Supercharge sales with a post-launch coffee offer

So you are ready to launch your new product or your launch has just ended. Are you sure you have done everything to maximise sales? Everything that makes it easier is surely welcome, and a coffee offer can make a great addition to your launch strategy.

Note. This is a continuation of my previous article “The coffee offer strategy: minimize price resistance and qualify the potential customer“. You can also read more in the next article "Coffee offers in lead generation: quality vs quantity".

Launches and limited-time availability

One of the best uses of coffee offers is possibly for limited-time products and services, after the launch has ended.

In the case of digital products, it is common to offer them only for a limited-time purchase window, rather than making them “evergreen”. The first time they are made available is called the launch. Multiple re-launches can be made available again at a later time during the year, eventually with improvements.

This is prevalent in the case of online courses and memberships, but applies in other contexts as well.

Of course, the method works best if you already have a community or list you can promote the launch to. However, it can be pulled off even if you just started out, building a new list with several pre-launch strategies.

After announcing and hyping up your newest (or returning) offer, you launch the product, enabling purchases or opening up enrollments for a limited time. When the time is up, you disable purchases until the next launch.

Of course, selling products is hard, really hard. People who purchase are only a fraction of all those who followed the launch. This is where the coffee offer comes in, with the goal of increasing the number of conversions.

Supercharge sales with a coffee offer

Do you have a post-launch strategy? Well, you should.

Giving your prospects one last chance to convert, after the purchase window has closed, can net you a very nice bump in sales. The coffee offer is a great addition to your arsenal against all those “late bloomers”.

After announcing that the launch is over, a last-chance limited-time coffee offer can be made available to those who showed interest but did not purchase.

For example, just for one day you can offer a “7-day trial for €1”, after which the full amount is charged if the purchase is not canceled.

This works great for two reasons.

First, there might be people who simply did not buy although they wanted to (they forgot, they had no time…). This strategy gives them another chance to convert.

Second, people who were not convinced (perhaps due to a high price tag or not enough nurturing) now have a much more appealing option than blindly paying the full price upfront. True to its purpose, the coffee offer gives them the chance to try the product or service for an irrelevant price.

What’s the catch?

Of course, everything also has its downsides. For instance, return and churn rates could somewhat increase if you don’t make the conditions of the offer very clear (i.e. that the full price will be charged later).

Moreover, more people who are not totally convinced could buy the product only to confirm that your product is not suitable for them. In some cases, some might even forget to check it out during the trial time and regret it later.

Sadly, there will be people that had no intention of paying the full price from the beginning; they only got on board because of the coffee offer and already planned to cancel the purchase after seeing your product.

Still, you can confidently say that, if the product is of good quality, the Pros are likely larger than the Cons, and you can net a consistent increase in conversions and revenues.

See it in action

Curious about what kind of results you can achieve with a post-launch coffee offer?

In the post “How a $1.99 trial generated 572 customers and $19,499 in MRR” (highly suggested read!) the guys at VideoFruit present two cases.

• A $1.99 coffee offer for a $37/month product was taken up by 819 additional people out of the 40.000 that did not buy during the launch. 572 definitely converted, netting $19.499 additional monthly revenues.
• A $1 coffee offer attracted 202 people, with 38 converting to the $500/year product, bringing in additional $19.000 yearly revenues.

So, what can you take away?
Does everyone convert into full-paying customers? Definitely not.
But sure as hell it can net you some sweet sweet sales, sales that you would just lose out otherwise.