Every e-commerce business is constantly trying to increase its sales, but the real challenge is figuring out how to do it effectively with minimal investment.
A smart and well-executed sales strategy can make a big difference. Email marketing offers many opportunities to boost purchases in your ecommerce site, one way to get the most out of it is through up-selling and cross-selling.
Find out how to implement these techniques in your email marketing campaigns!
What does up-selling and cross-selling mean?
It’s not just about getting more customers, but also about maximizing how much they spend.
This way, you can increase the profitability of your business without having to invest more. For this, there are two highly effective and popular strategies among sales experts: up-selling and cross-selling.
Cross-selling is the marketing technique that consists of recommending additional products or services, similar to those that users are interested in.
For example, when you are in a store and the seller shows you a shirt similar to the one you are trying on for you to take both.
Up-selling is similar, but in this case the second product that is offered to the user is more expensive.
Thus, this offer increases the probability of the customer making a purchase of greater value.
This was also done in traditional sales, for example when you were purchasing a car, and they offered you one of a higher range, telling you that for the difference in price it was worth making the upgrade.
One of the most important benefits from these techniques is the increase in average sales per customer.
Often cross-selling and up-selling also generate greater customer loyalty.
Sometimes, it may seem like the customer might regret making the extra purchase because it involves spending more money, but the opposite often happens. They become more affiliated with your brand.
How to implement them in your email marketing strategy?
Wondering if an email marketing campaign will be successful, it’s like wondering if the book you’ve published will get sales or not
Millions of books are published, but there is an abysmal difference between them. Similarly, many email marketing campaigns are also sent every day, but most of them die in spam, or are read without any conversion.
We all know that implementing good marketing practices such as having a product roadmap template helps the team be aligned on the next major product milestones.
But beyond implementing good practices to make your campaigns successful, cross-selling and up-selling will increase the conversions of your campaigns. But how should they be applied?
· Lean on good email marketing software
Before starting your up-selling and cross-selling campaigns, ask yourself if you have the right tool to boost your success.
You need software that allows you to create the most professional campaigns, where you can segment by lists and automate effective email marketing workflows. MailRelay is a marketing campaign automation and management software that allows you to maximize results.
If the customer is interested in a monthly subscription and your up-selling proposal is a full year subscription, make sure that subscribing annually has a very attractive cost compared to paying per month.
If your added value is not the price, but a series of advantages of the higher cost product or service, be sure to explain those benefits clearly and concisely.
Another good sales strategy consists of implementing an e-commerce live chat that automatically suggests different products that the user might be interested in.
· The products must be related
It does not make sense that you offer the customer a more expensive product that doesn’t relate to the first product at all.
For example, if you’re selling a logistics software, what’s the point in showing the customer a graphic design software? You’ll have better chances of selling by recommending a project management tool, for example.
· Choose the right time to do it
There is the perfect time for everything, you are too early or too late, you might not get results. Make the up-selling offer in your email marketing campaigns when the customer is reaching the decision phase or by offering new similar products to clients who have already bought in the past.
· Don’t overwhelm with additional information
Marketing campaigns should not have too many CTAs, as they could overwhelm your subscribers and it could backfire. Offer cross-selling or up-selling alternatives, but focus on two or three products or services, no more.
· Offer free content in the first instance
If you have a database of potential customers who have been interested in your FREE products or services in the past, you can run an up-selling campaign by displaying another free ‘lead magnet’, such as an ebook or video tutorial that matches their interests.
You can, for example, create an email marketing workflow by first sending a free ebook offer or an open access webinar. A few days later another email would be automatically sent to those who clicked on the previous one, with an upselling offer.
Bottomline
As you can see, up-selling and cross-selling can boost your email sales, and your overall revenues. The key is to send these offers at the right time of the buyer journey, having identified your buyer person well. If you properly segment your most qualified potential client, you can get a good ROI with your email marketing campaigns. Good luck!