Using Cross-Sells, Upsells, and Downsells: Boost Conversions and Increase Digital Product Sales

If you are serious about selling digital products online, then you should definitely get into the habit of using Upsells, Downsells, & Cross-Sells to Grow Revenue and Improve Customer Loyalty. Whether you are looking for creative ways to make extra money via side hustles or you are ready to start your own online business, I’ve got you covered. This week on SistaSense, we are focusing on the Best Profitable Digital Products to Create and Sell Online.

Quick question: Are you using upsells, downsells, and cross-sells to improve your online sales? Have you heard of these sales strategies before? And do you understand the difference between creating an upsell offer vs downsell offer vs cross-sell offer?

How Can You Get Better at Selling Your Digital Products Online?

When it comes to making smart buying decisions, people want to know their options. Before making a purchase, most informed shoppers like to search for alternative solutions as needed. Depending on their budget, time, experience, preference, or feedback from others, people will always pick the offer that feels like the best option for them.

When it comes to offering options, I use tiered pricing to help me create my bestsellers. Whenever possible, I suggest offering at least two to three versions of your product. One option at a good price, one at a better price, and one at the best possible price. This way as opposed to struggling to come up with the best price, your customers can select the best price for themselves.

For example, my Bestseller Bundle is a collection of training webinars, templates, and tools to help aspiring entrepreneurs work on their digital products and digital passive income goals. Using the SamCart platform for setting up sales pages, I am able to offer three versions of this bundle. A lite audio-only bundle, the full version of this bundle, and then a starter budget-friendly bundle too. This allows my customers to get what they can afford and/or need the most.

I use this same approach on my web design services and coaching call packages, offering at least three ways for potential customers to work with me. Many of my clients actually started working with me because of the diversity of my offers. Liking the idea that I have something for everyone, many of my mentees desire to organize and monetize their content in a similar way. I started off selling services, creating my own digital products, and documenting my journey via my blog. And now, two decades in, I also find myself helping entrepreneurs organize, monetize, and optimize their content for sales; something that I seem to be doing more and more these days.

In addition to tiered pricing, it’s also wise to present cross-sell, upsell, and down-sell offers on your product sales page, so potential customers can grab at least one thing or all the available things that meet their needs. Cross-sell offers are meant to complement the main product, so for example, if you are buying a camera, you might also want to buy a tripod. Upsell offers are higher ticket offers in line with the main offer, so after purchasing a camera, you may want to buy a kit with lighting tools, extra batteries, special lenses, and more. Downsell offers, offer a lower price or slightly different offers for potential customers who are not interested in your main offer. For example, let’s say you like a camera, but can’t afford it. The sales page may show you a comparison chart with several other similar cameras that might be more affordable for you.

On most of my sales pages, I like to present upsell offers, tiered pricing, and downsell options as a way to maintain consistent conversions and steady sales. For the most part, I use SamCart to accomplish these goals. I also sell a few of my products on ConvertKit; it’s a great all-in-one tool for list building, setting up landing pages, and selling your digital products too. The sales pages are simple in design, which makes them easy for even a beginner to set up, and it’s more cost-effective for entrepreneurs who aren’t quite ready for a tool like SamCart.

While Convertkit does not presently offer more of these kinds of sales features as part of their Commerce Sales Tools, one simple workaround that I’ve found is to simply link to your downsell or cross-sell offers in your product description and mention your upsell offers on the purchase confirmation page and/or within the email invoice sent after purchase. My Template Club, money subscription program is set up on ConvertKit and is a great example of how I use these workarounds via simple, strategically placed links. 

Beyond conversion marketing, sharing alternative options is an effective content marketing strategy too. I suggest creating content, like blog posts and videos, that highlight recommended alternatives to popular products as an SEO-Friendly way to help potential customers find you in their search for the best possible options. For example today, within this post I shared both SamCart and Convertkit. I talked about why I use both, but also how using ConvertKit can be a budget-friendly alternative solution to setting up sales pages on SamCart.

I could just as easily create a similar blog post talking about why I love creating and selling courses using SamCart vs other popular course-creation platforms like Kajabi, Teachable, or Katra. Sharing productive reviews, recommendations, comparisons, and alternative options is a simple, highly effective SEO-Friendly way to add your website and content to actively searched for products and conversations.

What Bestseller Digital Products Should You Create?

Getting into the habit of sharing alternative offers is actually one of six ‘Start Here Offer’ examples that I break down inside the Bestseller Blueprint, which details 5 types of Digital Products that sell like clockwork. Start Here Offers is the first of the five types of digital products I believe every entrepreneur should create and sell online.

For each type of digital product, I share at least 5 examples of irresistible offers ( like upsells and downsells) that I’ve successfully sold over the years that you can easily create and sell online. I actually have 27 Digital Product Bestsellers detailed within this guide across the 5 types of digital products that every entrepreneur should regularly create to attract new customers and keep previous customers coming back for more.

Within the Bestseller Blueprint, my goal is to help you gain a better understanding of what your potential customers want and how to give it to them.

I’ve also put together the Bestseller Bootcamp and Bundle, full of hands-on webinar training, templates, and tools to help amazing entrepreneurs like yourself, use my FAST Content Creation and Monetization Methods to create their own bestseller digital products.

If you like this post browse all of my best content creation recommendations in the Profitable Digital Products series. And if you are serious about creating digital products to sell online, check out the new Content to Cashflow: Digital Product Planner.