A one-time offer early in your sales funnel is an excellent way to qualify prospects from the outset. It’s most commonly an offer that you make to prospects as soon as they’ve shown interest in you by opting in to your email list. It’s often a deeply discounted product or even another freebie. What makes it a ‘one-time’ offer is that it’s only available for them right at that moment. As soon as prospects click away, the offer expires. One-time offers are also called OTOs.

NOTE: OTOs are also used in other places in a funnel, such as after someone buys a product.

One-time offers work because they add urgency. The visitor has to buy it right now or it won’t be available again. It’s an exclusive deal. OTOs also play upon the idea of scarcity. Since the offer is exclusive, this raises its value in the prospect’s mind. They feel as if they are privy to something others are not. For prospects who are on the fence about taking advantage of the offer, the scarcity factor knocks them off that fence and right towards that “buy it now” button.

One way to implement OTOs is to present it to prospects immediately after they’ve shown interest. You can do this by redirecting them to your OTO on the next page they see after they sign up for your list or make a purchase.

By showing people your offer before they have even finished the opt-in process, your prospects are even more likely to grab the OTO because of what’s called compliance. They have already accepted one offer from you, so they are much more likely to comply with your second request. They are also still focused on the benefits you have to offer and haven’t been distracted by the freebie itself.

This strategy also works brilliantly for qualifying people who will be perpetual prospects vs immediate buyers. After you’ve given people a freebie, you can then offer them something at a low price. If they don’t take advantage of the second offer, you know that they’re probably only after the freebie or they will need more content from you to educate them on your offers. These prospects are less likely to make purchases in the near future, but may buy after a longer period of receiving valuable content.

The Exit Pop-up

Another strategy for OTOs is to use an exit pop-up. This is a pop-up window that appears when the visitor leaves the page. It says something like, ‘Are you sure you want to pass up on this special one-time offer?’ Although many visitors ignore these pop-ups and close them immediately, there are those who will take the time to read and act on them, especially if the copy is compelling and the offer is good.

OTOs for Your Email Subscribers

Another great strategy for using one-time offers is to send them to your email subscribers. Occasionally, make your subscribers offers that need to be acted upon quickly. You can then gradually increase the price of these offers in later emails. This naturally leads your qualified prospects to your back-end products.

When creating your one-time offers, keep in mind that they don’t always need to be profitable for you. OTOs are often used as just one element of a sales funnel. They may simply get people to subscribe to your list or help you build a trusting relationship with your customers. Think of this as a way to lead customers through your sales funnel and qualify them. The high-ticket items you offer at the back-end, further down the funnel, are what will earn you the profits.