Compelling

Copywriting
“Bonuses”
© 2007 by Sean D’Souza. All rights reserved. Published by Psychotactics Ltd. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in ad database or retrieval system without the prior
written permission of Psychotactics Ltd.

The Author and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book and the document contained herein.
However, the author and publisher make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, wit regard to the informational
content, documentation, or files contained in this book or in any accompanying media files such as CDs or DVD, and
specifically disclaim, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose,
with respect to program listings in the book, the techniques described in the book, and/or the use of files. In no event
shall the author or publisher be responsible or liable for loss of profit, or any commercial damages, including, but not
limited to, special incidental, consequential, or any other damages in connection with or arising out of furnishing,
performance, or use of this book, program files, instruction, audio or video connected with this information.

Further, the author and publisher have used their best efforts to proof and confirm the content of the files, but you should
proof and confirm information such as dates, measurements, and any other content for yourself. The author and publisher
make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, with regard to that content or its accuracy.

The Brain Audit Kit is available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in
corporate training programs. This is part of the entire Brain Audit series which includes audio programs, on-line training,
etc.

For more information, please write to:

PsychoTactics Ltd., PO Box 36461,
Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: 64 9 449 0009
Email: sean@psychotactics.com

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Contents
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme 1
The Intense Power of Bonuses
Template for Bonuses 2
Your Bonus Checklist
The Bonus Saga Continues 4
Learn more about bonuses
Rounding Up Bonuses 5
Don’t Leave Home Without This Information
Your Assignment 10

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Gimme, gimme, gimme!
The intense power of bonuses: More for less! Yesssssssss!

If you ever think of NOT having bonuses. If you ever think bonuses are some sleazy
trick, then you’ve missed out on the core of human wants. And when you get that
jackhammer and dig deep into a human’s brain, you’ll unearth the primal need for
all of us–yes, everyone of us, to want more for less. The thought of gimme, gimme,
gimme started when we rocked out of our cradle, and it doesn’t stop till the day we get
a knock on the door from the grim reaper.

Grim days await thee that avoid the bonuses

Because we’ve sold product; we’ve sold courses; workshops; consulting; high end
stuff; low end stuff and mid-range stuff. And there’s only one consistent and powerful
message that comes out of the months, weeks, and days (and nights) of testing. And
that message is that people choose to buy at a higher price, when the bonuses increase.

So when faced with two options, the customers always choose the more expensive
option. In over 95% of the cases. At any level or price.

But waitasec, aren’t customers supposed to focus on the core product or service?
Because when you think about it, that’s what you’re selling. You’re not selling the
bonuses. You’re selling the product or service. So if a customer chose Option A, they’d
still get the complete product/service. If they choose Option B, they’d still get the very
same, exact product/service down to the last dot. Yet, they choose the more expensive
product and service.

Why? ¿Cuál es la razón?

Usted y yo sabemos. We know the reason. We know it’s the bonuses that cause the
customer to choose the option with the most bonuses. Your brain can see the price. It
knows that Option 2 is more expensive. But your brain also knows one more thing.
That you want more for less. At that very moment, your logic and emotion become
one. All your brain aspires for is the add-ons; the bonuses.
The only point of difference
in this Website Strategy
Masterclass is the
difference between the
bonuses offered.
You may think you can
resist the offering on the
left, and choose the one on
the right. But your brain
starts singing loudly, as
you try to reason why you
should choose the cheaper
option. Your brain wants
the bigger, better deal. And
the bigger, better deal is
sitting on the right.

Note: The stuff you want

most rolls out in Pt, 6,7,
and 8 (oops, that’s Pt.6) but
who’s looking? <wink>
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Template for Bonuses
Cross out this checklist before you launch your sales page.
So let’s just start with the check list you need to get started, ok?

Have you identified what you could offer as bonuses?

Is the bonus really exciting? Would the customer be willing to pay for the bonus? If
the customer isn’t excited about the bonus, then it’s not a bonus.

Are you mixing bonuses with discounts? If you already have a discount in place,
can you turn it into a set of bonuses. If you’re giving a discount of 10%, that may
work out to just $200 or $20. Can you substitute the discount with bonuses that
would work out to $500 or $100 for the same amounts. The customer gets more
value, and would be more than happy to get the bonus instead of the discount.

Have you decided where you’re going to put your bonus? Remember, it comes
right before the point of asking the customer to pay. The bonuses need to come
after the FAQs and Bullets. It’s literally the point where the customer has almost
made up their mind to buy. The bonus is the tipping point, so make it really good!

Does your bonus have a brand name? If not, can you brand it?

Does your bonus have a description? If not, you’ll need to describe what benefits
the bonus brings the customer. And yes, you’ll need to use the PROBLEM as well
as the SOLUTION when describing the bonus.

Does the bonus have to be related to the product? No it doesn’t. Your core task is
to bring extreme value to the customer. If a trip to see the Yeti brings great value to
your customer, then slap that bonus right in.

Exciting. Is the bonus exciting?

Exciting. Is the bonus exciting? Says who?

Can you dig and find bonuses in your own business? Checklists, systems, audio,
before-after scenarios, case studies, insider information all make great bonuses.

Can you persuade a strategic alliance to part with some of their material?
Remember, even if you don’t have an audience of 10,000 people, and just an
audience of 50, it’s worth it to the strategic alliance. That’s 50 people he/she
doesn’t know, and who don’t know him/her. So be persuasive.

Can you get fun bonuses really cheap? Try http://www.orientaltrading.com

Can you get bonuses free? You never know till you try. At Psychotactics, we give
away a report called ‘Psychological Headline Secrets’. If you ask nicely, you can get
that bonus free and give it away to your clients. So ask around. Free can be crappy.
Investigate the bonuses. Read them. Make sure they’re top quality.

Use graphics. Use explanations. Put value on the bonuses.

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1
List your bonuses

7
Does the bonus have to be related to
the product? Yes or no. You choose.
2 It just has to be really exciting!
Are you using
graphics?

8
Can you find the bonuses within
3 your business? Perhaps a system you
Look ma, no discounts already follow that is of great use to
the customer.
5
It helps to have a brand name.
4
The Pay Now Button comes after
this long list. The bonuses sit right
after the details about your product
and service.

10
Put a price on your bonus. If you
don’t put a price, how will the
customer know. But don’t overdo it,
ok?
6
Describe the bonus. Don’t just list it.
The more the customer knows, the
more the customer gets excited!

9
Can you unbundle a service or
product and make it a bonus? Here
the forum has been unbundled and
actually becomes desirable.
The Bonus Saga Continues
If you step into a customer’s brain, you’ll find that every one wants more for less. Or
at least, some kind of add on. Bakers learned this early in the game. They’d give you
thirteen loaves when you bought twelve (therefore the term: Baker’s dozen).

We all grow up a bit greedy.

And when faced with Product 1 vs. Product 1 + Bonuses, we will always choose
Product 1 + Bonuses. Which of course, means that if you don’t offer bonuses, your
business is going to suffer.

No of course not, why would it suffer?

Your business can run fine without any bonus whatsoever. But bonuses are the factor
that cause the pandemonium. They’re what cause customers to get really interested in
your product or service, compared with a situation where there’s no bonus at all.

So how do you structure a bonus?

Just remember one thing. When a customer has decided to buy a product/service,
they’ve already made the decision. So if you’ve decided to buy a car, the purchase is
more or less a foregone conclusion. And as a customer, if I get a big bonus or incentive,
then I’m more likely to buy from you than anyone else.

This brings us to an interesting point.

What if your bonuses could be more valuable than the product?

Example:
The product: Networking Event
The bonus: Meeting with Tiger Woods

The product: A software program

The bonus: Free installation on your website

In both these examples, the bonus was actually more valuable than the product/service
itself. The bonus causes the tipping point, the conversion factor. So now it’s up to you
to create a bonus that’s really valuable; that really gets the customer’s attention.

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Rounding up bonuses
Issue 1: There should ALWAYS be bonuses.
Issue 2: There must be a price/value on bonuses.
Issue 3: There needn’t be a relevance to the product/service you’re selling.
Issue 4: The more inaccessible a bonus, the more the value.
Issue 5: Bonuses may seem cheesy to you. They’re not :)
Issue 6: Bonuses work at just about any price level
Issue 7: Bonuses vs. Discounts
Issue 8: When to offer the bonus and why?
Issue 9: How to find bonuses in your own business
Issue 10: What to do if you don’t have your own bonuses
Issue 11: Explaining the bonuses
Issue 12: Making bonuses part of the risk reversal
Issue 13: Using graphics for bonuses

Issue 1: You must always have bonuses in your offering. Let’s assume you have an
offering that ends on 15th November. Let’s assume you offer four bonuses if customers
sign up, or purchase before the 15th. And then tick, tick, time moves on...
And it’s now the 16th. What do you do? Remove the whole lot of bonuses? Well, you
could, but not if you understand what bonuses really do. Bonuses are meant to entice
the customer to take a decision. They’re the tipping point, as it were. So if you took off
all the bonuses, you’d be left with no tipping point. And why on earth would you want
to have no tipping point? So reduce the number of bonuses. Give two bonuses instead
of four, but make sure you have the bonuses in place, so that someone reading your
copy after the due date, still gets a bonus to tip them over, and buy your product or
service.

Issue 2: A bonus without a price is a bonus without value. If you don’t put value on
what you’re offering, how is the customer going to perceive the value? There’s no way,
that the customer can ever feel the need to own a product/service, if you don’t put a
price on it. And be very careful to make a big deal when handing out bonuses, because
it’s all about perception. If you put a value, it’s perceived as valuable. If you’re just going
to chuck it in, as a bit on the side, then you’re diluting the power of your bonus (which
is, if you haven’t figured out, not a good idea). ;)

Issue 3: Does the bonus have to be relevant to what you’re selling? No it doesn’t. If
you’re selling a camera, does it matter if you give away an answer phone? No it doesn’t.
If you have a relevant bonus, give away a relevant bonus. And keep testing to see which
bonus works better. Does the relevant bonus work? Or does the non-relevant one
work better. It’s less to do with what works better, and more to do with the factor of
inaccessibility.

Issue 4: Inaccessibility instantly creates a premium. If you’re a coach, and you don’t
give your home phone number to anyone, and you give it to me (as a client) then you’ve
created a monster premium or bonus. The more the bonus is perceived as a favour, or
something one of a kind, or something that has to be hard-won, the more the product
becomes a bonus. Ipods are great bonuses because they’re expensive, and they’re highly
regarded. Another mp3 player with more disk space may not be as motivating to the
customer, simply because it’s not an Ipod. You don’t need expensive bonuses. A report
that no one else has is a bonus. A personal installation is a bonus. A private number is a
bonus. A personal critique or appraisal is a bonus.
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Issue 5: When you buy a sofa and get a chair free, do you see it as cheesy? If you buy
a burger and get a burger free, do you see it as cheesy (you might, depending if it was
a cheeseburger). :) So yes, as you’re writing copy, you may feel that your offer sounds
cheesy. Yes it is cheesy, and yes, the customer doesn’t care if it’s cheesy. The customer
wants more for less, if possible. The more you give, the more they’ll take. However,
you CAN overdo things. You can give too many bonuses and seem like you’re giving
too much away, thus arousing the suspicions of the customer. Give away 3-4 choice
bonuses and spend time explaining (in a paragraph) why that bonus is so valuable. Less
is indeed more. And nope, it ain’t cheesy!

Issue 6: It doesn’t matter what you sell. There’s always the chance to add bonuses
and create more value. When you create more value, the customer immediately wants
to buy your product over the competition. Remember that the lady down the street
who sells $5 doughnuts can make you very fat with added doughnuts (Buy Three
Doughnuts, Get One FREE). And that’s the lower end of the bonus scale.

If you’re selling a product at $10,000 or $50,000, the same rule applies. Remember
that the client who comes in to buy the product, has already bought the product in her
mind. She’s very likely to know the price, and the specifications. And she’s probably
thought about the product a bit, before making up her mind.

You see the client goes through two separate steps. First they go through the attraction
phase, then the conversion phase. So they’re attracted to the product or service long
before they’re converted. But even if the client hasn’t Googled your product or service
to death, the same greed factor is going to kick in when they are offered bonuses.

Which means that even if you’re giving a speech and selling a product shortly after,
you’re going through these two phases. When you stand up and speak, you’re
attracting the audience with your message. And less than 40 minutes later, they need
to buy. In many a case, especially if you’re selling to decision makers, you barely have
more than 15-30 minutes. If you’re not making your case quickly and converting with
bonuses, then you’re literally wasting your time.

Note: What’s also very strange is that the client has no recollection of the bonuses.
Often they’re not even sure what bonuses they’re getting. They will insist that the core
product/service is why they signed up. Yet, they can’t explain why they signed up for
the Premium product/service, when it’s clear that the Regular product/service has ALL
the components they need. It’s the bonuses that they sign up for. And as we mentioned
earlier, the darn thing works at any price level.

Issue 7: If you’re planning to give discounts any time soon, you need to hold them
horses. Discounts are like mosquitoes. They drain you of your blood, and leave
an irritating, itchy feeling that keeps bugging you long after. Bonuses on the other
hand, don’t have any of the above side effects. Because often, bonuses don’t cost you
anything, or cost little. You can drum up a bonus from your existing systems. You can
get bonuses free from others. You can even pull out bonuses from thin air (‘preferred
seating at an event’ or ‘giving a home phone number’ are examples.

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And hey, you know what? You can also give away bonuses that seem to have a
much higher value eg: If you’re selling a product like a computer you can give away
additional RAM. The RAM value is worth $200. Your actual cost is probably $20.
That’s value for the customer.

But lookeeee at those discounts!

Arrrgh! Pesky discounts! When you give a $200 discount, you give away what? Si, you
give away $200. That $200 slides right out of your profit and loss account. Start adding
up the $200s you give away all year, and that could quickly pay for your first class
airfare to New Zealand (um...www.newzealand.com in case you were thinking about
it). Ok, so I digressed.

But you’ve got the point. Bonuses are free, or close to free. And all it takes is a little
(yes, little) imagination on your part, and voila, suddenly you’ve got bonuses coming
out of your ears and nose. So discounts are out. Bonuses are in. Except under one
condition. A discount may be very strategic. Eg: You may want to fill up seats at an
event. You may want to show large number of buyers. You may want to guarantee that
certain clients turn up to an event. Only if you have a very strategic reason to give a
discount, should you ever give one.

I’ll repeat. Only if you have a very strategic reason to give a discount, should you
ever give one. Otherwise, bonuses do the job fine.

Issue 8: Don’t just slap those bonuses in. Remember attraction comes first. Then
conversion. And FAQs, bullets and other stuff sits around making sure that the
attraction part works really well. The bonuses are the tipping point, and their role is
clearly conversion. So they need to come in at the point of conversion. Not before.

This means you need to roll out your bonuses right before you’re asking your client to
pay for something. You’re creating value with the bonuses. More for less. Of course,
the higher the price of your product or service, the more extensive your list of bonuses
need to be. If you’re selling a doughnut and giving twenty bonuses free with the
purchase, you’re not going to sell too many doughnuts.

Unless...you build a crowd.

Now people are what we call sheeple (sheep + people). If there’s a big crowd buying
stuff, and everyone is trampling over each other to get it, then it doesn’t matter how
bizarre the product/service + bonuses are. The crowd will end up buying something
simply because the next guy bought it. Sense goes out of the window. And the sheeple
effect kicks in big time!

In most cases, your copy isn’t going to be read in a crowd. So there’s a much bleaker
chance of the sheeple effect. Which is why you need to keep the bonuses sensible, and
just before the price offering.

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Issue 9: How to find bonuses in your own business
Who? Me? Surely I’m not speaking to you, you think. I can’t be speaking to you.
Because you do not have any bonuses. You might have some in the future, but at this
point, you don’t have anything. Or do you? Because bonuses exist everywhere. We’ve
just read about bonuses that you can pull out of thin air.

Well how about some real bonuses too?

You probably follow some system at the office. Can you document that system? When
I wrote the Brain Audit, it was my personal system. And that became the bonus at
our first workshop. Which then morphed into a product all by itself. Today the Brain
Audit is the system on which many other products/services are based on. So don’t look
at your systems as worthless. You can indeed find a system that your customers would
love to have.

Eg: You can get to a prospective client in under two calls.

You know how to create an Excel file that calculates revenues.
You know how to quickly track unpaid bills.
You know how to get rid of weeds with newspaper.
You know how to reduce RSI with a simple system

Whatever it is you are doing, is already pretty efficient. And you can dig into your own
systems and find something that clients want.

Some of the things we offer:

1) How to organise your database so that you don’t get your clients mad at you.
2) How to analyse your product sales to predict future sales.
3) How to create checklists for an event/radio show/tv show etc.

These are things we do everyday. We need the darn checklists for ourselves. We need
to organise the database anyway. And so do our clients. Grrrrrrreatttt! Now we have a
bonus that’s worth money in zee bank!

Issue 10: What if you don’t have your own business?

Good question. The best bonuses are always your own, because they showcase you. But
hey, we don’t live on a planet when we have the time or the resources. So we have to
get by with a little help from our friends. And who might these friends be?

Wellllll, look around.

Look at strategic alliances (those you know and those you don’t). Look at producers (as
in product creators). Look at services around you.

So if you sold beds:

1) Products: Get some free bonuses from a pillow producer.
2) Services: Get a chiropractor or interior designer to do a free session.

Or you can sashay up to just plain strangers. I contacted publishing houses when I
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wanted bonuses–and they gave me free books. So what if they say no. There’s always
another, and another and another. But in most cases, you’re going to have to work out
the win-win in advance. So with the publishing houses, I was taking excess stock off
their hands. In the case of other strategic alliances, you’ll have to explain what’s in it for
them.

In the case of the pillow company, hey you can’t have just one pillow can you? And
with the case of the chiropractor, well you’re introducing your clients to him. Clients he
doesn’t already have. So if it’s win-win you can get loads of stuff from strategic alliances.

Eg: You can download the ‘Psychological Power of Headlines’ report from our site and
give it away as a bonus (See: http://www.psychotactics.com/psychoheadlines.pdf )

Of course there are other issues to consider:

1) When working with an alliance, make sure you have all the bonuses in your hand
BEFORE you promise them. Ignore this at your own risk. Give the strategic alliances a
deadline to get the bonuses to you. Do this BEFORE you send out the sales letter.

2) Get it in writing. Get the alliance to tell you what they’re giving you, when they’re
giving it to you and what are the conditions. For example: With the headline report
(above) you can sell it, give it away–do anything with it, except change it.

3) Examine the bonus: Make sure you test/read/use the bonus yourself, before giving it
away. If you don’t, it can boomerang in your face. It did with me and now I check every
bonus before giving it away, or even agreeing to put it on my sales page.

Issue 11: Explaining the bonuses

Ok, so they’re bonuses. And maybe they didn’t cost you a lot. But if you treat the
bonuses like scraps, then the customer will treat it like scraps. Take the time to explain
the problem and the solution. Give the benefits and features (in brief of course). Spend at
least 4-5 lines or a paragraph, explaining the bonuses.

Treat the bonus as though you were selling it as a product. Because you are. You can’t
just give the client some rubbish. The bonuses have to be something valuable; something
desirable. So give the bonuses their due and explain them in brief, as you would if you
were selling a product or service.

Issue 12: Making bonuses part of the risk reversal

This system has been used so often that it’s, guess what? Useless, right? Wrong!
Customers love bonuses and you’d do well to create a risk reversal where customers can
keep the bonuses, even if they ask for their money back.

Plus when you make bonuses part of the risk reversal, you’re underlining how much you
believe in your product/service.

Issue 13: Put bonuses in graphics

Direct mail advertising will tell you not to put graphics. And they’re right. In limited
space, you can’t start putting in a whole bunch of graphics for bonuses. But on the
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Internet, you don’t have a problem whatsoever. You have space and oodles of it. So use
the space to dramatic effect. Use photos or graphics and you’ll start to get customers
eyes darting towards, and landing specifically on the bonuses.

Which is what you want them to do anyway, don’t you?

That’s about it for bonuses.

Your Assignment
Step 1: You’ve learned the pattern--Now read the notes/listen to audio.

Step 2: Deconstruct marketing material--Find at least one example of bonuses (if

you find more, that’s great). Post the example in the forum or e-mail it to me at
sean@5000bc.com. Do this today.

Step 3: Re-construct: In the example you found, did they do a good job? What did
they do right? And what would you do better, now that you know what you know? Do
this today.

Step 4: On the forum: Go to the forum and post the FAQ and Bullets for your own
product/service (Remember there is no wrong or right. Just post it for now. Do this in
the next two days.

Step 5: You get feedback and hence make your ingredients better and more powerful.

IMPORTANT:
This course is very detailed to give you the maximum value. But you have to follow
my instructions very carefully. Do what I tell you to do--in the manner I tell you to do
it, and you’ ll see have far greater success, than if you do it your own way. So yeah, the
homework above needs to be done. A good day to start is today. The longer you wait,
the more you’ ll fall behind.

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 If you find anything that bugs you, please click on
the bug above to send me an email. Nothing is too
small or too big. And if I can, I’ll be sure to fix it.
sean@psychotactics.com

PO Box 36461, Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand

Tel: 64 9 449 0009 Email: sean@psychotactics.com

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