How to Create Value-Added Offerings

People value what they create 63% more. Yet most digital experiences treat customers as passive recipients instead of co-creators. This psychological principle, known as the "Ikea Effect", is shockingly underutilized in digital journeys. When someone builds a piece of Ikea furniture, they develop an emotional attachment that transcends its objective value. The same phenomenon happens in digital experiences. After optimizing digital journeys for companies like Adobe and Nike for over a decade, I've discovered this pattern consistently: 👉 Those who customize or personalize a product before purchase are dramatically more likely to convert and remain loyal. One enterprise client implemented a product configurator that increased conversions by 31% and reduced returns by 24%. Users weren't getting a different product... they were getting the same product they helped create. The psychology is simple but powerful: ↳ Customization creates psychological ownership before financial ownership ↳ The effort invested creates value attribution ↳ Co-creation builds emotional connection Three ways to implement this today: 1️⃣ Replace dropdown options with visual configurators 2️⃣ Create personalization quizzes that guide product selection 3️⃣ Allow users to save and revisit their customized selections Most importantly: shift your mindset from selling products to facilitating creation. When customers feel like co-creators rather than consumers, they don't just buy more... they become advocates. How are you letting your customers build rather than just buy?

In the spirit of being our own case study, here’s an inside look at how we updated our offerings at Storybook by taking a 4P approach. As with all marketing strategy, it starts with a clear understanding of unmet needs and the value we’re looking to create for our target market. For us that’s always been marketing leaders looking to run a more effective and balanced brand & activation program. More specifically, an operational and measurable brand program that reflects the best in marketing theory, old and new. So, with that preamble, onto where the 4Ps come in: 𝟏. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 Historically, we delivered our value through a services package that fit where we were coming into sales convesations - long-term consulting/agency engagements, often where an agency partner was being replaced. This still reflects our key accounts but over time, and through many conversations with marketers, I began to learn two things: 1. Not everyone wanted or needed long-term support 2. The foundational strategy, training, and measurement plan were often the explicit requests And so, we realized that if we wanted to truly focus on value delivery, we needed to make discrete offerings to fit, and we explored a number of expressions of this. After a lot of market research, we landed on three different tiers that best fit - 1:1 consulting/coaching, full team workshop series, and deep ongoing partnerships. 𝟐. 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 Now that we had some more flexible entry points that met buyers where their needs were, we could also add more flexibility by having the entry points priced across a range that reduced buying risk, as well as opening up our services to a broader audience. We’ve since added an even lower entry point with the MyTelescope training, which means there really is a package to fit all budget while still allowing us to deliver high value with confidence. We’re as proud of our $500 engagements as our $50,000 ones, and that’s a really big deal to me. 𝟑. 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 These new options made it much easier to purchase us with reduced friction, especially where new vendor paperwork can stall conversations and deals. For example, our workshops allow us to work with complex companies with MSAs that rarely return with redlines, and get ok’d often within the day. 𝟒. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Lastly, there’s getting the word out, and of course if you’re reading this you’re seeing part of that in action in my content. But we’re also starting to launch our own brand campaigns, releasing a literal printed storybook, as well as tapping into the network effects of the certifications and testimonials from all the people we now get to cross paths with. There’s a lot here, and I could probably have made this 3x longer to do it justice, but I wanted to showcase what 4P thinking looks like, and how effective it is when you can operate them all as part of cohesive thinking. And, of course, if you’re looking to launch your own best brand program - let’s talk ;)

Here’s a true story: my Professional Services (ProServ) team became too successful. As we prepared for the IPO, analysts flagged that our ProServ revenue was disproportionately high. It wasn’t because our product was overly complex or reliant on services—quite the opposite. We had exceptional service offerings that simply resonated with our clients. However, 97.3% of SaaS Startups I see don't productize their value-added services and create additional revenue streams. Here is how to get better at it and how we made too much money doing this: - Find something that your post-sale team does over and over again - This could be a best practice or application - Create a low-cost, medium-cost, and high-cost offering - Make it easy to sell and deploy - Get high-quality partners to deliver the low-cost offerings (so you focus on the high) -Your team can deliver the new fun stuff to your high ARR customers --> Real-life example. At Brightcove, in the early days of video, we noticed that a large majority of our customers wanted a video portal. After building the same experience a few times, we created a template application that we sold and deployed at a pretty good margin. We created 3 price points (for example, 30, 60, 90k). We had marketing put together 1-page sheets for the sales team. We made sure that anyone on our team could be brought into a presales conversation to talk about its ease of use. We had so much demand for each version that we found 3-4 partners fully trained in building and deploying them. The core PS team would then work on the super custom experiences (catchup TV that is integrated with cable permissions, apps, etc.) My last point is to try and make services a subscription or repeatable process. It is the classified as recurring revenue #startups #sales #professionalservices #saas #technology

You have $100,000 trapped in your head. (Or on your hard drive) A thread on turning your knowledge into a simple yet hyper-profitable product: A few beliefs of mine: - Everyone has something valuable enough to pay for - Most businesses should have a digital product for extra high-margin revenue - Most beginners should build cash flow with a digital product, then invest in that startup or ecommerce business I recently had a conversation that blew my mind. I spoke with John Hu, CEO of Stan, which is an online store to host digital products. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs. He started online by building an audience on TikTok around career coaching. One day, he found his old resume that got him his Goldman job. He decided to slap $10 on it and promote it in his content. He made $1000 from it relatively fast and knew he was onto something. People loved it. There's a lesson to this: A simple document that was collecting dust on his computer turned into $1000. Most people don't know what to sell when their first product is already done. It's just sitting in their Notion, Kortex, or Google Drive. But how do you actually do this? 1) Dig into your archives Do you have book notes you've taken? Do you have an old project you've built? Do you have systems you use for productivity or work? Turn it into a template, framework, or guide and slap a $10-20 price tag on it. 2) Create content around that topic - Write about people's pain points - Give quick tips about the topic - Emulate what others are doing in that space Then, link to your product in the replies, in your bio, or in your story. Give yourself 30-60 days. 3) Build up from there This is simply one run of your value ladder. If your product does well, you can easily turn it into a freelance or consulting service, or you can build on top of it to create a course or community. And, you already have a list of potential buyers. Final thoughts: Yes, this is a very low-ticket product. You need a good amount of traffic to make a lot of money. But most beginners would be happy with a side-income as they build more of the business. Yes, this is a quick and dirty way to create a product. That's why you charge so low for it. It costs less than eating out for lunch and people hopefully receive more than that in value and convenience. Last, this type of product allows you to test what to go all in on. You can create, launch, and test 2-3 of them pretty quickly with content. That's it. I thought this topic was fascinating. It can be so simple.

Are you a service business struggling to close deals? It's time to rethink your approach. Many service businesses excel in their areas of expertise—whether managing marketing strategy, handling financials, or providing specialized consulting. But when it comes to closing deals, there's a disconnect. Why? Clients don't buy your process. They buy results and value you bring them. Many businesses make the mistake of focusing too much on their expertise, making it harder for clients to say "yes." What if, instead, we shifted our mindset to focus on solving client problems creatively, anticipating needs before they even arise? That's where the magic happens. Enter productization. Productization transforms complex services into easy-to-buy packages, just like physical products. At Bolt Marketing, we've seen firsthand how this approach can streamline the sales process, turning expertise into structured offerings that are easy for clients to understand and purchase. This practice has added thousands in monthly revenue for our clients. Benefits of Productization: • Simplifies the sales process • Improves close rates • Helps leads qualify themselves • Enables upselling and downselling • Leaves room for custom quotes • Frees up time and bandwidth to focus on results Package Structure Wireframe Example: • Small: Basic access to expertise on a monthly or quarterly basis • Medium: Expertise + core services • Large: Premium access with expanded services • Custom: Tailored for larger clients with specific needs • A la carte: Add-ons that enhance core offerings Once your services are packaged, the next step is to fine-tune them to match specific client pain points. This could mean developing packages for a specific industry or experimenting with new offerings. The goal is for your client to say, "Wow! This feels like it was made just for me." While productizing services takes time, the payoff is worth it. You'll expedite your sales process, gain deeper clarity on client needs, and make it easier to train your team. Your offerings will always evolve, but by demystifying your service delivery, you'll create a clear path for clients to solve their problems—and for you to close more deals.