Selling to your existing customers is easier and much more cost-effective than going out and finding new customers. It all makes sense — your existing customer base is already familiar with your brand and you have their trust. This means you don't have to start everything from scratch and go through the Awareness stage where you're essentially spending your budget on people who may not even care about what you have to offer.
All you need to do with existing customers is convince them to keep coming back for more; and this is where post-purchase emails, cross-selling ones specifically, come into play. When you combine cross-selling emails with personalized videos, you can build a powerful sales machine.
In this article, we will be looking at how to combine cross-sell emails with personalized videos to help inspire you and improve your sales.
What is cross-selling?
By definition, cross-selling is when you sell an additional product or service to a customer. Often, the additional products or services you are trying to sell to the customer are related to what they have already bought.
Even though cross-selling and upselling usually happen after a customer has added an item to their cart or initiated the checkout process, it is not always the case.
(Source: Expert Market YouTube)
Cross-selling and upselling are great ways to increase customer loyalty and create deeper customer relationships which can then improve the lifetime value of that customer.
Benefits of cross-selling
It is not possible to cross-sell to every customer. Some will only want to purchase one of your products and there are cases where you practically can't do anything about it. However, you should still provide opportunities to your consumers to purchase more from you.
Implementing cross-selling techniques can be very beneficial if done right.
It helps improve customer loyalty
Brand loyalty usually starts with just one purchase. However, one item won't automatically guarantee you that the customer will keep considering your brand in the future. If they buy more than one item and you provide them with a great experience, you might increase the chances of them returning to do business with you in the future.
Buying more products usually equals more involvement with the brand and that is exactly the type of relationship you want to cultivate with your customers or clients.
More profits
This one is obvious but selling more products equals more profits for you. Many businesses train their employees to cross-sell.
They usually do this because they don't know when or if that customer will walk through the door the next time. By being involved more in the purchase process, they improve the chances of the customer buying another product. The same thing happens online.
More satisfied customers
Consumers usually associate how satisfied they are with how much value they believe they got from your product or company. The more satisfied a customer is, the more likely they are to make future purchases, and cross-selling allows you to bundle more value and information without putting too much pressure on a single product.
Also, highly satisfied customers are more likely to interact with your brand online and leave positive reviews. These kinds of relationships help you build leverage online and improve your brand reputation.
Better customer retention rates
Usually, if a customer is spending more money with a business, they feel more attachment to that brand. This partially happens because of perceived value. When a customer spends more, they perceive your products as more valuable.
If a customer has a perception that your products and services offer them higher value, they are usually exposed more to your products and you get more opportunities to impress them.
(Source)
Cross-selling can be a great motivator
Sometimes, we all struggle with finding motivation. If you are building and selling digital products or services, this can be even more prominent. Sales do not always roll after you launch and if that happens, cross-sell techniques can help.
Because cross-selling can help you get more sales in less time and with fewer customers, you may not have to work quite as hard all the time to generate more revenue for your business. Having more time away from actively doing sales can push you to improve your product or build the next one.
The best cross-selling practices
Since cross-selling offers such great benefits, you need to ensure that you are doing it effectively. The last thing you want to do is turn away your customers and miss out on sales. Over the years, people have developed different cross-selling techniques, some even involving a QR code generator.
Here are the best practices for doing cross-sales and cross-marketing with the help of personalized videos.
Use customer testimonials
More often than not, people have more trust in other people than they have in a business they're dealing with. As a person running a business or doing sales, it is in your best interest to present your products and company in the best possible light.
A great way to increase the trust of people in your products, services, and company is to show your customers testimonials from other people that are satisfied with your products. And what is more personal than actual video testimonials of your clients talking about how much value they were able to get from you?
These videos can be a great incentive for others to buy more products from you when they may not have considered doing so in other cases. You can create an email funnel and send out an email to all people that have purchased a certain product from you.
(Source: Yum Yum Videos YouTube)
The email could include a video testimonial in which a client is talking about a positive experience they have had with a product similar to the one that the people in the funnel have already purchased.
Cross-sell to your email list
Your email list can be super helpful in reaching your users directly and influencing their spending habits.
For example, you can create an autoresponder email that triggers when a customer subscribes to your newsletter. The email could include a video in which someone from your team is thanking the newsletter subscriber for joining the email list and offers them a special discount if they decide to purchase your product.
These emails should serve two purposes. First, they can remind the client that they have subscribed to your newsletter. Making it sound personal with a video can help lay the foundations for an engaging relationship in the future. And second, the special discount might convince them to make a purchase even if they did not originally intend to.
Of course, you can offer different incentives than just discounts. Longer free trials, eBooks, studies, whatever else you think that your client might enjoy.
Show off the value
When doing cross-sales and cross-marketing, one of the most important things you need to do is to make sure that the customers understand the value of what you are offering. If they do not know exactly what they will get in return for paying for what you offer, you might lose out on a sale.
In marketing, there are several types of value to be generated. The real value is an objective value of a specific product. On the other hand, perceived value is a customer's perception of a product and how much they value it, especially when comparing your product to a competitor's.
Both real value and perceived value are important but at the end of the day, the perceived value is the one that sells your product and a personalized video can influence this decision. For example, when a customer signs up for a free trial, you can send them a personalized video explaining your product's benefits.
By showing your customers how your product can improve their life or business instead of just listing its features, their perspective will start to shift and they may start perceiving your brand as more valuable.
Offer bundles
Bundling digital products (or a product and add-ons) can be a great way to get more sales. When you combine a bundle with a personalized video in which you invite prospects or customers to purchase it, you might start seeing results.
Just make sure that you are not overly forceful in the video and that the bundle is a worthy investment — including a discount here might seal the deal.
Know when it is time to back off
When doing sales, especially cross-selling, you need to know the boundaries. All too often, we hear customers complaining that the salesperson is not listening to them or that they have made the customer uncomfortable. The last thing you want is for the client to think you are going too far and being pushy.
Going too far to get the customer to purchase is especially prominent over email and using personalized videos while trying to push your product will do more harm than good. It can turn them off from making a purchase, you can come across as annoying which usually does irreparable damage to the brand.
Popular cross-selling questions
What is an example of cross-selling?
In addition to the cross-selling examples we mentioned in the article, there are also numerous other examples by companies from all sorts of industries, not all tied to the digital world. The most recognizable example of cross-selling is when a cashier at a fast-food restaurant asks a customer the good old: "Do you want fries with that?"
But essentially, any situation where you're being offered complementary products that work well with your original order can be considered cross-selling.
What is the difference between cross-selling and upselling?
The cross-selling vs upselling dichotomy is confusing to a lot of people, understandably so. The two tactics are similar and both are effective in their own right.
Cross-selling is the process of encouraging customers to purchase a related or a complementary product or service to the one they are in the process of purchasing. Upselling, on the other hand, encourages customers to purchase a more expensive product. When done properly, cross-selling and upselling can provide more value to customers.
What is a cross-sell strategy?
A cross-selling strategy is based on the principle of improving the outcome for the customer. The improvement may come from more convenience for the customer, a better experience for them, and more. Unlike upselling, cross-selling does not try to improve the original offer but instead adds to it.
How do you cross-sell and upsell?
There are several ways you can do cross-selling and upselling but all of them should follow the same principles. First, figure out which of your products get the best results. Then offer a cross-sell or upsell incentive that makes sense. If you have the opportunity, pitch the value of the cross-sell or upsell before offering it.
Conclusion
Cross-selling is a powerful sales tactic that's very important if you want to increase the revenue of your team in the most efficient way possible. With the help of cross-selling, you can create better customer relations, bring them more value, find more opportunities to increase your revenue, and drive sales.
To be successful at cross-selling, you need to know your products and how they work together. What your customers need could dictate what products you should try to cross-sell and offering the right combination of products will make it easier to close the sale. By figuring out what your customers need and what drives them, you will be able to craft your approach accordingly. When you combine the right approach of cross-selling with personalized video, the results can be even better.
Try Bonjoro for Free
If you are looking for a tool that can record, send, and track personalized videos not just for cross-selling, make sure you give Bonjoro a try. You can start your free trial of Bonjoro here.
