Sales funnels are crucial for increasing online sales, and one of the most powerful tactics in a sales funnel is one-click upsell offers after checkout.
No doubt, upsell offers can enhance your sales funnel performance and earn you a huge amount of revenue. But what happens when someone rejects an upsell offer? Is that the end of the journey?
The answer is no. That’s where downsells come in.
A downsell offer makes it possible for you to earn more than what you would if your upsell was rejected. It’s one of those techniques that most marketers aren’t aware of but, in fact, is a ninja technique that can help you earn a lot more than you expected.
In this article, you will learn the main concept of a downsell offer and how you can use it effectively in the right way.
After reading this guide…
- You will understand why downselling can be a game changer for your business.
- How you can plan the right downsell offer for your sales funnel.
- And eventually, start using downsells WordPress to double your revenue.
So let’s begin.
The Concept of A Downsell Offer And Why It Works
A downsell offer is basically a more affordable alternative to an upsell. This means that if a buyer cannot afford to purchase an upsell, you can still give him a simplified offer that costs less.
Let me explain with an example:
Let’s say you sell books online at $50 per book.
And you created a funnel upsell offer for Business Leadership books where you will offer a whole volume of 10 books at $450 (with a $50 discount).
Now, $450 is quite expensive, and the buyer may not have the budget available. So it’s possible that he will reject the offer. So you will end up earning just $50.
But wait, rather than ending the funnel, why not make a down sell offer?
Give him another offer, but this time, make it more affordable. Rather than 10 books offer a bundle of 3 books at $130 (after a $20 dollars discount).
Compared to $450, $130 is much more affordable, and if within budget, the buyer may end up taking the offer.
As per the example above, yes, you didn’t make a huge amount of profit. But you’ve made $180 instead of just $50, which is quite profitable if you think about acquisition cost.
This is the power of downsell offers. You are giving your buyers a chance to get more even if they could not get the initial upsell offer. And in return, you earn more revenue.
Remember, even if you sell $5 more to a single buyer, that will total $500 for 100 buyers. So every chance you get to increase the order value, you should take the opportunity.
Now, let’s look at some examples and tactics you may choose to follow.
Examples Of Proper Use Of Downsell Offers In Various Industries
As much as you can see the potential of downsells, you should know that every funnel tactic requires a proper plan. You have to plan one that suits your requirements.
Let us look at a few examples of sales funnels that include downsell offers in their plan.
1. A Sales Funnel With A Relevant Product As Upsell And Downsell
Let us look at a funnel for a fitness supplement, Protein Shake, and its relevant product, BCAA Amino.
The flow may be:
- Protein Shake as the main funnel offer
- BCAA Amino 100ml as Upsell
- Upon rejection, BCAA amino 50ml as downsell
Here, you can see that BCAA Amino is something bodybuilders consume along with Protein Shakes. Since they are related products, this funnel makes perfect sense.
Initially, you may offer a higher valued version of the related product, and if rejected, immediately offer a downsell of the same product with a lower value.
This is a classic tactic that will work well on any eCommerce product.
2. A Complete Funnel Journey With Multiple Plans Of The Same Product
Suppose you have a sales funnel for online software that has 3 plans – Small, Medium, and Large. It’s natural you would want most buyers to purchase the Large plan.
So you may consider the following flow for the Small plan –
- The Small plan is the main funnel offer.
- Offer the large plan as Upsell.
- Upon rejection, offer a downsell with the Medium plan.
As you can see here, the first attempt will always be to try and upgrade the buyer to the highest plan. So when he purchases the small plan, he will immediately receive an offer on the Large plan as upsell.
However, if the buyer rejects the upsell, you can immediately offer a downsell on the Medium plan, which will still earn you more money than the Small plan.
This approach works well when selling software subscriptions, courses, or memberships.
3. Make Quantity Based Offers As Upsell And Downsell
Let’s look at a funnel for a chocolate shop.
The flow may be:
- One Chocolate bar at $5 as the initial product
- 10 Chocolate bars as upsell, worth $50
- A downsell offer of 3 chocolates worth $15
Here, the idea is to offer a higher number of the initial product as upsell and, if rejected, make a downsell offer with a quantity that is higher than the initial product, but much less than that of the upsell.
This approach is best for selling more of the products that people can buy in multiple quantities and also works well when selling multiple products in the same category as bundles.
How To Create A Sales Funnel With Downsell Offer In WordPress
So far, you have seen how a downsell offer can be a great element of a sales funnel. And the good news is that you can easily create complete sales funnels in WordPress.
Simply use WPFunnels – a visual funnel builder that will let you plan and create complete sales funnels easily within the WordPress dashboard.
WPFunnels has a visual canvas where you can create the steps of your sales funnels visually and then configure the whole funnel right from the canvas. Plus, downselling is one of its specialties which you won’t find in most other tools.
Now, let us quickly see how you can use WPFunnels to craft a sales funnel that includes an upsell and downsell offer.
I will be creating a 5-step funnel with WPFunnels: Landing – Checkout – Upsell – Downsell – ThankYou and set conditions so that the downsell offers will appear upon rejecting the upsell.
Step 1 – Create a 5-step Funnel Using a Pre-built Template
Import a pre-built funnel template that has 5-steps. [Guide]
This funnel template has a Landing, Checkout, an Upsell, a Downsell and a Thank you step including a conditional step between the Upsell & Downsell.
Step 2 – Assign Respective Products to Your Offers
1. First, assign the Initial Sales Funnel Offer Product to your Checkout step. [Guide]
2. Then, add a higher-value Upsell offer product to the Upsell step. Finally, add the low-cost Downsell offer product according to your plan. [Guide]
Step 3 – Configure the Condition for Showing Downsell
You only want to show Downsell to those who reject your Upsell offer. So, configure the condition accordingly inside the conditional step. [Guide]
Let me explain how this condition works:
If your Upsell Is Accepted, then customers will go to the Thank you page.
Otherwise, they will go to the Downsell page, then to the Thank you page.
Now Save this funnel on your funnel canvas, and you are ready to deploy it.
That’s how easy it is to craft a complete funnel with Upsell & Downsell offers in WordPress.
Author’s Note
The downsell offer is often ignored but it can act as a game changer for you if done right. So if you are using a sales funnel, then I suggest you include a downsell offer to your funnel and increase your revenue.
Plus, right now, it’s so much easier to use create sales funnels in WordPress. If you haven’t already, go ahead and get WPFunnels now and start creating conversion-optimized sales funnels easily.
