are and what you offer, to being a member, and eventually an advocate who brags about the club and refers new members.

Integral to crafting the perfect offer is understanding the human relationship. We all understand that relationships are built through a series of interactions. Healthy relationships generally follow a pattern something like this: attraction, introduction, interest, courtship, excitement, dating, commitment, marriage.

In his book, Intimate Behavior, Desmond Morris observed the human animal and their approach towards intimacy. Morris concluded that there are in fact 12 stages of intimacy, beginning with eye to body, then eye to eye, hand to hand, and so on and so forth until the last stage which is sharing intimate relations with someone.

The most fascinating conclusion from Morris’ research into the human relationships is that the rate of succession of the stages is irrelevant to the success of the relationship. Rather, what matters most in developing healthy relationships is that none of the stages he identified were skipped.

He found that most people were offended if one of the steps is skipped. And skipping two or more steps at a time left people feeling assaulted. Yet, this is often what marketers do: making the wrong offer at the wrong time. No one wants to be proposed marriage on the first date.

Marketing works the same exact way as human relationships. Many people believe that it doesn’t hurt to ask, but it does! Too aggressive of an offer (too forward, or too much information too quickly) can deter your prospective audience.

So, what can be done?  Simple…make the right offer at the right time.

In order to make the right offer, you must map it through the sequence of 8 stages:

1. ATTRACTION: Knowing who your ideal audience is, and where to find them

2. INTRODUCTION: Making that all important first impression – looking your best and engaging through good, compelling content that is relevant to your audience

3. INTEREST: Gaining an “opt in” indicating that they are willing to learn more about you

4. COURTSHIP: Convert their interest through a low commitment offer that takes the relationship to the next level (e.g. “let’s grab coffee”). Remember offers deliver value in exchange for something so it doesn’t have to be monetary – for example, if someone schedules a club tour they are paying you with their time

5. EXCITEMENT: Time to go beyond looks – create a compelling next step based on the benefits that you have to offer

6. DATING: Now it’s appropriate to “take them out on a date” in a sense. Wine and dine them - get them to love your product and buy bigger

7. COMMITMENT: The first signs of love – they are buyers now and willing to introduce and advocate on your behalf to their close friends…they want it to work but are waiting to see if you can deliver on your value proposition

8. MARRIAGE: Now they are convinced you are the one for them and will actively promote you and your relationship

2. CRAFTING THE PERFECT MESSAGE:

In constructing a marketing message, what is important is to understand the specific desired end result of your customer. So many people grossly overcomplicate the copywriting process; all you need to do is speak to the desired end result as plainly and simply as you can.

The best way to achieve this is to emphasize the before state and the after state. Your ideal prospect is in one condition currently, and once they have bought your product, they are going to be in a new state. What is it?

Highlighting before and after states can be achieved in 4 ways:

1. HAVE: Convey what they will have after purchasing that they didn’t have before

2. FEEL: Compare the emotional state of before and after purchasing

3. AVERAGE DAY: Describe an average day before and an average day after, showing benefit

4. STATUS: If you can change someone’s status, they will follow you forever

3. CREATING OPTIMIZATION:

Optimization is achieved through commitment, but what so many marketers fail at is trying to get prospects to make too large of a commitment, or overwhelming them with too much information early in the relationship – either of which ultimately deters them.

Alternatively, marketers should emphasize making small commitments. Once they attain a micro-commitment, they are more likely to make a second, larger sale.

For example, before sending a prospective member information related to dress codes, bylaws, rules and regulations, application processes, etc. focus on getting them to commit to a visit to the club or a trial round of golf.

4. REALIZING LITTLE VICTORIES:

Lastly, by creating little commitments, or getting the customer to bend a little so that they feel encouraged and confident, they will consume more.

If a customer is initially asked too much, they can be overwhelmed and back out, but if you initiate contact with small, simple tasks that gratify their participation, they are likely to get more involved.

Creating the perfect offer is crucial to the success of the product. It doesn’t matter if your product is the newest, and best of its kind, if your offer isn’t speaking to the consumers specific desired end result, and offered with the appropriate sequence, it won’t be successful.

Often the best offers flow through the sequence of stages and build advocacy into the offer, so that the consumer, once an owner of the product, can advocate and promote the brand.

Here’s a great example: If you’ve ever been lucky enough to take a Tesla for a test drive, the dealer will inevitably show you all of the features of the car, the nifty technology, the great ride and handling, and all the benefits of ownership. Not unlike any other test drive that you’ve likely experienced.  But the “little victory” comes when the dealer wants to show you how quick the car is – they’ll likely find a quiet stretch of straight road and tell you bring the car to a stop.  Then they will tell you to slam your foot down on the accelerator as hard as you can. If you’re like me, you’ll hesitate at first…but after a second or third attempt and some reassurance you stomp on the gas and rocket from 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds (which is really, really fast). The dealer then shows you the fail-proof technique to achieve the rocket-like feature every time, which happens to be a setting called “Ludicrous Mode.”

Tesla knows that if you end up buying the car, when you go to show it off to your friends, you will undoubtedly show them that feature based off of little victory you experienced during the consideration phase. As a result, the consumer then becomes an advocate for the product and promotes the brand to those around them: an optimal conclusion in the sequence of an offer.

Clubs should pay very close attention to creating these little victories during the consideration phases of joining a private club – ensuring that a prospect or guest is called by name at least 5 times while on property by staff, or personalized details for a club tour such as a name badge on their locker or a club bag tag go a long way towards elevating status and gaining commitment.

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