We’re back with Part 2 of upselling and cross-selling. Buckle in and join us for the ride. 👇
🚨 This week we’re diving into programs and partners to work with.
Partner up with relevant brands:
Not only is partnering with other brands a great way to get in front of a new audience, but you can also cross-sell each other’s products on your website or in marketing campaigns.
For example, Skinny Mixes has a complementary products section on the customer’s cart page. This promotes various brands they’re partnered with that follow the same mission of healthy beverages and snacks.
Be strategic about the products you have partners promote for you, like bundles or upgraded versions of your products, to drive up your AOV.
Upsell customers into a personalized membership program:
If a membership program suits your brand well, then don’t forget about the opportunity to upsell customers into it.
Highlight it on your homepage, product pages, and in your post-purchase emails.
Rather than just a “subscribe and save,” make the membership offer something really worthwhile.
Free shipping, free trial products, a birthday discount, access to sales first, brand merch, a community, and exclusive event invites are all good reasons for a customer to pay a yearly membership fee.
💌 Email & SMS strategies:
Cross-sell personalized products in your post-purchase emails:
Even after customers make a purchase, there’s still a chance to cross-sell complementary products.
Consider adding product blocks with personalized recommendations in the following emails:
- Thank you emails.
- Welcome emails (also with product education and info about your brand).
- Transactional emails (Shipping notification and delivery updates).
- A personalized note from the founder asking the customer for feedback on the product and recommending other products.
Here’s an example from Rigby, which includes a welcome discount, a note from the founder, and recommends product categories to look at. 👀
✅ Best practices for upselling and cross-selling:
Make sure what you’re offering is actually relevant: If a customer is buying a moisturizer, cross-selling another moisturizer isn’t going to be useful to them.
Instead, show them complementary products, like a cleanser and toner.
Take this one step further and actually recommend items based on their skin concerns. If their moisturizer is for oily skin, it’s safe to assume a cleanser for oily skin is a good choice too.
Segment your customers for your upsells/cross-sells: Then you can personalize your emails and website experience to promote the best options based on each customer’s needs.
Add social proof to make it more convincing: A lot of customers will ignore your extra recommendations, but if you can tie in social proof with ratings, testimonials, and even UGC, that will help your recommendations stand out.
Upsell and cross-sell in more places than one: The trick is to make sure you’re upselling and cross-selling in a variety of places to catch as much traffic as you can.
Add an offer customers can’t refuse—with urgency: It’s never good practice to run deep discounts too often, but if you offer customers a deal with the upsell/cross-sell, it’s more likely they’ll make the purchase.
Put a deadline to add urgency.
Test different offers with your customers to see what works best: What works for some brands won’t work for others.
Test different offers and recommendations to figure out what works best for your business.
Don’t overdo it: The goal isn’t to slap promotions and product recommendations everywhere the customer goes. Make sure you’re smart about where you’re placing recommendations.
Make the upsell price increase make sense: If you’re trying to convince customers to purchase an upgraded version of the product, it can be shocking if the price jumps from $50 to $250.
It’s unlikely someone will upsell that way, so make sure the price increases make sense.
Reply to this email if you want us to cover more upsell/cross-sell strategies!
