“What do you think of this?” a client forwarded an email to me. It was an article regarding using $1 offers as a strategy to build passive income.

What feels like a no-brainer can be ultimately harmful for the long term brand and game you are trying to build. Which is why we never recommend it (low ticket offerings) to start.

When it comes to the question - Shall I launch a low ticket offer?

It all depends on your intention:

• Sometimes it can arise from a place of scarcity thinking. “Having clients that pay something, is better than having no-one pay at all”. But this way of thinking is a zero sum game, detrimental to your offer value long term.

• Or it may be coming from a place of desire. Perhaps this is the path to passive income?  The ultimate dream. To have your business making money even while you’re sleeping.

This is all good and well, of course, but people often miss the bigger brand strategy behind successful low ticket strategies they see working for someone else.

When I do our family shop, there are 2-3 brands that I will typically go for when it comes to toothpaste.

It’s not something I particularly wish to spend much brainpower working out, and there are already brands I trust. But that has taken years in the buildup.

Low ticket offerings tap into “spontaneous buy” sections of our brain, which is the part that relies on established trust.

Brand = trust in value. And it takes time to build up to that trust.

The problem comes when we lock down expertise-based offerings into low ticket offers before value is clear and properly distilled...

There are 3 questions to consider before going down the route of a low ticket offer.

1. Do you even know yet the value of what should be packaged in the $1 offer? 

This takes time to reveal. You have to first identify your high value offer, and successfully sell it.

To know, what it is people are buying from you and why.

Often the thing that is most valuable is something that we give away as free, as part of a bigger piece of work.

Because we haven’t learnt how to value it, and communicate that value persuasively ourselves.

Intuitively though you know that there is something there.

So the cost is that you end up re-affirming the low value association with what you now give away.

2. Low ticket offerings need to be strategic

What is this going towards? Do you know the path?

In all the work we teach and coach clients through, the underlying theme is about thinking strategic and long term.

Never losing sight of the end game.

Where is this low ticket offering leading towards?

And what are the conversion milestones for someone to recognise they need a next step?

If you want to sell a bandaid solution, you want to make sure it creates a way forward that makes your client recognise the real transformation they need.

3. Setting low bar perceptions towards the market

Do you really want to be known as the seller of commodity offerings? Where the value is barely above free?

If you start off selling $1 offerings. The leap to learn how to sell what you do at a higher value mark, and position yourself as premium in the market is going to be a much harder climb.

The long term strategic consequences of doing this too quickly in short, aren’t great.

All in all, this is about not selling a low ticket offer, until you have actually worked out the real value that you sell.

Strategically already positioned yourself as “high value” in the market.

So that the low ticket offering becomes a desirable no-brainer, as a way to sample what you have to offer (and consideration for bigger purchase), rather than just a transactional buy.

What is your take on low ticket / $1 offer strategies?

• I’ve considered it

• I’ve done it

• I would never do it

• This has given me food for thought

I have been tardy with this newsletter.

We’ve been super busy this last month with our first What Type Of Business Should You Run workshop... where we got to hold a beautiful space with 7 business owners, to go deep into setting strategic direction for their niche and business they want to build.

I’ve also been honouring my own natural creative cycles and taking time for inspiration to recharge.

I’ve decided to focus on creating content in season batches, which allows for the flow of energy with space to evaluate and recharge in between.

Let me know what you think about this topic. And I would love to hear about your approaches to creative recharges too.

Other resources to help you navigate your offer journey

• Download our free fix your offer fast guide - "4 Brutally Honest Reasons Why Your Offer Isn't Flying Off The Shelf - and how to fix it FAST"

• Subscribe to our email newsletter - Build The Business You Love

• Check out our From Expertise To Income session replay. We use eWebinar, which allows us to reply and interact with your questions as if you were attending the session live - which is pretty cool! - Watch It Here