When it comes to dialing in your “backend” marketing machine and increasing conversions, email marketing will be your best friend. It’s where most of your sales will come from and where most of your profit maximizers will be purchased.
In fact, one marketing report states that 4.24% of visitors from email marketing buy something, compared to only 2.49% of visitors from search engines and .59% from social media.
But email doesn’t have to work alone…
There are many other opportunities to sell to your customers outside of evergreen or broadcast email sequences, and they can vary greatly in price and commitment level.
In addition, these opportunities can help boost your average order value, which in turn will positively impact your bottom line.
In this blog post, we’re going to go over several “profit maximizers” that can be added on to do just that – “maximize your profit”.
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1. The Tripwire
The easiest way to qualify your customers before making your core offer is by offering them a Tripwire.
The Tripwire is an irresistible, super low-ticket offer (usually between $1 and $20) that exists for one reason and one reason only – to convert prospects into buyers.
The Tripwire offer is made to those who have displayed interest through a lead magnet or qualifying piece of content.
Not all funnels require a Tripwire – but they can significantly increase your RPS (revenue per subscriber) by only allowing supremely qualified buyers into the funnel.
Brandetize Tip: Tripwires helps offset the cost of ad spend. Consider setting up some ads that drive traffic to a Tripwire (rather than just a lead magnet), and watch your profit margins increase.
2. The Upsell
Awesome! Your subscriber purchased your “core offer” product in your core offer funnel… and they’re intrigued enough that they may want to buy more…
Enter “The Upsell.”
In the context of email marketing, the Upsell is usually a 1-3 email funnel addition that extends the life of the core offer sequence by offering the user an “add-on” product that is more expensive than the core offer product.
The goal of the Upsell is to capitalize on interested buyers and increase the revenue per subscriber and/or average order value of your core offer funnel.
Brandetize Tip: You don’t have to start from scratch to create an Upsell for your core offer product.
Look at other products you have that may fit as an Upsell to your core offer. The Upsell product can also live on its own and have its own core offer funnel, but the key is to always be thinking in terms of escalation.
3. The One Time Offer
Your subscriber purchased your “core offer” product in your core offer funnel… and you want to sell them some complementary products (at a discount).
Enter “The OTO” (or “one-time offer”).
The OTO can be one single product or a series of product (“OTO Chain”) in which you continue to try to “upsell” the buyer while their wallet is still out. It’s an offer to buy something else immediately after the first purchase is made. This is one of the most common profit maximizers and is used the most frequently.
The key to success with the OTO/immediate upsell offers MORE of what they just purchased from you – it complements their original purchase, rather than takes them in a different direction.
Brandetize Tip: Many marketers assume that a OTO can only be shown to buyers – if they buy one product, you show them another offer, and so on and so forth. But we’ve actually found significant success in our funnels with showing OTOs to EVERYONE whether they buy or not! Maybe the price of the first offer wasn’t affordable for them, or the offer wasn’t quite right. Offering your OTO to all visitors increases the likelihood of a sale.
4. The Downsell
Womp… your subscriber didn’t purchase your “core offer” product in your core offer funnel.
But that doesn’t mean you’ve lost them as a buyer!
Enter “The Downsell.”
In the context of email marketing, The Downsell is usually a 2-3 email funnel addition that extends the life of the core offer sequence by offering the user a similar but less expensive product.
The goal of the Downsell is to convert the prospect at a lower price-point.
This conversion is crucial for many reasons, but namely because of all the statistics that support how much easier it is to convert an existing customer than a new customer. Once you’ve gone through the work of putting a user through your core offer funnel, even if they don’t buy the target product, capturing the sale through a variety of downsells can ensure they purchase from you again in the future and increase their lifetime value.
This leads to our final profit maximizer…
5. The Nurture Funnel
As we alluded to above, the value of a return customer cannot be overlooked.
According to one study, “repeat customers are responsible for generating 40% of a store’s revenue.” (This is also another reason why the Tripwire is such a useful conversion vehicle).
So, if your user doesn’t purchase your core offer product or even your downsell product, don’t give up hope. This is where a Nurture Funnel comes into play.
If your user didn’t convert, it’s simply because, for whatever reason, they’re not ready to convert.
Perhaps they need more product information, more information on your business, or maybe even more testimonials and user reviews. These types of information can all be delivered through a Nurture Funnel.
Brandetize Tip: The key to success with a Nurture Funnel is NOT to be salesy. The purpose of the Nurture Funnel is to make a series of “deposits” (providing valuable content), so when you ask for another “withdrawal” (sale) down the line, the prospect feels more confident in their decision to trust you and your product.
Have you implemented any of these profit maximizers in your business? Let us know in the comments section below. For more content like this, click the button below to sign up for our marketing newsletter.
