Digital gift cards can present a great opportunity to improve your upselling strategies.
By CYNTHIA MIELKE
Staying profitable in today’s competitive business environments requires constantly looking for new ways to maximize revenue streams. Continuously expanding into new markets and focusing on new business development will, however, only get you so far.
Many successful companies have found tremendous benefits from leveraging their current partner base by offering several upselling opportunities. One tool that significantly improves this effort is using digital gift cards strategically.
Upselling can be a great way to help improve revenue numbers in business settings, but it’s not just about increasing sales. Upselling can also be a strategic initiative businesses use to improve customer relationships and create new opportunities to extract more value from products or services.
When it comes to customer retention, incorporating upselling tactics into a customer’s purchasing cycle can be a great way to help them benefit from their investments more fully. This makes customers feel more connected to a business with their best interests at heart and commonly leads to long-term loyalty.
Upselling can also be a great way for organizations that sell physical goods to get better control over their inventory. By upselling certain products, businesses can find effective ways to reduce their excessive stock. This can be done by highlighting certain underperforming items or offering specific promotions to help balance their inventory.
All businesses use upselling to improve their selling performance and the purchasing experience for their customers. Below are some helpful strategies to help you get started:
Understand your customer: To upsell to customers effectively, it’s first important to understand what they’re looking for and why an additional product or service is worth their while.
To get to this point, businesses should actively listen during their interactions with customers and not be afraid to ask for important feedback that can help them identify other essential products or services they could benefit from.
While upselling can help quickly increase revenue for the business, it shouldn’t be just a one-off sales strategy. Upselling can be vital in building a better customer relationship that can pay dividends long-term when properly executed.
Putting the time necessary into recognizing and anticipating customer needs, creates a much more personalized buying experience that’s memorable by customers and will want to be repeated.
Although offering a great product or service can be a big reason why customers accept upsell opportunities, timing often makes or breaks transactions. It’s important to pick a time when customers don’t feel bombarded with information or that they’re being “sold” on anything.
It’s typically better to wait until they’ve expressed interest in additional products or services and then introduce an upsell as a natural progression of their purchasing experience.
Creating a sense of urgency is a highly effective method for improving engagement when offering sales or promotions. Using limited-time offers or exclusive upgrades only offered to current customers can be a great way to get more interested in purchasing additional products or services.
By highlighting the potential of missing out on certain benefits, businesses are more likely to see their customers act on the offers.
E-Gift Cards: Digital gift cards can present a great opportunity to improve your upselling strategies. By offering e-gift cards as an incentive for upgrading a purchase, businesses can provide customers with immediate added value and a tangible reason to choose certain options.
The approach of offering gift cards taps into the psychology of reciprocity, making customers feel appreciated and more inclined to explore additional products or services.
The great thing about using gift cards is that they can be strategically aligned with several products or services giving customers a reason to explore higher-tier options that they may have previously glanced over. For example, offering a bonus e-gift card with the purchase of a higher-priced subscription might be the thing that helps them decide to try new exclusive product features.
E-gift cards are also highly flexible and can be formatted in many ways. If customers receive a gift card, they can use it for themselves or share it with friends or family. This can be a great way to unlock word-of-mouth marketing and be another way to expand brand awareness.
Here are some easy ways you can start incorporating e-gift cards into your upselling strategies:
- Tiered E-Gift Card Offers – Businesses can use a tiered system where the value of the e-gift card increases proportionally with the price of the upgraded product or service. This incentivizes customers to spend more and creates a perceived greater value for their increased investment.
- Personalized Recommendations – It’s important to personalize recommendations to your customer’s interests and past purchases. You can achieve this by leveraging customer data to suggest e-gift cards for complementary products or services. For example, if a customer purchasesa high-end fitness tracker, recommending an e-gift card for workout apparel or a healthy meal delivery service can be highly effective.
- Time-Sensitive Promotions – It’s important to create a sense of urgency by offering limited-time e-gift card bonuses with specific purchases. Highlight these promotions prominently during the checkout process or through targeted email campaigns.
- Loyalty Programmes – You should reward repeat customers with exclusive e-gift card offers or bonuses for choosing your premium products or services. This creates more loyalty and encourages them to continue investing in your higher-tier offerings. You can do this by developing a tiered loyalty program where customers earn points towards e-gift card rewards with each premium purchase.
Upselling can be a great way to increase revenue, but it must be used strategically. By following the tips discussed and leveraging e-gift cards to help incentivize additional purchases, you can start maximizing the long-term value of your customers while building long-term relationships.
About the author: Cindy is passionate about the incentive industry. In addition to her role as Vice President of Strategic Partners at Tango, she is a Certified Professional of Incentive Management who proudly serves on two industry boards. When she’s not working, Cindy enjoys spending time with her family—including three cats, two dogs, and a horse—and sharing her love of nature as a Nebraska Master Naturalist.
