Introduction

I keep trying to refine my offers to give my customers the best value for their dollars. I've come to the conclusion that funnelling everyone, whether purchaser or not, into this newsletter list is not a great idea. I've set up a another list that is just for purchasers of my video tutorials. I'll make them aware of this newsletter, but they won't get it automatically like my other lists. I plan to create other new lists for each segment of my Internet business.

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Today, I'm going to talk about two techniques that every good marketer needs to have in their sales arsenal.

Wake The Dead

What do you do with customers who leave your fold, or haven't made a purchase in long time? These are valuable members of your list, and you need to take action to reactivate them, and get them buying again, if at all possible.

I like to review my customers every three to six months or so. I make a list of customers who have not made a purchase from me within the last year. I write them a nice note. I ask a question using a format something like this:

Dear Dead Customer, [put their name there]

I want to thank you for purchasing [name of product here], however, I'm surprised that I haven't heard from you in a while. I was hoping to find out why. That way I can fix it for you, but certainly I can make sure that it won't happen again to anyone else.

Also, I wanted to make you aware of [insert offer here] that I've just rolled out. Because you are an important customer, I wanted to extend to you a loyalty reward on this new product I am rolling out. [Put your offer here. Make it as good as you possibly can.]

Thanks,

[Your Name]

This will awaken many of your dead or inactive customers. If you repeat this every three to six months, you can expect 10-30% of these lost souls to become your active customers again.

Are you using an upsell with all of your offers? Did you know that 60% of your customers want and expect an upsell? Upsells are used by all successful marketers e.g. “Do you want fries with that?”, “Do you want caller ID?”, “Do you want regular, deluxe or digital cable?”, “Do you want an extended warranty with your new TV?” The list goes on and on. What can you offer as an upsell?

60 X 60 Rule

Did you know that your customers will buy an upsell 60% of the time for 60% of the original purchase price? Of course, your upsell must be closely related to the original offer e.g. burger - fries, appliance - warranty, automobile - undercoating, etc. Your upsell may have up to three options not including colour or size e.g. fries - curly, spicy, home.

More Upsells

You can and should offer a second upsell for 60% of the first upsell. Don't forget to keep it related e.g. fries - gravy or poutine.

With the right product, you can even offer a third upsell. Although there is no empirical data for this, observation suggests that this upsell may either be 60% of the previous upsell, or 60% more than the first upsell. An interesting anomaly!

Whether to use 60% more or 60% less for the third upsell is not subject to any hard and fast rule. It will be necessary for you to test this out to determine which is best for your offer. I offer the following as a guide, not a rule. If your offer is for a staple item, use a 60% less offer. If your offer is for a discretionary purchase, use the 60% plus offer.

Upsell Mania

Before you get carried away with upsell mania, let me suggest that you offer no more than three upsells with no more than three options each. As I stated earlier, this does not include size or colour. More than three upsells can cause your customer to think that they are in upsell hell and could dissuade them from even considering future offers.

Conclusion

By using these two techniques correctly, you should be able to increase your profits by at least 50%. Not a number to be sneezed at considering how little work it can take.