How to Use Bonus Psychology to Win More Buyers

Marisa Shadrick :
Why are some offers effective while others fall flat? The secret often isn’t the product itself. It’s the bonuses. Today, we’re unpacking how bonuses actually work to drive sales. By the end of this episode, you’ll know exactly how bonuses work, why they improve sales, and how to design your own so your offers build trust while increasing sales. Stay tuned. Got the solo business blues wearing too many hats? Stay tuned for an episode that understands where you’re at. From burnout to breakthrough. We’ll rewrite your story with AI and strategy.

Marisa Shadrick :
Let’s amplify your authority. Welcome, everyone, to this week’s podcast episode. I’m Marisa Shadrick, your AI marketing expert, expert, and certified copywriter, and I’m so honored to be here today and share a few tips about bonuses with you. Thank you for joining and thank you for listening. I really appreciate and value your time. Well, you’ve probably seen it. A course or program that says enroll now and get these free bonuses worth $7,000, and suddenly you’re curious. You want to know what’s in that particular program or course or training.

Marisa Shadrick :
But our bonuses? Just shiny extras Or. Or is there something deeper going on? Even if you’re not a copywriter, this episode is going to help you understand the power of bonuses and how you can add them to your sales pages in a way that’s compelling and will draw your ideal audience to click and buy. So let’s start with tip number one. Bonuses are persuasion tools. They’re not just fluff or free gifts. We don’t just grab something from here and there and throw it in just to fill up space. A bonus isn’t an afterthought. It’s part of your sales system.

Marisa Shadrick :
It’s a strategic sales tool that will increase perceived value, reduce buyer hesitation. It will overcome objections. It can add urgency and adds clarity and confidence. Yes, bonuses can do this. And I’m going to break it down so you understand how this works. Think of bonuses as the seasoning in a recipe. The meal is the main course, but the seasoning makes it delicious and irresistible. Okay, tip number two, how bonuses influence buyer behavior.

Marisa Shadrick :
Now, we’re talking about psychology here. Now, I’m not a psychologist, but as a copywriter, I learned a few things about persuasion and buyer behavior. So let me just give you a brief little summary, some five points about this so that you can understand. And then we’re going to go deep on a few of these. The first is value stacking. You’re assigning dollar amounts, which makes people feel like they’re Getting a bargain. Every time you have a bonus, it has a perceived value that’s added to the original program or course, or even if it’s a membership or if some kind of training program, it’s adding value to it. So it seems like a bargain because you’re getting this without any additional cost to you.

Marisa Shadrick :
The other is scarcity and urgency. Some bonuses are time limited and these create the now or never decision. We’ll go into this a little bit. It also has risk reduction. Some bonuses neutralize fear. In other words, that bonus may be the answer that will help them make the decision. And click because you’re providing extra value. So, so that you will calm the fears and they’ll confidently buy.

Marisa Shadrick :
Exclusivity is another. Special bonuses can’t be found anywhere else. They can’t buy them somewhere else. It’s not on their website. So these exclusive bonuses could be framed when people buy now and don’t wait. In other words, they’re on some type of live call and if they take action right away, those action takers get this exclusive bonus. Or it could be framed around pay in full and those people that pay in full maybe get an exclusive bonus. So it just depends how you want to frame it.

Marisa Shadrick :
But the point I’m trying to make here, it’s exclusive. It’s an exclusive bonus. The last in the buyer behavior, the psychology is reciprocity. People feel like they’re being given a gift which nudges them to take the next step. So that reciprocity, and not only seeing the program that you’re offering, but these extra bonuses that just feel like these, these free gifts that are being given to you is going to really build that trust because they feel like they’re receiving something in addition to their original investment. Let’s move on to tip number three. A well designed bonus directly addresses buyer objections. Now, that has nothing to do with you personally.

Marisa Shadrick :
Every buyer has objections and sometimes they are so critical about themselves they just think that the objection is that they can’t do it. Others can, but maybe I can’t. So bonuses shouldn’t be random. They should be strategic to overcome any type of hesitation or in this case, an objection. So you can start by asking what’s holding someone back from buying? And you can list three or five objections or fears your ideal buyer has before purchasing. For example, an objection could be, what if I don’t have time to finish this? Time is always an objection. Or someone might be thinking, what if I can’t get the results of my own? They feel like maybe they need a little extra help. Or they might think, what if this won’t work in my niche? They think that their particular niche is, is different and they would need some kind of variation of this program.

Marisa Shadrick :
So they’re not sure if it’s going to work for what they’re trying to sell. Or they might think, I’ve tried before and failed, what makes this different. And so they’re trying to figure out, if I tried before and it didn’t work, how do I know this is going to work for me? Or they might just say I’m not tech savvy enough to do all this. But the biggest objection, I think more than even the investment, is time. People are wondering, how am I going to get this done in the limited time that I have? Week to week? I’m already busy. So you’re not just giving them more random things, you’re giving them what they need to feel confident. So when you’re address missing objections, you’re relieving that stress that they’re having that tension. This makes the bonus feel like part of the solution.

Marisa Shadrick :
Not something random and extra, but a bridge to the outcome that they’re looking for. You’re raising their belief that they can do this. So you’ll put words in the copy that will evoke this feeling. And you’ve probably seen it. Words like simple or plug and play or paint by numbers or step by step or provided for you so you don’t have to do it. All of these words help relieve the stress or the tension they have based around the objection they’re thinking about. So you really have to know your audience and consider what is the objection they’re having and address it head on, don’t hide from it, address it head on. This is going to help them say, oh, okay, well that’s not going to be a problem anymore because the bonus provides the answer.

Marisa Shadrick :
Okay, let’s go to tip number four. Scarcity increases action. Now, scarcity doesn’t have to be a pushy, gimmicky, salesy icky type of thing. Bonuses are most effective when they include a reason to act now. So if you don’t give them a reason to act now, they’ll think, well, let me think about it, I’ll come back to it, I’ll check it out later. But the problem with that is they never do. They’re so busy, they’ll move on to something else. So you want to provide a reason why they should do it now.

Marisa Shadrick :
And bonuses can provide that reason. So this taps into something that copywriters call loss aversion, okay? One of the strongest motivators in buying psychology. So think about it. People hate missing out more than they love gaining something. Your bonus becomes that thing they don’t want to lose. So it compels them to take action now because they want that bonus. So there’s two effective ways to build this into your offer. It could be time based scarcity.

Marisa Shadrick :
So you create bonuses that expire or disappear after a certain period of time. So the other type of scarcity offers certain bonuses only for specific groups. Now what do I mean by groups? For example, full payment buyers versus monthly payment buyers. And the full payment might get an extra bonus. Or you can say something. The first 10 people who enroll will receive this special bonus. So these bonuses become exclusive for those groups of people that have taken some sort of action. Okay, let’s look at tip number five, bonus pitfalls to avoid.

Marisa Shadrick :
So this is what you don’t want to do. You don’t want to throw unrelated extras just to pad the sales page, just to make it look like there’s a lot of value. But it’s unrelated. It has to be related to the core offer. Don’t inflate the value so much that it feels fake. Right? Don’t say this bonus is $10,000. If it really is a $300 bonus, that’s great, or maybe it’s a $500 bonus. But try to be as realistic as possible.

Marisa Shadrick :
Don’t give away something essential that should be in your main offer. Remember, your main offer is has a promise to it and a transformation. And if they can’t get that with the core offer itself and they need that bonus to be able to do it, you might consider including it in the main offer. Another thing you might want to consider is if you’re offering order bumps now, order bumps are like an upsell. So when a person is ready to buy and they click the button and they go to the cart to put in their credit card information, they’re going to see an additional low end offer that they can add to their cart. And this is a common practice. But I want you to be mindful if it’s still in alignment with your core offer. Because what could happen is you have this core offer, amazing bonuses, and then you have an order bump and then they say no thanks and they’re ready to check out and pay and they got their credit card in hand and then there’s another order bump and.

Marisa Shadrick :
And they’re thinking, well, I’m already getting so much, why would I need this they’re going to gloss over and it’s just going to be frustrating because they’re just trying to pay. It’s too much and too overwhelming. You want to make sure you differentiate its purpose. So the bonus moves hesitation, right? It builds confidence. It gets them to take that next step and take action. The order bump may enhance or accelerate the results. So you want to be very clear with your copy. So an example of this would be you’ve got a great offer, you got some great bonuses, and they get to the checkout page.

Marisa Shadrick :
And maybe the order bump or the upsell is do you want to go faster? And this particular order bump will help them jumpstart their process. So you have to figure out what that would be. But that’s an example that might work for an upsell. All right, let’s look at tip number seven. That’s how to create your own bonuses. So here are five steps to this. When you’re considering bonuses, and again, use AI. Use ChatGPT to help you with this.

Marisa Shadrick :
Number one, identify your customers biggest objections. That’s a great place to start. Objections or fears. Number two, design a bonus that directly solves or softens the objection. Right. What we’re trying to do is build trust and give them confidence. Number three, align a realistic but compelling value, sometimes even given a name. I like giving bonuses a name.

Marisa Shadrick :
It seems like it has a little bit more weight. So give it a name and a realistic value if they found it anywhere else on the Internet to buy. Number four, decide whether some bonuses are exclusive or for everyone. In other words, is this an early bird bonus? Is this a bonus for founding members? What is it? If you’re going to make this exclusive for a particular group, number five, present them as part of the whole package, not random freebies. In other words, this whole entire package from the core offer and the bonuses are going to help them get that outcome they’re looking for. It’s going to fulfill a promise and it’s going to help them execute. It’s going to relieve all the nerves they have about the investment. It’s going to address those objections and it’s going to create a great experience for them.

Marisa Shadrick :
So the bonuses can be that experience for them. Maybe it’s a private community and you create this experience for them and you get to know everyone that’s in that particular program. Depending on whether it’s a course or it’s group coaching, there’s so many ways that you can go with this. Most of the people I talk to are coaches, consultants, service providers. So depending on what it is, there’s all kinds of things you can do. And again, please use Chat GBT to be able to ideate, to get some ideas based on your audience and your business and the pain points and the outcomes you want to give. Chat GBT can help you. All right, now we’re going to wrap it up.

Marisa Shadrick :
I know that was a lot, but I think bonuses are often overlooked and underused. So I thought it was important to touch a little bit on bonuses and explain how important they are and how valuable they are. Bonuses aren’t just there to sweeten the deal. They’re there to make your offer feel safe, stronger, and more possible. They say to your buyer, I see what’s holding you back and I’ve got you. That’s not a bunch of fluff. That’s building relationships. When you design a bonus with intention, one that answers their doubts or gives them momentum, you’re not just helping them buy, you’re helping them believe again, believe that the result they want is within reach.

Marisa Shadrick :
Believe that this time can be different. So treat your bonuses not like a checkbox. Treat it like a bridge, a bridge between hesitation and action, between maybe later and I’m in. And when you do that, you’re not just making more sales, you’re creating more success stories. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, I would love it if you would leave a five star rating and review. I know I’ve asked before, but until I see some of those reviews, I’m going to keep asking. I would just really appreciate it. Go to whatever platform you listen to the podcast and leave a rating and review.

Marisa Shadrick :
That would mean so much to me and it would help me get the word out because people will see those reviews and then they’ll listen. So thank you so much and until next time, take care.