Some 15 years ago, a dewy-eyed Adriana was discovering wine and (finally!) understanding that good wine doesn’t have to be sweet. Don’t judge, no one’s at their brightest in college, OK?

Around the same time, at a work event, I had the opportunity to speak with a more seasoned wine aficionado. I started praising a relatively cheap wine I had just discovered and he told me something I’ll never forget: “Enjoy it for as long as you can. This is your entry point into the real world of wine. Once you’re past this point, sh*t’s gonna get very expensive.”

This is the wine value ladder and it’s what most wineos climb. They start with affordable wines and before they know it, they can sniff a Grand Cru a mile away. Needless to say, they rarely go back to boxed wines after that, and if they do it’s for the sake of nostalgia.

There is, of course, a tiny fraction of people who skip straight to the luxury wines and luxury everything. In the wine industry, as everywhere else, there’s a price tag to fit any budget.

Winemakers, even the most established (read: expensive) of them, create different wines at different price points knowing that most of their clients need to do a bit of climbing to get to their most prized variety. And that their premium clients will be curious enough to go down the ladder and explore cheaper varieties if they enjoyed their top-of-the-line wine.

As you might have inferred by now, a value ladder is

A marketing and pricing strategy that takes clients on a journey through several offers and adds more value with each step.

There are two approaches to the value ladder: low-to-high and high-to-low.

Which one is right for your business?

Queue the most hated answer in marketing: it depends. Sorry, it really does. But there are a few rules of thumb to help you decide.

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The low-to-high value ladder

You’ve seen this model in SaaS: start on a free tier or a free trial, then upgrade when your needs or your business grow. While it comes with some problems of its own, it works.

In the creator economy or for a service-based business the low-to-high value ladder looks like this:

  1. Free content: newsletter, social media posts, blog posts, lead magnets.
  2. Entry-level offer: digital downloads — cheap enough to be bought on impulse –, short self-guided courses, a bite-sized service (like copy review or small design tweaks). Usually priced under $100.
  3. Mid-level offer: more expensive digital downloads, courses, consultations, coaching sessions, services. Usually priced at $100-$999.
  4. Premium offers: 1:1 coaching/consulting, cohort-based programs, done-for-you services. Usually priced at $1000+.

The high-to-low value ladder

As expected, the high-to-low value ladder is the reversed low-to-high ladder…with a catch.

In high-end restaurants and wine bars, nearly everything’s premium-level. Still, you get a free amuse bouche or a free welcome drink upon arrival. Just to set the mood and give you an idea about what’s coming.

So the high-to-low value ladder also starts with freebies:

  1. Free content: newsletter, social media posts, blog posts, lead magnets
  2. Premium offers: 1:1 coaching/consulting, cohort-based programs, done-for-you services. Usually priced at $1000+.
  3. Mid-level offer: more expensive digital downloads, courses, consultations, coaching sessions, services. Usually priced at $100-$999.
  4. Affordable offer: digital downloads — cheap enough to be bought on impulse –, short self-guided courses, a bite-sized service (like copy review or small design tweaks). Usually priced under $100.

Why would you add cheaper products IF your client is already sold on your high-ticket item? For a few reasons:

  • There are only so many high-ticket items you can create and maintain quality.
  • Cheaper alternatives — even the mid-level offers –, can be seen as impulse purchases in this case, something that the client adds to cart because they look like amazing bargains compared to the main purchase.
  • They make for great cross-sell opportunities. Bought a $4k mastermind? Add this digital planner to your cart too for only $199. It’s less than 5% of what you’re already willing to spend, so it’s an easy yes.
  • You can keep your clients engaged and loyal until it’s time for a new high-ticket offer.

Now here’s the million-dollar question: should do low-to-high or high-to-low? My preference is for low-to-high. But let’s play the devil’s advocate before I explain why.

The case for the high-to-low value ladder

Say you’re aiming to have $10K months consistently — it’s a fairly feasible goal. The math is simple:

4 clients x $2500 product = $10,000

67 clients x $150 product = $10,000 (and change)

200 clients x $50 product = $10,000

As the price grows, the number of clients you need lowers.

The proponents of the high-to-low approach would tell you that it’s easier to sell to 4 clients than it is to sell to 67 or 200 clients.

They’re right only because they ignore context. It’s like asking: “And other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”

It’s not necessarily easier to sell to 4 clients than it is to sell to 200.

But there is a good reason to use a high-to-low value ladder: you gather insights faster. Even though you have fewer clients, they are more invested in your products or services (they paid more for them!) and thus more willing to offer honest feedback.

Plus, you’ll work with them for longer, so there will be more time for you to ask questions. Whether you sell a cohort-based mastermind or a done-for-you service, odds are you’ll be in touch with them for at least one month.

Back to the lower number of customers argument: you need fewer people to buy but you still need plenty of eyes on your offer to make those purchases happen.

And this is the real Catch-22 of value ladders. You need a large audience for both cheap and expensive products.

The case for the low-to-high value ladder

Yes, you need more customers to make those $10K or $100K months happen. But the difference in the total audience needed is negligible.

Why?

Gaining trust is hard. It’s even harder if you start high but on a modicum of an audience. Everything is a numbers’ game.

The more people flock to your brand, the more trust you gain. If 10K people praise a brand, there must be some value there, right? If 100K people do it, you’re an authority with a huge trust capital.

But what happens when you’re just starting out? Will people shed upwards of $1K to learn if they can trust you?

Not really, no.

But they may shed $50 on an impulse purchase. Overdeliver on that and you’re free to build the next step of your ladder.

I’m a fan of the low-to-high model for a few reasons:

  • It builds trust incrementally aka the natural way.
  • It focuses on clients first and THEN on maximizing revenue –> this is how you build sustainable businesses.
  • It’s much easier to scale and repurpose: a tiny digital product can be expanded into a short self-guided course, then a cohort-based mastermind. The reverse process is useless since the client already got the maximum value.
  • It allows you to TEST and iterate with a minimal investment.
  • Low-ticket items are much easier to produce and far less time-consuming.
  • Even with a tiny audience, low-ticket items allow you to start monetizing early, whereas starting with a high-ticket product/service may leave you with zero sales.

How to build an effective value ladder [with examples]

Building a full ladder in a single go can be intimidating. It’s also a bad idea if you’re still unclear about what your audience needs.

It’s OK to start with 1-2 steps and build more as you gain more clarity. My own value ladder has a few missing steps by design (more on that later).

However, the first step is always the same and there’s no bypassing it:

  1. Start with free content/free trials/free assessments. As you do that, gather feedback and have REAL conversations with the members of your audience who are an ideal fit for what you’ll be launching. Next:
  2. Build an entry-level product. The easiest and lowest-risk option is a digital product/a downloadable PDF. Price that at $50 or below.
  3. Build one or more mid-level products. Digital downloads, short courses, consulting sessions, low-investment/high-impact services are a good place to start. $200-$400 is the sweet spot for these.
  4. High-ticket offer time. IF your previous products were well received, it’s time to offer your clients the ONE product to rule them all. Turnkey services (like a done-for-you website), cohort-based programs, 1:1 lengthier consulting programs — these are all formats you can try out. Price them well above $1000.

Let’s take a look at my own value ladder, with its missing steps and all:

  1. Free content. You’re reading it now, you may have read it on LinkedIn or Twitter, and you’ve seen it in my lead magnet when you first subscribed.
  2. Entry-level product. My launch email sequence is priced at only $15. It builds on my 15+ years as a copywriter and marketer, which helps me cushion the blow of a low-ish-sized audience. More importantly, it helps me build trust and is a perfect launching pad for higher-priced offers, like my
  3. Mid-level product. A 1:1 strategy session with yours truly. This product also piggybacks on my experience (credibility matters!) and it helps me gain insights into what my clients need aka what my next product should be.
  4. High-ticket offer. Coming soon, stay tuned!

My absolute favorite part about this structure is how the teeny-tiny digital product fuels the trust for the higher-priced consulting call. 80% of the clients who scheduled a strategy session with me bought the email launch sequence first. 80%!!

This is also my favorite piece of evidence that you CAN monetize a brand with a fairly low audience.

My friend Brad Long, on the other hand, has the picture-perfect value ladder. It follows the “book” so well that I had to add it here. Luckily, he just commented on a post of mine with every step of his ladder:

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Here’s what I love most about it:

  • See how there are multiple entries for some of the steps? He offers a ton of free content before he moves his clients to the next steps.
  • A quiz as a lead magnet is a brilliant idea — it’s fun, engaging, and, more importantly, it can give you excellent insights into your leads’ needs. Brad’s quiz meets all these criteria. Try it out if you don’t believe me. I matched with a “DPE” type of business. What did you match with?
  • His goals for each step of the ladder are consistent and aimed at maximizing value.

While I don’t have exact numbers for Brad’s business, I know that his value ladder works like a charm and he has insane conversion rates.

How you can apply this to your business

Use the high-to-low model if:

  • You have a validated product i.e. you spent a TON of time researching and validating it and you’re sure it’s good enough to get people to risk a large amount of money whether they know you or not.
  • You have a sufficiently large audience that you haven’t sold anything to yet AND you’re sure that you have their trust too.
  • You can partner up with a more popular brand and piggyback on their authority.

Use the low-to-high model if:

  • You don’t have a huge audience and excellent brand awareness.
  • You’re focused on audience-building rather than fast monetization.
  • You’re in it for the long run as opposed to riding a trend while it lasts.
  • You want to test and iterate.
  • You’re not quite sure of what your audience might need or want.

No ladder is forever — choose adaptability instead

Whatever model you prefer, remember that you don’t have to stick with it forever — you can (and should!) always adapt and improve on it. Moreover, you don’t need to check every step in the models above, except for the free/freemium content/access. Those are must-haves in nearly any industry.

Lastly, I know that the pull of the high-to-low model is strong. Who doesn’t like a lot of money FAST? If you’re thinking about it, try to balance it out with the current trust you enjoy from your audience. This is one of the hardest assessments you will ever have to make, but it’s crucial that you’re as unbiased as possible. If needed, get an objective third-party to make the assessment for you.

*wink-wink* I can help with that! Not sure how to build your own value ladder? I’ve helped dozens of people build it over the past few months during 1:1 strategy sessions. Book yours here!​

Always assume lower conversion rates for high-ticket items. If a low-ticket item can have a 1-5% conversion rate, a high-ticket one will probably land around 0.1% at best. This math is something you need to do for your own audience size and trust levels.

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That’s it from me today!

See you next week in your inbox!

Here to make you think,

Adriana

P.S.: By popular demand, I’m thinking about launching a new product: a guided template to help you build your own marketing strategy. It will have a ton of references and tools to help you get the data you need, as well as a clear structure to guide you through the process. Price point: around $50, most likely.

Would you be interested in it? Click on one of the answers below and let me know, please!

✅ Yeah, gimme!​

❌ Neah, not for me!​

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Adriana’s Picks

  1. My friend Lisa Williams is a brilliant marketer and fellow agency owner. And, of course, she has a brilliant newsletter too! Subscribe to It’s Simply Newsworthy —the ultimate weekly newsletter for entrepreneurs and marketers that will spark your marketing strategy with actionable tips.
  2. Drake has a poetry book out there. It SOLD OUT despite the fact that it mostly consists of Instagram captions. The lesson(s) here? Repurposing is amazing. And you can’t beat notoriety.
  3. You can now read fewer tweets if you’re not a blue tick holder. Limiting the time users spend on an ads-fueled platform sounds like a genius move, doesn’t it?/sarcasm.
  4. Bonus: Meta launched Threads today, a text-based Twitter competitor. Did you try it out? Let me know!