Upselling is when you offer a customer a similar yet superior and more expensive version of a product they want (or have already bought). It might be bigger, or smarter, or newer, or have additional properties — doesn’t matter, the idea is that it has to be more expensive.
Upselling sometimes gets confused with cross-selling which is another marketing technique aimed at motivating customers to purchase more goods or services. They mean different things but are indeed close in some respects, so on the internet, you can see that they are often covered in a single article. There’s a difference, though. Upsell is about comparable, cross-sell is about complementary.
For example, imagine a customer wants to buy an office chair from you. You can then convince them to buy a more ergonomic, comfortable and consequently more expensive chair — that would be an upsell. You can also sell some complementary products like footrests or cushions along with the chair they’ve chosen — that would be a cross-sell.
What’s important with upselling is that it’s a marketing technique that you cannot use straight away, you have to build up to it first. Otherwise, clients won’t have a reason to buy anything more expensive from you, i.e. invest in you. So email marketing, which is designed to build long-term relationships, is a great choice for introducing upsell offers in your marketing strategy.
Upselling works in every industry. For instance, in e-commerce, upselling can encourage customers to buy a more expensive version of the product. In SaaS, it can mean an upgrade of an account or a prolonged support period.
What can be considered as upsell in emails:
The reason upsell in general and upsell emails, in particular, are so important is that the likelihood of convincing an existing customer to buy a “bigger” product is higher than convincing somebody new to become a customer. Selling to an existing client is always easier than selling to a new one because, with an old customer, you’re one step further by having their trust. Statistics show 91% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that remember them and provide relevant offers.
Upsell has a lot of important advantages for the seller:
What works best with upsell emails? After having analyzed a number of real-life upsell email subject lines, it looks like there the most effective techniques are:
The promise of a specific benefit:
Using emojis to catch the eye:
Personalizing by putting in names and order information:
The promise of saving money:
Remember that inept use of an upsell threatens not only a decrease in income but also the loss of customers. To prevent this from happening, follow these rules:
This is a good example of an upsell email by Grammarly:
There are several points in the email marketing funnel when you can upsell, and they are either before purchase or after purchase. To sum up, the preferable time to send upselling emails is:
If we take marketing in general, most often upselling happens before the purchase — it’s those product recommendations on websites’ product pages you can often see. You can do it in email marketing too:
However, in the case of email marketing where you don’t just show a product but have to send a separate message about it, pre-purchase upselling becomes tricky. There’s more pressure on the customer and more potential danger to scare them away before purchase. So the majority of email upselling is post-purchase. It usually borders on cross-selling. For example:
So, the most favorable moment for upselling in email marketing is after purchase when customers are welcome to recommendations from a brand they’ve already chosen. This is when you make the most of a customer’s momentum and trust.
“Would you like to upgrade it” is a classic upsell move. Here’s Driftaway Coffee suggesting you upgrade your home coffee kit for nicer WFH:
“People who bought this also bought…” is another lead that works well on websites and in emails. It also borders on cross-selling:
Be careful though, don’t abuse this trust. Make the recommendation have something to do with what your customers have already bought so that it doesn’t look random but rather related to previous purchases.
A milestone like getting a new level, or anniversary, or even a birthday — these all are a good opportunity to demonstrate how a customer gained something using your service and how they can gain even more if they try a superior plan.
Or else, if you’re a SaaS company, the most efficient way for you to use upselling techniques is to send upsell emails when users are nearing the end of their free trial or account limitations.
Take a look at this short and discreet message from Strava:
Who is your first choice to announce a new line of products if not the existing customers who are already invested in your brand? Existing customers are very much open to new products, so it’s a good idea to send them emails about the latest arrivals and invite them to upgrade.
And lastly, here are several tips and examples to make your upsell emails more effective.
Personalization is the key to successful upselling. The more personalized your message is and the more it has to do with the actual person, the less it will look like another uninspired salesy email bound to be put aside.
You can start by mentioning your subscriber by their name:
Or make suggestions based on their order history:
Personalize based on segmentation. Divide your contact list into segments and consider the best ways to approach every group depending on defining characteristics. It can be:
Use countdown GIFs and other FOMO-related tactics to show that your offer is available for a limited time only.
Your goal is to avoid a situation when a subscriber prefers another activity in favor of paying attention to your message. You want them to act now rather than later, so creating fear of missing out on an opportunity is a good option. Tell them that there are “only 5 items left” or it’s the “last call,” or that the next such opportunity will present itself in a year’s time. Communicate the risks or missed opportunities.
Remember, all you have to do is to ask and suggest, just don’t be too pushy or you’ll sound desperate and intrusive. Customers are not interested in making your profit, they want something for themselves and it’s your call to find the point where your interests coincide.
Invest in convincing copy and user-oriented design, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and imagine what each group would like to have. Showcase the features of superior products you want to promote, the savings, and other benefits clients can get once they pay for the better version.
Look at this email by Medium:
According to the Walker Sands Future of Retail study, 9 out of 10 customers consider free shipping as their top incentive to make them shop online more often. Offer free shipping as a way to make more sales or sell a more expensive product.
Done right, upsell emails are a positive experience for your customers while being a great profit-increasing method for you. Don’t miss out on a chance but remember to keep a healthy relationship with your customers. Remember, they are already with you so don’t let them down.
