Getting upsell campaigns right – why personalization matters

There’s more than one way to grow your business. 

But while efforts to tempt new customers away from competitors with enticing offers may take up the bulk of a telco’s marketing budget, focusing on the customers you already have can also prove highly beneficial.

You’re already at an advantage with these people as you have their attention and they are invested in you as a brand. What’s more, your first-party data can give you a much stronger insight into their interests and personality traits to help ensure you’re aiming your messaging at the people most likely to be receptive, and are tailoring it accordingly.

But are you actually using this to good effect? If telcos want to enhance their upsell and cross-sell activities, they need to ensure they’re talking to people in the right way. This isn’t just about providing them with the most relevant offers. It’s about framing them in a way that speaks to each individual’s own interests and personality traits, and this can only be achieved by using a high level of true personalization.

The benefits of a better upsell campaign

Focusing more closely on upsells and cross-sells offers a number of benefits. For starters, instead of having to take part in a ‘race to the bottom’ by continually offering deals and discounts to undercut competitors that can harm your margins, a good upsell and cross-sell strategy aims to actively add value and improve average revenue per customer. 

It’s also cheaper overall. It can cost upwards of $300 in marketing and sales expenses to acquire a new customer, but a successful upsell or cross-sell promotion can be run much more economically, as well as having a greater chance of success.

A good upsell or cross-sell strategy also ties the customer more closely to your company. The more products or services you provide to a customer, the more involved in their lives you are, and the ‘stickier’ they become. This can mean higher loyalty from consumers, as they can see you’re meeting their needs and offering solutions that are relevant to their interests, so may be less inclined to look around and try their luck with a provider that doesn’t know them.

If you can secure strong cross-sell success, customers may also feel it’s easier and more convenient to remain with you, which can again help cut churn rates in the long term. This may be especially useful for triple and quad-play telcos as they can provide a single, unified experience to customers, who may be unwilling to give this convenience up for multiple competitors.

Improving on top-level efforts

One issue for many telcos, however, is that their upsell and cross-sell campaigns are often relatively lackluster, especially when compared with the resources that go into enticing new customers to switch to their networks.

This often manifests in the form of generic, uninspiring campaigns that aren’t based on any hard evidence about what customers will want. In some businesses, these are tied in to customer loyalty schemes or promotions based on what has worked in the past, or a high-level overview of what users think customers will be interested in.

Businesses know, however, that there is a great deal of untapped potential held within their customer data. Insights such as weblogs can give a much more detailed picture of your customers. This can cover not only what their interests are, but also their personality traits and brand affinities that may help you understand what they will respond to and how to frame the messaging to improve your odds of success.

A more complete view of your customers

The behavioral insight you can gain from your data can also tell you a lot about the types of offers and messaging that will appeal to customers. 

For instance, are they always first in line every year to buy the latest iPhone? This indicates they’re keen early adopters who may be more interested in your latest products than those who only upgrade every two to three years. Therefore, marketing campaigns may be more effective if they highlight cutting-edge technology. However, these users may not respond well to offers that feature the newest Samsung or Sony device, no matter how impressive it is. 

But true personalization goes much deeper than this. With the right tools, you can spot deeper connections and correlations that can frame your messaging and suggest which products or services will matter to them.

If they’re a heavy data user, it’s not enough just to know that they’re using that to stream films or football, for example. If you want to offer them a higher-level tier that comes with a movie or sports subscription, you’ll need to know what genres or teams they’re interested in. 

Find out more about how our Intent AI tools enable true personalization to enhance your existing upsell and cross-sell strategies by getting in touch today.

Image credit: iStock/Natali_Mis