A “take away” is something of value that a bride or groom can download from your website.
The more valuable it is to the bride and groom visiting your website the better it will work.
Poorly created take aways, with little value to the recipient, are never a good idea.
In my opinion, take aways are high-value marketing assets. Here are 7 reasons they work:
They Create Competitive Advantage
A bride and groom is likely to visit multiple vendors in your category when looking for wedding services. Offering a take away can distinguish you from others and create a powerful competitive advantage.
A take away with your branding and company information supports brand recognition.
They Promote Your Expertise
Properly created, a take away promotes your expertise! If you were a Wedding Officiant your take away might be: “10 Things You Should Know About Your Wedding Ceremony (that you’ll never read in a wedding magazine!).”
The Psychology of “a Gift”
The law of reciprocity (Robert Cialdini) states that when someone does something nice for you, your hard-wired human nature wants you do something nice for them in return. In this case, your take away, or “gift,” is helping a couple plan their special day – a VERY special day that is full of emotion, doubt, anxiety, and stress. Your take away can make you a HERO and move you closer to a sale faster and more easily.
They Create Leverage to Close Sales
You can use a limited time special offer in your take away. “Book us this month and _________.”
Create It Once, Use It Forever
A good take away can be used for years! You don’t have to create multiple take aways, if you don’t want to. That said, you might mix it up and create multiple take aways. A Wedding Planner in New England might create a take away titled “Planning a New Year’s Wedding,” and another one titled “Planning a Fall Wedding in New England.”
You’ll Get More Inquiries
Take aways don’t have to be, but can be, used as hard lead generators. You can make someone fill out a form to get your take away, thus creating a hard lead. You don’t have to do it this way, but without this type of “request” you might not realize the full value of creating and using a take away.
You’ll Book More Weddings
Giving something of high-value to a bride or groom, promoting your expertise, and creating more brand and company recognition ALL lead to closing more sales. Also, calling someone ON THE PHONE to confirm they received your take away is a great way to (a) get someone on the phone, (b) get a conversation going.
Do they work?
Yes, they sure do!
Joe DeWolf, Owner of Valley DJ Service in Bellingham, Massachusetts created one after he asked me how he could turn more of his website visitors and inquiries into sales. Here’s what he said about a week after first using his take away.
“Chris, the “takeaway” works! I had a woman inquire about doing her parents 50th anniversary party and looking for 50s and 60s music. Along with a quote, I sent her a PDF attachment of the top 100 from both decades saying something like “these may be helpful in planning your party.” Well she booked me today after shopping around and she mentioned the attachment I sent her saying it looks like you know your stuff. Thank you.”
(1) Make it a link at your website that someone clicks and it starts the PDF download (open the link in a new browser window!).
(2) Make couples request it by filling in a form at your website – and it’s available on the post form “landing page” as a PDF (link).
(3) Make couples request it by filling in a form at your website – and then send them an email that has a link to your PDF.
*** This method insures you have a valid email address.
*** You can use an auto-responder to completely automate this: from request to delivery, to even a second automated “confirmation” follow-up.
(4) You can send it to couples as an email attachment after their inquiry, or after you get the email address of someone interested in your services from, for example, someone you talked to at a bridal show. Attachments sometimes get trapped by spam/junk email filters, so it may be better to send someone an email with a link in it.
