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Building your list with a list build is awesome – and we highly suggest you do it. But just because your main goal is to build your list does NOT mean you can’t monetize your event with upsells.

In this episode, we’ll talk about the best way to monetize your list builds so you can make some money back, break even, or even (and most likely!) turn a profit on your event.

Episode 008 – The Bonus Sandwich: How To EASILY Create Bonuses that Increase Sales and Value

Alyson Lex
Okay, so the typical way to monetize a list build sales calls or direct sales from the event itself, right? You have a summit, you sell a thing on the summit, you drive people to have a call with you. Awesome. But did you know that you can monetize your event, your summit or your challenge, before it's over before it even starts? By offering a content upgrade? This happens in the form of VIP packages. And it's one of my favorite ways. And I know it's one of Jenny's favorite ways to actually make money from your list build. Without factoring in those sales and those sales calls, which is a huge way to make money from your list built by the way, we're not going to talk about those. Today, we're gonna talk about the content upgrades.

Jennie Wright
Okay,

Unknown Speaker
hold on.

Jennie Wright
These content upgrades that Alyson just mentioned, are a phenomenal way to increase the revenue of your list bill before it even happens. Now, I'm going to tell you that all of this, we're going to call it bonus revenue. Because if it happens, awesome, but don't get discouraged if it doesn't. The goal of a list build is to build the list. It's right in the name of it. It's not necessarily to make income while it's happening. But it is lovely when it happens. At the time of this recording. I have a summit that's happening. Alison and I are both on this particular summit. And the client is killing it before the summit even launched with VIP upgrades, these content upgrades, she actually has three of them, she has you know, it's free to register for the event. Then there's a small upgrade, a high tier upgrade. And then if they don't want any of those, there's a down sell, which is a very low price. And they're selling like hotcakes. Now, why does this actually work? What do we put in these things to make them happen? If you're interested to know a little bit more about this, I do recommend that you check out the episode that Alison and I did called the bonus sandwich, there's more in the title. But that's the element of that particular episode, it will tell you why people were like what you should be putting into a content upgrade like this, because it actually helps people you know, complete the thing that they should have done all along or what they needed actually do. So go check out that episode, we'll put it in the shownotes. Using a VIP or a content upgrade on a summit is a phenomenal way to also identify hot and ready leads, it also works on challenges. So here's what we can look at including in something like this. And Allison jump in whenever you want. Because one of the ways that we're doing this, and at the time, we're recording this, I'm working on my summit and Alison string to work on hers, I've actually asked my app experts, if they want to include a product in my VIP upgrade, I'm going to have a different tier, I'm gonna have a couple tiers. And I'm going to include my experts and gifts in the high tier. Right? So products from them. And these are products that they would normally sell not a free gift, but like a paid thing, like an ecourse, or something along those lines. Those are great content upgrades, and they have to pertain to the topic that the list bill is about It can't be. And we'll talk about more of this later. But it can't be the crappy stuff, the things that you know, the dreads of the fit, like the drugs, the things people nobody wants, it has to be something that they're going to use rails them.

Alyson Lex
Yes. And this is really cool because and we can dive into the, you know, the whole financial part, like there is a financial incentive for these experts to do that they get a piece of pie. But there's a lot of those lower level products out there. Now, those 3727 $47 products, that you get a suite of them together. It's a huge value for the attendee, the VIP or, and it's also a really great way for the expert to make a little bit of extra bonus income to build their credibility in front of a clearly proven buyer audience. And it just sounds cool, right? Who doesn't want to get like a big old package, a goodie grab bag of products that you can use that relates to what you've already raised your hand and said you're interested in every

Jennie Wright
birthday party I went to when I was a little kid, every birthday party that had a grab bag, and it had stuff that pertained to that, you know, like whatever the theme was like a dinosaur theme or a Barbie theme. I was all over that. This is not that far off. It's not.

Alyson Lex
It's not it's exciting to be able to, quote unquote take stuff home after an event. When I went to networking events or conferences, like the swag bags, were my favorite part. Not really my exact favorite part, but they were up there.

Jennie Wright
Of course I had the same thing when I worked in corporate I love swag bags.

Alyson Lex
Mm hmm. Now that's not The only thing that you can include strategy calls with you recordings from the events. And this one I really love is VIP only access to certain events that are happening within the list built event. Can you tell me more about that, Tony?

Jennie Wright
Yeah, totally. And these VIP panels are amazing. So what they consist of is if the person has upgraded and purchased a VIP package, they're going to get very interesting, limited access to the speakers. Right. So this is a panel where it's, you know, the host, and four or five or six other speakers are coming together talking about a topic that the host sets and having this q&a back and forth conversation, and allowing the participants to get in there and be able to particularly potentially, if you do a q&a section, speak to the experts. So if you can imagine you're a participant you've paid or X amount of dollars to for your VIP package. And now when you're in front of these gurus, these incredible people who have already walked the walk and taken the path that you want to take, and are willing to allow you to get that much closer to them, and ask them direct questions or find out information. It's a very alluring opportunity. And a lot of people will jump at it. Your experts also love it because it creates exposure. So not only when they're when you're doing a summit as an example, you've done your pre recorded interview where your pet, you know, your your sort of presentation, which people will potentially watch. But on these panels, now you get to sort of showcase your ability as an expert. And what that does is it will help create a transfer of credibility within the event not only to the other experts, but to the host as well. But it really gets people motivated. Those kinds of things are phenomenal. And they're really easy to do. It's stupid, simple. Create a Zoom Room, plan a time, get people there teta, give a topic.

Alyson Lex
Have at it, right. And it's that idea of exclusive access to something people love exclusivity. And this brings us to whole the whole how to position it to sell it thing. Right? Like you're positioning it as exclusive access to something that the quote unquote, regular people don't get. So if you look at an in person event, and I've been to quite a few there is there's one that stands out, and they have a pretty robust VIP push. There's an entire section of the ballroom that is roped off. And it has its own entrance door. And it is VIP only. I'm already jealous. They're physically separating, you know. And it's you get to sit right up at the front. And you get front row seat and you get early access. And you get your own lounge, you have to have a VIP tag to get into the lounge where there's free coffee. I mean, not gonna lie, I've considered upgrading to VIP just for the coffee. It's stupid, right? But

Jennie Wright
but it plays on your you know, it plays on those emotions. It plays like that. Right?

Alyson Lex
Yeah, totally. And it also if you think about it, right, who else is going to be in the VIP lounge, people have proved who have proven to invest in themselves and their business? Who do I want to talk to people who invest in themselves in their business. So you position it as this exclusive access to not only your experts, but other people in the community. And now you have an even sexier opportunity to, to sell to them. So where do we communicate this? Where do we sell it? How do we do this? How to set it up?

Jennie Wright
There's so many opportunities and people tend not to take advantage of all of them.

Unknown Speaker
I have a phrase,

Jennie Wright
close the loops fill the gaps. Because if I'm not going to get you one way, I'm going to get you another right. And so I and the way that you do this is you basically it's not carpet bombing, okay, this is not spray and pray and hope people upgrade. This is very targeted ways of doing it. So when people register for your free event, normally they land on a thank you page. Thanks for registering. So glad you're here. Hope you enjoy.

Unknown Speaker
Right?

Jennie Wright
What an opportunity. That is. One of the things that I get my clients to do is I get them to create and I got Alyson to do this too, is to create a welcome video, the welcome video, really reiterate the fact that you're in the right place, that you're going to receive this information that you're getting all the things that you know, we talked about on the opt in page. But then there's the opportunity and we framed the opportunity as a way to enjoy the event at a new level to get more, to receive more to get more transformation to get to the soul, the soul To your problem faster, quicker, stronger, all those things. And you do that in the welcome video. That's your first point of contact for the sale. Your second point of contact for the sale is if people don't see the welcome page, which by the way on mobile, most people won't look at it. And 75% of our users typically are on mobile, we have to do it in the confirmation email, the confirmation email, absolutely has to have an opportunity to upgrade. If you don't put it there, you're leaving money on the table. So go do this. The other way is within the Facebook group. If there's a Facebook group for your event, there should be a welcome video for that as well. And it should be tagged in the automation, like in the welcome email, and also on the thank you page as well, like, hey, join the group. And instead of the group, just going to the group, the group goes to the post, they still have to join the group to see it. But they're directed right away to the post that you want them to see, which is your welcome video, which talks about the upgrade? Right? So there's three opportunities right there do not get me started on the other ways, because there's so many, but basically, it's it's rinse and repeating those different ways, right? People often overlook the ways they can communicate, people often overlook the ways that they can do this. Allison, what other ways do you think there are

Alyson Lex
you breadcrumb it throughout the event itself? Right. So if you're doing your interviews, let's say somebody, one of your experts just talks about something really just incredible, invaluable. And you can say, right in the interview, wow, expert, that's, you know, life changing business, changing what have you, I know, our VIP people are going to be really glad to have lifetime access to this recording. You're not selling, you're not pitching, you're just breadcrumb, you're dropping a little breadcrumb, and letting them follow it if they want. You're not taking them out of the conversation? No, you're just saying, this is something that I know our VIPs are going to appreciate.

Jennie Wright
Bread crumbing is key. And it works really, really well. And if you have a problem with selling, if selling feels spammy, and all that kind of stuff to you understand, this is not necessarily selling, it's creating an opportunity for people to get a deeper connection and more effective change. You're actually helping people. You know, I can frame this any way you want, because I do marketing and spins my thing. But I can say really easily that if you don't do a VIP upgrade, or if you don't offer a higher level solution to people that you are actually robbing people of an opportunity to get the things that they need. So and that's, you know, again, that's me doing the marketing spin on it. But it's also me saying it's not it's okay to do this. There's nothing wrong as long as what you're offering, let's talk about that. As long as what you're offering within your package, your VIP upgrade your content upgrades makes sense. Do not have us do a garage sale table of crap.

Alyson Lex
No, we don't want to say oh, I can throw this old product in or Oh, I have this lead magnet I did five years ago or, oh, look, I can do this interview or this video, I have a ton of content that I've created over the last 13 plus years. And if I throw it all together, it doesn't mean anything. No. Okay. And that's Jenny mentioned the whole bonus sandwich thing. And so I really, if you are considering a VIP upgrade for your free list, build event, go listen to that and discover what kind of content you should be adding, because it's going to add value. And I'll give you a really quick, you want to help them achieve the things that your main event is helping them. You want to give them tools and resources, or end or you want to help prepare them. We dive more into it in episode eight.

Jennie Wright
It is episode eight, actually,

Alyson Lex
look at me go episode eight, the bonus sandwich. We'll link to it on the show notes. But that is is going to be key. Now, at the time of this recording, I'm running a challenge. I have a VIP, we're going to talk about challenge VIP in a minute. But most of my VIP sales, especially for a challenge are not going to happen before the event.

Jennie Wright
I'm going to have to disagree with you on that. Most of them. Yeah. So the challenge. Yeah. And it'll tell you why. And then we can we can barter and go back and forth. No problem. The challenge that I the most recent challenge that I did, I had a 22% conversion rate. And 99% of those people came before the event even started and I got a smattering of people after the event started. So I actually converted beforehand and I was converting off of credibility. If you don't have credibility, then what Allison saying actually does come into play.

Alyson Lex
Okay, so I just wanted to Yes. So a large part of this audience, for my challenge is new to me. They are brand new to my list. So I don't have that credibility, yet. They want to see what I can do before they're ready to upgrade. So if you have a following that's been around for a while you have the credibility, then you will see sales before the event, like the summit that Jenny and I are on. At the time of this recording, it hasn't started yet. And she has made a lot of money.

Jennie Wright
Yep, she's converted big time,

Alyson Lex
because she has spent years building that credibility. And now she's leveraging that they will increase, especially for a summit, they will increase as the event continues. So as people realize, hey, there's value here, it's a lot for me to take in all at once I'm going to miss out. They're going to go ahead and upgrade as long as you have the opportunities throughout for them to do so. So we can't just say, Oh, they saw it on the thank you page, they'll get it if they want it, you have to remind them, you have to breadcrumb them, put it in a daily emails. There's nothing wrong with tossing a PS in the Hey, your sessions or live emails that say, one of these sounds interesting, but you're gonna miss out, check out the VIP upgrade and see if it's right for you. Simple. You're not being pushy, right?

Jennie Wright
No, not at all. And the fact of the matter is, is you think you're being whenever you think you're being overly pushy, or you're providing you know, you're overly doing it, you're actually not, because the chance like you know, all the content that you're putting out there, you know, every daily email, you know, repost, you know, every Facebook Live, you know, all the bread crumbing you're doing, the people who are participating, are seeing one eighth of it, literally one eighth of it.

Unknown Speaker
So you need to really pinpoint

Jennie Wright
Yeah, so you need to feel like you're almost overdoing it, for them to actually see any of it. And I found this out the hard way, when I was promoting a challenge. Gosh, it would have been in late 2019. And I realized, you know, because I was promoting, it was a three, two and a half week promotion, I added 35 or 3338, Facebook Lives to promote the challenge 38 Facebook Lives in a two and a half week period. That's a lot. By the way, just as a heads up, it was a lot. But what I didn't, I was struggling with the transfer of credibility to me from this large group that I was doing these Facebook Lives, and because the owner of the group, let me go in there and just have at it. And I was trying to create that transfer of credibility. And the only way to do it in a short period of time, was to really get in there and provide and provide and provide and provide provide. What I found out was as I did 38 Facebook Lives, do you know how many people on average saw, like how many actual Facebook Lives they saw? Because I asked them 5325 Wow, out of 38, three to five, but that's all it took. Now if I only did three to five Facebook Lives in a two and a half week period, they would have seen one or none. And there would not have been that opportunity or that transfer of credibility from the host of that group over to me and would not have resulted in the amount of signups I got because that challenge was wack. It was great. 400 plus signups, you know, over 100, calls booked, etc, right, like all you know, and then tons of income off the back end of it, which was fantastic was a very successful event. But none of that would have happened had I not done that. So when you take that lesson and apply it. It's something that when my clients are like, during a promo of their summit, and I usually tell people that the promo has to be three weeks. They're like, Okay, well, I'll just go live once a week.

Unknown Speaker
The hell you will.

Jennie Wright
Try. Sorry, try every freaking day girlfriend. And they're like, what I'm like, yeah, you gotta do it.

Alyson Lex
And so we're talking about filling the free event. But the same also holds true when it comes to sell the VIP upgrade. So if you feel like you're being pushy, I really love that perspective shift that you just said that. You're seeing everything you're doing to sell it. They're not. And so don't stress too much about how often you're offering it. Because you're also just offering it. You're just offering it exactly. You're not saying, you know, Oh, you don't want this. I'm kicking you out of the event. It's just an upgrade.

Jennie Wright
Would you have the same perspective? If you were using paid traffic? Would you tell Facebook? Oh, please don't show my Facebook ad to people more than once a day,

Alyson Lex
right? No, I want I want you to show it to them so they convert

Jennie Wright
it. Same thing applies in organic,

Unknown Speaker
just gonna say

Alyson Lex
so we mentioned We'd love to use content upgrades on challenges as well and offer a VIP option for challenge, which has traditionally been only monetized on the back end. And this is something that Jenny and I started doing. Oh, gosh, just a few months ago, right? Yeah, totally. And it has worked really well generated income, bonus income. But it also helps you identify who's super engaged in your content. And with the things that we offer for the challenge VIP, it gives you that additional opportunity to connect and engage with them, and build that relationship that credibility to to get to that sale. And so we did it for Jenny's challenge in December,

Jennie Wright
November, November of 2020,

Alyson Lex
November of 2020. And we included, obviously, the recordings. But there was also a VIP cost. There was the training in the morning. Yeah, that was the that was the all registered training, the all registered training. And then there was a VIP training and or q&a call in the evening. Yeah. And those were very well attended.

Jennie Wright
There were they were attended by 80 to 90% of all VIP purchasers. They were very

Alyson Lex
well attended. Yeah. We also we tossed in a product that you had, yes, it costs you nothing to include it was already it already existed. Yep. just tossed it in boosted the perceived value, a one on one strategy call. And we did some other stuff, too, right? You tossed in some templates throughout the week.

Jennie Wright
Yeah, I actually throat as the VIP q&a calls were happening. I was noticing an opportunity that was coming up where people were like, Oh, I really need this thing. And I happen to have a lot of templates. And if I didn't have it, I created it. And I threw those in as well. So I'd be like, Oh, you guys don't know how to you know, Oh, you guys are going to build a challenge. But you don't know how to do this. No problem. I've got this for you through and some Canva templates, students and email templates, just things that were really, really useful at the time that we identified through actually doing the challenge, because was the first time I did it. I'm rerunning that challenge, very, very soon, actually, in about a week. And I know that those content upgrades those, those VIP templates will be part of that. So that people can get them already know they want that. And I might even add some more.

Alyson Lex
Well, and another thing that I noticed you did, because I was actually attending with you was you didn't just offer these things out loud. On the VIP calls. You identified some opportunities in the free all access training. And then said, Actually, you know what, if you're my VIP, I'll give it to you. And you sold VIPs that way

Jennie Wright
I sold? Yeah, I actually sold quite a few VIPs. You're totally right, just by saying, Yeah, you know what? Absolute because people were like, Oh,

Unknown Speaker
can you give that to me? You?

Jennie Wright
Can you give that to me? And I will tell you quite honestly that past Jenny would have totally give it to them. No problem, I would have over delivered and given that out totally for free. Because that's just where my head was at. And then I'm not saying that I'm different now. But I understand the value of the things that I've created and the work I put into them. And so I would absolutely say absolutely, you can have that the VIPs are the ones who are going to get it. So if you're not in the VIP, it would be totally worth it. And some people said it was worth getting the VIP just for those things.

Alyson Lex
Right. And now you know why Alison was with you. Because I was like, Oh, that's a VIP. Bonus VIP, but I was messaging messaged her in her. Yep, privately. Yes. offer that to the VIPs. Yeah, so a lot of sales happen before the event. If you have that credibility with your audience, they'll happen during the event. How about after,

Jennie Wright
after the event, I tend not to offer that same VIP after the event. I kind of like to close it off and say join the next one. You know, grab that. But I do actually I have used it as a potential content upgrade as part of a coaching course, and things of that nature. But I normally personally and it doesn't mean you can't but personally I don't.

Alyson Lex
So when it comes to a summit, I do like to say hey, if you want the recordings, I'll offer them to you for this price, which is usually just a little bit lower than VIP was so that you train the audience to kind of take you up on the VIP next time. But, um, and at the time of this recording, I haven't finished my challenge so I don't think I'll be offering VIP pass the challenge that It just doesn't feel good to me that because a lot of the VIP is the experience. And I don't want to, I don't want to sell something that that they can't experience. Correct. But for a summit, I absolutely think a recording or a VIP offer after the fact, they missed out on the live stuff, but that's part of the scarcity that you have. Right? If you want in on this panel, if you want in on this q&a, if you want in on all of this live stuff that's happening during the event, you have to upgrade before it happens or you miss it because it's live. And then it's over. Yep. So I like that. I'm pricing of the VIP. One thing that I've done that I really like is I give a percentage of that upgrade price to charity. And I've done this for a challenge, because I'm not splitting it between experts. So there is when you have a VIP and you have people marketing for you and experts. There's that affiliate stuff that Jennie is much more adept at breaking down. But when you're doing a challenge, you can give away money. It's kind of cool. doesn't cost me anything, I want to identify my engaged people. So I give away a percentage to my favorite charity, or identify a charity, I want to support that time and I give away part of the money.

Jennie Wright
We do these on summits, too. It's actually a really, really good social responsibility initiative, as part of your event to show that as well. So experts typically get about 40% commission off of sales in a summit. And then we do a 10% affiliate or 100%. Sorry, donation to charity. And then the host keeps 50%. Right. So there's that approach as well. I love the idea of giving away to charity. I did an event a couple years ago, with a client. And through the VIP sales that we were able to get from the event, we ended up having a $10,000 check for charity.

Alyson Lex
That's crazy. Yeah, there's so much money.

Jennie Wright
Yeah, $10,000 from a summit and the summit was, I think, seven days.

Alyson Lex
So much money, totally. And it not only, I mean, feels good, right. But it also looks really good. And it allows people to say that they want to align themselves with you, because they support what you support. It just gives another area of connection, and trust, and relationship and community between you and your audience. If they can kind of get behind what you're getting behind. If they can see your passion. So choose something. If you're going to go this route, choose something you're really passionate about. So they can see you light up when you talk about it. And then tell them you're doing it.

Jennie Wright
Yep. And have it everywhere. opt in page, thank you page confirmation email, wherever you're talking about the thing put that there, there's a lot of people who will open their wallets and buy your VIP simply to just to support the charity. Quite honestly, they're more inclined. Yeah. Right,

Alyson Lex
that's a really cool, it's a really cool way to both give back and get more at the same time.

Jennie Wright
And in terms of the pricing, let's talk about that for a second. Because the pricing of your VIP experience on either a seminar or a challenge really is defined by your ideal client. So could you charge $297? Or more? Yeah, maybe we'll maybe, but will your ideal client?

Unknown Speaker
Take it by it? Maybe not. Right?

Jennie Wright
So you have to this is where the planning comes in. This is where the understanding of your audience comes in. This is where understanding your niche comes in. And knowing what the market will bear.

Alyson Lex
Well, and at the same time, there are instances where a higher price is better. So we're currently sharing a client that's planning a summit. And their VIP is 297. And in fact, it's a paid event to begin with. Yep. Because of the people they're going after.

Jennie Wright
And the offer within it. So this particular, right this this particular summit is aimed at corporate. And one of the things that comes out of that is these Sherm credits, which people who want to stay, they want to keep their certifications in their particular field need to have a certain amount of Sherm credits every single year, so they have to attend certain events to receive those to maintain their certification. So if you can attend an event for $297 and get X amount of Sherm credits that go towards your certification, right, it's totally worth it. And because it's corporate, it's, it's a tax write off

Alyson Lex
and the perceived value of it. It has to be it has to be paid and it has to be a little more Expensive then going to the entrepreneur market or the consumer market, simply because if it's free, it's seen as worthless, correct?

Jennie Wright
Absolutely. And that's a huge thing to think of. When I do that my VIP packages, I take my ideal client into consideration. Do I push the envelope a little bit? Sometimes? Yes, absolutely. But I'm also taking into consideration the value that I'm pulling together. Right? So that kind of makes sense as well.

Alyson Lex
Absolutely, yeah. push the envelope, push it a little bit. Make it maybe a little bit of an uncomfortable stretch, but not so much that there.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah,

Jennie Wright
exactly, exactly. And if it's your first time, then maybe your pricing structure is a little bit different. If it's your first time doing a summit, it's your first time doing a challenge and you're unsure, then you can price based on your comfortability as well. If you think that it has to be $27, than to $27. If you've done it more than once, and you're like $27 felt easy, I'm now going to do 67 try that ups, frickin Luli Go for it. I absolutely understand the feeling of not wanting to charge too much. But I also understand the feeling of wanting to see what my you know what the market can kind of bear on that.

Unknown Speaker
Awesome. Alright,

Jennie Wright
so this was really interesting to talk about, there was a lot in this conversation that Allison and I have brought up to create and help you see the possibilities of what you can create with a content upgrade. Content upgrades aren't for everybody. It's but it is a very useful tool in creating, you know, some income, as well as identifying those hot and ready leads during an event. We want you to consider what this can do for your business, and how you can fit it in. If this makes sense. Try it out. You know what? Let Allison I know if you do it, how it went? What were your results? What were the pros, the cons? How did it all kind of come together for you, we would love to hear about that from you. Head on over to System to thrive.com. And check out the different ways that you can get in touch with Allison and I we have a business page on Facebook. We're all over Instagram, LinkedIn, all the things connect with us. Also, if you like the way that Alison and I have been sort of explaining these things over episodes, and you want to know about how to work with us, there is a work with us tab on our website, find out how you can connect with us there and see what it would look like for us to do something together. Because also and I love to help people. So check that out. And if you're on this podcast and you love the episodes, please consider leaving a review and subscribing to the podcast. It makes us incredibly happy to get a new review, we actually kind of jump up and down about it. Because it's really, really fun. We enjoy it. We love it. Leave an honest review. And definitely subscribe. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast in this episode with us and we'll be back again very soon answering another big question.