Full Episode Transcript

The $99 Offer Makeover: How We Turned a Wellness Service Into Something People Want to Buy

What if the problem in your business isn't what you're selling, but how you're packaging it and selling it?

Many fitness and wellness entrepreneurs have great services, tremendous expertise and even loyal clients, but still struggle to get enough new prospects through the door.

And when something isn't selling, our instinct is often to add something new: a new service, a new modality, a new certification.

But what if you don't need anything new?

You just need more bodies through the door.

In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of a real wellness business and showing you how we took services they were already providing, repackaged them into a simple $99 offer, and created something designed to attract new prospects and open the door to longer-term client relationships.

Same expertise. Same services. Completely different offer and outcome.

You're listening to Wellness Means Business with Casey Conrad.

I'm Casey Conrad, and I've spent more than 35 years helping fitness and wellness businesses grow. If you've got expertise, a product, a program, a service, a wellness modality, or some combination of those, but need to build a better business around it, you're in the right place.

Wellness Means Business gives independent fitness and wellness entrepreneurs practical strategies to attract more clients, increase sales, grow revenue, and build stronger, more profitable businesses.

So let's get down to business.

In today's episode, we're gonna do a marketing offer makeover.

Yep, a real live case study.

And specifically, I'm gonna show you how to make a powerful, what I call, feeder offer.

That means taking something that you already do and turning it into an amazing marketing magnet that's gonna drive more prospects through your doors or to your website.

Now, this case study format is one of the things we're gonna utilize throughout the Wellness Means Business podcast series because it's one thing to talk theory, and it's a completely different thing to provide real-world examples.

I know for me, when we went through law school with the Socratic method, that's where you really learned how to think.

And I think the same thing is true with marketing. When you can actually see examples, it becomes a lot more powerful.

So let me set the stage for you.

We've got a business that offers high-end personal training services as well as a recovery area. Again, higher-end.

They're smaller, only about 2,000 square feet. It's not a solopreneur, but it's not a huge staff, so a pretty small group.

The owner has got an incredible resume. Amazing experience, expertise, the degrees. The equipment is top of the line. The reputation is great over 15 years.

And the target market is an older one. It's older adults who want to remain active and independent.

Now, she's trying to get a younger population, but right now that is her target market.

Like most small businesses, her biggest challenge is bodies through the door.

She's busy spinning a lot of plates, so she doesn't have time to go out and do a lot of marketing.

And, of course, budgets.

If you don't know how to run social media ads, it can get super, super expensive to have an agency do it with not necessarily any guarantee.

So where do we start?

Well, it's the blinding flash of the obvious.

The first thing you wanna do with any marketing activity is ask yourself:

"What is the outcome that I want?"

Very precisely, what's the outcome?

In this case, we wanna try to drive more prospects through the door.

Notice I didn't say we wanted to get more buyers of personal training packages or buyers of wellness and recovery packages.

We just simply want bodies through the door so we can educate them, expose them to it, and we know that a certain number of them—right, it is a numbers game, I don't care what anybody says—a certain number of them are going to fall down through the funnel.

We also didn't want anything too complicated.

What do I mean by that?

We didn't want to add something new. We wanted to use the existing products, the existing services and the existing personnel.

So, keeping this super simple.

As an entrepreneur, you don't need another thing on your plate.

Now, because this facility is not a high-volume membership model, we knew that we had to structure the offer in a very specific way.

First and foremost, we needed to lower the barrier to entry.

I know that's self-explanatory, but the bottom line is that the easier you make it for the customer, the more people are going to take advantage of it.

That's not always just price, but a lot of times it is.

Second, we wanted to make sure that our offer was compelling—that it gave them a reason to say, "Yeah, I really want that."

Next, we wanted the experience.

Here's what we know from this facility:

When somebody engages with the trainers there, when somebody comes in, has a session and heads over to the recovery room, they leave with a, "Wow, this was amazing. This was different."

So we knew we needed to get that full experience, and we wanted to make sure that laid the foundation for potentially a long-term relationship with that person.

We knew, of course, we're not gonna get 100% of people coming in converting, but that's what we wanted to do.

So let's walk through each one of those and go through what we actually determined.

To lower the barrier, we wanted a price point that was an absolute no-brainer, and we settled on 99 bucks.

That $99 was gonna include a lot of value.

First of all, they were gonna get the movement assessment.

Now, this is something the facility does with every new person, so it's not adding something new onto it. They didn't normally do this unless somebody became a client, but now we're doing that.

Second, it would include a report. Something physical, something tangible.

Third, they could choose a recovery method of their choice—a treatment, a therapy, whatever you wanna call it—at the end of their session.

They have things like HydroMassage and BEMER, the gravity beds and molecular hydrogen. Really a lot of cool things.

They could choose one of those.

Now, there's also an opportunity to do some stacks there with a little upsell, but that's another conversation for another day.

And they were going to leave with their report with three to four specific exercises that they could do at home without any additional equipment, determined and customized for them based on their movement assessment.

So, 99 bucks.

Low enough to be completely accessible.

We don't want to go any lower than that because we're a higher-end facility.

Of course, we wanted it to be high enough that it was going to act as a pre-qualifying filter.

You don't wanna just give something away for free.

First of all, free—there's zero value. There's zero commitment on the person.

So the $99 was enough that it was gonna get people who were more than tire kickers, but not so much that someone felt like, "Oh, that's a lot to risk."

Now, as far as the benefits, we've got to make sure that we've created a compelling reason for that person to visit.

But here's the catch.

A lot of times in marketing, businesses end up using what I call industry speak.

They use verbiage that they use internally, but it doesn't necessarily connect with the customer.

This is, in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes a lot of small businesses make in their advertising and marketing.

They're thinking of it through their lens, not the lens of the customer.

Now, this package of things clearly is going to create an experience for them.

Right from the assessment, onto the therapy modality, to the instruction and interaction that the trainer's going to have with them for their at-home exercises to make sure that it's clear.

And those at-home exercises not only help to build rapport while you're in front of the customer, but more importantly, they give the trainer a reason for a follow-up to develop that long-term relationship.

Now, that could be a call. That could be an email. It could be an automation, which I hope it is, right?

But the reality is that it's going to give you the platform so that when people aren't ready to pull the trigger after that initial visit, you have a good reason other than, "Hey, you ready to buy?"

"Hey, did you have any questions about those exercises? Could I give you some more instructional videos? How are you feeling?"

Okay, so now what's next?

We've got the what—meaning, what are we gonna offer?

Now we had to figure out that messaging I was talking about.

As I said, one of the biggest mistakes I see small businesses make is that they use their internal language.

Or they talk about the modality instead of the benefits.

They talk features versus benefits.

Features are logical. Benefits are emotional.

This is classic marketing and selling.

Nobody wakes up one morning and says, "You know, I think I wanna have a movement assessment," or, "I think I need a recovery technology."

No.

They wake up and say, "Man, what the heck's going on? I can't get my socks on anymore."

"Why am I so sore?"

"Why can't I do what I used to do?"

These are common things that we, as we age, experience.

And you have to remember that people aren't buying your process.

They buy hope.

They buy the possibility that they're going to get the solution—that outcome they want.

More energy. Better movement. Better sleep. Whatever it's going to be.

Okay, so now we've got the what. We're talking about the messaging. We understand the rules of the messaging.

So how did we come up with the language, and what did we use?

We've gotta now take all of this and make what I call a hook.

A hook that's kind of a—I don't wanna say it's a product in and of itself—but it's a noun. It's a thing.

The best way is to give you the example.

Remember what we had:

We had the personalized movement assessment, the report, the at-home exercise plan and the recovery.

So all of those things—we had to give it a name.

And that's where we came up with the $99 Movement Tune-Up.

Now it's not just a list of things. It's got a name.

Think about this.

You're a trainer. You're at a chamber event, and somebody says, "What do you do?"

You say, "I help people live better longer."

"Oh, really? How do you do that?"

"I do this and this."

"Oh man, my shoulder since I had that..."

"Hey, you know what? You might be a good candidate for the $99 Movement Tune-Up."

So it becomes that hook, that signature offer, if you would.

In this instance, it's a very low-barrier signature offer, but it's something that's not clinical.

It's familiar language.

A tune-up is very, very common. We go get our car tuned up, et cetera.

And it's also easy for the customer to visualize.

It's a $99 Movement Tune-Up.

Within the name, it actually conveys or implies that they're going to get some stuff.

If you go to get a tune-up, they're gonna first evaluate your car, then they're gonna make some adjustments, and then your car's gonna run better.

Same type of thing here.

And this is really, really important.

When I tell you that if you had a menu of two or three of these that had different tiers to them and they were structured, it would radically change your business.

Just remember: your customer is not gonna understand your jargon.

If you name something "the movement assessment"—and this is what this client wanted to do; they wanted to call it the movement assessment—I kept coming back and saying:

"Nobody wakes up and says, 'I want a movement assessment.'"

They don't even know what that means.

But the $99 Movement Tune-Up?

That's different.

Once we landed on the name of the thing, then we had to put it into a headline that was going to work with the actual advertisement and grab the reader's attention.

In marketing, your headline is 80% of your ad's effectiveness.

And this means: what is the very first thing they see?

In this example, when the designer first sent us the layout, they put the logo of the company up at the top.

Well, that's the headline. It's the first thing the customer sees.

And nobody knows—well, some people might—but in this instance, the person we're advertising to probably didn't know this person's business.

Don't waste your top valuable real estate with a logo.

Nobody cares who you are until they know what you can do for them.

So we moved the logo down, and we came up with the headline:

"Does Your Body Need a Tune-Up?"

Why did we do that?

We asked a question.

The average person sees that: "Does your body need a tune-up?"

"Mm, yeah, I need a tune-up."

It's impossible for the brain not to answer a question, so it's good in many instances to have a question as a headline.

Then our subheading was:

"Move Better. Feel Better."

So it's very clear:

Does your body need a tune-up?

Move better. Feel better.

Then our smaller copy said:

"Discover what's holding you back from moving and feeling your best."

Notice we didn't lead with credentials. PhD. Exercise physiologist.

We didn't talk about the equipment.

No industry jargon.

We didn't even talk about the recovery modalities, which in some instances you'd think, "Well, they're looking for that—red light therapy," or whatever the case may be.

No.

We used very normal language that everyone could understand.

That question grabbed their attention, stated the problem that's implied with it, and gave them the outcome and the promise.

Then we made the offer tangible.

We've got to let them know what is included because that's what the customer's gonna think:

"Oh, well, that sounds interesting, but what do I get?"

Okay.

Now we outline it.

You're gonna get the assessment. You're gonna get the report. You're gonna get the recovery. You're gonna get the at-home exercises.

Now it's something tangible.

In their mind, they can tick off and justify, "I'm gonna spend this because I'm gonna get this value."

And it's gonna be personalized to them based on their movement assessment.

This brings up a really important marketing distinction:

In some instances—not necessarily all—but in some instances, specificity will increase the value.

The clarity of the specifics the person is going to get increases the perceived value.

And then we had a CTA, our call to action:

"Ready to Move Better? Scan to Claim Your $99 Movement Tune-Up."

It was a QR code that went directly to our landing page.

But we also had a phone number because it is an older crowd.

So we said:

"Prefer to call? Here's the phone number."

Now, if you listened to Episode 6 with Lisa Diamond—if you haven't, go back and listen to it.

That was gold, man. That was gold.

You know how important this capture-mechanism process is.

The QR code makes it super easy. It goes into a funnel page on the back end of her website, and someone cannot get lost in the clicks.

There's nothing they're gonna go off on.

It's dedicated to just that.

Buy or leave, in essence.

Now, a couple of important things here.

The landing page mimics the ad visual.

We use the exact same photo on the landing page as was in the ad.

That's important because you want the person to get there and go:

"Yep, I'm in the right place."

Instantly.

Oh yeah, you probably didn't know that.

This was going to be a printed magazine that gets distributed in a local area, as well as an online version of that magazine.

But it doesn't really matter.

This concept works for anything.

If you were gonna do a postcard, a business card, a trifold—it really doesn't matter.

The basic principles are the same.

Now, a couple of other distinctions on the landing page.

I talked about the artwork.

The language should also mirror that as well.

You might wanna add a little bit more content because we have this tiny space where we're gonna grab their attention and get them to take action.

So on our landing page, we expanded what I call the pain points.

We asked questions like:

"Are you struggling to get up and down off the floor?"

"Have you noticed that one side of your body is more flexible than the other?"

These are little pain points that, when someone goes through the checklist, they go:

"Oh my gosh. Yeah, I've got four out of eight of those things."

So it stirs up that pain.

But again, let me be clear: you're not going anywhere else.

There are no other buttons.

Even though you're adding those additional questions, you're not buggering up the process.

Keep it super clean.

Now, one little asterisk there.

It would be okay in some instances to add an additional capture mechanism.

Somebody sees the ad, they scan it, they get to the landing page. Maybe they don't have their credit card in front of them right now, or maybe they're like, "Well, I don't know. Do I really wanna spend the $99?"

Sometimes it takes people more than one exposure to decide they wanna do this.

This is why I think it needs to be a signature offer for you—something that you offer all the time so that it becomes part of your process of prospecting.

I'll give you another example.

On my wellness center pages where we're selling sometimes some very expensive services, we include a capture mechanism to get the first two chapters of my book, Make Yourself Healthy Again.

It's a downloadable PDF, so it doesn't cost us anything, but it ensures that I'm gonna get a higher percentage of captures because it's an even lower-barrier offer.

So you could do something like that here.

It could be, "Avoid the 10 mistakes that leave you in a nursing home," or whatever the case may be.

I'm just thinking that off the top of my head. That's a totally ad-lib moment there.

Now, one important observation—and I know I said this earlier, but I wanna drive it home.

We did not go invent something new for this business owner.

We took something they already did every single time they had a new client.

So they're actually saving time in the long run because now, when that new client converts, they're already done with that piece.

This is very, very important.

We just took what they already do, bundled it with a couple of little extra things, and made an entry-level offer that's repeatable and trackable.

She might be able to find out that she can eventually sell this for $199.

We don't know.

But we wanted to start with the lowest possible barrier.

So, same expertise.

They're doing the same thing.

We've just packaged it differently into that $99 Movement Tune-Up to discover what's holding them back from moving and feeling their best.

Okay, we've covered a lot.

Whether you're a trainer, a dietitian, maybe you're a practitioner, a chiropractor, a fitness owner-operator—it doesn't really matter.

I can absolutely guarantee you that there are opportunities sitting in front of you right now that you can turn into these types of signature offers—these low-barrier signature offers.

So I encourage you to go look at your business from the consumer's point of view and apply these steps, these lessons that we've discussed today, to your own marketing.

Go back, look at the services you have, look at the products you have, and ask yourself the questions:

"Okay, what's the goal of the offer here? What am I trying to accomplish?"

"Am I trying to just get opt-ins at the beginning of the funnel, or am I trying to get more bodies through the door, as was this person?"

"What is the problem that the customer has that I'm going to solve, and am I describing it in a way that they will relate to and be attracted to?"

"Is the language clear?"

"Have you packaged it well?"

"Have you given it a name so that it's a stopper, like a scroll stopper?"

You're going through and you say:

"Ooh, $99 Movement Tune-Up. Oh, do you need a tune-up?"

It's got to jump out at them.

And make sure that your call to action is super simple and super obvious.

Set up your landing page. Have it be very clear. No other buttons.

If you do this, you're going to succeed.

Now, yes, you might have to tweak it. You might have to test it. Change it.

But at the end of the day, I know this is gonna sound—you probably wanna reach through the speaker and punch me—but marketing does not have to be difficult.

We make it difficult.

If you follow an established process that's repeatable and trackable, you will get more prospects through the door.

And if you like these kinds of business breakdowns, like this marketing makeover, that's exactly what Wellness Means Business is about.

I'm here to give you these gems, to give you these insights, these discoveries for how you can make your business better—giving you the strategies, the tools, the resources to help you.

And if you're not already subscribed to my Wellness Means Business Brief, go to CaseyConrad.com/wellnessmeansbusiness right now and subscribe, because I only give you 50% of my weekly content here in the audio podcast version.

You've gotta be on my newsletter to get the other goodies.

So to all my WMB listeners, go out and make a difference. Make a profit.

And remember—wellness means business.

Until next time, this is Casey Conrad.