Let’s set the scene: You’ve just launched a shiny new course on a topic you’re obsessed with – and your audience is, too.
Basically, you know you have a winning course. But did you also know that there’s about a zillion more ways to earn more money from it?
Ears perked up? Then let’s talk about the magic of upsells.
As an online biz owner, you’re probably already familiar, but just to get on the same page: Upsells are additional purchases that customers can snag alongside their original purchase (i.e., purchasing a bonus 1:1 coaching session after purchasing your course). Upsells are usually higher-value, higher-touch and/or just generally more expensive than the original purchase.
It’s super easy – and lucrative – to work an upsell into your course purchase process.
Below, I’m diving into exactly how to craft effective upsells, and a few ideas for a savvy upsells you can use to increase every course customer’s AOV (average order value – aka how much money each customers spends with you every time they buy your course).
Step 1: Identify the Right Complementary Offer
Step one: Identify the right upsell for your course. What additional product or service would enhance the main course experience for your students? For example, if you’re offering a digital marketing course, an attractive upsell might be a private VIP coaching session to get personalized guidance, or a VIP Day where you help them craft their own tailor-made customized marketing plan. You don’t have to offer a service as an upsell, either – you could also offer another digital product (like a complementary course) or access to your membership site.
Step 2: Select an Upsell ‘Type’
The world of upsells is vast and varied, but here are few specific ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
- Done-for-you or one-on-one service. This is a wildly popular course upsell. You could include the option to add-on one-time 1:1 private coaching call, personalized review or strategy session, so the student can get additional support, if needed.
- Bundle and Save. Who doesn’t love a good deal? Bundle related courses together—like a beginner, intermediate, and advanced Reels creation courses, or one TikTok, one Reels and one Instagram Stories course—and offer them at a tempting discount (read: far less than they’d be in they were all purchased separately).
- VIP Membership Upsell. Why not invite them to join your membership as soon as they purchase a course? A VIP membership could include monthly coaching calls, fresh content updates, and a private community all around the topic – or other related topics – they just purchased a course on. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, and who wouldn’t want that?
- Related Goodies. Selling a course on public speaking and rocking the stage at live events? Your upsell could be a toolkit packed with presentation templates, or personalized video review of their speech practice. These related products not only enhance what they’ll learn in your course, but also feel like a natural next step.
- Certifications. If you offer a course teaching a skill like SEO or makeup artistry, you could offer an upsell into a certification track and ‘certify’ your students in the particular method you teach. It’s a fantastic way for your students to get official creds to show off their new skills, and an even better way for you to make some additional cashflow.
- Exclusive Workshops. You know what just about everybody loves? Hands-on guidance and personalized feedback. For example, if you sell a “Novel Writing 101” course, how about upselling seats to an intimate live workshop where your students can get feedback on their novel directly from you or an esteemed guest author?
Step 3: Make it a Limited-Time Only Offer
The (arguably) best time to introduce an upsell is when the customer is most engaged and excited about your offer. This is why most course upsells are offered immediately after purchasing the course, on a follow-up thank you page. That said, you can also offer an upsell midway through the course, or at the end when they’re either super satisfied with the results they just achieved and are looking for additional support in the same area (like offering a personalized copy review or ongoing copy coaching at the end of a website copywriting course – once they’ve likely completed the lessons), or support in a complementary area (like offering a ‘blogging’ course after a website copywriting course, since now they’ll want to add blogs to the wonderful website they’ve just written).
Speaking of timing, most upsells are only available for a limited-time for an added sense of urgency – and exclusivity. For example, most upsells are only available for the first 15 minutes to 24 hours after purchasing a course. And if you’re creating something super intimate (like the novel-writing workshop with hands-on guidance), you might want to keep the timeframe even tighter.
Of course, you can also keep the upsell option open but simply raise the price as time goes on. This would require a bit more than adding an upsell page to your post-purchase funnel – you’d likely need to write a full follow-up email sequence around this – but it’s definitely possible.
Either way, creating parameters around when exactly people can purchase the upsell is important. It not only rewards fast action takers, it also ensures you’re not inundated with people trying to take advantage of your upsell days, weeks or months after purchase.
Step 4: Ensure the Purchasing Process is Simple and Seamless
In that same vein, you’ll want to make sure your upsell is easy to purchase – and to understand. Most upsells have their own sales pages (which would load immediately after your new student purchases your course), although sometimes you might see them offered as more of an ‘order’ or ‘cart bump’ (aka the person would just ‘tick’ a checkbox on the checkout page for their course in order to add your upsell offer to their cart). Either way, you’ll need to make sure to craft a clear and compelling description for your upsell (because you’ll definitely be using it somewhere!).
Be sure it focuses on the problem the upsell solves, as well as the benefits and outcomes. That said, if you already have a sales page (or series of sales emails/social posts) for the upsell, don’t overcomplicate it – use it as a starting point and repurpose it! Also, don’t forget to include what you’d include on a ‘regular’ sales page – like testimonials and case studies. (You can usually do this no matter whether you’re crafting a full upsell sales page or just an order bump.)
Then, be sure to highlight how the upsell complements the original purchase. This could look as simple as a headline like, “Your ‘Passive Income for Introverts’ Course is swooshing its way to your inbox right now! And if you’d like to learn how to use video as an introvert and get even more passive income sales, keep reading…”
Hope this little guide gave you some insight into how to swirl upsells into your course purchasing process. And remember – “upselling” isn’t (just) about selling more. It’s also about deeply enriching your students’ learning journey in ways they’ll appreciate and benefit from exponentially. Because let’s be real: Seeing your students truly thrive after they nab your course? Now, that’s the real win.
