Forrester research tells us that recommending another product as an upsell can add 10%-30% to your bottom line.

What does it mean to upsell? Simply put, you are just trying to get your current customer to spend more money. 

Let’s define ‘upsell’ first

In tour companies, there are generally three ways to do it.

  1. You encourage a customer to purchase an add-on. 

This is the “Do you want fries with that?” approach. Do you have a photo package for your horseback riding tour? A champagne add-on for your sunset cruise? A go-pro rental for your scuba adventure?

  1. You encourage a customer to buy an additional or upgraded tour

This works well for companies that offer a wide array of tours that target the same type of customer. 

If they purchased the zip-line tour, would they also enjoy the kayaking adventure? If they purchased the wine tour, would they like to purchase transportation from their hotel to the gathering location?

If they purchased a catamaran tour, would they prefer a private catamaran trip?  If they purchased a general admission ticket to your museum, would they like a guided tour also or maybe a membership?

  1. FInally, you encourage a customers to purchase a bundle

Obviously this only works if you have bundles set up in FareHarbor. Let’s imagine you have a bundle on kayaking and zip-lining that saves the customer $10. If someone only buys the kayaking adventure, you can upsell the bundle that allows the to save.

Upsell Best Practices

So what are some best practices you can incorporate, in order to realize that 10-30% increase that Forrester mentions?

Upsell in more than just the confirmation email

Should you include upsells in your confirmation emails? For sure. Just don’t stop there.

You should never turn down the opportunity to upsell a customer, so including them in a confirmation is great. But don’t stop there.

Confirmation emails are not always “read” with a mindset outward buying, because the customer just pulled the trigger. Usually, the customer reads the email to make sure they selected the date, time, and product they expected… that they were charged the right amount… and that’s it.

Unless that person is taking your tour within a few hours of their purchase, waiting until the next day to send your upsell is ideal.

They’ve had a chance to think about their purchase, tell their friends and family, and to get excited. That’s the perfect time to offer more.

Know exactly what they purchased and when they are showing up for their tour

In order to offer the perfectly personalized upsell and the exact right time… you have to know what they just purchased, what they’ve purchased in the past (if anything), and when they will be showing up on a tour with you.

That’s what TourAdvantage is designed to do. 

Even if you’re using Zapier to move email addresses to your email system from FareHarbor, and tagging the person with a tour…. You still don’t know when they purchased the tour, when they purchased other tours, or when they are showing up.

Zapier can not provide that information… information that is critical to a successful upsell campaign.

Is your customer showing up for a tour in 30 minutes? Maybe you don’t upsell with an email. Will they be there in 7 days? Then let’s wait until “tomorrow” to upsell them.

Will they not be there for 4 weeks? Then let’s wait until they are about 5 days away from coming, when they are more excited (and most willing to spend.)

Don’t offer too many options

Have you heard of decision paralysis? It’s when a consumer is given too many choices. So many choices that they can’t make up their mind… so they do nothing.

Don’t let this happen in your upsell!

Don’t offer ALL your tours in the upsell. Pick one (max TWO) to offer as an upsell. 

Offer your more expensive tours 

Customers are more likely to ADD to their purchase than to SWITCH their purchase. In fact, research tells us that less than 5% of customers will actually change their purchase altogether.

Meaning, they are much more likely to ADD that wet suit to their dive package… but they will only SWITCH their dive from the public tour to the private tour <5% of the time. 

And that’s why offering your highest priced (and highest perceived value) tours are best for upsells that encourage people to change their tour rather than just add more product.

Let’s do the math on that.

If you sell 500 public dives a month… and 3% of those people move from your $200 small-group dive to your $600 private dive… that’s an extra $6,000 per month.

Maybe your tours are less expensive. Maybe it’s a $20 tour vs a $60 tour… that’s still $600 per month. Every month. For the price of spending 1-2 hours crafting an automated upsell email.

Tailored, emotional emails work best

Customers want emails that are tailored to them… and research tells us that appealing to their emotions works best.

Make sure your upsell emails remind people of what they purchased, why they purchased it and why they made that decision.

If they don’t add on a product or they don’t change their purchase to a more expensive offering… We still want them to feel confident about their tour with you.

But you can also lean into their FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). How will they feel being on that sunset cruise with their special person?

What kinds of memories will they make with their kids on that parasailing trip?

How special will they feel at their next outing with friends, explaining the premium wines they tried in your region of the country?

If you want to learn more about how to upsell your tours strategically, schedule a demo with us today.

Lesli Peterson
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