Most business owners have the same end goal in mind — make money. There are a million ways to boost revenue in your business, and upselling is one of the most practical sales techniques.
Some think of upselling as a dirty tactic to make customers shell out more money. But it doesn’t have to be shady. If you do it correctly, upselling can be an excellent way to simultaneously increase revenue and create loyal customers.
The word “upsell” often conjures the phrase, “Would you like to super-size it?” in people’s minds. But this is a narrow interpretation, and we’re about to expand your understanding of how upselling can boost your revenue.
Do you know what Google AdWords is and how to use it to improve your email marketing game?
It’s ok. We’re about to explain it, along with other upselling techniques that will help you grow your business.
In this guide you’ll learn:
- Why upselling is a practice worth trying
- What the best upselling strategies are
- What Google AdWords is and how it can level up your email marketing
Why Upselling Is Important To Boost Sales Revenue
Upselling is a sales technique that persuades customers to buy a product with additional features instead of a more basic version. With upselling, you offer a bigger and better version of your standard product. If you create enough value, it becomes difficult for a user to choose the cheaper option.
People will often confuse upselling with cross-selling, where you entice customers to add products that complement their original purchase. The aim of cross-selling is to convince a customer to buy additional products.
When you upsell, you offer customers products that better fulfill your clients’ needs — and increase your total sales.
If you’re not upselling already, here’s why you should:
1. Upselling Increases Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer lifetime value is the net revenue a customer brings to your business over time. Your customers can fall under any of the three categories: profitable, unprofitable, or highly profitable.
When you deliver a product that costs more, but feels worthwhile to your customers, you turn them into highly profitable, loyal shoppers. You also improve your CLV, generating more revenue for your business without investing a higher amount to obtain and retain clients.
2. Upselling Improves Your Customer Retention Rate
Since customers buy a product or service to fulfill a need, they’re usually delighted to find a solution that offers more value than they expected. Upselling means you introduce better product features that make the customer’s experience more fulfilling.
Happy customers are more likely to come back to your company to purchase other products. Upselling is among the best ways to keep your existing customers, maintain a strong customer base, and grow your business.
3. Upselling Strengthens Your Relationship With Customers
If you’re upselling the right way, your upgrades and premium products offer solutions that make your customers’ lives better. Rather than feeling as if you’ve scammed them into overpaying, you need to make sure clients feel that you’ve given them the best deal possible.
Grateful clients will praise your brand, advocate for your company, and keep coming back for more.
4. Upselling Makes Marketing Easier
Maintaining an ongoing relationship with existing clients is more manageable and cost-effective than trying to acquire new prospects. A good-quality upsell can convince customers to trust your brand and keep doing business with you.
Satisfied customers will also recommend you to their friends and family. Word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective marketing you can get. According to a 2012 study from Nielsen, 92% of people trust personal advice about products and services more than any other sort of advertising.
Key Techniques To Upsell Your Products And Improve Your Sales
Ideally, you should offer an upsell before the customer has completed a purchase. But that doesn’t mean you can’t follow up with people who chose a less valuable option.
We’ll explore marketing techniques that do both — from email newsletters that keep your clients updated on improved product options to incentives that encourage buyers to opt for the premium package.
Use Email Marketing to Follow Up On Upsells
Email’s global popularity makes it continually vital to well-developed marketing campaigns.
To use email to upsell, send out campaigns that feature higher-end versions of lower-priced items customers have purchased from your shop. Once they’ve used your product and enjoyed it, clients are more likely to see the value in upgrading. They might realize they want the features in your premium product, or perhaps their business has grown and they need a more advanced option.
Whatever the reason, it’s best to stay top of mind with customers. A constantly growing, organized email list has many advantages.
The benefits of email marketing include:
- The ability to connect with users across digital devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and computers.
- A smaller marketing budget, which is important to growing businesses with budget constraints.
- More precise audience targeting. Email list segmentation lets you classify your customers based on common attributes, like the products they’ve purchased.
- Customized, one-on-one marketing. Advanced email templates let you add a customer’s name to the subject line and email body.
Combine Email Marketing With Google Adwords
An unfortunate limitation of email marketing is the surprisingly low average open email rate across industries. According to 2019 data from Mailchimp, on average, less than 25% of your email subscribers will read your emails.
It’s vital to add complementary strategies to your email marketing tactics if you want to maximize conversions from your subscriber base — that’s why you need to learn what Google Adwords is.
What Is Google Adwords?
Google Adwords lets businesses bid for advertising space across Google’s digital platforms, including Google Search and YouTube.
What is Google Adwords going to do to improve your email marketing strategy?
Here’s how you can leverage what Google Adwords is with data from your subscriber list to target your customers and promote engagement:
- Use Customer Match: The Customer Match feature is the key to what Google Adwords is able to offer your email marketing strategy. Upload your email lists, and then Customer Match uses your current customers’ email addresses to target ads toward them, as well as people with a similar profile. There is no limit to the number of email lists you can upload on AdWords.
- Create Email Segments: To effectively target your sales leads on Google AdWords, you need to categorize your email subscribers into narrower categories. Create separate lists for engaged customers who are yet to purchase and existing customers who qualify for a premium product. The content of what Google AdWords is saying should change based on the audience.
- Develop an AdWords Strategy for Each Audience Segment: Create custom advertisements for each email audience. You’ll need different messaging for clients you want to upsell on a new product or upgraded features and potential customers who have yet to buy.
Use Product and Service Comparisons
Whether you’re upselling a new client or loyal customer, side-by-side product or service comparisons are an excellent visual tool. Highlight important features and prices to help your prospects see how they’ll benefit from an upgrade.
Subscription-based services use this technique often. They’ll offer three packages with the prices and features for each plan displayed parallel to each other. This makes it easy to see how much more you’ll get with the higher-priced options.
Create a Sense of Urgency
Any sales and marketing pro will tell you how crucial it is to build a sense of urgency. This technique applies to any kind of sales, and upselling is no different. Let your audience know the premium product or service might be unavailable in the future.
You can effectively encourage prospects to “buy now” with a one-time discount and the right language. Indicate the deluxe option is only available for a short time or there is a limited quantity. This can encourage your customers to act.
Creating a sense of urgency is more practical for checkout upsells when a customer first commits to buying.
Offer Incentives For Upsells
Give your customers a bonus that comes with the more expensive product. In addition to offering a more valuable item, you can throw in incentives that make it feel like a better deal.
Incentives can be as simple as free shipping or instant savings when the purchaser spends a certain amount of money in your store. You can combine incentives with a sense of urgency by offering them for a limited time. These techniques work together to increase the impact of both.
Best Practices to Make Upselling Work for You
Upselling is an effective sales tactic if you use it the right way.
Here are a few tips to upsell successfully:
- Put your customer’s needs first and show them how they benefit from an upsell. How will the value-added offer meet their needs?
- Maintain a reasonable price range. Huge price differences can make a premium product feel instantly out of reach. But a small price difference can make the choice to upgrade feel like a no-brainer.
- Don’t overwhelm your clients with options. Too many choices make it hard for people to make a sensible decision. If a potential buyer feels conflicted about which package to choose, they may step away and never return to finish their purchase.
- Don’t be forceful. Upselling works best as a friendly sales tactic. Consider an upsell as a suggestion.
- Keep it relevant. Only make upsells related to the product your customer already wants. If they are searching for a tablet, don’t advise them to buy a laptop — they don’t satisfy the same need.
Final Thoughts: Upselling Techniques To Increase Sales And Retain Existing Customers
Many customers are happy to pay more for a superior product — but you have to give them the opportunity. Through upselling, you offer your customers an upgraded version of what they already want. You earn a higher profit, and they get a more comprehensive solution to their needs.
Now you have information about various upselling techniques, including what Google AdWords is able to contribute to your email marketing strategy. Improve your business and generate more revenue with upsells: the sales strategy that benefits you and your customers.
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