Downselling – If you’re an entrepreneur or marketer, you’ve probably heard about the value of upselling and cross-selling your products and services. The basic idea that you can increase your profits while building customer confidence sounds excellent, right?
In a way, yes. But there’s a lot more to generating sales for your business than just offering something that costs more than what consumers are willing to spend.
An alternative strategy called down selling can help you retrieve lost sales and show customers that you are willing to negotiate a price. The best way to describe reduced sales is a marketing strategy that allows business owners to create flexible pricing with coupons and discounts designed to encourage more people to complete their orders.
There are many ways to downsell, regardless of industry, budget, or resources. Now, let’s take a look at the process required to make this strategy operational. We’ll also explore different ways you can start down selling for more conversions.
Discover your audience
If you want to downsell successfully, you need to educate yourself about your target audience. Companies have a broad range of audiences with different goals, pain points, and mindsets.
When you start a reduction in sales, you must understand who will see your offer. You might have the best down selling proposition in the world, but if you pitch it to someone who isn’t in tune with your messages, there’s little chance it’ll secure a sale.
We know what you are asking yourself: “How do I know my target audience?”
Well, there are several ways to get started. We recommend that you spend a lot of time interacting with your audience on social media. Use this opportunity to find out why consumers love your product and what you can do to enrich their experience.
It is also a good idea to post surveys on your website and send them to your email subscribers. Customers and subscribers are happy to tell you what they think about your product and how you can improve it.
Don’t forget to review your Google Analytics reports to see how others are engaging with your site. You can learn a ton about your audience by how they behave when viewing your blog, product catalog, and marketing pages.
Use this information to develop profiles that define the people who visit your website the most. The more you know about your target audience, the easier it is for you to have the time to show the right downsell to a customer who is willing to take advantage of your offering.
Stop abandoning the cart with a cheaper offer.
The next topic we’ll talk about is downselling to customers already on your checkout page. Cart abandonment is a common trend that occurs when someone adds an item to their cart but leaves it before paying. You might be surprised to learn that the cart abandonment rate is 76.6% across all industries!
Ideally, you want as many people as possible to complete their order. You can dramatically increase the number of people following the sale by downgrading after the customer tries to abandon the cart.
We recommend that you display a popup on the screen to let users know that you are offering a special price that they have to see to believe before they leave. If someone isn’t sure they’re shelling out the money to buy your product, this popup might be the incentive he or she needs to continue.
You can also display an offer that rewards the consumer with a special promotion for taking a specific promotion, such as signing up for your email list. This little incentive can be categorized as a lite version of reducing sales, but that doesn’t make it any less effective in reducing cart abandonment rates.
Use retargeting to gain sales after visitors have left.
Now, let’s talk about retargeting, which is another effective way to reduce sales to customers. Suppose the consumer has decided to avoid your offer, but they are still signed up to your mailing list. If you are experiencing cart abandonment or if it’s been a while since they shopped at your business, you can reduce the sale to increase your sales.
Retargeting emails are designed to get customers to come back to your website to complete an order. In most cases, this strategy is used to target customers who have just abandoned their carts.
We recommend sending 3 retargeting emails within a week of a consumer leaving their cart for best results. Studies show that sending 3 emails, 1 after an hour, 1 after 24 hours, and 1 after a week, can result in 69% more orders for your business.
It’s also a good idea to indicate that your downsell retargeting price is active for a limited period. The move could encourage more people to complete their order as it creates Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), affecting 60% of consumers.
Invite Reluctant Email Subscribers into Customers
Our last tip is for those who have an active prospect list but few paying customers. There are many reasons why someone signs up for your newsletter but does not purchase something from your online store.
The main reason consumers behave this way is to see if your business is worth it. They are looking for information you pass along throughout your campaign to improve their lives or help them unexpectedly.
Another common reason is that the price of your premium service is too high for their tastes. We suggest that you email your subscribers who are not customers and ask them what’s holding them back. Add prices as an option and see the results as they come in.
Segment customers who have indicated prices are the reason for their lack of buying and running a sell-down campaign designed to turn those followers into customers.
If someone isn’t happy with your $ 100 price, a 30% discount on a cheaper product could be the way to turn someone sitting on the fence into a customer.
Selling down is a legit strategy that can help you dramatically improve your profit margin while building relationships with new customers. If you want this technique to work for your business, you need to know when to post a retail offer.
Use the tips we’ve given you today to understand and segment your target audience as you create an intuitive downselling program that will help you grow your business consistently.
