The subject of marketing traction is a big one that can incorporate a variety of subjects. But for this course, I only want to deal with one traction aspect. We will deal with other subjects, such as leadership and strategy, in other courses and modules. Here and now, I only want to deal with Value Ladders and how they can assist you with market traction. In this section, we will deal with the following:
- What is a Value Ladder
- How to construct a Value Ladder
- How to use a Value Ladder
What is a Value Ladder?
This mechanism allows you to unbox your product or services into a component or bundled parts and sell for various values to your target market. In this way, you can cater for more of your market and allow those who are not ready to buy your ultimate product to ascend your value ladder to your flagship product or service. They do this as they learn more about you, build a stronger relationship and learn to trust your brand.
The alternative to the value ladder is less attractive, but it is what most small businesses do! Let me explain. Let us say 100 people who fit your ideal client profile might be interested in what you offer. Your journey to get to the point of having a viable product and or service has been one that took you time, effort and money. In most cases, there will have been a variety of steps you would have taken to get to the point of presenting the finished product or service.
These 100 interested people will come and visit your site, and in most cases, what they find is your finished flagship product or service. Let us assume that you are not too different from the trend, so two people buy as a result. What happens to the other 98? Where do they go? Some will do additional research, and providing they find what they are looking for, not just product but trust too, they may come back to you. Now you have to build a deeper relationship and demonstrate your expertise too!
If you have no mechanism to help these people and give them what they want, you risk letting them find what they need elsewhere in the arms of your competitors. The value ladder is a means of preventing the 98 from walking away from your product into the arms of the competition, and I will show you how.
There will be a proportion of the 98 that aren’t interested. This will be a surprisingly small number. A much bigger number will be those that want to buy, but first, they need to satisfy some of their decision-making criteria, for example:
- I want something but can’t afford this…
- I want to learn more at the moment…
- I want to do it myself…
- I need someone to do it for me…
- I need something that will help but not the full package…
What would happen if you could satisfy all of these needs of the majority online without needing to give them all your time? What if those that were about to walk could be retained? What would that do to your income, reputation and brand value?
The solution to this is the creation of a value ladder that is connected to your ‘marketing hub’ (I will be dealing with the creation of your marketing hub in a later module called Creating an Expert Business). The value ladder enables you to make offers to all your visitors based on the individual components and bundles you create from the by-products your business creates.
I will use my business as an example of how this can be achieved. The 7C’s program is a by-product of my desire to build a business that was capable of offering to my target market, you, unlimited support and advice and all you need to create exceptional and sustainable results and at the same time a business that can be developed to work for you, rather than you having to work for it all of the time. This is broken done still further into seven sections, and each section has a subsection. I call these frameworks, and each framework, even without all of the detail, has value to those who are on a quest to learn more and develop their skills and their business.
So while ultimately, people who enter my value ladder can go right ahead and buy a membership that includes access to this full program, those who are not ready to join can purchase the lower value, in terms of cost and framework and still advance their cause. Others can exchange their email and gain an even more cutdown version.
Other elements that have been unboxed from my main flagship product, the by-products of my business development, include some of my books which are also available at different levels of my value ladder. This is not just about the cost differential but also about the stages oof building and increasing trust, as those who do not already know me or my brand can learn more while gaining value on their journey up the ladder to the tipping point where they jump right in with the flagship offerings.
So when we look back at the questions or needs that may be the prevailing thoughts in many of your target market who have found you, you will find that the concept of the value ladder will answer their needs, for example:
- I want something but can’t afford this… The Value Ladder gives the buyer a range of alternatives to help them based on their available budget. Later, when they find additional funds or needs, they can upgrade. So, for example, I cannot afford to buy into the 7C’s program right now, but I can afford to buy the book for just £20.
- I want to learn more at the moment… The Value ladder allows the buyer to learn more about the subject without the need to commit more money than they are comfortable doing to find out more and make a more informed decision on suitability. So, for example, I am not sure if the 7C’s are for me, so I will buy the book for £20 and find out before I commit to the larger amount. I am willing to risk the £20 if I discover it is not for me.
- I want to do it myself… I have looked at the features, advantages and benefits of the flagship product but what I am looking for is the information that will allow me to do it for myself. So, for example, I don’t need the benefits of an Inner Circle membership because I am happy to do it all myself. I will join the lower membership type, giving me what I need right now.
- I need someone to do it for me… The Value Ladder allows me to view all the options, and because I feel the best option based on cost and time is for the work to be done for me, I would rather go for the flagship service. So, for example, I have looked at the free information, which has told me enough to justify going all the way with the top-of-the-range version right now.
- I need something that will help but not the full package… I want to do something but the top of the range option is just not financially possible at this time, so I am going to take the option I can afford and upgrade at a later date. So, for example, I want to be in the inner circle, but my budget won’t get me there right now. I can afford a lower-level membership for now and will upgrade later. In this case, something is better than nothing.
From this, I hope you can see that the addition of a well-constructed Value Ladder can be a game-changer for so many businesses. The Value Ladder gives your target market many more options. More than that, it opens the door to a slightly bigger market and helps create your differential and demonstrate your expertise. The Value Ladder gives you, in my view, the most important kind of marketing traction. More opportunities, more customers, more revenue and more brand value.
How to construct a Value Ladder
The first thing you need to do in constructing a Value Ladder is remember its purpose. It is a mechanism to ensure you can provide various related solutions to your target market at different price bands with differing levels of complexity, using the individual components that make up your flagship products or services. This then answers the question of the 100 people visiting your site, where do the 98 that do not buy your flagship product or service go when they decide that version of the solution is not for them at this time? The answer is they find a level on the value ladder that will suit them right now.
The best way to start your value ladder construction is with a plan of action. I have found the best way to do this is to construct a wireframe as an overview. How you do this is entirely up to you. I prefer to illustrate this as a staircase where the higher up the stairs you travel, the more complete the solution and the more the unit price rises:
You need to add to this the unboxed elements of your product and or service that can be bundled together or used separately to create a series of offerings that fit the value ladder model. We can use the following example, and I think you will easily be able to apply this principle to your value ladder construction.
Paul is a Mindset Coach who works with small businesses and, in particular, with leadership teams. During the process of designing his leadership mindset coaching program, he needed to design the following elements to ensure his service was in keeping with his target market’s true needs:
Paul is a Mindset Coach who works with small businesses and, in particular, with leadership teams. During the process of designing his leadership mindset coaching program, he needed to design the following elements to ensure his service was in keeping with his target market’s true needs:
- A fact-finding template so that he could easily identify causes and design solutions.
- A series of Digital presentations for instruction.
- A database of FAQs and answers.
- An EQ development program.
- An e-book for customers to remind them of what they needed to do to maintain a mindful attitude.
- A list of dos and don’ts of leadership.
- Personality profiling tools.
- The framework for a leadership retreat.
These components, before we started thinking about the strategy behind the Value ladder, were seen as parts of the overall service that he would be providing. But once he applied the Value Ladder strategy to his business, that would all change.
The Old Way Of Looking At It Versus The New
This is only an example, but it illustrates that you can mix and match your various elements into single products and bundles. They are all related to the client’s needs but allow more people to come into your value ladder as a client rather than just a few that will go for the flagship offering made up of all or most of the parts.
How to use a Value Ladder
The best way to use your ladder is to take full advantage of online sales funnels or, if you prefer, turbo-charged landing pages that can take your prospects on a journey of discovery. Over time you should be constructing sales funnels for each level you have designed into your Value Ladder during its construction.
But these are not one-way traffic. You should add the ability for up and down-sell as well as special offers and bundles, giving maximum opportunity to your business and your target market. We will look at this subject in detail in this and other programs on the Hub. The sales funnels is a digital version of the standard sales process but a process that works, providing you get the content right.
