To increase your profits without the need for finding new clients, a highly effective approach is to upsell your freelance services to your current clients.
In this article, we’ll provide you with targeted strategies to help you successfully upsell your freelance services and maximize your earnings.
What is an upsell?
An upsell is when you offer an additional service or product to a customer who has already made a purchase.
For freelancers, this could mean expanding the project’s scope (and budget) or suggesting extra services that complement the main project.
We have some examples below.
The purpose of an upsell is to increase your earnings from each client.
Brainstorming Client Upsells + Examples
To increase your chances of success, it’s a good idea to have a few pre-set upsell packages ready to offer at any time.
Coming up with upsell ideas can be tricky, depending on your industry, but no field is off-limits when it comes to using upsells to boost profits. The key is to follow this approach:
- Determine Your Core Services
Start by listing everything you currently offer to clients. These are your primary services or core offerings. - Identify Easy Add-Ons
Next, look for services that can be easily added to your core offerings. These should be related services that feel like a natural fit and make it easy for clients to say “yes.”
Examples of Core Offerings & Upsells
Upsell Your Freelance Services as a Transcriber
Core Offering:
As a freelance transcriber, your primary service is converting audio or video recordings into accurate written text.
This involves listening to recordings, transcribing spoken content verbatim, and formatting the text according to the client’s specifications.
Your transcription work ensures that clients have a clear and readable record of their audio or video content for various uses, such as documentation, content creation, or legal purposes.
Upsell Options:
1. Timestamping
Offer to include timestamps at regular intervals or at specific points in the transcript.
This service is particularly useful for clients who need to reference particular sections of the recording or synchronize the transcript with video content.
By providing timestamps, you enhance the usability of the transcript, making it easier for clients to navigate and locate key moments.
2. Clean Transcript Editing
Upsell a service to clean up and polish the transcript by removing filler words, correcting grammar and punctuation errors, and ensuring clarity and readability.
This added level of editing improves the overall quality of the transcript, making it more professional and easier to read, especially for use in published materials or formal documents.
3. Formatting and Proofreading
Provide additional formatting and proofreading services to ensure that the transcript is not only accurate but also formatted according to the client’s preferences or industry standards.
This may include adjusting fonts, headings, and layout, as well as checking for consistency and accuracy.
Offering this service ensures that the final document is polished and ready for immediate use.
4. Multi-Language Transcription
If you have proficiency in multiple languages, offer to transcribe audio or video content in different languages.
This upsell is valuable for clients with international content needs, allowing them to reach a broader audience or manage multilingual projects more efficiently.
5. Audio Enhancement Services
Upsell the option to enhance the quality of the audio before transcription, such as reducing background noise, improving audio clarity, or separating overlapping voices.
This service can be crucial for clients with poor-quality recordings, ensuring that the final transcript is as accurate and complete as possible.
6. Repurposing the Transcript
Offer to repurpose the transcript into additional formats or content types.
This could include creating summary reports, blog posts, social media content, or even developing scripts for video or audio segments.
By transforming the transcript into various formats, you help clients maximize the value of their content and reach different audiences, providing added versatility and content management.
Upsell Your Freelance Services as a Writer
Core Offering:
As a freelance writer, your main service is writing high-quality articles for clients.
This could range from blog posts to in-depth research pieces, all tailored to the client’s specific needs. You craft engaging, informative, and well-structured content that meets the target audience’s expectations.
Upsell Options:
1. Get it Published with a Backlink
Beyond writing the article, offer to get it published on reputable websites or blogs within the client’s industry.
Not only does this increase the article’s visibility, but securing a backlink to the client’s website also boosts their SEO performance, driving traffic and improving search rankings.
This added service saves your client the hassle of finding publishing opportunities and enhances their digital footprint.
2. Optimize for SEO
For an additional fee, you can optimize the article for search engines by including keyword research, meta descriptions, title tags, and internal linking strategies.
This ensures the article is not only valuable to readers but also easily discoverable by search engines like Google.
Offering SEO optimization increases the article’s long-term value, helping clients rank higher in search results and attract more organic traffic.
3. Promote on Social Media
Expand the reach of the article by promoting it across social media platforms. You can create tailored social media posts that highlight key points from the article, encourage shares, and drive engagement.
By managing the social promotion, you help clients reach a broader audience and increase traffic to their website.
This upsell is particularly valuable for clients looking to boost brand awareness and interaction online.
Upsell Your Freelance Services as a Video Editor
Core Offering:
Your main service as a freelance video editor is to edit YouTube videos.
This involves organizing raw footage, adding transitions, adjusting sound, and making sure the video is polished and ready for publishing.
It’s a critical service for content creators looking to produce professional-quality videos.
Upsell Options:
1. Design a Custom Thumbnail
Offer to create an eye-catching, custom YouTube thumbnail to increase video clicks.
A well-designed thumbnail can significantly improve the video’s visibility and viewer engagement.
By offering this service, you’re adding value to the client’s video and helping them stand out from the competition.
2. Upload and Optimize the Video
As an additional service, take care of uploading the video directly to the client’s YouTube channel.
Include optimization elements like writing a compelling title, description, and relevant tags to help the video perform better in search results.
This upsell saves your client time and ensures their video is primed for discovery.
3. Create Short Clips from the Long-Form Video
Extract key moments or highlights from the full video to create short, engaging clips for platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube Shorts.
These snippets can be used to drive traffic back to the main video, expanding your client’s reach across multiple platforms.
This upsell adds further value by maximizing the content’s impact.
Upsell Your Freelance Services as a Social Media Marketer
Core Offering:
As a freelance social media marketer, your primary service is creating engaging and visually appealing posts for various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
These posts are designed to captivate the target audience, encourage interaction, and boost brand visibility.
By crafting content that resonates with the audience, you help clients increase their social media presence and drive organic traffic.
Upsell Options:
1. Set Up Social Pixels for Retargeting
Offer to implement social pixels on your client’s website, enabling them to track visitors and create custom retargeting campaigns.
Social pixels are snippets of code that allow clients to reach users who have already shown interest in their products or services.
This upsell provides a valuable tool for maximizing conversions by targeting warm leads, increasing the chances of turning visitors into paying customers.
By handling the setup, you make it easy for clients to leverage this powerful marketing tactic.
2. Manage Paid Ad Campaigns
In addition to organic content, you can upsell the management of paid social media advertising campaigns.
This service involves creating, launching, and optimizing ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
You’ll focus on targeting the right demographics, adjusting bids, and tracking performance to ensure the best return on investment (ROI) for your client’s ad spend.
By running effective ad campaigns, you help clients reach a wider audience, drive traffic, and boost sales, all while handling the complexities of paid advertising.
3. Build Influencer Partnerships
Another valuable upsell is coordinating collaborations with influencers in your client’s niche.
You can identify relevant influencers, negotiate partnerships, and manage the entire campaign to promote the client’s products or services through trusted voices.
Influencer marketing can significantly amplify brand visibility and credibility, especially when the right influencers are involved.
Offering this service positions you as a strategic partner, helping clients tap into new audiences and increase brand loyalty.
Freelance Graphic Designer
Core Offering:
As a freelance designer, your primary service is crafting eye-catching and professionally designed social media graphics.
This involves creating visuals that align with the client’s brand, ensuring that the graphics are optimized for different social media platforms, and delivering a product that drives engagement and effectively communicates the client’s message.
Upsell Options:
1. Design Variations for Different Platforms
Offer to create multiple variations of the social media graphics tailored for different platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Each platform has its own dimensions and best practices, so providing optimized designs for each can enhance the client’s overall social media presence and effectiveness.
2. Create a Social Media Content Calendar
Provide an upsell service where you create a content calendar that includes the social media graphics you’ve designed along with suggested posting schedules.
This helps clients plan their social media strategy more effectively, ensuring consistent and strategic content delivery.
3. Monthly Social Media Package
Offer a subscription-based package where clients receive a set number of custom social media graphics each month.
This provides ongoing value and ensures that the client has fresh, high-quality visuals for their social media channels regularly, while also establishing a steady income stream for you.
What Makes a Good Upsell?
1. Adds Real Value
An upsell should genuinely enhance the client’s experience.
For instance, if you’re a personal trainer offering a fitness plan, adding a tailored meal plan as an upsell makes sense and adds real value.
However, offering a random gym accessory that doesn’t fit the client’s needs, like a water bottle they already have, doesn’t add value and can feel like a sales gimmick.
To be effective, your upsell should complement and elevate the original service or product in a way that’s clearly beneficial to the client.
2. Requires Minimal Extra Effort
The goal of an upsell is to increase your earnings with minimal extra effort.
For instance, if you’re a web developer, you could offer a website maintenance package that includes regular updates and backups.
This requires only a small additional commitment on your part but provides ongoing value to the client.
Similarly, if you’re a photographer, you might offer a package that includes high-resolution prints or a photo album.
These are services that you can set up once and continue to provide with little additional work, but they add significant value to the client’s experience.
3. Easy to Understand and Accept
Your upsell should be straightforward and easy for clients to say “yes” to.
It should be simple to explain and quick to make a decision about. Think of it like offering a topping on a pizza.
When you order a pizza, you might be asked if you’d like extra cheese or a premium topping.
It’s a straightforward choice that enhances your meal without complicating the decision.
Similarly, your upsell should be easy to understand and add clear value, so clients can quickly see how it benefits them and feel good about saying “yes.”
Where & When to Upsell
Upselling can be a powerful tool to increase your earnings and provide additional value to your clients.
Finding the right moments to introduce these opportunities can make a big difference. Here are five effective times to consider upselling:
1. During the Initial Consultation
When you first meet with a client, it’s an excellent opportunity to discuss potential upsells.
For example, if you’re a web designer, you might suggest a premium package that includes additional features like SEO optimization or a custom content management system.
By presenting these options early on, clients can factor them into their budget from the start.
2. In the Middle of the Project
Sometimes, clients may realize they need more services while the project is underway.
For instance, if you’re a photographer delivering initial proofs, you might offer additional services like a custom-designed photo album or extended photo editing.
Having these upsells ready to offer during the project can help address emerging needs and enhance the final outcome.
3. Right After Delivery
Once you’ve completed a project and delivered the final product, clients are often at their most satisfied.
This is a great time to suggest related upsells.
For instance, if you’ve just finished designing a logo for a client, you could offer a brand style guide or additional branding materials like business cards and letterheads.
4. When Sending the Invoice
Including upsell opportunities in your invoice can be a subtle but effective strategy.
For example, if you’re invoicing for a completed graphic design project, you might add a note about ongoing support or future design services at a discounted rate.
This approach keeps your services top-of-mind as clients review their payment.
5. After Some Time Has Passed
After a few months, clients might recognize additional needs or areas where they could benefit from further services.
For example, if you’ve previously helped a client with a website redesign, follow up after a few months to offer additional services like website maintenance or updates based on user feedback.
This timing allows you to re-engage clients with new solutions that address their evolving needs.
AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE
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