Is there such a thing as too many bonuses???

by Zero
18 replies
I have a micro-continuity style membership I'm gonna start marketing soon, which will give them a trial period for $1 ( or maybe a free s&h offer). I decided to give away several bonuses, but then my friend tells me giving away too many bonuses upfront is a bad idea. He reckons they'll probably take the bonuses and then just cancel after the 1st chance they get. Do you think he is right, or am i right in thinking by giving them enough relevant quality bonuses, will encourage them to sign up, after seeing the quality of what I am offering them

I'd like to hear everyone's views on this..your experiences etc

Thanks.
#bonuses
  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    Too many bonuses may have the effect of devaluing the actual product.

    But, "how many" is subjective and also needs to be considered in relation to the quantity of things that they get as a regular part of their subscription.

    For example, the subscription gets them something new every day, giving them 30 bonuses (as in 30 days' worth of stuff) is probably not going to be considered excessive. On the other hand, if their subscription gets them something new every other week, then 30 bonuses upfront may appear excessive.

    If you're worried about people taking the bonuses and canceling, another strategy is to spread them out. You can give them x bonuses when they initially sign up. Then, you could give them x bonuses on their one month anniversary as a thank you for sticking around. Etc. However, you may need to look into the legality of such a system to make sure you set it up or word it properly.
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  • Profile picture of the author digitalstar
    I can't find fault with what your friend told but your view point carries much better weight and i suggest you to go ahead with your own plan.

    If many people join your program you can build a good list of buyers even if most of them left after downloading bonuses.

    Wish you all the Best
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    • Profile picture of the author Lance K
      Let testing be your guide.
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      "You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
      ~ Zig Ziglar
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  • Profile picture of the author fitz10
    I think there's some danger of what you spoke of happening but I also get the feeling that too many bonuses can make the main product seem less valuable. If you give away too many things, people might start thinking "why is he giving away so much, is the main product really worth it? I personally always appreciate a few bonuses, but too many might be a problem.
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    • Profile picture of the author BeachCruzer
      Originally Posted by fitz10 View Post

      I think there's some danger of what you spoke of happening but I also get the feeling that too many bonuses can make the main product seem less valuable. If you give away too many things, people might start thinking "why is he giving away so much, is the main product really worth it? I personally always appreciate a few bonuses, but too many might be a problem.
      Agreed. You want to provide bonues which compliment your main product/service offering.

      Another approach is to provide "unadvertised bonuses" as an added thank you for participating.

      Best of luck--

      Michael Cruz
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  • Profile picture of the author money2k
    I would do some testing myself. I have found though that sometimes toomany bonuses does devalue your main product. It also does depend on your price point. If you have a $27 ebook. I wouldn't have too many bonuses.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rich Struck
    I tested this once. I've been selling a simple one page product for years. A while back I thought I'd add some value so I added 6 bonus items and kept the price the same. Sales stopped cold. I added six more items, nothing. I removed the bonus items and sales started back up just fine. I tried this two or three more times with the same results. The bonus items were related to the product but I think that the tone of my sales pitch went from "I want to help you" to "I want to sell to you and to do it I'm going to throw in all of this crap just like a TV pitch man" and that killed sales. Now I just keep it simple and that works just fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    • Profile picture of the author Vanquish
      In my opinion you want to have 2-3 bonuses anything over that is just over kill and devalues the product.

      A good rule of thumb is make sure the bonus is so good that it would stand up as a single product on its own. Including two quality bonuses like that will create raving fans who will buy from you repeatedly.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave_J
    This is very relevant as Bonus' seem to get bigger and better than the product your actually going to buy.
    I usually give 4 or 5 pretty decent bonuses away and that would appear to be too many in most peoples eyes.
    I have a campaign about to start and i'm going to cut that to 3 bonuses and see what happens.
    - I have always been aware of the bonus shoppers who only buy from sites giving the best bonuses - but i suppose thats all down to percieved value and if i'm actually undermining the product i'm promoting because of my bonuses that can't be good.
    Lets see what happens.
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    • Profile picture of the author All Night Cafe
      Make your bonuses relevant to your offer. Don't
      add a lot of PLR junk, just to look like your adding
      something.

      I've seen pages with 10 to 25 bonuses and I just
      leave. Any one can get PLR free all over the net.

      Question, what makes your bonuses worth having?

      Answer that and you are on your way.
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      • Profile picture of the author Zero
        Originally Posted by All Night Cafe View Post

        Make your bonuses relevant to your offer. Don't
        add a lot of PLR junk, just to look like your adding
        something.

        I've seen pages with 10 to 25 bonuses and I just
        leave. Any one can get PLR free all over the net.

        Question, what makes your bonuses worth having?

        Answer that and you are on your way.
        Definitely. I'd never in a million years offer something my customers that I wouldn't use myself. I want to build trust with them, offer them fantastic stuff so that they'll buy from me again. Also, that's a pretty important question you just gave me. Its basic common sense, but many do tend to forget the basic things.

        I trimmed down the bonuses to just 3. I'm gonna use the other stuff i had planned on using, in follow up emails over time, to help my members out. Although i'll split test to check which work the best.

        Thanks for all the responses so far guys & gals ( I added a thanks to all of you). They've been very helpful. Please keep contributing your thoughts to this topic if you haven't done so already.
        The more views the better in my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mili_D
    Too many bonuses are a headache it is normally best to stick to about 2 bonuses making sure that they are really. Remember it not the quantity it the quality of the bonuses.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Too many is, by definition, too many. How many is too many is subjective. For some things I offer no bonus, on others just one or two, never more. Here's why...

    Think about why we use headlines on web page. To create emphasis, right? What if all the text on a page was inside one headline tag? Nothing would be emphasized anymore, right?

    It's the same with too many bonuses. At some point they no longer add value (emphasis) to the main offer, but instead take away value from it. Once you take away too much value from the main product, you lose the sale.

    Too many bonuses also devalues the bonuses themselves. Many of your visitors will reason that if you offer so many bonuses, the main product and the bonuses are probably not very good, otherwise why would you need so many bonuses to make a sale?
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  • Profile picture of the author Adam Richards
    I don't think the issue with too many bonuses is necessarily that people will see all the free stuff as a grab bag. It's easy to think that people will just want to take your free stuff and run, but you're going to have customers like that no matter how many bonuses you offer.

    It's troubling, but it's also just a part of the business.

    The greater problem here is that having "too many bonuses" distracts from the actual value of the product or service you are selling.

    You are definitely right in thinking that giving away free content CAN encourage people to sign up for your service, but it can also inspire the question: WHY is this person giving away all this stuff for free? If you don't have a justifiable reason that people can believe, you should expect that your strategy won't work.

    With that said, I think it's a great idea to give away content for free, so long as it's actually valuable and could be sold on its own.

    I can't really say one way or another what you SHOULD do, but just keep in mind that the quality of your bonuses is defintely more important than the quanity.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    That's a very good first post, Adam. Keep it up, and welcome to the forum.
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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  • Profile picture of the author mawhitney
    Dan is absolutely right. Too many bonuses can devalue the product. I believe 1-3 bonuses is enough. If you show great value in the product, people when tune in regardless of the bonus. Having a bonus is not always necessary.

    To your success,
    Mike
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