The easiest way to learn how to upsell marketing clients is to stop asking for more work and start sending better client updates. A short, personal update that shows proof of effort and ends with a clear next step lets the client say yes to more scope without a sales pitch. That is the method Andy Milligan uses with his own retainer clients every month.
Andy runs MMG Studio, a web and SEO studio for healthcare, and his agency has generated a little over $350,000 to date. The video's title credits this habit with more than $50,000 in added work; Andy does not break that figure down on camera, so treat it as his own estimate. If you are still landing the work in the first place, start with how to get your first client and come back once you have a client to update.
Why upselling starts with the update, not the pitch
Most service providers treat updates as a chore. Andy sees the opposite: building the relationship is the most valuable thing you can do for a client account, and every touchpoint is a chance "to improve the relationship to show expertise and embed yourself into their business."
That matters because clients are rarely happy by default. In Forrester's State of Business Buying, 2024, 81% of B2B buyers said they were dissatisfied with the provider they chose. A consistent, useful update is one of the cheapest ways to stay out of that group.
Andy also cares about going first. Sharing updates before the client asks for them keeps the relationship on good footing and puts you in control of what gets discussed.
The three parts of an update that sells for you
Andy builds every client update around three things he says most marketers skip.
- Personalization. Record a short video and say the client's name in the first sentence. Andy compares it to a good hook in content: calling out the person by name is the most powerful copy you have.
- Proof of effort. Show your work. In his example, Andy walks through pages on the client's site and pulls up a session recording to back up the point he is making. The client can see the evidence, not just the conclusion.
- Responsibility over next steps. This is the upsell. "If you've done these first two correct in any client update, you can essentially get more work for yourself without feeling salesy," Andy says.
The third part is where most freelancers stall. "I see too many service providers and marketers, especially if you're freelancing, if you're solo, just ask for work and wait to be directed," Andy says. His alternative is to queue up the work yourself, so the client's easiest response is a thumbs up.
What a scope-expanding update looks like
Andy closes the video by playing a real three-minute update he recorded for a long-term client in place of their monthly meeting. Without naming the client, here is what it covered:
- Top entry points. The team page was the second biggest entry point after the homepage, likely from people searching for staff by name.
- Site health. The performance score stayed above 80.
- Traffic source. Almost two-thirds of monthly traffic came from Google, meaning new visitors searching for information rather than people who already knew the brand.
- AI search. The pages ChatGPT cited most were the two most data-dense pages on the site.
- Behavior. Session recordings showed visitors who entered on a data page spent long sessions reading and moved on to multiple pages.
Then comes the next step. Andy recommends adding more data and splitting it across more pages so the site has "multiple front doors." That is new scope, proposed by the expert, backed by the client's own numbers.
How to upsell without scope creep
Upselling and scope creep are not the same thing. Scope creep is work that grows without a decision or a price. An upsell is a recommendation the client approves on purpose. Andy's third step keeps you on the right side of that line, because the next step is named, explained, and waiting for a yes.
When the client agrees, put the new work in writing. A marketing proposal template makes it fast to scope and price the addition, and a well-run sales call is the place to confirm it if the change is large.
This is also a skill AI cannot take from you. As Andy puts it, "AI will never be able to personalize a video send it to them and give them a concierge experience." Buyers agree: in a June 2025 Gartner survey of 632 B2B buyers, buyers still wanted seller input on tasks that need contextual judgment, such as whether something fits their business.
Practice the update with people who do this every week
Columbus Marketing Organization is a peer community for marketers, freelancers, and service providers in Columbus, Ohio, founded by Andy Milligan. Members share leads, introductions, and job opportunities, including the weekly Columbus Marketing Jobs newsletter. Members trade client update examples and the scripts behind them, and Andy shares more of his personalized video outreach on the resources page.
How to upsell starting this month
Learning how to upsell comes down to one habit: send a personal, evidence-backed update every month and end it with the next piece of work already queued up. Pick one client this week, record a three-minute video, and finish with a specific recommendation.
Then compare notes in person at the next Columbus marketing event, or join the Columbus Marketing Organization community on Skool to see how other members run their updates.
If you've done these first two correct in any client update, you can essentially get more work for yourself without feeling salesy.
Frequently asked questions
How do you upsell a marketing client without being pushy?
Make the update do the selling. Andy Milligan records a short, personalized video, shows evidence from the client's own data, and ends with a specific recommendation. Because the client sees the reasoning and the proof first, approving more work feels like a natural next step instead of a sales pitch.
What is the difference between upselling and scope creep?
Scope creep is extra work that grows without a decision or a price attached. An upsell is a recommendation the client approves on purpose. When a client says yes to new work from an update, confirm the scope and price in writing before you start so the addition stays an upsell.
How often should you send client updates?
Andy sends updates like the one in this video every single month, and he records them as roughly three-minute videos. He also recommends going first: send the update before the client asks for it, so you set the agenda and keep the relationship on good footing.
What should a client update include to win more work?
Use three parts. Personalization: say the client's name at the start. Proof of effort: show the pages, data, or recordings behind your point. Responsibility over next steps: end with the work you recommend, already queued up, so the client only has to approve it.
Read the video transcript
Kind: captions Language: en Hey there friends. My name's Andy. I own a solo marketing business that generated $28,000 last month. And you've stumbled across my channel where I teach and share you everything that I'm doing in live time that's working and also what's not working because that's important as well. Today, my agency has generated a little over $350,000, not counting last month, which was a high for this year. And for those of you new to the channel, just a quick introduction. I run a design and web studio for healthcare called MMG Design. MMG Studio other name. That's my main bread winner. Also host a podcast called Marketing by Design where I interview healthcare and B2B marketers and share the lessons with people one and two steps behind. Also a LinkedIn creator. I've scaled to 7,000 followers over just a little over two years from posting every day consistently. Share a lot of those lessons here as well. But the topic of today's video is sending better client updates. Better client updates. I think there is a there's a very high compelling reason that I see a lot of marketers kind of ship in when it comes to building their relationship with clients to think, "Oh man, there's a monetary transaction here. I need to just focus on the work and not let personalization get in the way." When in actuality, building a relationship with your clients is the highest leverage thing that you can do and also using updates as a way to display expertise. I listened to a course from Jordan Harbinger that Jay Claus shared a while ago and it's basically it's it's a sales course but it's the idea that sales is an idea of making friends and doing that at scale and when it comes to client updates every time that you talk to a client we picture like every dot here as you are meeting with a client you have surface area to improve the relationship to show expertise and embed themselves embed yourself into their business. So, you want to do this as often as possible without being annoying. Also, the idea of going first, having to sharing updates before they're asking you for input is a great way to stay ahead of the tide and keep the relationship on a good foot. So, when it comes to client updates, there's a few things that I want to share that I don't think a lot of marketers do. Personalization, proof of effort, and responsibility over next steps. This third one is really key, so make sure you stick around while I share this. At the end of this video, I'm going to show you a client update that I just recorded for one of our legacy clients going over website analytics data and how I made this probably in the top 10 updates that they have probably ever received. And I do this every single month. So, no matter what area of marketing you're in, if you're in content, if you're in fractional consulting, um if you're in social media, you can send updates like this. personalize yourself or record a video and contextualize the data in a way that's relevant to them. When we think about things like AI replaceability and just the age-old idea of marketing be the being the first thing on the chopping block when it comes to budget sensitive clients. AI will never be able to personalize a video send it to them and give them a concier experience. So this is the video right here that I recorded. I will play that afterwards, but I want to dive into each of these and contextualize why I did each. So, personalization, recording a video where you say their name in the beginning. Hey Corey, this is Andy. Just checking in with our updates here and a few things that stood out that we I need to get your eyes on. And kind of it's it's like content weeding with a good hook, calling out the person by name is the most powerful ad copy. I think it was um what's the book? One of the best communication books ever. are blanking on the title, but the most beautiful sound a person can hear is their name. So, I want you to say their name early in the beginning. Proof of effort to this video right here. This is a three just a threeminute video, guys. It doesn't take that long of me navigating pages on their site, looking at the different URLs and also watching a bringing up a screen recording of the session tracking to reinforce the point that I made about a particular page on their website that was getting a lot of traffic. So showing effort, they know immediately they're thinking, "Wow, Andy actually went in and found this session recording from August 12th to like a month ago to reinforce the point that he's making." And I can actually see the proof of the claims that he's making. So contextualize evidence, proof of effort, and three, responsibility over next steps. This is the important one. If you've done these first two correct in any client update, you can essentially get more work for yourself without feeling salesy. You've demonstrated expertise. You've personalized the the the outreach and now you know, now they know the jobs to be done. And the next easiest thing for them is for them to literally just do this. Okay, thumbs up. Go ahead and execute. I see too many service providers and marketers, especially if you're freelancing, if you're solo, just ask for work and wait to be directed when in actuality, you should be the one queuing up the work that needs to be done and taking a directive stance, holding the client's hand and guiding them through the work to be done. So, without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and play this video. If you are answering, if you need any more questions like this answered regarding regen client management and you're a marketer looking to make more money, check out the links below or drop a comment below and I'll be happy to answer it. And I'll see you guys on the next one. Cheers. Hey, and Corey, I hope you guys are both doing well. I wanted to take a quick second to record a short overview with my thoughts on the analytics for this month. Um, kind of in lie of what we would normally do for our meetings. And after reviewing these, there are several things that do stand out that I would love to share. First of all is the top entry points. I'm noticing that the team page is actually our second biggest entry point aside from the homepage. And the reason that this is likely the case is whenever the about page or the team page is the most is the highest entry point, people are usually searching for a team member and then that's how they land on that that page, their bio page. So, it was interesting to me to see that if I go to our about page here, people are likely filling out searching for Eric's names or Ingga's name. Additionally, our performance score is quite high, always above 80, which is great. Some really positive news that I'm seeing here is that almost twothirds of our overall traffic month over month is coming 100% from Google. So, people aren't clicking links that already exist. They don't have our tab bookmarked. They're not consciously searching for our name or searching Union County. They're looking for just information about the area and that's how they're finding us which is really great to see. On the AI search front, something that we mentioned in our last meeting, the most cited page that Chad GBT is citing our website for are these two. Uh the demographics page and the small business industries page. So going to the demographics page here. The reason that this is likely cited on AI is because it's such a information dense page. And that's something to kind of double down on moving forwards is that as we add more of these stats to our website, AI is looking for places to answer all of these questions. And the thing is data in and of itself is a very good asset to have on our site because it's a very commonly cited thing when people are asking questions. It can target a lot of different questions just in and of data itself to be interpreted. So if anyone asks any manufacturing admin support or scient science professional scientific or tech questions, AI is trying to be as helpful as possible. It's going to pull from any source that it can possibly find to site to the visitor that's using it. And also looking back to our page, our session recordings, we can see that the entry point of the demographics page, it gets a lot of engagement. It's a very long session. Like this person in particular spent over an hour on the site. Now, they likely weren't engaged that entire time, but they are clearly browsing through all of these stats. Like, they're literally browsing all the way down. This is someone who is highly considering moving here, and they're literally looking at all the population trends, the data, you know, the school districts, things like that. And I think this is what we need to double down on like being intentionally putting more data and segmenting that onto multiple pages so that the site has like multiple front doors and entry points based on the data that people want to click into and learn more about. Their positive signal is that they're also going to multiple pages as well from the entry point of the data page. They're reading multiple newsletters and they're just spending time on the site. And the more time that they spend learning about us is never a bad thing. Pretty much everything that stood out to me this month. I'm looking forward to continuing. And let me know if you guys have any questions. Cheers.