Membership Upsells: Double Your Revenue with Smart Move in 2025

What if one simple shift in how you offer memberships could turn regular members into loyal superfans – or simply make them purchase more from you – but all without selling hard or pushing unneeded products? Yep, that’s possible, and it’s the magic of membership upsells.

Monetizing content may be harder than creating it, but upselling it the smart way can double your efforts!

If you are looking for creative and effective ways to set membership and subscription upsells on autopilot, here we go.

The 3 Keys to Membership Upsells to Supercharge Your Revenue

When offering membership upsells, you are actually offering your members more value at a higher price. The most crucial thing is – your members need to feel that value rather than feeling caught in a pushy sales trap.

So, before you build your membership upsell plan, remember that it hinges on three main things: the tech you use, your business area, and what you offer inside the membership. We’re elaborating on it as follows. 

1. Software capabilities

Your membership tools are the engine. If you are already using one, check if it lets you show the right offers to the right people, smoothly integrates upsells when they buy, automates offers, supports different membership levels, and tracks how well your upsells are working. Moreover, check out what dedicated features are there – probably you can build courses from your content or even build a social network community for more engagement!

2. Niche know-how

Upsells that work for a fitness membership site might not be effective for fishing fans. Think about what your customers in your niche really need and value as ongoing access. Consider what your competitors are doing!

3. Killer content

Memberships are often about exclusive content and community vibes. It needs to be better than what’s free, and it needs to change the life of your members for the better.

Nail and understand these three areas before you choose a way to successful membership upsells and a stronger recurring revenue stream.

Now, we’re ready to befriend you with the actual membership upsell ideas and help you choose the best one.

Effective Ideas for Subscription Upsells

First up, membership upsells can be directed at:

• Existing members.
• New leads.
• Increasing the lifetime value (LTV) of each member.

We’re gathering all of them in the list below, further categorizing them in the conclusions.

Drip Content + Teasers to Keep the Members Hooked

Here at ARMember, we are sure dripping content is made to drive upgrades, that’s why we are giving this feature out of the box with any plan.

The effectiveness of this approach lies in the social psychology of anticipation and delayed gratification. First, you tease just enough value to get people hooked. Next, you send them offers that upsell various things – more access, faster access, or deeper content. Depends on your niche! Works very well for the creative industry, like music sites.

Maximize Free Plans and Trial Options for Membership Upsells

Are you offering multiple membership tiers, each with increasing value? Well, a free plan is normally how you hook people on upgrades. But how to do it right?

• Let users explore paid features even being on the free plan.
• Share teaser videos and partial downloads via drip content, and prompt an upgrade when the real value becomes clear.
• Show locked content with labels like “Members Only” or similar.

For instance, give access to 3 workouts per week, and then upsell unlimited sessions, coaching, or meal plans. Creative networking sites let users join free discussions, but upsell portfolio reviews or exclusive masterclasses.

Create Private Groups and Special Tiers

One of the ways to build extra value for existing customers is by building a sense of exclusivity and belonging within an existing community. Create groups or communities that are not for all, paid, and exclusive.

Building an ‘inner circle’ effect can be shaped in a variety of forms:

• Paid-only groups around shared goals, expertise, or interests.
• Early-bird access to content or features.
• Member-only meetings.
• Gamification and status appreciation using badges, tiers, or special mentions in community spaces.

With early-bird access to any type of community, you can make it even more attractive.

Sell Personalized Plans or Templates

Not every visitor is ready to commit to a full membership plan. With solutions like the pay-per-post feature in ARMember, you can sell exclusive, separate things to people who don’t want to upgrade to higher-paying plans.

This feature allows you to sell individual pieces of content that you can place on individual WP pages – like a single video, guide, or course, without requiring users to upgrade to a full membership tier.

Upsell Memberships through Personal Guidance and Consult Calls

People hesitate to upgrade? It’s often not because they don’t see value, but because they’re not sure what’s right for them. Personalized touch will work for such people.

Try offering direct upgrade guidance via one-on-one calls or onboarding consults. 

It may work because: 

• You build trust through a real human connection.
• Makes the upgrade feel personalized and valuable, not salesy.
• Improves retention because users understand how to use features better.

Repurpose Content into Courses for Effective Membership Upsells

Repurposing content is a gem for membership sites, it unlocks tons of opportunities to build membership upsells. A blog post can become a checklist, which can be turned into a course module! And then a course can become a premium bundle suitable for upgrades.

With the ARMember’s Course Builder add-on, you can sell online courses and build an entire learning platform. For instance:

• Release one module at a time, and then upsell it by offering access to bonus lessons, live streams, Q&As, or downloadable resources.
• Publish a blog series on public speaking for free, and then bundle it into a video course with worksheets, speaking templates, and live practice sessions, but only for premium members.

Offer Bonus Packs with Membership Subscriptions

Try bundling bonus features like bonus resources, templates, exclusive content, or expert templates. Then it’s easy to pack this value into premium add-ons to the base membership.

Business memberships can upsell downloadable toolkits, strategy calls, or exclusive webinars. Educators usually bundle worksheets, cheat sheets, and advanced modules as an upgrade pack. Personalized meal plans and progress trackers are usually provided by coaches.

Offer Merch and Event Perks

One of the most valued ways to increase membership upsells is to tie memberships to physical benefits – in the internet era, people like physical things that bring emotions! It’s hard to give exact suggestions here because it all pretty much depends on the type of your business.

For example, take discounted or exclusive merch, early ticket access, or meet-and-greet passes for art-based memberships or learning communities.

Let your Email Marketing Software do the Job of Membership Upsells

Whether for free or paid membership plans, you can boost membership upgrades with the smartly curated and automated email marketing. Use popular email marketing platforms to build targeted email campaigns, offer sneak peeks on content you want to sell, and spark real interest and emotions, ultimately enticing free users to upgrade to a paid membership.

ARMember supports one of the largest numbers of email marketing providers, i.e. 15+, which you can smoothly integrate into your WordPress site:

• ActiveCampaign
• Campaign Monitor
• Mautic
• Mailchimp
• AWeber
• Get Response
• Constant Contact
• Mailer Lite
• Kit
• Brevo
• Omnisend

“Pay What You Want” Membership Upgrades

Some solopreneurs’ membership site curators or artists let fans choose how much to pay above a minimum, which can psychologically lead to higher contributions. This can be maximized if you have a nice way to say ‘thank you!’.

Final Word: Find Your Way to Membership Upsells

As a membership-centered business, you surely have tons of resources and content you offer to your clients. Membership upsells, in their turn, are all about how you plate those resources! Moreover, you can also offer upsells during checkout. For instance, show how an annual plan is more cost-effective to a user who is contemplating buying a monthly plan. So, who is the target audience for these upsell ideas?

Existing members:

• Offer a premium tier upgrade and diversity of plans (optionally with your guidance during upgrade).
• Drip exclusive content and prompt upgrades for early access or full libraries.
• Unlock bonuses for long-term members.
• Sell smaller pieces of content individually.
• Add-ons or bundles.

New leads:

• Teaser content with locked sections.
• Free trials with upgrade prompts embedded in key moments.
• Embrace email marketing with curated emails to upsell based on activity.
• Offer the ‘pay what you want’ model.
• Sell related content.

Increasing lifetime value:

• Introduce tiered loyalty programs.
• Create private groups and special tiers.
• Repurpose content into courses.
• Offer merch and event perks.

Last but not least, we can’t recommend personalization more on every step of your membership management. Personal guidance and offers create clarity, increase conversion rates, and, most importantly, leave a positive impression, even if people don’t upgrade immediately.

FAQs

1. What is an example of an upsell?

When a user buys an annual plan because of its cost-saving benefits while originally checking out the monthly plan, it’s called an upsell. Upsells can be order bumps, plan upgrades, or even expansion revenue gained from the same member due to renewals. 

2. Are there stages of upselling memberships? 

You can divide your membership upsells into the following stages. 

• Focus on the initial order. 
• Find a suitable upsell. 
• Promote the upsell. 
• Follow up after the sale. 

3. What do you mean by an upsell? 

To put it simply, upselling is a sales tactic wherein you encourage your customers to buy a higher plan or a higher-grossing product instead of its lower version. For instance, a Subway might provide discounts so that you opt for a 12-inch sub instead of the 6-inch one. That would be a product upsell. 

Related articles:

• 10 Best Recurring Revenue Business Ideas in 2025
• Best Membership Level Names Ideas to Attract More Members
• Why You Should Offer Multiple Tiers for Membership Site