Diversification is the hottest topic in my ​1:1 strategy sessions​. Most of my clients want to know how to add new revenue streams — ideally, some that don’t take up too much of their time and have good margins.

I noticed a pattern: adding new revenue streams to an established business can rarely happen with a traditional value ladder. You need to truly diversify, well beyond offering the same thing but more complex and more expensive.

You need a product ecosystem.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

My love-hate relationship with value ladders

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.”

The most common type of value ladder is low-to-high: start with a free lead magnet, then a low-priced offer, and then gradually increase the price.

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​This screenshot is taken from my in-depth issue on value ladders. Read it here if you missed it.​

Back when I wrote this issue, I didn’t have a proper value ladder. I don’t have one now either, as some consultants have pointed out.

A textbook value ladder has to solve ONE problem for ONE client. I’ve had three calls with three different consultants who tried to sell me their framework for a value ladder. Here’s what they proposed:

  • Step 1: free newsletter
  • Step 2: ​Guided Strategy Framework​ (for those who prefer to DIY their strategy)
  • Step 3: ​1:1 strategy sessions​ for those who need a bit of help or clarity, but not a lot of hand-holding.
  • Step 4: a cohort-based program or a 1:1 mentorship program spanning over several months where I teach my clients all they need to know about strategy.

This last step was missing from my ladder and the consultants promised to teach me how to implement it and get rich.

Now, this makes some sense in theory. In practice, however, things aren’t as cut and dry.

Why? For a variety of reasons, chief among them is the fact that buyer journeys are rarely linear.

Very, very few people want to explore the same business challenge at varying degrees of depth. In fact, after launching ​my fractional CMO offer​, I noticed that my audience prefers to book multiple strategy sessions with me, spread over several months, to tackle new problems as they arrive rather than spend months fixing everything in their business.

If you look at ​my products​, you’ll see that they solve several problems — for one or more clients. So they form a product ecosystem rather than a value ladder.

Product ecosystems — why and for whom?

Unlike value ladders, product ecosystems solve several problems for one or more people (or ICPs).

I noticed this with my agency services: our primary product was content writing. Sure, I could upsell my clients to more blog posts but there was a ceiling to that. On the other hand, it was easier to cross-sell copywriting, content strategy, and social media management — many of our clients, like all humans, have more than one need.

If you could fulfill not one but several of them, why not?

Today, on top of my strategy-related products that I could turn into a value ladder, my ecosystem also contains:

At first glance, you’d say that these are products for different ICPs. However, I noticed a few very interesting things:

  • Sure, most people buy ​the email sequence​ first — it’s affordable and the perfect impulse purchase. This is how some of you became subscribers in the first place.
  • Some of my clients bought every single one of my products, some of them multiple times (the strategy session).
  • Not all purchases happened from lowest- to highest-priced, which, again, is a clear sign that buyer journeys are non-linear.

Here’s a recent example: during a strategy session, my client and I outlined a few new revenue streams for her. Since she was about to launch a product that I advised her to create, she said “I’ll grab your email sequence so I won’t have to worry about the launch emails at all”.

This was completely unprompted (I never sell during these sessions) and a great sign that people know my products. They just wait until they need them to buy them.

And this is the value of product ecosystems. See, the client I mentioned above does NOT need a lengthy mentorship program. She just needs clarity on a few aspects of her marketing.

But she does need the occasional help with launches and with growing her audience.

So she’ll move from product to product as she needs them, not as I push her to.

This brings us to the million-dollar question:

Which is better for increasing customer LTV (Lifetime Value)?

The quick answer:

  • In the medium run, the value ladder: you can take a client through all the steps in ±6 months with most formats.
  • In the long run, the product ecosystem: clients outgrow value ladders (that’s a good thing, it means you taught them well!), so you need to expand beyond solving a single problem if you want to keep growing.

Value ladders vs product ecosystems: which gets you more money?

I don’t have a short answer here because it depends on your skillset and how you like to sell — inbound, via content, or through sales calls.

I do have a quick table for you to figure out your own ideal scenario:

​If the table is hard to view on your device, you can access the full version here. ​

How to read it:

  • Green = the best option for that criterion
  • Orange = tie between the two

Go through the table and identify the most important criteria for you. No two people are identical, so it’s important that you assess every criterion in your context. For example:

  • If you like direct sales, a value ladder makes sense for you. If not, go for a product ecosystem.
  • If you can invest in ads or if you have self-feeding growth loops for your audience (I teach them in ​Audience Accelerator​, wink-wink), you can go for a value ladder. Otherwise, maximize customer LTV with a product ecosystem.
  • Need money fast? Go for a value ladder (if you’re ready for direct sales). OR create a bundle with some/all the products in your ecosystem and sell it at a discount.

The options are endless. It’s up to you to make the choice that suits your ideal business model best.

Do I have to choose? Can I have both a value ladder and a product ecosystem?

Of course you can! You can have one key product that you sell on different tiers (I do a similar thing with Audience Accelerator, although I never market the different tiers separately) and a few products that are not directly connected to it.

However, make sure you have the bandwidth to sell all of them. Selling high-ticket items in a value ladder is time-intensive and so is delivering that high-ticket item.

Lastly, I have some good news for you: whatever model you choose, you can still add new revenue streams through at least two other tactics:

  1. Affiliate marketing: promote the products and services you believe in.
  2. Sponsorships and brand partnerships — ideal if you have a fairly large audience. BTW, I’ll be launching a brand partnership offer soon, ​click here if you want me to notify you about it​.

So, even if you opt for a value ladder, you’re not limited to selling that product and all its tiers. You have options — as you should because a single revenue stream is not ideal.