Upselling has long been a tried and true strategy for boosting a brand’s bottom line. According to a HubSpot survey, 72% of salespeople say that upselling drives up to 30% of their revenue, making it one of the most effective sales strategies in a company’s toolbox.
When done right, upselling doesn’t just benefit you — it also makes your clients happier by delivering better solutions that enhance the customer experience. In other words, by convincing customers to spend more on an upgraded product or service, companies can simultaneously increase revenue, customer satisfaction and customer lifetime value.
At the same time, though, upselling efforts sometimes have a bad reputation for being pushy. There’s a fine line between being aggressive and presenting a strong offer that actually meets customer needs. Mastering that balance is what separates effective upselling from tactics that drive customers away.
By following these 6 steps, you can perfect your upselling techniques and unlock greater value for both you and your customers.
1. Get To Know Your Customer
Granted, a critical part of selling anything is having a strong understanding of your customer, but this first step is particularly crucial when it comes to upselling.
For your offer to be instantly enticing — without any pushy sales tactics — it needs to involve a product or service that your customer genuinely needs at that point in their customer journey. The only way to do that? By paying attention to who they are.
Everyone is unique. Getting to know your customers means actively learning about the details that make them special. Segmentation is a good starting point, allowing you to group both your current customers and new customers based on shared characteristics. Once segmented, you can refine your messaging to better match individual customer preferences and behaviours.
Be curious. What offerings do they regularly return to? Do they tend to browse higher-priced options or stick to the essentials? This knowledge can then be leveraged to deliver messaging and recommendations that will hit the mark. For instance, a customer who’s favouriting eco-friendly products would probably respond well to an upgrade offer featuring sustainable packaging or other green features.
Similarly, someone who’s consistently loyal to the iPhone would welcome an offer to upgrade to the latest model. See how Vodafone approached it below.
The best part is that there are so many ways to learn more about your customers. Their purchase history is an easy place to start. We’ve seen personalised upgrade offers, like the one above, prove immensely successful. But you can also leverage demographic data, user-provided data and more to further personalise your upselling strategies.
Trend alert: While third-party data is still important, there’s a definite shift towards gathering and using first-party data in marketing. Learn more about why it matters and what to do about it in our guide to leveraging first-party data.
2. Focus On Relevance
The insights you gain from learning about your customers directly let you imbue your upselling opportunities with a powerful quality: relevance.
Relevance is the currency you need to capture the attention of your audience. In fact, 72% of consumers say they now only engage with marketing messages tailored to their interests. When content highlights relevant products that apply to a customer’s situation, their interest is piqued, and they are encouraged to make that upgrade.
In the most ideal cases, relevancy can even reframe how a customer views upselling efforts. When you recommend an upgrade that perfectly matches what the customer needs, the offer then becomes a solution rather than a sales gimmick. This, in turn, not only boosts conversion rates but helps build trust by showing that you genuinely understand your customers.
This approach has gained a lot of traction in the insurance industry. KBC, for instance, tapped into customer information in order to make its offer more relevant in the Personalised Video below. Knowing that Marie-Hélène just bought a new car, the company took the opportunity to promote their customised car insurance options.
By leveraging customer data and personalising your upselling messaging, you can deliver highly attractive offers that are sent to the right customer right at the perfect moment.
3. Be Authentic and Human
No one likes to be treated like a quick cash grab. That’s why the best upselling efforts have a human element to them. Brands that communicate genuinely — like a trusted salesperson rather than a stiff robot — will find it much easier to convince customers to explore additional products or upgrades.
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Personalisation is one of the most effective ways to establish a positive rapport between you and your customer as you upsell your products or services. It’s also come to be expected by most people, with 71% of consumers expecting personalised interactions from companies — and 76% getting frustrated when they don’t get it.
Something as simple as addressing them by their first name can make a big difference. Then go the extra mile by sprinkling in personal details to emphasise that the message is tailored to their unique situation. In a video, you can even use logic to show different scenes to different people.
The utility company National Grid, for example, included energy use statistics and helpful tips for each customer before promoting their energy efficiency programme in the closing.
A similar approach can be made with upselling. Use tailored content to turn an impersonal sales pitch into a solution to your target customer’s problem. Be honest about your offer and highlight how the product recommendation will add greater value for your customers.
4. Make It Easy To Say Yes
How you present your offer is almost as important as what your offer is. Upselling is not the time to be vague. If your customers have to wade through complicated details or second-guess what they’re getting, they’ll hesitate, or worse, walk away. Your goal is to eliminate confusion and make it as easy as possible for them to say yes.
Our biggest tip for this step is to take advantage of the power of visual media. With the rise of visual online culture that’s occurred in the last decade or so, thanks in large part to Gen Z, a text-dominated Internet has made way for the domination of visual media.
Video, in particular, is a powerful communication tool, combining visuals, text and audio in a way that leaves little room for confusion. This development has been great for consumers and businesses alike. With upselling video campaigns, brands can showcase the value of an offer more effectively and deliver a much more engaging experience to customers.
Just take a look at how Apartments.com took full advantage of video elements — dynamic graphics, bolded data, a friendly narrator — to break down all the reasons why “Summit Commercial Real Estate” should invest in advertising on the platform.
Personalised Video marketing campaigns like the one above have seen results like:
- 9x increase in conversions
- 10x higher engagement
- 3x uplift in sales
- A 27-point increase in Net Promoter Score
For sales teams, visual media offers an opportunity to make their interactions more memorable and personalised. In an era where consumers do extensive research before engaging with sales reps (96% of them do), clearly communicating the upgrade’s value via visual content can help cut through the noise and drive conversions.
5. Have a Clear Call-To-Action
As with all campaigns, you’ll want your upselling offer to have a call to action that is crystal clear and easy to execute. Don’t make accepting the upgrade any harder than it has to be. Remove any obstacles that may deter your customer from going through with the sale.
Use strong, actionable language and eye-catching visuals to drive your customers to the CTA. For all online campaigns, the CTA should also be clickable, whether it’s sent through an email, shown on a website or even presented in a video. Customers should be able to take action quickly, without having to search for instructions or external links.
Tip: Making Interactive Videos with clickable elements is now easier than ever. No more separate links or unclear directions — viewers can click right on the CTA button (or any interactive element) in the video.
Try it for yourself with the Personalised Interactive Video below, offering Peter a special bonus that’s easily accessible with a click of a button.
Creating a sense of urgency when presenting the CTA can also help move customers to action. Limited-time offers and exclusive incentives tap into the psychological principle of scarcity. When customers feel like they have a small window to act, they’re more likely to go ahead with their decision.
Consider the checkout page of an ecommerce brand. This is one of the most common places to include add-on upgrades, with a straightforward “Add to Cart” button making it easy for customers to “say yes.” To motivate customers a bit more, you could even offer an exclusive discount only available at checkout and encourage immediate action.
6. Strengthen Customer Loyalty and Trust
Upselling efforts should be an investment in building strong relationships with your customers. The more loyal someone is to your brand, the stronger their trust in your products and services. Not to mention, existing customers bring in the most revenue (72%, according to one report) and refer the highest-quality leads.
Alternatively, bad experiences could end in customers abandoning you completely. PwC found that a third of consumers will leave a brand they love after just one bad experience, while nearly half would completely abandon a company after 2-3 negative interactions. That’s why it’s crucial to approach upselling with care, ensuring that every interaction is meaningful and value-driven.
So how exactly do you inspire customers to trust you? By taking customer care as seriously as advertising. Data-driven personalisation is an effective strategy for marketing efforts, but don’t just stop there. Let your insights drive how you design their brand experience and interactions.
From onboarding communications to customer service interactions, put effort into delivering personalised experiences that exceed expectations at every touchpoint. A personalised follow-up customer service video after an initial purchase, for example, can deepen the relationship and set the stage for future upselling opportunities.
For many (73% of U.S. customers, to be exact), those positive brand experiences are even more influential than price and product quality. By prioritising customer retention and delivering exceptional experiences, you not only improve customer loyalty but create a foundation for successful upselling. After all, a happy and loyal customer base is much more likely to respond to relevant upsell offers when it’s from a brand they love and trust.
Achieve Your Upselling Goals With Video
From collecting data on your customers to elevating their experience with your brand, Personalised Video can be used in diverse ways to improve the effectiveness of your upselling efforts. With our Next Generation Video Platform, Idomoo makes it easy for companies across industries — whether they need a personalised banking video or a fun (but high-converting) travel video — to create and distribute dynamic, data-driven video.
So why not give customers what they want? More than 8 out of 10 (83%) consumers want more video content from brands, yet only 19% say they frequently receive it. Plus, as demand for video grows, so does interest in more advanced video formats, like personalised, interactive and AI-driven video.
We call these kinds of content Next Generation Video — and they’re delivering real business value. Compared to generic video, they’re:
- 4x more likely to make a customer feel valued by a brand
- 3x more likely to make a customer trust a brand
- 3.5x more likely to make someone become or remain a customer
- 3x more likely to make a customer recommend a brand
When integrated into your marketing strategy, Next Gen Video is an incredibly powerful tool that can help you meet — and even exceed — your sales targets. Want to learn more about how you can grow your business? Get in touch today, and we’ll show you how Idomoo can help you reach your upselling goals.
