When most business owners think of earning money online with info products, they think about the money they’ll make from selling their first product (report, ebook, software, audio, or video package). However, while the sales that are made on the front end are very nice, you can dramatically increase your income by making additional offers during the check out process – which is known as the back-end.
A one-time offer (OTO), is an upsell or larger package that the buyer will have the opportunity to buy while purchasing your original product. They will have one chance to buy something at a discounted or special price. If they don’t buy at that moment it will not be offered again.
Creating one time offers is a smart and effective strategy that allows you to offer your customers additional products, and increase your revenue in the process.
Tip #1: Decide on the Best Format for Your One Time Offer
The first step is obviously choosing what to offer your customer in addition to the initial product that they’re purchasing.
Think about what would best serve and entice your buyer. Oftentimes it may be more of what they are already purchasing, or a complementary resource.
Here are some ideas:
• People learn in different ways. Because of this, you might offer something like a video or audio edition of the product they just bought.
• Checklists, worksheets, and tools to enhance the results of the product they are buying are also popular.
• Coaching, whether group or in a one-on-one fashion, can certainly get people excited about learning more, too.
• Create a bundle of your products or create a series of discounts for buying products now that will be released in the near future.
Perhaps offering additional rights to the product that they are purchasing – for instance resale rights or private label rights may entice your customer to spend more money, too.
Tip #2: Make Sure the Offer is Relevant and of Interest
Though your upsell offer may be a steal at a great price, you must always make sure that is relevant to your original offer and would be of interest to your potential buyer. Consider your target market and make sure that what you are offering would enhance or add to the offer they have just purchased.
For instance, you wouldn’t offer your friend’s cookbook ebook as an upsell to a coaching strategy package. It just wouldn’t make sense. Both may be great products but neither relates to the other which will confuse and frustrate your potential customer.
The upsell should directly help your customer succeed with the initial product.
Make sure to explain to the buyer that the additional resources in the one-time offer will enhance their understanding and therefore give them better results than they would get with just the single product alone.
Tip #3: Set Up Your OTO Properly
There is no better way to destroy your credibility than by saying that you have a “one-time offer” but then offering it all over the internet. While many Internet marketers have become hardened to this sort of thing, there are those in other niches who would be disappointed if you are caught going back on your word. That trust can oftentimes not be regained at any price.
How do you set up the offer? You can use a software such as the OTO Profit System which will help you to create your one time offer page(s). Or you could utilize a script like Countdown One Time Offer that will truly make your OTO appear one time only. The script is timed so the offer expires in a matter of minutes or as soon as they click away from the page. You can also use your own shopping cart system to ensure that the OTO only shows during the order process and is not available anywhere else.
This will create the true scarcity you need to make sales and always maintain the trust of your audience.
Tip #4: Don’t Over-Do it and Appear Greedy
Sometimes entrepreneurs start to get greedy by offering several one-time offers attached to the purchase of the original product. By the time the customer has clicked through pages of additional sales pitches, he/she may begin to feel like what was originally purchased has lost its value.
While one (possibly two) OTO can work wonders for your profits, you might find that the more of these you offer in sequence, the more disenchanted people can become, not only with your products, but with you as a person. Your sole purpose is to keep your customers happy so they’ll come back over and over. If you destroy the relationship by getting too greedy you won’t be as successful in the long run and will lose customers quickly.
Creating one time offers is an excellent strategy that can greatly increase your profits. Create a compelling offer that will be hard to turn down. Make sure it is a true one time offer, and that you don’t have too many sales pitches that give your customers a bad impression of you. By following these techniques, you can increase your profits by 50% or more.
About the author – Janet Slack of Life Adventure Coaching is a specialist in helping coaches and other solopreneurs add structure and planning to their businesses so that the businesses don’t take over their lives. Sign up for her free newsletter Biz Tips for Coaches or visit her blog for solopreneurs. Special thanks to Becki Noles of Virtual Accuracy for her help with this post.
