Value Ladder Marketing for Authors
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What is it, and how can you use it to benefit both you and your audience?
What is value ladder marketing?
You might hear this concept called a value ladder, but I’ve also seen it described as a tripwire or upsell. I like to think of it as a getting-to-know-you purchase.
The underlying principle is that when someone joins your email list (in response to your free lead magnet or reader magnet), you immediately offer them something useful and valuable, at a big discount. This is the only time they can get the discount.
Typically, this will be a digital product. It needs to be scaleable and delivered automatically, so if a hundred people sign up for your list in the next hour, you won’t be running around like a panicked rabbit.
Not everyone loves the term tripwire marketing, as this implies something devious or an unwelcome consequence. (It’s neither, when done properly!) And the process isn’t really an upsell, since your new reader or audience member hasn’t bought anything yet. For the purpose of this guide, I’ll refer to it as either your introductory product or tripwire product.
Why you should offer a low cost introductory product
There are several good reasons for adding an introductory product to your online marketing:
It’s scaleable income. I despise the notion of passive income, because I don’t think any resource we create should ever be truly passive. Even for a digital product, you need to update and improve it, periodically check your delivery method is still working, and respond to customer service queries. However, it’s fair to say, the introductory product that I offer is at the more “passive” end of my income.
If done properly, your introductory product provides huge value to your new audience member. They’ll get a useful, actionable resource at a great discount. Hopefully they’ll see a quick win and be delighted with the return on their small investment.
You can use it to test a piece of something bigger. Maybe you’re interested in developing an online course, that you’ll sell for $997, $1900, or more. Before you go all in and create something huge that might not sell, create a tripwire product that gets people started. You’ll see (a little) revenue much sooner, you’ll have the satisfaction of having a simple product that’s done, and you’ll get fantastic feedback about what people will actually buy and the sales page wording that works.
Once someone has purchased from you, it becomes more likely they’ll buy again… or at least stay engaged and pay attention.
How much income can you make?
Unless you have a huge audience that is growing by dozens of people every day, you should not expect your tripwire product to generate massive income. It’s true, some people have made tens of thousands of dollars with theirs. However, realistically, you’ll make some nice additional revenue, not a life-changing sum.
You can guesstimate your likely income by looking at the number of people who join your email list every week or month. Assume somewhere between 10% and 30% will purchase your tripwire product. This will vary, of course, depending on how compelling your offer is.
The true beauty of your introductory product is the pathway it creates for a future relationship, and future income. So you need to look at the lifetime value of your new customer, not just the amount you make from this first rung of your value ladder.
My tripwire sales are modest, but over time, the revenue adds up nicely
What should you offer as your tripwire product?
As a nonfiction author, you might decide to write a short e-book, design a detailed workbook or planner, create a short video course, or offer a workshop replay. There are dozens of possibilities. Aim for an introductory product that:
Enables a great outcome for your audience
Shows a piece of your expertise
Feels appropriate and achievable for you to create
For inspiration, take a look at my list of (free) reader magnet ideas, but keep in mind, you’ll be asking people to pay for your introductory product, so it needs to deliver real value.
If you’re a fiction author, your tripwire marketing offer might be a juicy discount on a full-priced book, or a hard-to-resist boxed set deal.
What should the price be?
Most digital products at the low end of your value ladder are priced between $7 and $27. You’re aiming for a quick decision from someone who doesn’t know you well.
If you’re a nonfiction author who solves a big problem, or you sell high-priced coaching or services, your introductory product might cost more than if you’re a novelist.
click to view as a PDF
My value ladder example: what I sell as my tripwire product
When new subscribers join my email list, I offer them my Done for You Content Calendar. The full price is $27 and the one-time “tripwire” price is $13.
I’m not going to direct you to the page where I sell this (it wouldn’t be fair on those who actually sign up for my list), but you can glimpse it in this screenshot and click to get it as a PDF.
And to see it for real, go ahead and subscribe here!
Purchasers get access to the Content Calendar (in various formats) through MemberVault, and it’s delivered to them automatically, through an email sequence in ConvertKit.
Here’s my honest evaluation of my tripwire offer:
It’s a popular resource, because many authors struggle like crazy with what to post on social media and what to send to their email list. So it serves a pressing need.
I’m happy with how many I sell, relative to how many people join my email list. This income covers the monthly subscription fees for the tools I use to run my business. The price feels right to me.
It doesn’t need much care or updating, and I get hardly any questions about how the customer makes their own copy to edit and use. So it’s not chewing up a tonne of my time.
However, honestly, it’s not a good introduction to my skills as a website designer. I could do much better in this respect, by offering a resource that leads into the value of what I do.
How to create your value ladder introductory product
Identify a need your audience has, and where you can add value. Figure out what’s a small but useful piece of your expertise, where they will benefit quickly. Decide on the best format for the resource (book, download, video, mini course, etc.)
Create your tripwire product and make it available for sale. How you do this depends on what it is. If you can, try to use a delivery mechanism that you’re already paying for elsewhere in your business. I’m super happy with MemberVault where I have a number of other resources, but ConvertKit is now a really strong contender for getting started with selling digital products. With ConvertKit, your digital product sales will integrate effortlessly with your email list, and fees are extremely reasonable.
Create your tripwire page on your website. As with other sales pages, make it clear what people get and the benefits to them. For example, my page doesn’t simply say “Buy a Content Calendar for Authors”, it promises to Solve the headache of content ideas and Stop wasting time wondering about topics for your audience. Include a mockup image of your product too - here’s my guide for 2 free mockup options.
Optional: hide other menu items on this sales page. A true “squeeze page” drastically reduces the number of choices your visitor has. You might decide their only options should be to buy your tripwire offer, or to leave. Personally, I don’t bother to do this. But I might, in future.
Optional: add a countdown timer or page expiry to the sales page. This is another thing I haven’t done on my page. To be honest, it’s because I don’t yet have the tech to make the page expire, and I’ve decided not to worry about it. Some of the marketing folk I admire are rightly pointing out that a countdown timer is a “fear of missing out” tactic, and they don’t feel good about this approach. I’m on the fence about timers.
Configure your email sign up process to direct new subscribers to your tripwire sales page. This is essential. Every decent email marketing tool should allow you to specify the website page that a new email subscriber will see. I use ConvertKit, and here’s how to do it there.
Edit your your email welcome sequence to mention the product again, in a week or two. Even if people didn’t buy it initially, they might still want it, and they may remember they’ve seen it before. This time, however, the price needs to be higher, to honor the discount for those who purchased immediately.
My tripwire offer is a Done for You Content Calendar
Track your results and tweak
Don’t just make the first product in your value ladder available, and then forget about it! Here are some things to analyze and adjust in time:
What’s your conversion rate? This is an easy calculation: how many people joined your email list, and how many of them purchased your introductory product?
A “good” conversion rate here depends on your industry, the product, its full price, and your discounted price. Try to focus on increasing your own conversion rate over time, rather than worrying about how you measure up.
How well are people engaging with it? Depending what your product is and how you deliver it, you might be able to get data on how they’re using it. Being able to see user engagement is something I love about MemberVault, for example. But even if you can’t see actual usage data, pay attention to emails, thank you messages, and mentions on social media.
Not selling much?
Do you have a conversion problem, or simply a visibility problem? It’s easy to panic that your new value ladder isn’t working, but remember, people have to be joining your email list in the first place, in order to see it.
If a good number of people see your tripwire product but don’t buy it (you know this from the number of page views of your tripwire page), then you might need to adjust either the product itself, or the wording on the page where you’re selling it. Start by trying to improve the copy on your sales page, before you assume the introductory product itself needs to be revamped.
How not to be sleazy with your tripwire product
Your tripwire product must be genuinely valuable. Get it right, and this is a win for both you and your customer.
It must also be available for purchase at the “full” price, and ideally you’ve actually made sales at that price, too. No fake discounts, please!
You don’t have to have a countdown timer, or use wording that pokes too hard at their pain points, if this doesn’t feel good for you.
You need to believe in the value of everything you offer your audience. It’s not worth making $19 from someone today if you tarnish your reputation and turn them off from working with you in future.
But a tripwire marketing approach, done well, can be a wonderful introduction to the rest of your expertise and the value you offer.
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