The power of a $49 offer

From time to time, I interact with those who are relatively new to the process of developing their online platforms, and in that season of beginnings, they express a common frustration.  The frustration they often express is the frustration of not earning an income yet from the content they’re creating.

When that frustration is expressed, I typically respond with the question, “What do you have for sale, and how much are you charging?”  At that point, I often discover one of two things.  Either they don’t have anything for sale OR they’ve priced their offers far beyond the level of online authority they’ve earned.

For example, several years ago I was in a meeting with several online entrepreneurs and we were discussing the prices we charged for courses and coaching packages.  Most of the prices that were being charged were very affordable and earned people a healthy income, but one person at the meeting was critical of these low prices.  He then went on to tell us about his $2,000 coaching package and made everything about it sound so wonderful.

Later in the meeting when he was pressed to share how much he earned from that package during the course of a typical month, he answered “Zero.”  He had a high-priced offer that no one purchased while those who offered more reasonable prices were earning consistent incomes.

I don’t know if you have any offers for coaching, courses, or some other product available on your website yet, but if you do, are any of them priced around the $49 mark?

The success of $49 offers can be attributed to several psychological and economic factors:

1. Price Perception: Pricing just below a round number (e.g., $50) makes the price appear significantly lower. Consumers often perceive $49 as much cheaper than $50, even though the difference is only $1.

2. Psychological Pricing: This is a common strategy in retail known as "charm pricing." Prices ending in .99 or .95 tend to be more appealing to consumers and are associated with discounts and bargains.

3. Value for Money: $49 is often seen as a sweet spot where the product is perceived as affordable while still offering substantial value. It’s not too cheap to seem low-quality, but not too expensive to deter potential buyers.

4. Budget Considerations: For many consumers, $50 can be a psychological budget threshold. Pricing an item at $49 can make it seem like it fits better within a budget.

5. Marketing Tactics: $49 offers are frequently used in marketing promotions to create a sense of urgency and attract buyers who are looking for a deal. This price point can be especially effective during sales events or special promotions.

6. Consumer Psychology: People are often more motivated by avoiding losses than achieving gains. A $49 price point can make the potential savings (compared to a higher price) feel more significant.

Overall, these factors combine to make $49 offers compelling to consumers, leading to higher sales.  But let me share two anecdotal examples from my own life that help illustrate these points further.

On my website, I have a “University” page where I sell various courses.  One of my most popular courses is a course called, “Earn $250 / Day from your Online Platform.”  It’s a course that I recorded some time ago to help others learn exactly what I’m doing to consistently earn that kind of revenue online.

I typically sell that course for $297, but I recently sent those who are on my email list a coupon code worth $250 that could be applied to that course during a brief, 48-hour window.  That reduced the price to $47 which resulted in a healthy amount of course sales over the course of a couple of days.  I was pleased with the result of that experiment, as were those who purchased the course.  I’ve been receiving nice feedback about it ever since.  (By the way, if you email me and reference this example, I’ll send you the discount code as well.  My email address is [email protected]).

Friends of mine, John Sanders and Les Hughes, the two men behind the Entrepastors online platform recently had a similar experience.  John and Les had the idea to create a course for pastors that featured some of the advice Dan Miller shared via his podcast throughout the years that was aimed to help pastors find clarity on how best to balance the needs of their ministries with the needs of their families.  They priced the course at $48, and it has been doing rather well.  In fact, I bought a copy without hesitation the day they released it.

What about you?  What kind of offer could you create that could be priced in the $49 range?  Is there a mini-course you could record and offer at that price?  Would you accept $49 for an initial coaching or consultation fee?  Do you have a product, guide, or ebook that could be packaged together, digitally delivered, and sold for $49?  If you do, I’d strongly encourage you to give it a try.

And because I like to practice what I preach, I thought it might be of interest to you to let you know what I have on the immediate horizon.  I am currently in the process of recording a course called “How to build a positive and profitable membership community.”  It will be released very soon, and I’m pricing it at $49.  But if you use the coupon code SAVE25 today, you can pre-purchase it for $24, then access it when the course goes live in just a few weeks.  Just visit the University page at PlatformLaunchers.com to access the course presale.

I hope this gave you some ideas on an offer you might be able to put together that could be sold for $49.  That price point is highly affordable but still offers you as the creator a solid benefit for the time and effort you’re dedicating toward making valuable products for your audience.

© John Stange, 2024