As a small business owner or freelancer, it’s important to maximize your streams of income. If there is a way (and there is) to make more money that takes minimal effort then it’s a waste of money to not take advantage of the opportunity. We’re going to be discussing upselling and how to do it in your email marketing campaigns in order to boost your revenue… So let’s get right into it!
We’ll Be Discussing:
- Why You Need Email Marketing
- What Upselling Is
- The Benefits of Upselling
- How To Upsell Via Your Email Marketing
TOP 4 WAYS TO UPSELL USING YOUR EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
- Remind Customers Of Their Progress
- Personalize And Segment Your Email List
- Make It As Easy As Possible
- Use Purchase Momentum
WHY YOU NEED EMAIL MARKETING
Did you know that 87% of organizations use emails to distribute their content, this means that you want to be alongside them so that your business doesn’t get left behind. At the same time, the average inbox carries 200 emails so you want yours to stand out to get the engagement you want!
Email marketing is an amazing (and the best) way to nurture your audience. By being able to reach the home of your audience’s inboxes, you are able to learn so much about what they want from you and your business making it easier to then sell to them and turning them into customers.
Once you are able to identify what your email subscribers want from you then you can cater your content towards their needs. This development of the relationship will keep your subscribers coming back for more as you are constantly showing them what they want and need, thus turning them into loyal customers.
The key difference between using email marketing and marketing via social media is that you own your email list… This means that you can have access to all of the data your subscribers give you and you can analyze it to make decisions that will benefit your marketing campaigns which will, in turn, increases your revenue.
WHAT IS UPSELLING
Upselling is a sales technique to encourage customers to spend more or buy an upgraded or premium version of what’s being purchased. If successful, you can increase your profits as the customer has decided to spend more money than originally planned. Have you ever been at a restaurant ordering a bottle of wine and the waiter suggests going for a different bottle that is more expensive but will taste better than the wine you were originally ordering? This is an example of upselling.
Another sales technique is cross-selling and it’s common to confuse the two. Cross-selling is when you offer the customer a related product or service. An example of this is when you now go to buy a new iPhone, you have to buy the charging cable separately, this is cross-selling as you are purchasing an item that is related to the original product.
Both upselling and cross-selling are extremely useful when it comes to marketing your products and services and can help boost your sales and profits! Implementing these sales tactics into your email marketing emails are sure to help, and even if they don’t (but they will), it won’t have any adverse effects.
THE BENEFITS OF UPSELLING
To upsell and cross-sell correctly, you should be analyzing the data of your subscribers so that you can promote the products that they would actually go for. For example, if someone is trying to purchase a cake that has ‘Happy Birthday’ written on it, then you know that they are celebrating a birthday. You could cross-sell by suggesting they purchase some candles, or flowers, or cards or try to upsell to a ‘party package’ that may include 1 birthday cake and a set of cupcakes. You can also use this information to email them every year to see if they want to celebrate this birthday again. This shows that upselling and cross-selling can work amazingly for your small business, but also how important it is to use the information and data that you collect from your subscribers wisely to maximize profits!
This whole process of using their data to help you give them suggestions makes the whole interaction that much more personal. By knowing their previous purchases and recommending items they may actually want and need, you’re further developing your relationships with your subscribers and nurturing them to become loyal customers.
Of course, the main benefit and purpose of these sales techniques are to boost your sales and profits! By implementing upselling and cross-selling into your email campaigns you’re guaranteed to increase your sales while also leaving your subscribers and customers very happy and satisfied!
HOW TO UPSELL IN YOUR EMAIL MARKETING
Now that we know what upselling and cross-selling are and how beneficial they can be, it’s time to dive into how to actually make the most of these techniques when sending off your emails to your subscribers. So let’s get started!
REMIND CUSTOMERS OF THEIR PROGRESS
This is a great idea for those of you who sell products/ services that are meant to make a difference to the customers. Reminding existing customers of their progress shows them how helpful your product/ service has been and that they should continue business with you.
If you sell masterclasses, then at the end you can highlight the progress that customers have made during the masterclass showing how beneficial it has been for them. This can prompt them to continue for a further advanced level, or a new one entirely. If they know the results are worth it then they’ll want to continue doing business with you.
If you sell any eco-friendly products, after a certain amount of time you could email them with statistics that they have achieved by using your product over a non-eco-friendly one. For example “Well done! In your 6 months of using our product you have saved 5 gallons of water, 5 days worth of electricity, and $50!” In this case, you may not want them to buy more products as it could go against your values (if they already have one it wouldn’t be eco-friendly to have another), but this could lead to them telling their friends and family about the success your product has given them leading to more sales!
PERSONALIZE AND SEGMENT YOUR EMAIL LIST
As briefly touched on earlier, you need to segment your email list and personalize your emails to make the most of upselling and cross-selling. By segmenting your email list into different groups you can send automated emails to them in bulk while also being personal. If you make a note of all your subscribers that like a certain product, then you can send a bulk email to them either upselling on a new and improved version of the product or cross-selling something that would compliment it. This way you aren’t bombarding the subscribers who aren’t so keen on this product while also potentially getting more sales from the subscribers who are likely to purchase more.
This form of marketing automation is amazing because you can set up emails for all of your different products and send them out according to who would want what! If you want some more information about how to automate your email marketing then check out our article here!
A cheeky tip for upselling and cross-selling to think about is to offer free shipping over a certain value of $$, this way customers are more likely to spend more on products if it means they’ll get free shipping… Even if the overall price including the shipping would have come to less!
MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE
If you’re trying to get your subscribers to spend money when they weren’t originally going to, then you need to make sure that it’s as easy as possible for them to do so. Because it wasn’t their idea in the first place, if there is any delay, blip, or complication when it comes to making the purchase then they will most like abandon ship and what could have been an extra sale is unfortunately just another email in their inbox.
This means that you must include all the links necessary in the email for the subscriber to make the purchase and double, triple, quadruple check all of the links work, lead to the right place, and don’t lag. 53% of mobile website visitors will leave if a webpage doesn’t load within three seconds, and this is when they were planning on visiting, so it’s crucial to ensure that your site is always loading properly.
This is also a great tip when it comes to your shopping cart abandonment emails, by making it as easy as possible, you ensure that there aren’t any technical glitches that could make them change their mind. If you want to know more about abandoned cart workflows, then check out our article here, and if you want to know about workflows in general then check out this article.
USE PURCHASE MOMENTUM
It can take a while to get someone into a purchasing mood so once you have them there, then you want to take as much advantage as possible! Using their purchase momentum can get them to go ‘ahh, why not!’ and purchase more!
Once someone has made a purchase, you should be sending upsell emails within their confirmation and receipt emails. At the end of their receipt in the email, you could add a little ‘Why not get this as well, it’s not too late and we’ll add it to your order so it’s sent out at the same time!’ This way they aren’t put off by having to pay more on extra shipping, or that it would arrive at different times.
You’d be surprised by how many people will make the most of this offer while they’re under the influence of their purchasing high. And even if they don’t, it’s not a separate email so you’re not spending loads of extra time and effort curating an email just for this occasion.
All in all, if there is a chance to boost your customer’s average order value then you may as well make the most of it!
So there you have it! The top 4 ways to implement upselling and cross-selling into your email marketing campaigns! You’re not going to regret it and you’ll be surprised to see how much it will work. After all, all the top businesses use these techniques and they wouldn’t if it didn’t work so that just goes to show how valuable these can be!
Get ready to watch your conversion rates increase and your sales maximized! Just make sure that your email content and subject lines are A+ to ensure that you get people to open your emails in the first place. If you need help with either of these then keep your eyes peeled because something very exciting is coming soon here at CANDESCENT.
Also, check out our article here for even more ways that you can make money with email marketing, including how to use affiliate marketing! We hope that you found this article useful and let us know if there is anything else you would like us to cover! Here’s our blog for even more articles that may be useful for you!
As always, feel free to contact us here or reach out on any of our social media platforms including our Instagram where we post lots of tips and tricks for running a small creative business.