Increase Coaching Program Enrollment with the Right Bonuses
Increase Coaching Program Enrollment with the Right Bonuses
Today, we’re talking about how using bonuses with your program offer can increase sales, how and when to use them and a few examples of bonuses you can use if you need some ideas and inspiration.
Bonuses can work with ANY type of offer you have – one-on-one coaching, online group coaching, a membership site or anything else. The intention behind bonuses is to make them time-sensitive and only available for a set number of days – so there is urgency involved in people taking action to get access to the bonus. I’ve been using a bonus strategy for over 9 years – for my done-for-you coaching programs, and for the Wellness Business Accelerator course Karen and I run together, and I also use this strategy when I am an affiliate, promoting someone else’s program.
Something to keep in mind before we go into more details about this strategy; A good bonus either enhances your clients’ experience in your program or it makes it quicker or easier to implement what they are learning and trying to put into place. It’s easy to think you can throw in any extra resources you have already and call it a bonus, but people don’t just want more information – they want an outcome or result, and your bonus should help them with that.
Let’s jump in!
1. How bonuses can increase sales during a promotion. They can help get people out of procrastination mode to joining your program now vs waiting for “some” day. When you offer a program 12 months out of the year, bonuses allow you to have a form of urgency that you otherwise do not have. Your bonuses should be: time sensitive, provide value for your clients, make it quicker or easier for them to implement what they learn and get results.
2. How and when to use them: You can use bonuses during a promotion that has a start/end date. You pick a certain time frame when you will offer a bonus – no more than 5-7 days is ideal, because you want people to make a decision NOW. So, say between June 5th and 9th, you will include an exclusive bonus when people enroll in your program. After the 9th, the bonus goes away. You can include a different bonus next time if you want. You can play around and experiment with different bonuses to see which ones your audience responds to the most.
3. There are different strategies for the timing of your bonuses, so let’s talk about some options:
A bonus for Day 1 of your promotion – this is called a fast action bonus and it’s for the early action takers.
Mid-cart bonus – this can help get a boost in sales during the middle of your promotion when sales tend to slow down a bit.
Cart close – Most sales will come in on the last day anyway because people tend to procrastinate, but you can really get a boost in sales, when you include a great bonus on the last day.
If you only have time to create ONE bonus, and your offer is for 1-on-1 coaching which is available 365 days a year, you can include the bonus throughout your promotion if you want (so it starts on day one and ends on the last day). We recommend you keep this simple when you start out and you can add more bonuses later if you want.
4. What are some bonus examples you can use? Your bonus will depend on your niche and your program but inspiration for your bonuses can come from looking at top questions you get from clients or prospective clients or the top challenge your clients face. Where do YOUR clients struggle the most and what would they find helpful as an extra resource?
Examples:
- 21-30-day meal plan to make planning meals easier (specific to your niche and your program). If your niche has to do with a dietary style, recipes or a meal plan could be a good bonus option.
- Virtual cooking class to teach clients how to make quick and healthy meals. Again, this depends on your niche and what YOUR clients would find helpful and valuable.
- Workout plan (you can collab with a fit pro if this is outside your area of expertise)
- Bring in a guest expert for a bonus virtual workshop or class
- Extra coaching sessions or a bonus 1-on-1 session for the first 5-10 people who enroll in your program (this would depend on the price of your program – you wouldn’t want to offer a bonus coaching session on a $47 online program because your time is way more valuable than that price of the program
- Meditation audios
- Journals
What ideas come to mind for you? Brainstorm and see what you come up with. There are so many options.
5. Guidelines for bonus value – you may be wondering how much your bonuses should be worth, so here are some parameters to consider:
- Don’t value your bonuses at the same or higher price than your program because it will diminish the value of your program.
- Bonuses such a workshops or live trainings will have a higher perceived value than something like a PDF guide or recipe bundle, but that doesn’t mean you have to offer workshops.
- The value of your bonuses will depend on the price of your program. I tend to go with bonuses that are valued between 20% – 30% of the price of my paid offer, but there isn’t one set rule on this. The most important thing is that your bonus is specific to your ideal client, and they will find it valuable and irresistible. If you are offering a low-priced program – like a 30-day online program this is priced $197 or lower, I would go with the 20-30% rule for your bonus value. So, at $197 your bonus could be valued between $40 – $60. This is just a range to give you a starting point.
- Include the $ value of each bonus on your sales page and in your emails, so people can get an idea of what it’s worth in relation to the cost of your program. People don’t know the value unless you include it, and you don’t want to leave it up to folks to try to guess.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to use this strategy to increase sales without having to use discounts.
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