Believe it or not there are many instances when giving away bonuses with your product will actually turn people away from your sales copy.

Sometimes the bonuses offered are not related to your product, other times they give the impression that you need to add on heaps of bonuses to make your product have any value at all.

There are many people making absolute fortunes from their products because of the bonuses they offer in their sales letters, and there equally as many people who don’t give bonuses yet also make fortunes.

On the other side of the coin you will find that there are many people who offer hundreds of dollars worth of bonuses with their product yet fail to make a sale, and people who do not offer bonuses who also fail to make a sale!

It all boils down to the perceived value of your product and how it can help your prospect solve his problems.

If you have a product of exceptional value to your prospect then it will sell no matter what.

Note that value does not mean price!

“A low priced item may have no value to your prospect, but selling the same item for a much greater price often increases it’s value and makes him buy it!”

Of course, if you are in a very competitive market, then adding hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of bonuses to your product can help sway your prospect to buy from you rather than from a competitor

You may think I am taking this a little too lightly, but the truth is you can sell your products WITH or WITHOUT bonuses, I and countless others have done so before and continue to do so.

Obviously, whether you sell your product or not all depends upon the quality of your sales letter, if the copy is lacking then no amount of bonuses you offer will have an impact upon your sales.

Present a poorly written sales letter to your prospect and he may not even get to see the thousands of dollars worth of bonuses he’d get if he were to buy your product – You’d lose him after the first few lines!

Here are a couple of examples of the way you can write your sales copy if you choose to offer or not offer your prospect some bonuses.

If You Include Bonuses:

Some websites showcase the bonuses you will get when you buy their product by listing the graphic covers of them inside a table in their sales letter.

This is more effective than just making a list of the products names as it shows that your prospect is getting a real product – thus adding perceived value to the whole offer.

If you don’t want to list all the individual products then you could write some text similar to the examples below.

• Buy my product now and I will give you $1,000 worth of fantastic bonuses absolutely FREE. Where else will you find an offer like this?
• For the insanely low price of $97 you get an immediate ten-fold increase in that investment! That’s right, immediately you order my product I will send you $1,000 of amazing bonuses absolutely FREE!
• Let’s do the maths. You get Product 1 + Product 2 + Product 3 + Product 4 = $1,000.00. That’s $1,000.00 worth of products for only the price of one. It would have cost you $1,000.00 to get the same products if you were to purchase them individually elsewhere, where else can you get a bargain like that?
• List all the free products in a table and put the value next to them, at the bottom of the table total the value up and highlight it. Point out to your prospect that this is what he gets FREE when he buys your product.

You can combine any of the above methods to really increase the impact, i.e. showcase all the graphics then add some text similar to “let’s do the maths…”

Combining both the graphic of the bonus and the value of it really drives home what a great bargain he is getting when your prospect buys your product.

Many times a prospect will buy your product just to get the free bonuses. I myself have been swayed over to buying a product just because I wanted one of the bonuses and didn’t want to pay the full price for that bonus!

If You Are Not Giving Any Bonuses

In this instance you are relying upon the perceived value of your product to your prospect to convince him to buy.

Earlier in your sales letter you have stated exactly how your product can help your prospect solve his problems. Now you tell him that you’ve already proven that your product is exactly what he needs to solve all his problems, and that if he cannot see the value of it for himself, then, no amount of bonuses will convince him otherwise.

1. It is obvious that there are little (or no) bonuses added to this offer. But if you are not convinced of the true value of this product (or service), no amount of bonuses will ever convince you.

2. Unlike most offers out there, I am NOT going to give you any bonuses. But look at it this way: I have kidnapped a top copywriter who charges $10,000.00 for every sales letter he writes. I have made him spell out his secrets for you, and you get to have his brains for only $97. Would a paltry few bonuses make this information more valuable?

3. Which one are you more interested in? Getting the $1,000.00 worth of bonuses which you might or might not get around to using, or investing $97 in the product alone and learning how to write your own professional $10,000.00 sales copy which you will continue to profit from for years to come?

4. I suppose you think that a few paltry bonuses would make this product even more valuable? Well let me tell you that if that’s what you’re looking for you’ve come to the wrong place.

5. If you cannot see the true value of this product and understand just how much more benefit you will get from using it than by me adding a couple of hundred dollars worth of bonuses to the package, then this product is not for you and I don’t want you to waste your money buying it!

There are valid arguments for using both methods, and generally, as long as you can convince your prospect of the true value they are going to get when they invest in your solutions, you will make your money, with or without offering bonuses.

If you do decide to offer bouses in your sales letter do make sure that they compliment your product. Offering bonuses about dog training when you are selling a product that saves you time and money is hardly likely to sweeten the deal for your visitor is it?

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Stuart Elliott is a world class copywriter who has written numerous stories on sales letters and copywriting. Drop by:
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com to pick up a free copywriting power guide.

Article copyright Stuart Elliott 2006 all rights reserved. You may only reprint this artitcle in it’s entirety and you must include this resource box.

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