Using Multiple Offers in Lead Nurturing

From LinkedIn:

“Regarding offers, I’ve always thought it best to keep to one per tactic, otherwise you’ll lower your offer’s responses because someone will inevitably click on the other offer. But from a ‘lead lifecycle/nurturing’ perspective, it doesn’t really matter whether they respond to your webinar offer or whitepaper offer, as long as they respond. Yes?”

My response:

The reason to restrict your message to one offer is not because people will respond to the alternative, but because they won’t respond at all. If you stick to one message, one offer, and one clear call to action – you’ll drive a higher response than if you offer a choice.

In direct marketing, anything that causes the reader to hesitate – even if it’s choosing between a webinar or a white paper – can be deadly. The principle is to drive immediate, instinctual response. If readers have to choose between offers, there’s a strong chance you’ll lose them.

Ironically, in the example you give – i.e. a lead nurturing program – this is less of a concern, because you have the luxury of serving up different offers in sequence. In a lead acquisition program, you’d need to make the choice between the white paper or the webinar (or test them head-to-head). In a lead nurturing program, you can offer up the white paper in Step 1, and then the Webinar in Step 2. Plus to the extent you spread out your offers in this fashion, you have more reasons to engage the prospect in multiple touches. (In other words, if you were to serve up both offers at once, you’d have nothing new to offer in Step 2.)