SMS marketing has many different use cases. Typically, companies use it to sell products and services while increasing productivity and improving engagement with their customers.

Promotions, offers and discounts are common marketing text messages that can be sent, but a more complex use is cross-selling and up-selling. Paired with SMS, both up-selling and cross-selling can be extremely effective strategies to improve the success rate of a sale and your businesses income.

The ability for an ecommerce business to effectively up-sell and cross-sell plays a significant role in determining the level of success they will experience. In fact, 10-30% of ecommerce revenue is generated through up-sells.

What is Up-selling and Cross-selling?

Up-selling

Up-selling usually includes providing comparison charts to customers to market higher-end items. These customers tend to be habitual clients who have an extensive purchasing history with the business.

Showcasing different variations or models of an item that the customer is already interested in buying that are higher-priced, but fulfills their needs better increases overall AOV while making the customer feel satisfied with their purchase.

Understanding your customers’ needs, meeting those needs and helping your customer visualize the benefit of purchasing a higher-priced item will enable you to excel using this strategy.

Cross-selling

Adding value to a previous purchase is the entire concept behind cross-selling. The item complements that purchase, but also fulfills the needs that were not met by the original purchase.

Examples of this would be skiing goggles for someone who just bought a pair of skis. Often cross-selling points customers towards products they would have bought anyway and when shown at the right time ensures the sale is made.

Cross-selling is usually utilized on product pages and at checkout by giving suggestions of items that pair well with their purchase or what other customers have commonly bought when buying that item.

Cross-selling creates repeat purchases and makes customers more aware of the depth of items available within the catalog your business offers. Effective cross-selling, like up-selling, requires you to be able to help your customer visualize the benefit of the added purchase.

Why is Up-selling and Cross-selling Effective Using SMS?

Personalization and segmentation are key characteristics of SMS up-selling and cross-selling marketing campaigns. A successful campaign requires a database that stores customer information which is incorporated with any good ecommerce management software. This information enables you to target your customers with items, sales and discounts that are relevant to them.

These simple rules you should follow when employing an up-selling and cross-selling SMS marketing campaign highlight why it is so effective;

Avoid messages that come off as generic.

Generic SMS messages that do not include a customer’s name, features no personalization and is not relevant will make customers feel like little to no effort was applied. Messages that seem like they were just auto-generated by a computer are not likely to be well received.

Send messages that are highly targeted and personalized.

Customers want to be recognized and feel valued for being a good patron. Addressing the customers by their own name and offering merchandise or deals that they are interested in creates a sense of being cared for while speaking to their individuality as a person. These tailored messages allow for companies to cultivate a deeper relationship with their customers.

Segment to send batches of messages to specific customer groups based on features such as interests and prior purchases.

Know your audience! Make use of collected data to understand who your customers are and what interests they have. Prior purchases, search history, shopping cart inventory and any communication between the customer and your service team is relevant data you can use.

Cross-sell by offering a discount.

Customers that are offered a discount on items that are relevant to them and that they may have been eyeing makes them feel valued. These customers will be more likely to make the purchase. You can present these offers at checkout or in a post-purchase text message or email.

Simplify the purchasing process.

Customers crave and need simplicity in their daily lives. The fewer steps required to complete a purchase the better. The least number of steps possible keeps the customer happier and less likely to second guess their purchase by developing buyer’s remorse. An example of this is showing merchandise related to the items in your customers’ shopping cart and implementing a one click add to cart and purchase button option.

When implemented correctly, up-selling and cross-selling SMS marketing campaigns are extremely effective and cost efficient with amazing ROI.