One Click Upsells: The Definitive Guide

This guide has everything you need to know about One-Click Upsells.

First we’ll discuss what one-click upsells are, the building blocks of an upsell funnel and why you should put them to work.

Then we’ll deep dive into the strategy and the thought-process behind building one.

You’ll also understand how to choose the right upsell offer that’s most relevant to your core offer.

Sounds good?

Let’s dive right in.

What are One-Click Upsells?

Post-purchase or One-Click upsells are back-end offers.

You show them right after your customers have submitted their credit card details for the main offer, but before they’re directed to the thank you page.

So basically on this intermediary page between the checkout and the thank you page, you high-jack their flow & attention to make a highly relevant offer.

This is when they’re in a highly captive state of mind.

The best part...?

They don’t have to re-enter their card details, you can add the extra amount to their order as soon as they accept the offer.

The payment for the initial order is processed by the time they land on this page and there’s zero probability of losing the initial sale. 

Why Should You Bother About Post-Purchase Upselling?

One-Click Upsells may feel like a strategy that you don't want to think about right now. It appears to be an after-thought.

But the truth is, it should be thought at the same time when you're thinking about your main offer. You will then know what to give and what to hold back in your main offer so that your upsell feels a very natural ascension.

Here are a few reasons why you should do one-click upsells in your business:

• It increases your average order value

This is a big one! Most businesses struggle with a low average order value. Let’s say you spent $500 on ads and got 10 new customers.

You sold one product at $100 a pop and made $1000 from this promotion. Out of which $500 was your profit.

You broke-even and got back the cost on ad spends. Now you didn’t stop there.

You pitched an upsell worth $150. 5 of your customers took it.

That’s an additional $750. You can have more upsell and downsell offers in this funnel.

When you pitch them time-bound relevant offers right after the first sale, they’re most likely to convert.

• You can spend more money on acquisition

We know that acquisitions costs can be detrimental to the growth of your business.

But one-click upsells can fuel your advertising spends.

When your competition tightens their fist, you can open up and ramp up your daily ad spends.

So squeeze more money out of your customers and spend it on acquiring new customers.

• You can lower your upfront product costs

Price can often be the reason why people chose one product over another.

Your price has everything to do with the profit margins you desire.

But if your backend offers can make you more money, you can cut down your margin on the initial sale.

Perhaps you can sell it at a break-even price just to send more people to your upsell funnel.

Frank Kern, master copywriter sells a book on the front end, priced only at $5.60. He admits to sometimes making a loss on the acquisition cost. But the money is in his backend offers.

Lowering the upfront cost will also let you capture a certain percentage of prospects that would’ve otherwise gone to your competition.

Mapping Your Upsell Funnel: Meet the Building Blocks

An upsell funnel contains subsequent upsell and downsell offers that are perfectly aligned with the main offer.

So right after the checkout page, you show them your Upsell #1.

If they accept it, you may show them upsell #2 or send them to the thank you page.

If they decline upsell #1, again you have two choices- send them to downsell #1 or the thank you page.

Your funnel can have as many components you like but we suggest limiting it to three offers for best results.

I.e. 2 Upsells and 1 Downsell (when first one is accepted and second one declined, pitch a third one).

Or 1 Upsell and 2 Downsells  (first offer was rejected and so was the second one, pitch the last offer).

Take a look:

 The Building Blocks of Your Upsell Funnel

Let's explore the building blocks of your upsell funnel:

1. The Main Offer

The main offer can be one of your best-selling products or a flagship product.

You can use a product page, a long form sales page or a VSL to sell it.

Here are a few important tips to take into account:

• Keep your profit margins to a minimum on this product so that it’s competitively priced and attracts buyers
• Use charm pricing such as $29, $39, $49... to convert first-time visitors into buyers
• Make the product page/sales page so clear and compelling that it becomes a no-brainer buy
• Write copy that focuses on the use cases of the product and positions it like a must-have
• Use paid advertising to direct traffic to the main offer page
• Optimize the conversion rate of the product page so that you get a solid ROI on your ad spends

2. The Upsell Offer

The upsell is a relevant offer pitched right after they’ve submitted their credit card details to buy the main offer.

A successful upsell is one that comes from a deep understanding of what your customer needs and it creates a win-win scenario.

Use this checklist to create a compelling upsell offer:

• Align your upsell well with the main offer - Think about what the buyer of the main product really needs.
• Take into account what the customer paid for the initial offer - Don’t go way off their expected overall budget. Your upsell may be 20-30% more or less than the costs they just paid.
• Offer a good discount on the upsell- Instead of a small 5%, 10% off, offer 20%-30% discount. The idea is to make the deal irresistible.
• Ensure that the same deal is not available elsewhere on the site and let them know it’s not
• Weave in the elements of genuine urgency or scarcity into your offer
• Make sure the upsell is not a critical component of the main offer- If they don’t buy then upsell, the main purchase shouldn’t become obsolete.
• Your upsell must complement or enhance and not compete with the main purchase- Don’t pitch a better version of what they bought and confuse them.
• Specify the additional shipping charges for this new addition into their order, if applicable
• Makes sure the one-click upsell offer copy does a good job of convincing them what makes it worth taking up
• Your upsell must make for a good impulse buy- They don’t have a lot of time to understand what the offer is and what the product is all about. So make the offer clear and credible.
• Your upsell offer must boost your profitability
• Educate customers on the missed opportunity of not taking advantage of the offer

3. The Downsell Offer

The downsell is where the customer has declined your upsell and you make an offer for:

The same product at a payment plan to make it affordable

Or a different product at a lower price...

Run your downsell offer through this simple checklist:

• When designing your downsell offer, take into consideration what they rejected in the upsell
• Take into the account the possible reasons why the upsell may have got rejected
• Make sure you don’t offer the same product in downsell as in upsell, only now at a deeper discount- You may offer a payment plan but do not breach the trust by throwing in a bigger discount
• If their reason of rejecting the upsell had nothing to do with the price, lead them to a different product in the downsell- Pitching the same item again that they rejected can be annoying.

If your customer rejected the upsell, you’re anyway going to miss the opportunity to increase the order value- offer a downsell as a last chance.

The Idea Factory: “What Should I One-Click Upsell?”

Deciding what to one-click upsell is not easy.

You cannot choose the right upsell until you nail the strategy and the thought process behind it.

You don’t want to put together offers that are irrelevant and don’t get taken up or worse, annoy buyers.

Here are a bunch of ideas that’ll help when you set out on this profit-boosting journey of creating upsells:

1. Upsell More of what they just bought

Are you selling a product that needs stocking up? Maybe supplements, ointments or medicines...

Think of items that people run out of and need a frequent replenishment on.

If your main offer is an item that they do need more of, your upsell can very well be a pack of more of those items, at a handsome discount.

By doing this you’ll be putting a stamp of approval on their choice. It’s like saying – ‘You made a great choice. Now buy 5 more at a discount.’

Or ‘buy 5 at the price of 3!’ The copy matters.

Here’s how people will react to this offer ‘I am going to need these anyway! Why pay a high price later?!’

Sold!

2. Change the format

Are you selling a physical book upfront? Upsell its audio version!

The simple idea here is: The existing format of delivery may limit the value people can get out of the product, so change the format.

Russel Brunson of ClickFunnels.com adopted this approach.

He offered the hardcopy of his book upfront and on the one-click upsell page, he said:

 'The book is one its way! Would you like to add the audio version of it for $X?’

Notice it doesn’t compete with the main purchase in any way. The reason why this approach works so well is because it offers instant gratification.

So while I am waiting for the physical copy and am excited about that, I can get a head-start with the audio version.

If you’re selling an ebook, you can upsell an expanded video course on the backend.

If you’re selling a planner in the physical format, upsell a downloadable app to manage everything from wherever they want!

Or maybe you’re selling tickets to your event- upsell the video recordings they can watch + refer, anytime later as well.

3. Complete the Set

No matter what you’re selling, there will be other products that complement the purchase.

For example, if they’re buying a DSLR-compatible mic- they’re doing it to record videos. Maybe they need additional stuff such as studio arm stands, pop filter, video backdrop etc.

So you can create a set or a bundle and upsell it at a discount.

But make sure none of the items in the upsell bundle are critical components of main purchase.

4. Fast-track the Process: Make it faster, easier or better

They bought the main item to achieve a goal.

Can you make getting there faster, smoother or easier for them?

The perfect example of this is Amy Porterfield’s upsell. She sells a course on creating webinars as her main offer.

The upsell is plug & play presentation deck to streamline the process of creating the webinar slides.

Another example:

Let’s say you’re selling a course on speaking French fluently, your upsell offer could be- ‘A handbook of common phrases for coffee table conversations.’

Or if you’ve got weight-loss program- upsell a healthy meal planning calendar so that your customers don’t have to think what to cook every day.

Think of helpful resource, custom services, coaching calls, personal consultation, and accountability group support- anything that will help them achieve the goal faster the main purchase alone.

Or anything that will provide support at a level that the main offer wouldn’t.

5.Offer Purchase Protection

I bought a new Smartphone the other day. And just after I was done making my selection and had my wallet out, the salesman pitched a perfect upsell.

He offered me a chance to protect my purchase – 1-year warranty that covers everything from technical issues in the core components of the phone to screen repairs.

At a small additional price, I could safeguard my investment for a year.

It’s our natural tendency to hedge our bets and protect our possession.

As an example, look at Bestbuy. If you’re buying Nintendo gaming console they offer you a 1-year purchase protection at an additional $24.

Their simple pitch is this- The average repair cost of a gaming console is $179 so why not protect your purchase!

Take a look:

As per Consumer Electronics Association, 55% of millennial generation (18-33 year olds) is likely to purchase protection or warranty while only 15% of baby boomers are likely to do the same. So choose you offer wisely for your audience.

6.Continuity Program

Continuity programs, membership plans or on-going support offers make for value-boosting upsells.

If you’re selling software or a tool, you can upsell membership program where you add new tutorial videos bi-monthly or monthly to help the users get more done.

A great membership program comes from truly knowing your audience and what they want.

Ryan Deiss from DigitalMarketer.com has an amazing continuity program- he sells you tickets to his event and then once you’re there- they’ve got ways and means to add you to their continuity program.

So basically they pitch a $1 trial to their membership site –Digital Marketer Lab.

The underlying idea – People who attend ‘Traffic and Conversion’ summit will want to learn more on an on-going basis.

They want to learn the nuts and bolts of setting up their landing pages, email automations, funnels, paid ads etc. A 3-Day summit alone won’t do justice to the goal they wish to achieve.

So if your main offer is not ‘One and Done’ – and goes beyond, then put people on continuity.

What to Never One-Click Upsell?

You’ve heard them say ‘If you’re not upselling, you’re doing disservice to your customers’.

But the truth is if you’re upselling the wrong way, you’re doing a huge disservice to your business.

Upselling done wrong has huge negative connotations. It can turn off people, induce buyer remorse and lead to backlash.

And that’s why I want to make sure you know how to upsell the right way.

Never one-click upsell:

• A product that’s readily available on your site at the same price. There’s no urgency in that offer.
• A critical component of the main purchase – It should never be the case that if they don’t buy the upsell, the main purchase becomes obsolete
• An upsell offer that has nothing to do with the main purchase – If you’re selling weight loss supplements, your upsell cannot be a smartphone! Yes, it’s obvious but it still needs to be made clear.
• Another item that does exactly the same thing as the main purchase. The idea here is not to cross-sell! For e.g. if they just bought a pair of men’s runners, don’t sell them another pair of runners from a different brand. You may upsell pairs of socks or a set of coloured laces.
• An item or a product that’s way more expensive than their initial purchase – They have a set budget in mind; don’t go way off those limits.

What’s Next...?

Now that you're familiar with the ground rules of the game - I am sure you want to see real world examples.

You want to see how others do it and what makes their offers compelling.

You want to learn from those who're killing it with one-click upsells.

Your wish is granted!

In my next blog post, I cover real world examples and you'll see what highly compelling offer pages actually look like.

Stay hooked >>

Happy Upselling!