It’s well established that by offering guarantees, businesses boost their sales. It makes perfect sense. Guarantees help customers remove their perception of risk in buying from you.

We know from test results we conducted recently that companies using satisfaction guarantees increase online conversion. Why shouldn’t they? Guarantees make it easier for a buyer to commit and follow through on a purchase. Extended guarantees have also been proven to dramatically reduce product return rates – by as much as 38% in our research. Now that’s guaranteed ROI.

The Guarantee Myth – “Help I’m worried that everyone will claim under my new guarantee!!”

Many small businesses don’t use strong guarantees in their marketing because they think that too many of their customers will take advantage of it.

Studies repeatedly prove this belief to be wrong. I’ve heard it said that typically fewer than 2% of customers will ever take advantage of a guarantee and in my experience that has certainly been the case.

Now, if you’ve got a rubbish product or you give rubbish service then that might not be the case. So make sure you’ve ‘got the beef’.

Sure, you’ll probably see an increase in refunds and returns but it will be tiny compared to the increase in sales.

I love using guarantees in my marketing.

My preference is for using multiple, strong, creative guarantees; I love using these guarantees not because they’re fun to think up and write (although they are) but because they work…every time I’ve used a strong guarantee, profit from increased sales has far exceeded the cost of honouring the guarantee.

You see, people have so so much choice these days. You have to always work to give them reasons to buy from you. You need to create the perception and the reality that your product is superior. And that’s exactly what guarantees do. They say “Our product is so much better and you’ll be so ecstatic with it that we’ll take it off your hands if you’re not”. They tell the buyer that there’s absolutely no reason not to make the purchase.

So if you’re not offering a guarantee – why not? If you believe in what you’re selling, standing behind your product should be easy. If you don’t believe in what you’re selling, you have much bigger problems than a fear of offering a guarantee!

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