How To Create An Upsell
An “upsell” is a simple and effective but little used concept.
An upsell occurs when you have already made the sale in the customers mind. He has decided to buy and is digging for his credit card so that he can get the product you just offered him. Now is the time to push the upsell.
Now you shouldn’t just grab any old product and offer it out at this point, though that may even bring in more money than not offering an upsell at all. Remember, the customer is already sold, they have already decided to spend their money on your product or service. You need to take this opportunity to increase the size of the sale or order.
The best upsell you can create is something that you know the customer will need or want in the future (because you know the market) that the customer doesn’t realize they will need or want.
Let me say this again. The little moment between the time the customer reaches into his back pocket for his credit card and the time he hands you the number (or enters it on your website) is a goldmine for you. You need to be able to very quickly educate the customer on the benefits of buying the larger package or the bigger item or the add on right now.
This is done online with web hosting. You go to some domain name providers and enter the domain name that you want. They briefly explain to you that you need to also purchase the .biz and .net version of your new domain name along with your .com. They say it is for your protection, so no one else can register those domains and make money off you name. AND then they offer it to you at a discount. After reading that little blurb right there you almost feel stupid if you don’t take the offer. That is an example of a great upsell.
When was the last time you went in to your local electronics store and bought something? What happens when you gt up to the counter to pay for it? They offer you an extended warranty. That is the upsell. Until you got to the counter, you hadn’t really thought of that but while you are digging your credit card out of your pocket, they offer you an additional 2 years warranty for only $39 but you have to buy it now.
Take a look at your products or services and see what you can bundle together or offer as an upsell. Write a quick blurb about it. It has to offer a benefit to the customer and should be offered at a price that they can only get right now, as they are purchasing.
Watch how that increases your profits.
Why does Google race forward while Yahoo flounders around?
Did you ever wonder why (looking back in history) you can look at 2 companies or people and one of them succeeded while the other did not? Sometimes the difference in what they did was very subtle but one is remembered and the other forgotten. It wasn’t always for lack of resources or timing or any of those things we attribute to being successful. Sometimes it is because one has a clearer idea of who their market is or who they are really catering to.
McDonald’s restaurant knows this. They cater to kids. They have kids friendly restaurants and give out little toys and create an atmosphere that is appealing to this target market. I have 4 young kids and it is a pretty special time for them to go to McDonald’s. I really don’t care for the food that much but we go because the kids enjoy the environment.
Let’s look at Google and Yahoo. Both are successful search engines, very large, have been in business for some time and are well known. But see, Google knows who their market is. The marketer. If you want to advertise on Google, they make it very easy. You can go there and within 5 minutes set yourself up an adwords account, put up ads and start advertising. You can pull up your stats and see what your campaigns are doing very quickly. The stats aren’t real-time but not too far out. If you want to display their ads on your website, no problem. Set yourself up an adsense account and start showing ads that are relevant to your content and cater to your viewers. No problem.
They are in business to do business and if you are a marketer you can work with them.
I recently went to Yahoo Search to set up a PPC account. It was a bit more involved and not nearly as straight forward. I haven’t been back in a while to check my stats because I have a hard time finding the login button on their page and I don’t feel like searching for it. When I signed up for my account, I had a coupon for some free advertising and it took a few days to get that applied to my account – after I emailed them. Just seems like I am bothering them if I want to advertise with them.
I am going to quote from an email I just got from Pay Per Click authority Perry Marshall (in regards to the former Overture/Yahoo keyword research tool):
“Any business plan so utterly STUPID as to abandon one of the
best loved keyword research tools on the entire Internet…. (notice: Google introduced this new stuff immediately after Yahoo disabled theirs) and build such a royally bureaucratic PPC system as Yahoo has… ….Deserves to have their ass kicked by Carl Icahn, shareholder mutiny, hostile takeover by Microsoft, or whatever other grim fate befalls them.”The point here is to know who your market is – and it may not always be what it looks like on the outside. Google is a search engine that the average person uses and is familiar with. If you were to ask around, you might think they are in the business of offering a search service to people looking for things online. But Google knows that their market is the marketer. If they cater to the marketer by making it easy to do business, they will have a successful search engine. They will remain popular because the people who are advertising (read: spending the money) are welcome to use their service.
Thanks to Google for picking up the slack and serving the marketing crowd.
Small Business Consulting
Just In
Randy Ruggles and Jonathan Hook of The Marketers Mind are starting a consulting program for small businesses.
In our program:
A. We work with small to medium sized business to help them increase gross revenues by 20% or more in 90 days without additional advertising – GUARANTEED
There are three basic ways to grow a business:
1. Get more customers
2. Get current customers to buy more
3. Get current customers to buy more often
Most consultants and especially sales reps for various media only focus on #1 – getting your message out to increase the traffic in your business. We focus especially on #2 and #3 – gaining sales and loyalty from your existing customers.
B. We don’t just tell you what to do and leave you thrashing around or add more to your existing “to do” list. We actually implement the system for you.
C. We will put easy, repeatable systems in place so that you don’t need us forever. Once we set things up, you will be able to carry on without having to pay us on an ongoing basis.
Of course, the most important aspects of our USP are that we create results FAST, without ADVERTISING – GUARANTEED.
We look forward to growing your business. Contact us at jhook @ themarketersmind.com
Is online marketing much different than traditional offline marketing?
For some reason, some people think that marketing online is different than a traditional brick and mortar business marketing offline. The truth is that marketing is marketing and what works, works. Independent of the tools you use.
Online marketing is simply direct response marketing.
If you have a traditional, offline business, you need to be looking at some of the tactics used online by marketers and apply them to your own business.
For example, many online marketers understand that they need to sell a product and then offer an “upsell” – a higher priced offer to the person that just gave them money. This tactic should be used offline as well. When someone purchases your product or service, are you offering an upsell? Are there other items or services you can bundle together and promote?
This is done very well by McDonald’s – “would you like fries with that?”
If they can make money selling simple french fries for an extra few cents per order, then surely you can offer your clients something extra.
Marketing online is the same as marketing offline – just using a different form of media.
Did you make a mistake? Say you’re sorry!
Everyone makes mistakes! Even the “big guys”.
It is part of what we do, we are people, we are not perfect.
The thing that sets the professionals apart is the way a mistake is handled.
There are a few different ways to handle a mistake.
One option that some people try is to pass the blame. “It isn’t my fault”, “someone else messed up”. All this does is make you look helpless. You are supposed to know what you are doing, you are supposed to be the expert. But you are at the mercy of whoever made the mistake. Not good.
Some people just try to hide and see if the thing blows over. Very easy to do on the internet where things can be a bit impersonal. Certainly does not make you very professional and won’t gain you more trust from your clients.
Honesty is the best policy. You heard it from your mother first – and it is still true in business.
I recently made a mistake on one of my websites – www.3dayfiresale.com. On this site, I offer for sale tools that marketers can use at great prices that can’t be beat anywhere. Once I send out the emails letting people know what is on sale, the sooner you buy, the cheaper it is. The price goes up on it’s own over time.
The mistake I made was very foolish but very serious. I didn’t double-check my download links. Turns out I didn’t have available all of the files I was selling. So I sent out my email and people started to purchase – but they couldn’t download the files. Big problem. What did I do? Well, I didn’t run away and hope people would leave me alone. I didn’t try to pass the buck. I sent out an email to everyone and let them know there were some problems and we were working to resolve them. To make a long story short, I was able to recover the main item I was selling but I was not able to provide the bonus that I had offered. So I emailed everyone the main product. Made it as easy as possible. I didn’t tell them to log in and download the product, I emailed it straight to them. I also let everyone know that the bonus was not available and then I gave my customers 2 options. Everyone had already received the actual product and now they could either receive a FULL refund, OR, they could chose a replacement product and have any one product that we offer on our www.3dayfiresale.com website. Now this was especially attractive since I had run this particular sale at a great discount and was now offering any other product as a replacement. The result? Well about 25% of the sales that day got refunded. No problem. About 30% of the clients chose another product to replace it. That was great, I still made the sale. The rest of the people were just happy they got the main product and didn’t ask for either option. Even better! Sale made, mistake admitted and happy client.
One thing you don’t want to do is over-compensate. You see it online, someone makes an error and offers back the whole farm. All this does is make you look like some cheesy salesman that can’t be trusted or like you have some ulterior motive behind you.
All you need to do is be transparent, don’t hide, admit your error and fix it. People will trust you more knowing that they are sure to get value for their dollar and that they aren’t getting ripped off.
That is the best way to handle your mistakes – and keep your client’s trust.
Is it better to work with a business partner – or work alone?
Working with a partner can have its advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes it’s easier just to do things on your own and keep your own schedule. That is one thing that appeals to a lot of entrepreneurs.
One of the upsides of working with a partner is the built-in accountability that this type of relationship provides. For example I’ve started a new project with a new partner and am finding that goes along very well. We have a phone call, review our progress and assign tasks to be done before our next call. All of a sudden there is a task to be done and a deadline to be met.
When working by yourself it is much easier to get distracted and sidetracked with things that are just wasting your time. If you really prefer working by yourself then you should take time to stop and map out a plan. Assign your tasks and set your deadlines just as little you are working with a partner. If you have a clear picture of what needs to be done and when it needs to be done then it is much easier and more efficient to move forward. You will find your productivity increase and your results will increase as well.
Tags: internet marketing tips, Jonathan Hook, article marketing, internet marketing, website optimization
