* * *

You run a small chain of automotive repair shops, with 12 locations around town. You do tires, alternator fixes, air filter swaps and all sorts of other general maintenance, plus a few big jobs here and there. But the big money maker for the company is oil changes. The job is simple and quick to perform, and easy to upsell. After all, if you’re changing your oil, you should probably change your air filter too, and why not rotate the tires while you’re at it? Thing is, you’re not converting your customers properly. They’re getting oil changes regularly, but often don’t want to spring for the extra time and/or money for the other services. How do you fix the problem? Most automotive shops have a window or two somewhere in their waiting room so that customers can see their cars while they’re being worked on. So how about you do a large piece of signage right there where customers look all the time? Maybe what you do is wrap one of the windows, leaving the other one free for onlookers. And on that wrap is a promotion: “Just 5 Minutes and $5 to Rotate Your Tires.” It just might help seal the deal, and it was made at the point of purchase.

* * *

Your company is doing great. You started off with one food truck specializing in all-day breakfast fares a few years ago, and now you have ten running across the metro area. Although your trucks are all wrapped in matching branding, you’ve noticed recently that the walk-up traffic isn’t as great as it used to be, and people aren’t pulling you over anymore to ask where you’re going to be later in the day. How do you bring in more customers to expand your business? It’s time to change things up. Your trucks are rolling billboards, and either the current design isn’t speaking to customers the way it used to, or you need to push more promotional goods. How’s this for an idea: rewrap the trucks, branding all of them with matching patterns. Then, worked into the design, is a small visual representation of a chalkboard. On it, you can place magnetic blocks with today’s specials either written by hand or cut in vinyl, so that you can rotate the magnets per day or week. Now you’ve got a regular way to customize your wrap, plus promote what you’ve got. Nice.

* * *

Bookstores haven’t done well the past few years, but yours has— you’re up to 15 stores now within a 100-mile radius, with plans for more on the way. But you want to get into your customer’s inboxes, and to do that you need their email address. With that in mind, you’ve established a new marketing plan: set up a “Books By Nora” free membership that extends a 10% discount on all purchases. All customers have to do is sign up online or in-person with their email address and phone number, and they’re in. Except for some reason, nobody is signing up. Currently, your sales staff and cashiers are pitching the membership themselves, and not too many of them are too hot on the prospect. So let’s change that, and add some signage. First, put up a stand-up in each of your stores that promote the membership heavily. Then do matching collateral that sits on each counter so that it’s impossible for the customer to miss. Rotate these out seasonally so that there’s always a new design and get ready to start collecting those email addresses.

* * *

Let’s then bring this back to the core question: how do you upsell your customers without turning them off? With quality marketing materials that provide a benefit to your customers and doesn’t get in their way. These examples are just a few of the numerous options out there. If we can come up with a few quick ideas, then you should have dozens — after all, nobody knows your customers better than you. But even if you don’t, that’s what we’re here for; to help you figure out what you can to do convert your customers, and then make some magic happen. And feel free to steal any of the ideas above. Just let us know so we can turn that magic into reality.]]>

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