It’s that time of year again.
That time when shoppers splurge on one-off goodies as tax write-offs. That time when you, as a business owner, need to clear stock.
And most importantly, that time when you have some serious opportunities to bring in revenue and win new customers (read: not just one-off customers, long-term customers).
Last year, online shoppers parted with over $2 billion in the final 14 days of June. Just let that sink in. And as we approach one of the hottest annual sales periods, 81% of Aussies plan on taking advantage of EOFY sales once more.
Collectively, that spells potential.
But with competition more intense than ever, the reality is that your EOFY offer needs to be the best.
So, how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you position your offer in the best way possible to benefit both your customers and your bottom line? Let’s find out.
The 4 parts to a KILLER EOFY offer:
No matter if you’re selling skincare or socks, coffee cups or cat portraits, there are a handful of universal principles that you need to implement to ensure your EOFY ads have the best chance of converting. Before running any ad, scour this checklist. Does your ad have:
- A strong & clear offer
What’s “strong”, exactly? With everyone else pushing sales simultaneously, your offer has to be above 20%. Anything less and you’ll be crushed by the competition. While 15% might work in April, come late June, 15% isn’t even a blip on the radar.
We hear you: “But what if it cuts into margins?”
Well, here’s the thing. You’re playing the long game. Your upselling and cross-selling checkout systems will do their bit in boosting your AOV (Average Order Value), while your community engagement, email flows, and killer post-purchase experience – you have one, right? – will lay the foundation for a higher CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value).
So, “strong” is 20%+. What about “clear”?
Clear means simple and clear means obvious. Don’t overcomplicate the offer. Which would you be more compelled to pursue?
👉 25% OFF STOREWIDE
👉 20% OFF MEDIUM SHIRTS, 34% OFF RED PANTS (when you buy a blue hat), and 50 Frequent Flyer Points for every purchase!
As the age-old saying goes, always KISS — keep it simple, stupid.
Then comes the ‘obvious’ part. Don’t waste your visual real estate with unnecessary text. Highlight the offer, big and in bold, and tell your audience exactly why they should buy.
- Urgency in ads
Having a killer offer is only one slice of the pie.
Remember, your customer-to-be will have discounts, coupons, and buy-one-get-one-frees thrown at them from a million directions. So how do you differentiate yourselves from the other great offers? Because, no matter how good your offer is, there will always be other enticing offers.
The answer: urgency. Play on human psychology.
What started as a social media buzzword is now a very real tactic in nailing effective marketing: the fear of missing out. Or as the cool kids say, FOMO.
It’s not enough to make your customer want to buy your product. Amidst the EOFY chaos, you need to make them want to buy NOW (or, at the very least, before a certain deadline).
How can you encourage immediate action? Easy: make the time scarce. “2 days only!”, “discount code valid for 24 hours!”.
Or, another angle, make the quantity scarce: “150 left in stock! Don’t miss out. Shop and save now.”
Whether you lean into limited time or limited stock, humankind’s inherent loss aversion – not wanting to miss out – plays in your favour.
Have you ever noticed how Amazon – the world’s largest eCommerce retailer – always has “only 14 (or whatever arbitrarily low number) items left in stock”? Do you really think their warehouses are empty? Nope, in most cases, it’s just subtle FOMO tactics on show.
- Educate your audience
But it’s all about making a sale, why does it matter if the audience knows the ins and outs of the product and the brand?
Well, first off, think about who you’re targeting (we’ll touch on this in a second in #4).
For the most part, EOFY sales ads are shown to cold audiences (this is part of the holistic marketing strategy to bring them into your ecosystem and then turn them into long-term community members.
That means that viewers likely have little to no knowledge of your brand. Or even if they do, they haven’t considered buying yet (in which case, they’d be classified as a warm audience after engaging with your website).
Focus on educating on the benefits of your product, not the features. What exactly is on offer? What are your customer’s pain points which you’re helping to solve? How does your product help them live a higher quality life? As long as your education is relatable, authentic, and engaging, you’ll spark intrigue. Then the offer and urgency will seal the deal.
- Relevant targeting
How do you think about your ad targeting? Is it an afterthought once you’ve figured out your offer and education? It shouldn’t be. And here’s why.
Your audience dictates what you’ll need to include in your ad. A cold audience needs more education. A warm audience needs less education, and more trust and persuasion.
It’s important to divide up your budget into BOTH cold and warm groups.
The cold audience is obvious — people who ordinarily wouldn’t purchase from you are more motivated to do so because of the compelling offer.
Warm audiences, on the other hand, can fall into two categories. First, they’ve had the motivation to purchase (or at least shown interest) but for whatever reason are yet to pull the trigger. A targeted ad with a killer offer (i.e. 50% OFF) can get them over the line.
The second warm audience is past purchasers. They’ve already bought from you. They’ve already been educated. Now, with another angle (maybe a gift, for example), you can swivel the narrative and encourage them to purchase again. After all, your strong offer and free shipping (right?) make it easy!
But my brand doesn’t really do sales 🤔
You’re probably expecting us to say something like “if you don’t run a sale, you’ll lose.” And while that is true to a degree, there are certainly a few alternative options to grab attention and get that “add-to-cart” button mashed.
A sale and an offer are two different things. Let’s just establish that.
So if you don’t want to run a sale, what offer should you run? That depends on your business circumstances; which metric needs improving or what product needs moving.
Situation: you’re concerned with your AOV
If you sell a relatively cheap product (under $50) and are worried about your average order value, EOFY is the perfect opportunity to bring that AOV up and increase overall margins.
How to do it: Create a bundle of your best sellers. This will lift your AOV. Besides your best-sellers, also add your highest-margin products. This will lift your overall margin and boost revenue. Win-win.
Situation: you don’t want to discount your best-sellers – they already fly off the shelves!
While we typically don’t advise this, there are still options if you want to keep your best-sellers at their regular price during EOFY.
How to do it: Instead of discounting a best-selling product, discount a best-selling range(s). Which range? The one which has a) your best profit margins and b) some products you need to offload. As long as the range has SOME popular items, you’ll draw attention, and the sales will be wider spread across high-profit and need-to-move products.
In practice, if you create an exclusive EOFY sales drop that’s up to 30% off the range, you can heavily discount the items you need to move by 30%, and discount the other items by 20%.
Situation: you don’t want to run a sale AT ALL
Who says you have to slash profits in order to earn a sale?
If you’re willing to get creative, while remaining clear and uncomplicated, there are other ways to entice your audience.
How to do it: Gift cards!
Spend $100 and get $50 back in the form of an e-gift card! This encourages repeat purchasers (hello, increased CLTV!) AND makes your customers feel appreciated. You’re not diminishing your brand image or eating into current margins.
There are three situations that can happen here. Either they gift the card to a friend, which adds one new customer to your database; they spend it themselves in the future, increasing the customer lifetime value; or they do nothing and let it lapse, but you’ve still made the original sale at 100% original selling price.
A Megaphone client in the print space did exactly this. The result? A whopping 28x return on investment (ROI). Read more about their journey here.
Situation: Sales aren’t really “on brand”?
On face value, this situation is limiting. If you can’t run a sale, you can’t compete. But, once again, get a little creative and you’ll see that you can actually turn this roadblock into an opportunity.
How to do it: give a gift with every purchase!
Do you have any lower-priced items? Trinkets and accessories which you’d typically use upsell at checkout? If so, give them away as an incentive to buy!
Spend $50 and receive a free stainless steel thermos // Buy any 2 business shirts and get 2 free ties!
What’s the benefit here? You’re showcasing more products, and if you only have a small product range, you don’t have to cut into margins significantly.
And if the gift is limited-edition, previous one-time purchasers will be encouraged to purchase again out of – yep, you guessed it – FOMO. The gift is so appealing that they’re willing to buy the main product again (perhaps as a spare or as a gift) just to get it.
Hot tip: if your range is too small or you don’t have the right product to fit the bill, consider collaborating with other brands and cross-selling.
A Megaphone client in the female hygiene space did exactly this. The result? $68,000 in sales made in ONE day, a 13% website conversion rate, and a scintillating 25x ROAS.
How can YOU make more sales this EOFY?
- May through early June: Scale up your ad spend, running more creative tests to see what resonates.
- May through early June: Launch a competition to build your audience and encourage first-time buyers.
- Early June: Prepare and send an EDM with VIP early access to the sale.
- Mid-June: Launch the sale publically!
- July: Adjust your EOFY ads to be relevant to post-EOFY.
Using tailored EOFY strategies, Megaphone has successfully scaled hundreds of businesses and turned short-term sales peaks into long-term business growth.
Want to crush your sales targets this EOFY? Want to increase your customer list, facilitate long-term growth, boost AOV and grow your business? Let’s chat.
Claim your FREE strategy session now, worth $1200!