← The Amy Porterfield Show
The Amy Porterfield Show
Tiny Offers, Big Results: How to Sell in a Trust Recession
00:29:11
The Low-Ticket Strategy That’s Quietly Powering High-Ticket Sales
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- [00:02]
A
Hey there.
- [00:03]
B
Welcome to the Amy Porterfield Show.
- [00:12]
A
Some of the mistakes that I see people make most frequently are putting too much into a tiny offer. Like they think, oh, I'll just put as much as possible and it'll be really valuable and people will want it. But then it's almost, it feels too vague or it's not specific enough. And the offers that I see that work the best are so much more specific than you could ever imagine.
- [00:35]
B
So, you know, over the last few months, I've been talking a lot about how the online landscape has been changing dramatically. And I really do think that I have some weight behind this because I've been in this for 16 years and I have seen what it takes to create and launch profitable digital courses and memberships and coaching programs. So I've gotten a front row seat for many, many years. And I have to tell you, what has happened over, let's say the last nine months especially has been astounding to me. I've really seen a shift. Essentially what I've been talking about a lot, and I've had many episodes around this, is what used to work is not working as well anymore. It's not that it's not working at all, just not as well. And you know what's crazy is I just ended my digital course academy launch and and my webinars were my number one revenue driver. My conversions were higher than ever and my show up rate was incredibly high. But what I saw was there just wasn't as much traffic as we usually see. And I come back to what I've been talking about a lot, which is we are in a trust recession. And when people are taking longer to to trust you or they're more skeptical, more nervous for whatever reason, I think the world is a little crazy right now. So pick your poison. There's many reasons why this could be happening. Then of course traffic's going to be down. So I've seen it, my students have seen it, many of my friends have seen it as well. Now I just want to remind you all, we're in it for a season. I've been in many different seasons in the online marketing space where there have been shifts. This one feels like the biggest. I think with AI, people are really just curious, what does that mean for selling online for courses and memberships and programs and teaching? So it's all kind of getting figured out right now, which is hard for me as a trainer and teacher because I want to tell you exactly what to do and exactly what not to do. But things feel A little bit gray still. But I'm going to keep sharing what I'm seeing is working and what I'm encouraging you to keep doing or not do anymore, which I do on this podcast. So along those lines, I want to talk to you today about tiny offers. So tiny offers are different than tripwires. And if you've heard of tripwires, essentially a tripwire would be someone opts in for your freebie, a cheat sheet, a checklist, a guide, whatever it is they opt in. And instead of the thank you page, you're going to offer them something like a $27 guide or something that they're going to pay for. It could even be as cheap. Usually tripwires are cheaper than $27, like $7 or $9. And I've never had a tripwire. But essentially, what I think is happening there is that. Well, I know what's happening there is it's a really great way to make some money that can pay for the ads to run to your lead magnet so you can make money with a tripwire and just put that money back into attracting your audience for your freebie. And so, again, usually it's pretty inexpensive. And also, it's that first time that people actually take out their credit card and pay for something. A tiny offer is different. It's not necessarily a tripwire. It's not a money play, per se, but. But I'm going to let my special guest explain what a tiny offer is, and I'll tell you who my guest is in a moment. But the reason I'm fascinated with this, and I actually say this in the interview, is that I have some peers that are using tiny offers to then convert people into 2,000, 5,000, even $10,000 offers. So to me, that blows my mind. But I realized that that tiny offers create trust. And it was a light bulb that went off because I couldn't figure out, well, why are they working? And it was that light bulb that went off in the moment that I thought, oh, I get it right now. Because tiny offers are working really well for many people I know. And so I wanted the expert of all experts to come on the show and talk to you about what it looks like. The great news is it's not overcomplicated.
- [04:59]
A
It's.
- [04:59]
B
You just have to shift your mind around it just a bit. But as my guest talks about this, I want you to start thinking, how might this work in my business? And one thing that you need to pay attention to when what you used to do is no longer working or when the landscape is changing like it is, the only thing that you can do right now is experiment. You've got to experiment and try new things. 2025 has been a year that I have tried so so many new things. Some work, some haven't. We've really experimented with so many different things. I just ended my digital course Academy launch. We introduced Porter, which is our very special AI tool that is full of my ip, everything I know about creating and launching digital courses. So it's not chatgpt, it's literally filled with everything I teach behind my paywalls. So we introduce Porter. We're doing new things like we are reviewing people's work inside the program. I've never done that before. So we're trying new things and experimenting. And good news, all of that worked really well. But one thing that I would love for you to think about and experiment with is tiny offers. So I decided to get the best of the best to share with you what tiny offers look like and how you can implement them. And you're going to be pleasantly surprised. Easier than you think. So my guest is Ali Bierk and she has been teaching tiny offers for so many years now. Again, so many of my students have learned her method and have been using it as well. And so I want her to come on the show today and just explain to you what it looks like and why they're working right now, how they're different than tripwires and how you can implement one in your business and really where it fits inside your business. So I won't make you wait any longer. Let's jump into it. I have been hearing your name everywhere for years, actually. I can't believe that we actually haven't been in the same circles more because your name comes up a lot. Especially because what you do and what I do is kind of similar in the sense of courses.
- [07:01]
A
Ish.
- [07:02]
B
But you're going to explain more in detail what tiny offers are and how to use them. So let's just start right at the top. In your own words, what are tiny offers?
- [07:13]
A
So a tiny offer is a low ticket product that is designed for the purpose of liquidating your ad spend but also growing your email list full of buyers specifically.
- [07:23]
B
Got it. So if someone said, is that the same as a tripwire, would you say yes or no to that?
- [07:29]
A
I would say no because I what I've always heard about tripwires is it's more of a cash grab where tiny offers are designed to be a specific type of experience for someone who's going to become a high ticket buyer later. So that's like a big differentiator. Yes.
- [07:43]
B
That's why I've been hearing your name a lot and hearing about tiny offers, because, you know, have you noticed or from your friends or the students you work with that kind of the online landscape has been changing?
- [07:55]
A
Yeah, definitely. So, so different.
- [07:57]
B
So different. And so a lot of my friends, including me, have been creating more high ticket offers. And so one of my friends said she was using a $47 tiny offer into a $10,000 program. And I'm like, wait, what? So we'll come back to that in a little bit. Cause I'm like, how does that even work? But if somebody already is making six figures, a lot of people listening to my podcast are, and they're launching a few times a year, live launches, digital courses, memberships, coaching programs, things like that. And their funnels are working. What would you say if they told you, well, I don't need a tiny offer. Like, what might they be missing and what are they leaving on the table in terms of leads and revenue or long term growth?
- [08:42]
A
Yeah, exactly. So I see that a lot, like a lot of my clients are doing launches and I say don't change anything that's already working. But something that can help them not leave money on the table is running these tiny offers either in between launches or just keeping them on all year. And then they're constantly growing their list, but they're growing their list full of people who are really warm and they're logging into the products that they're buying. You know, they say people who pay pay attention. So it's like you kind of shift the type of person that's joining your email list. And I also talk a lot about making sure you're creating time saving products so that you're attracting somebody who values their time. Like they're willing to part with a little bit of money if it's going to shorten their learning curve or give them a quick win. And that's the mindset that we want for people on our email list because they do value their time and they're wanting, they want to keep joining other things to keep learning and keep, you know, like masterminds or courses and shorten that learning curve long term too.
- [09:34]
B
Yes, and I like that you said it attracts a different type of audience. And I think a lot of my listeners are looking for a more elevated audience, the buyers, the people that are ready to go. And so I love that a tiny offer can do that. But let's take it back to 2019, which was the same year that I launched Digital Course Academy.
- [09:53]
A
And.
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B
And you launched your first tiny offer and made 100k in just 43 days, which is incredible. That is a lot of money. So. So can you walk us through what that tiny offer actually was and more importantly, what made it work so well, like right out of the gate?
- [10:12]
A
Yeah. So my initial tiny offer that I launched back in 2019 was called Livestream365 and it was a calendar that I had created with different live stream ideas. And this was pre chatgpt, so I had to come up with every idea on my own and I put it in a calendar. And that was during the time where that's how people were growing their businesses. They were doing live streams, and I was working behind the scenes of a lot of other people's businesses, doing the building and the ads and building the funnels and stuff. And I found that there was a theme among people that they thought they would do live streams if they knew what to say. So that I came up with that idea of like, okay, well, I'm going to tell them what to say. Even though I know as the expert and from seeing behind the scenes in all these businesses that it's probably a mindset or fear of visibility or like something else is really going on. But I came up with this calendar and it just sold like crazy because it was what everybody thought they needed to be doing anyway. They thought they needed to be doing live streams. It was an easy button because they could just download the calendar and then have exactly what to say for that day. And it just kept expanding. And people would comment and be like, oh, I'm a life coach. Is this for life coaches? And be like, no, but it can be. And then I would come up with 365 ideas for life coaches. So I ended up expanding it into, I think, seven different niches, like business, health, real estate, agents. Like, I just kept listening to the market and I also knew ads really well. So I kept scaling my ad spend and I was doubling my ad spend pretty much every day, and it just kept selling and it kept being profitable. And I had other steps in the funnel too. So I had my $27, what I call the main offer, like the main thing. And then I had an order bump and then I had an upsell. So for every $1 I was spending on ads, I was making three to five dollars back in profit. So. So the math was working to be able to keep scaling absolutely.
- [11:55]
B
So that the calendar was $27. And then what was the next thing they could buy?
- [12:01]
A
So I, I was trying to think of the, the process that people's brains would be going through and I created a repurposing guide. Like, okay, so you're doing all these live streams now what are you going to do with that content? Like, you don't want that content to just die. So we created an order bump that was how to repurpose it into just static posts, like how to transcribe your live stream and turn it into other stuff. So that was the order bump and then the upsell was a training on how to get leads from your live streams. So it was like, if you're doing all these live streams anyway, the next thing that you need is this, you know, learning how to create a sales funnel from your live stream so you can actually get clients from them. What's interesting is that initially, the first time I tried launching this funnel, I had the funnel product first. So what ended up being the upsell? I was trying to sell that first and nobody bought it. Not a single person bought that offer. But I think it's because people were already thinking like, well, I'm not doing live streams anyway, so why would I buy this funnel product? So once I was able to match up what people think they need, you know, they thought they needed live streams, that's when it started selling.
- [13:03]
B
That makes perfect sense. How much was the order bump? So if the main product was 27, how much was the order bump?
- [13:10]
A
It was 37.
- [13:11]
B
Oh, okay. And then how much?
- [13:13]
A
It was 77.
- [13:15]
B
Gotcha. So everything is still a no brainer price, but it's just adding just a little bit more and a little bit more. Okay, I love that and I'm sure you've thought about this, but imagine if you were Creating those with ChatGPT now how quickly is that?
- [13:29]
A
Much easier.
- [13:30]
B
I give you so much credit for doing365 for all these different niches like that. That's baller move.
- [13:36]
A
It would take like five minutes. It took me days. You know, I would just scour the Internet and like come up with all these ideas. And yeah, it was how things have changed.
- [13:45]
B
It's kind of scary how you really used your brain with that one and how now we don't have to like, I don't know if that's always so good, but still, dang, it would have been done so much faster. So you did it the hard way. Which you get extra credit for. Hey, quick break. Before we continue this episode, tell Me, if you can relate to this, when you finally start hitting multiple six figures in your business per year, it's so exciting, right? But then it can also lead to that feeling of more money, more problems. Where you used to hustle to make money quickly, now you're hustling just to sustain it. And outsourcing too often becomes I'll do it better myself. Which leaves you drowning in tasks and wondering how on earth you're going to scale. That's why I created the Millie Club. It's my private small group coaching program for ambitious women who are ready to cross the million dollar mark and keep growing without burning out. So inside we focus on scaling strategies, optimizing systems, boosting revenue, and improving profit margins. But the real magic, the community. These women become an extension of your team. The support, the feedback, the network that you truly need to go further, faster. If that sounds like what your business has been missing, head to amyporterfield.com Millie to apply. That's just M I L L Y amyporterfield.com Millie all right, let's jump back into the episode we talked earlier. I mentioned some of my friends are have a tiny offer into a huge offer, but some of my friends are struggling to fill their high ticket offers. And you say that the answer might actually be a low ticket front end with high volume. So can you walk us through how that strategy works and how it helps you attract better clients, not just more of them. Because I got to tell you, in my mind, I'm thinking someone who spends 47 bucks on a tiny offer going to $10,000 seems like the hugest jump. And what happens in between those things. So give me all the details around that.
- [15:51]
A
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I always try to figure out reverse engineering, like what is the thing that people ultimately want to sell? And I actually worked with a client who had a hundred thousand dollar offer and started with a $37 front end. So I think she's, her name's Catherine Port. She's one of the best examples of how this can work really well. And what she found is that the biggest objection that people had about her 100k offer was like, I don't know how this would work for me. I can't imagine myself doing it. This seems crazy. Like they had all these like mind blown, you know, objections. So she created a case study that she sold for 37 that was like, here are the people. This was the before, this was the after. This is how we helped them. So it was a whole booklet that they were buying of these different examples that set them up really well, mindset wise to be like, okay, I could see this, like, this could work for me too. So I think it's, it's understanding what your high ticket program is and then taking a few steps back and thinking of like, well, where are they stuck? Where are they struggling? What's a tool or a system or something that I can teach them that's just going to open their eyes to this, even the high ticket thing even being a possibility.
- [16:54]
B
Got it. And are they running ads to the tiny offers, the people that want to go into a higher ticket offer?
- [17:02]
A
Yeah, almost always.
- [17:04]
B
Almost always. Great. So one of my Millie members is student of yours. Now I just realized that I remember she said she can make a connection between us, but funny enough, we had already just made a connection, which I love. But she's loving your program, loving working with you. So for someone running a growing online business, what are the most effective ways you're seeing tiny offers used right now? And can you share a few examples? Like, I really want my audience to understand what might a tiny offer look like for them. So any examples of tiny offers you love, whether it's from your students or something you've done really well. But I also, not to put you on the spot, but love to use examples that has nothing to do with making money or growing someone's business. Since that's what I talk about all the time. Examples other than that, that'd be great too.
- [17:52]
A
So I have a client that I've been working with and she helps moms with homeopathy. Like she is teaching moms how to have more natural solutions at home. And she has a membership that she's bringing people into. But her tiny offer is teaching some of the most common recipes that she has for people for, you know, homeopathy solutions. So it's kind of like a toolkit or like a get started, gives them a piece. She has a membership that she's bringing people into, but she went through and she figured out what her best module was or what her most successful thing is that everybody's raving about. And she figured out how to take that out and repurpose it so that it's a tiny offer. Size, size. You know, it's a really quick introduction to what's in the rest of the membership. But it sets people up to get some quick wins and start understanding it and feeling comfortable with what she's teaching and then the membership makes sense afterwards.
- [18:41]
B
Gotcha. And what does the funnel look like? Is it as simple as you've got this tiny offer that you run ads to. They see the ad, they click on a mini sales page, buy, they get a thank you page, then they get delivered. Is there anything I'm missing?
- [18:57]
A
There's no. But it's almost always a long form sales page. You know, the kind that scrolls really. Yes.
- [19:03]
B
Okay, talk to me about that because in my mind, let's say 2747, whatever offer, it's a super simple short sales page. But you're saying no.
- [19:12]
A
Yeah, I, I always write, you know, typical sales page where it's got a great hook at the top and then it goes through like oh, you might be feeling like this and this is why it's hard and here's why it's worse. But it doesn't have to be like that. Introducing. You know, it's like the, the typical flow of problem agitate solution. And I've tested shorter ones for the low ticket. But when it is cold traffic like they need just as much convincing as a higher ticket product because these people see an ad, they've never seen you before, they've never heard about you before. What they want is the solution. And it often takes a long form explanation and stories and testimonials, FAQs. I always do a money back guarantee on there too, so 30 day guarantee where they can get their money back. I want to reverse any risk in their minds like anything because they have no idea who I am. Right. There's no trust built. So as much as I can weave the story into it and show them the result that they're going to get from the product, that's it's more about the product and the result than about me as the creator or about, you know, whoever's creating the tiny offer.
- [20:12]
B
I love something you just said about they don't even know who you are. So building that trust, showing social proof on the sales page is important. And, and right now I just had this kind of moment where I've been talking a lot about there's this trust recession out there and I think that's one of the shifts we're seeing in our industry. And so a tiny offer could absolutely start building that trust from the get go, right?
- [20:34]
A
Yeah, exactly.
- [20:36]
B
So I think that's really, really important. Now. Are there opportunities that you think don't really work well for tiny offer? Like when does a tiny offer not make sense? And, and also how do you know if your business is ready for one?
- [20:50]
A
Yeah, I'd say some of the mistakes that I see people make most Frequently are putting too much into a tiny offer. Like the. They think, oh, I'll just put as much as possible and it'll be really valuable and people will want it. But then it's almost. It feels too vague or it's not specific enough. And the offers that I see that work the best are so much more specific than you could ever imagine. Like, I have a client who. She's a fitness coach, and she first was trying to sell kind of like everything you need to know about fitness, right? You need to know macros, you need to sleep well, you need water. And, like, nobody was buying it. Then she created an abs accelerator program that was just teaching an ab workout. And she knows, as the expert that, like, it's not. You can't just. Abs are made in the kitchen. Right. But she built this product around an abs workout, and it sold like crazy. That's what people wanted. That's what they thought they needed to do. So she kind of met people where they were at, even though, you know, as an expert, we know so much more than our audience does often. And sometimes we can kind of intimidate them by giving them too much in a tiny offer.
- [21:50]
B
Okay, I love this. So you're saying that a tiny offer could actually just meet someone where they're at. They're likely not ready to buy from you yet. There's no trust. They need more information, more time, whatever. But if your tiny offer met them where they're at and really gives them what they want, not necessarily what they need, once they get into your world, once you're engaging with them, between the tiny offer and when you're going to put together the big offer that you put out for them, then you can give them what they need in between there. But I love that idea of pulling them in with what they want because a lot of my students will market all day long about, you need this. You need this. I have one student who overloads her students, students with too much information because she's just way too smart. Quite honestly, she can't help herself. But that's not what someone. Like, if someone's in the health world, they're like, just tell me how to lose 20 pounds. Like, I don't want to hear about all the other stuff. But if you meet them there with a tiny offer, our responsibility as teachers is to show them what they actually need. But I just love this idea of a tiny offer. Doesn't have to start there.
- [22:59]
A
Yeah, yeah. And what I. The journey that I see most people, their buyers go through. Is they see the tiny offer, they're excited about the result, the teeny, tiny, very specific result that product's going to give them. And then just out of curiosity, they go follow along on social or they're actually opening the emails, they're joining the Facebook groups, they're engaging. You know, it's kind of like the opposite of what we used to think of, like build trust first and then sell. It's like they decide and they're opting in. They're empowered by the product of like, I'm going to buy this and use it and then they're curious about the creator afterwards.
- [23:31]
B
Yes, that's really strong. I love that angle for sure. Now, speaking of the whole funnel, and you said most of your students are using ads to fill up that funnel. You've spent millions of dollars testing Facebook and Instagram ads for your own tiny offers. You've seen what your students have done. So what are some of the biggest surprises that you've discovered and what's actually working now when it comes to getting something like a 20, $27 offer to.
- [23:58]
A
Convert cold traffic using ads, it's changed so much.
- [24:02]
B
Okay, I want to know.
- [24:04]
A
So some of the biggest differences are now I would consider your messaging, your targeting, where everything from the headline to what the ad says, even the image that you're using, the targeting. What I'm using most now is just broad targeting. So I don't, I don't set anything like I used to target you. I used to target, you know, like industry leaders that I wanted my ads to go in front of people who also followed them. And now I just, I either leave it open and I do completely broad targeting or I do more keyword based targeting in a way. So I will type in like interested in digital marketing or influencer marketing is another one that works well for me. So, you know, just more keyword based versus like, oh, they have to like this person and this person and shop at Trader Joe's and you know, like all the things that I used to do. So that's changed a lot. Another thing is I used to always do static and images where I'd have a mockup or I'd have, you know, like a nice headshot or something. And I've been testing those ads against more like real style ads where it's, it looks like it's real, it's got music, it's got words on top of it, and it's kind of talking about the product that works a lot better than what used to work with the Static images.
- [25:12]
B
Interesting. Okay. I love to hear things like that. Speaking about, like, what's working, let's talk AI tools. So AI tools are popping up everywhere. So, so what are some of the ways that you're actually using AI in your business right now, especially when it comes to creating and optimizing your tiny offer funnels, like any tools that you're loving or unexpected ways you're using it or anything like that?
- [25:35]
A
Yeah, I mean, I have it ingrained in almost everything that I'm doing now. And I, I use it a lot for almost like a research partner or something that can identify patterns a lot faster than my brain can. So I'll do things like upload surveys from. I'll survey every tiny offer buyer that comes through and then I'll upload their answers and see maybe there's another product idea in there or maybe there's something that I'm missing. Same with any applications I've gotten for my program or any. I can upload other people's sales page screenshots or ads that I like. And it just does a lot of pattern recognition and helps me optimize for, you know, what I could be doing differently or what I could add to my sales pages.
- [26:13]
B
So you've been teaching tiny offers for a really long time. You are the best of the best in this area. And I'm curious, what do you think some of the myths are or some reasons why people don't try it? What have you heard that you're like, I just want to dispel this myth right now?
- [26:29]
A
Yeah. What I've heard a lot is that low ticket buyers are low quality buyers. And I have seen from my conversion rates and from my clients conversion rates that the people who buy a low ticket product from first actually end up buying the high ticket at a much higher conversion rate than someone who comes in from a free thing or like a free webinar. There's so much more involved. And it's funny because even people who have really poo pooed the whole strategy for years of like, oh, I would never sell low to get products. Well, I see their ads in my newsfeed and now they're doing it too. So it's, it's really something that I think a lot of, like every business should have some type of low ticket offer. Even brick and mortar businesses I think could be running ads to a low ticket offer. So I think we'll see a lot more of that. That it's not necessarily a low ticket buyer. It's not somebody who's just, you know, never going to buy anything else. I think that's one of the biggest myths that I've heard. Yes.
- [27:23]
B
I'm so glad you addressed that. I think some people have thought that for sure. Okay, so you built this brand over many years. You have a really cool business model. How many tiny offers do you have running at this moment?
- [27:35]
A
I have one running right now.
- [27:37]
B
I wasn't sure if you were going to say, like, I have 100 or whatever.
- [27:40]
A
Yeah, I have more that are, you know, in the, in the savings account for later. But right now I have one that's working really well. I think I've created probably five or six since 2019 that I've. It just, when it works, I just let it run and. And it is really easy and consistent.
- [27:55]
B
I love that you don't have tons of things like same like me. I just like a few things that I do really well. So with that, where can people learn more about you? Where can they learn about tiny offers? Where should they go?
- [28:07]
A
Yeah. So I spend a lot of time on Instagram. It's just Ali Bierk as my username and then my website's alibierk.com too.
- [28:15]
B
So tell everyone how to spell your last name.
- [28:17]
A
It is B, J, E, R, K. Perfect. I'm not a jerk. So you can remember that.
- [28:23]
B
Exactly. Ali, I'm so glad to have finally have you on my show. So many of my students love your work and of course, now I do too. So thank you so very much for being here.
- [28:32]
A
Thanks so much for having me.