Low-cost offers in your service business

How to create messaging for your 'Lipstick Offers'.

The Lipstick Effect is an indicator in behavioural economics. It suggests that people tend to spend money on affordable luxuries during a downturn.

Ok, so what’s a Lipstick Offer?

Here’s my definition. A Lipstick Offer is a lower-cost, but high-value, offer with long-term marketing potential. It’s a way of building credibility and trust in your higher-priced services, so your buyers are poised to purchase when the time is right.

You’re correct to think that a low-cost offer needs high sales volume to make any kind of revenue impact. Unless you have a large audience, a Lipstick Offer is not the route to instant riches.

However, buyers of Lipstick Offers make a small but powerful commitment to your business. You also get the chance to demonstrate value at a small scale, and build credibility for bigger offers in the future.

Where do Lipstick Offers fit in your service business?

A low-cost Lipstick Offer in your service business can lead directly to your higher-paid or core offer. It can also work stealthily in the background as a paid lead magnet, helping you build your email list.

You could use your Lipstick Offer as a not-much-thought-needed upsell to add to your free lead magnet.

Or it could be the first paid offer you introduce in your email welcome sequence.

What kind of Lipstick Offer could you create?

Your Lipstick Offer doesn’t have to be a digital download (although they’re good too). Plenty of service businesses run low-cost workshops, mini-trainings or challenges, which all serve the same purpose.

In fact, turning a free event into a low-cost one is smart thinking. After all, people are more inclined to show up to an event if they’ve paid for it.

Right now, I use existing processes from my copywriting projects to create low-cost offers to sell in my Marketing Pro Shop.

For example, I created a workbook to use with clients when I’m writing their About Page. I also sell this workbook separately to anyone who wants to write it themselves.

How to name & talk about your Lipstick Offer

Aha, my sweet spot - language and messaging.

First, decide how you want to position your Lipstick Offer. This will guide the name and messaging you create for it.

Unless you want to go down the bargain basement route (you probably don’t), remember that your Lipstick Offer should sound indulgent, even it it’s small.

Think of the buyer decision as equivalent to treating yourself to a bar of fancy chocolate, high-end ice cream or new cushions. Something like this -

• A plush travel journal, but not a holiday.

• The Discovery Size luxury candle, not the full Diptyque.

• An elegant caddy of loose-leaf, not afternoon tea at Claridge’s.

Three ways to position your Lipstick Offer

These are the three main ways to weigh up positioning your offer -

1. Value-based positioning, in which case the naming and messaging should mention numbers. Frame the value in saved time, money or effort.

2. ‘Part of a bigger picture’ positioning. Use words congruent with a taster slice of the bigger action.

3. A repeatable service. Use concrete language to position your offer like a consumable, especially a ‘habit’ product like a takeaway coffee.

Of course, your offer will always be more relatable if we can picture it, so try to include concrete nouns in the messaging.

Now let’s consider each of these three main positioning frameworks.

Frame 1: Value - what can we save using your offer?

We’re talking value in terms of saved money, time or effort.

All are valid.

All require you to include numbers in either your name or messaging (or both).

Numbers persuade us. Numbers help us understand and assign value to ideas and abstractions.

For example, a workbook that helps us set up an email welcome sequence is helpful. A workbook that helps us set up a welcome sequence in less than two hours feels far more persuasive.

Money framing

For effective money framing, I like the name and messaging for Elizabeth Goddard’s short course Small But Mighty $9 Offers (affiliate link).

In fact, the currency you use to frame Lipstick Offers doesn’t have to be pounds or dollars. Effective messaging also uses language like this -

• [Do this thing] for less than the cost of a cappuccino a week

• Learn [this thing] using [this ebook] for less than the price of a glossy magazine

This is most effective when you compare your offer to something your buyers pay for regularly, without overthinking the purchase (like takeaway coffee or a magazine).

Time framing

This is a foolproof messaging technique with good reason.

If you can persuade me that your Lipstick Offer will help me reclaim lost time or do something quickly, I’m in.

Laurie Macpherson spoke to me about the business reasons behind her Lipstick Offer - Bio Magic: Craft your professional story in just 15 minutes (affiliate link).

“This is a low-cost way for folks to come into my world, get to know me and, when the timing is right, buy a bigger product.”

Laurie Macpherson

By mentioning time saving (in numbers) in the name of her offer, Laurie builds a clear picture of completing your bio against the clock.

You can vary this type of messaging depending on your offer -

• 45 minutes total

• in just one day per month

• in less than an hour

Effort framing

In this case, your name and messaging should specify the reduced number of steps required to reach the desired outcome.

Keep the number of steps small - for example, aim for 3 rather than 10.

Messaging should suggest that your offer removes the stress of completing a task.

You might want to use language like -

• Shortcut

• Swipe

• Superlatives like these - the quickest/easiest way to …

• Do this without … [this]

• Do [this] while you’re [doing something else …] - I love this one for audio offers, eg learn how to [do this] while walking your dog.

To sum up, these three positions - time, effort or money saving - need LESS THAN language. We’re talking mainly about speed and ease, resulting in less time, less effort or less money spent.

Frame 2: The Bigger Picture - what quick win will kick off greater progress?

If you take this position, use congruent words to suggest your offer is part of a bigger picture. I’ll list the word choice to help with that positioning shortly.

But first, why paint a bigger picture?

Exhibit A, Consistency Bias. Once we take a position on an issue, or even choose to buy something, we tend to prefer to be consistent. We’ve already expended mental energy making our decision. Now we can save that same mental energy by behaving consistently and sticking with our choice.

(If you’re interested in the nuances of Commitment and Consistency Bias, I recommended this post. See also the ‘Foot-in-the-door’ technique, its shadier cousin, beloved of salespeople.)

Once buyers have made a small commitment to your business, they tend to be more likely to follow through with a bigger commitment later.

A Lipstick Offer might be a small, but complete, part of a bigger strategy. If your buyer tries it, and discovers a quick win, they’re more likely to buy your bigger offer.

You can’t have missed the chat around productivity and bitesize action. Remember that elephant you should eat one bite at a time? This type of positioning fits carefully in that same, well-established framework.

A Lipstick Offer should also be low-risk for your buyer.

If you’d like to position your Lipstick Offer as a small, but effective, cog in a bigger machine, use language that suggests the relationship of parts to whole.

Ideas for ‘bigger picture’ words

Look at these examples of congruent words for this messaging.

They all imply a quick win that fits within a bigger picture -

• Taster

• Sample

• Snapsnot

• Starter

• Snifter

• Tester

• Bitesize

• Nugget

• Diet/Lite

• Hook

• Travel pack

• Capsule

• Miniature

• Amuse-bouche

• Shot

• Snack

• Bricks/blocks

• Review

• Audit

• Tracker

• Once-over

• Debrief

• Invitation

• Refresh

• First step

Can you see the contrast in word choice here, compared to the first position we looked at above (value and saving)?

In this case, use language to frame the idea of MORE not LESS. For example, invitation links to party, bricks link to building, tester links to full-size product.

Frame 3: Is your service a consumable delight?

As I said earlier, your Lipstick Offer will be more relatable if we can picture it. So in this case, try to include some concrete nouns in the messaging.

Your messaging language for this positioning framework should be solid and substantial. If you’re stuck for ideas, just think of things you can see and touch.

We see the world through metaphors and instinctive comparisons. Understanding comes more easily if we grasp the likeness to something that’s already familiar to us.

The name Lipstick Offer is an example of this type of framing.

You should also consider using nouns for consumables that appeal to your target buyers. Consumables are products that are used and replaced relatively quickly. They’re often ‘habit’ products (back to that coffee analogy again).

Consider what ‘affordable luxury’ consumable your ideal buyer might habitually buy - from craft beer to single-origin coffee beans. By incorporating metaphors and analogies about these pleasurable consumables into messaging for your offer, you’re making it easier for your buyers to choose.

Here are some other examples of word choice for your naming and messaging. Try to build a list of concrete nouns that relate to your service specifically.

• Teacup

• Seedling

• Punnet

• Makeover

• Postcard

• Toolkit

• Planner

• Journal

• Template

• Home-spa

• Pocket

Summary: messaging for your low-cost offers

1. Choose how to frame your messaging - value, bigger picture or consumable delight.

2. Brainstorm words that are congruent with your positioning.

3. Use this language in your names and messaging.

To read more about naming and messaging, jump back to this post below on brand names.