What’s a “signature offer”? And why should you go all-in on yours?
Some people have a signature scent—mine’s (untitled) by Maison Margiela.
Some people have a signature look (Think crisp white shirt with dark blue jeans & a matte red lip)
And some people love to impress by cooking their signature dish: Lately R’s been serving up seafood pasta with fresh parsley & lemon— I can’t wait to add a glass of crisp white wine.
In all of these cases, the impact of having your own “signature” thing is the same as in online biz:
You pick something that feels most like you.
You stick with it long enough for people to build an association between you and it.
You simplify your life by reducing the cognitive labour required to make decisions about what you’re going to cook/wear/smell like on any given day.
Now, you might turn your nose up at the idea of wearing the same thing day-in, day-out, (you’re not Steve Jobs, after all)…
But in the world of online business, creating a “signature offer“ has some definite advantages.
That’s why in this post I’m going to dive deep into what a signature offer is, what makes them such a great choice for online entrepreneurs and how *you* can start creating your signature offer today…
“So what is a signature offer, exactly?”
The short answer?
A signature offer is a way of simplifying your online business to scale your impact & your income.
Your signature offer might look like:
A signature group coaching program
A signature course, or
A signature done-for-you service, that you can systematize well enough to outsource to subcontractors and/or to the point that it’s a total delight to deliver
The #1 reason I love the “signature offer” model—especially as someone who’s been selling done-for-you services for years?
Having a “signature offer” allows you to unlink your income from the number of projects, services or deliverables you can sell.
If you’ve ever seen people talking about their CRAZY HIGH NUMBER-income month and thought to yourself, “Ermagawd, there are not enough hours in the day for me to serve enough clients to make that much!”
…that person was probably selling something akin to a signature offer…
And it might be time for you to make the switch.
Because a signature offer allows you to enroll multiple people into a single program, without creating more work for you in the process, you are effectively removing all limits from how much you can earn in a month!
As a conversion copywriter & funnel strategist, I charge(d) $5k USD for a VIP Week.
IF I managed to sell 4 VIP Weeks in one month, that’s an “easy” $20k month, right?
Sure, if I was a workhorse who didn’t need time to rest, recover, and create consistent content for my business like all online business owners.
For me, the desire to transition to the “signature offer” business model has come as I anticipate the birth of my 2nd child (T-5 weeks and counting as I write).
I know that, this time around, it won’t be as easy to keep writing done-for-you copy during naps… So I’m making my business simpler & more scalable by finally doing for myself what I’ve helped numerous clients do over the years:
Creating a signature offer I can sell on repeat without adding more work to my plate!
So what does it actually mean to create your signature program?
And why would you want to bother?
That’s exactly what I’ll get to in the rest of this post, so no more preamble:
Let’s dive in!
Creating your signature program means tapping into the most “you” version of your work.
The difference between any old offer and a signature offer is that the latter feels like there’s something of you in it.
It’s the essence of what you bring to your client relationships, the deepest transformation you provide, the strongest expression of what makes your work unique.
Why is this important?
Well, first of all, because it feels really really good to finally claim your genius.
Often, when we’re starting out as entrepreneurs or when we’ve been doing the same thing for years and feel like we need a change, we find ourselves following trends, jumping on bandwagons or chasing shiny objects.
The problem?
Like a fast-fashion impulse buy, the offers you create as a result of this kind of thinking are unlikely to give you joy long-term—or to get you a good return on investment for your time.
In contrast, when you start getting paid well to serve your clients at your highest level, it’s like finding a piece you’ve always wanted and you know you’ll wear until you die (maybe you’ll even be buried in it ⚰️)
Not only do you get to enjoy the immense pleasure of marketing & selling work that feels deeply true to you…
You also get to reap the business benefits of:
→ Snowballing sales assets:
Since you’re selling the same offer more consistently, the content you create for said offer suddenly has a MUCH longer shelf life.
Instead of needing to start from scratch, you can capitalize on the copy & content you already have, plus the SEO impact of not everything being new.
This is one reason why I’m doubling down on blog content for the foreseeable future:
Because I finally know what I want to offer (for more than the next few months), it feels like there’s a real ROI to investing more time in evergreen content.
→ Building brand recognition:
Because you’re talking about the same offer, often, instead of always launching something new, you’ll find you’re speaking to warmer leads more often because they’ve had more time to learn about you & your work.
Story break:
I “attended” Amy Porterfield’s launch for Digital Course Academy back in 2018. But I knew the timing wasn’t right, and I never intended to buy.
The next year, though?
It was my time.
I signed up for – but skipped – the webinar and hit “Sign up now” as soon as she opened the cart.
You never know how many people feel the same way about the work you do:
How many people almost bought the last time you talked about that thing, but decided they’d wait till next month/year/time you open the cart?
When you’re constantly releasing new offer – or your audience is confused about the *main* way to work with you – you constantly risk losing their interest/attention.
In contrast, when you have one signature offer, the majority of your marketing will be pointing people towards that one thing (or related intro offers), meaning you’re always building brand awareness & getting new people ready to buy.
The 3rd business benefit of an offer that’s truly “you”?
→ People start to recognize you as “the person who talks about X”. (This is how icons are created)
When you stick with one signature offer for long enough, people start to associate your name with that thing.
Maybe you’ve heard the expression, “Your brand is how people talk about you when you’re not in the room”.
Well, if you’re talking about your signature offer often enough, you’ll get people talking about you, and your offer, while you’re offline in Mozambique.
When conference organizers think, ‘We need someone to speak on [your topic]”, they’ll think of you…
When a podcast host tells their peer, “I need a guest who can talk about [what you do]”, that person will tell them about you…
And when your exact ideal clients are messaging in their Biz Bestie group chat and the topic of what you do comes up, someone, undoubtedly, will say, “I follow [you] for that—they’re great” and point them to a piece of your content.
If all this talk about what a signature offer can do for is starting to pique your interest, but it feels like a lot of work, let’s talk about another super attractive aspect of selling one signature offer:
When you create a signature offer, you’re *not* starting from scratch.
I know there are coaches out there who’ll disagree, but I do *not* recommend you start with a signature offer before you’ve worked with clients 1:1.
There are too many lessons to be learned through 1:1 sales conversations, 1:1 client calls, and taking clients through a process that’s customized to their specific needs…
In contrast, when your signature offer is born out of what was previously a 1:1 coaching package, consulting offer or done-for-you service, you have the advantages of:
A streamlined process you know how to scale
Existing authority in your niche and
Relevant social proof (which will make your signature program sooooo much easier to sell!)
Yes, developing your signature offer will require work in the form of:
→ New tech automations
→ Creating the content/curriculum/assets required to deliver your offer 1:many instead of 1:1, and, of course,
→ Crafting the marketing and sales strategies that will help you stand out & call in your ideal clients
But precisely BECAUSE you’re not starting from scratch, doing all of that work is easy: You already know what you need.
On top of the fact that you’re capitalizing on your existing knowledge of your work & how to do it…
When you go all in on a signature offer based on your existing 1:1 work, your audience already knows you & your special kind of magic.
As a conversion copywriter & sales funnel strategist transitioning from done-for-you copy & strategy to a signature offer that’s based around strategic messaging & positioning support for online business owners selling their signature thing…
I’m not starting from 0 when it comes to recognition in my niche.
My done-for-you work experience means…
… people already know me as an expert in this field
…I have related content I can repurpose to point towards my new program, and
…my existing testimonials speak to extremely similar work
Testimonials like this one:
"Katie helped me organize a complex launch plan QUICKLY and efficiently. She supplied me with strategic advice and templates, plus copy coaching that made all my messaging really strong. Katie also wrote my sales page, which turned out amazing!
Katie is a top level, excellent copywriter with knowledge of the psychological strategies that help you build trust and sell. I loved that she has strategic copy knowledge of the psychology behind each message and her organization was great.
Working with Katie, I was able to meet my goal of 50 enrollments for a pilot launch of my signature program. That’s a $35k+ launch... and this is just the beginning."
– Erin Mathis, Style Coach at www.thestylecore.com
In the same way that consistently selling your signature offer means you get build off of the brand equity of getting properly *known* for your signature thing…
Creating your signature offer from your existing programs and packages gives you a HUGE boost, while allowing you to make an even BIGGER impact.
Not to mention:
Because your signature offer allows you to take multiple people through the same framework, your results keep getting better & better.
If you’re the kind of person who loves to optimize, a signature offer gives you the opportunity to optimize:
Your marketing strategy
Your messaging
Your sales strategy
Your onboarding process
Your user experience
Your signature framework
Your tech & automations
Your delivery process
Your retention & referral rates
AND MORE
…and as a result of those optimizations, you get to see levels of client satisfaction soar!
The final benefit of a signature offer that I’m going to talk about today?
You have one high-impact place to focus all your efforts.
Denise Duffield-Thomas taught me the motto “All roads lead to Bootcamp” ← Now, DDT is talking about her Money Bootcamp program, but the message remains the same.
When you have a signature offer, it means you have one strategic place to send people when they’re ready to work with you.
(Remember how I said this is about committing to helping people achieve the deepest possible transformation?)
This doesn’t necessarily mean your signature offer is the only way you ever work with people, but it does mean getting people to sign up for your signature offer is the #1 goal of all your other offers.
If you’ve ever wondered:
“How do I choose a CTA?” or “Is this offer attracting the right kind of leads?”
Streamlining your business to feature one signature offer gives strategic purpose to everything else you do.
Your freebies? Attract people who want your signature offer.
Your free content? Ditto.
If you have any intro offers? You’re preparing people to want to work with you in your signature space.
Suffice to say, I’m sold on the superiority of the “signature offer” business model, and I hope, after reading this post that you can see its distinct advantages as well.
Not only does creating a signature offer allow you to bring more of YOU into your work…
By transitioning to a signature offer, you can unshackle yourself from selling time for money and uncap your potential income.
In the same way we know & love T. Swift’s signature songwriting or Beyoncé’s signature swagger…
Consistently selling your signature offer will allow you to get a bigger (and longer) ROI from your evergreen content, sales copy assets and visibility endeavours.
You get to build brand recognition as an expert on a specific topic, and…
Because I recommend you create your signature offer around a package or program you’re already delivering 1:1, you don’t have to start from scratch. Your existing content, clients & brand authority will all back up your credibility as an expert in your niche.
Your OMG! Offer is the VERSION of your offer you're currently hyping in response to what your people want.
Think: That part of your sales page that comes after "Introducing..." with a high-level view of what they get & why they should care.
It's your signature offer, reimagined, with mouthwatering messaging that makes it 100% crystal clear why they want to get in there NOW.
This 90-minute workshop is just what you need if you want to:
Fine-tune your offer's messaging so that your ideal clients understand their ROI
Create more intrigue, curiosity and desire for what you sell
Move people from "Maybe next time..." to "I need this now!"