How you can Write Cross-Promote Emails [14 Real-Life Examples]

What number of occasions have you ever been to a McDonald’s and heard them ask, “would you like fries with that?” after putting your order? That’s a traditional instance of cross-selling.
Do you know this easy gross sales method reportedly will increase McDonald’s annual income by 15-40%?

And the identical method could be deployed in on-line companies. In your enterprise. In truth, McKinsey & Firm reports that cross-selling and different class penetration techniques can increase gross sales and earnings by as much as 20% and 30%, respectively.
Right here is the opposite fascinating factor. Cross-selling and upselling for ecommerce shops can transcend the web site. Along with pushing the “Regularly Purchased Collectively” suggestions in your checkout web page, you may run cross-selling campaigns as part of your e-mail advertising and marketing technique.
And that’s what we’ll concentrate on on this submit. You’ll discover ways to write cross-sell emails that may skyrocket your gross sales. Additionally, you will see how these post-purchase emails may help you construct worthwhile, long-lasting buyer relationships.
However first…
What are cross-sell emails?
A cross-sell e-mail means that you can suggest extra associated or complimentary merchandise, a.ok.a. cross-sell merchandise, to a potential buyer or an current buyer. The beneficial objects depend upon the merchandise a customer is presently viewing in your retailer or those of their buying cart.
It’s also possible to use current buyer buy historical past to suggest acceptable merchandise, persuading prospects to return again and full their journey.
These emails (featured beneath) successfully flip potential prospects into returning prospects. Furthermore, cross-sell emails help you attain a customer or a buyer lengthy after they’ve left your retailer.
Cross-sell emails are sometimes despatched proper after a customer leaves your retailer, no matter whether or not or not they’ve accomplished the acquisition. In truth, these communications are a superb strategy to persuade misplaced prospects to rethink.
Under is a superb instance of a cross-sell e-mail recommending objects based mostly on a consumer’s previous buy historical past.

Now that what cross-selling emails are, let’s focus on why they’re important.
Why are cross-sell emails so essential?
Win extra gross sales with the least funding; that’s the purpose of each marketer. It’s additionally one of many advantages of cross-selling in e-mail advertising and marketing.
Listed below are the 3 main causes to cross-sell by way of emails:
1. Drive repeat purchases
What’s the first place you look when you’ll want to enhance your income? New prospects? Certain, however that’s not your most respected asset. Your most respected asset is your current buyer base.
Cross-selling and upselling emails provide help to capitalize on that to drive repeat purchases. And the most effective half is that repeat prospects are identified to spend 67% more than new prospects.
What’s extra, because you’ve constructed up that belief, they’re extra possible to purchase your costlier merchandise.
Furthermore, it’s means tougher to promote to a brand new buyer than an current one. And with restricted sources, wouldn’t it’s higher to make use of them the place you’d get the most effective bang to your buck?
In spite of everything, getting a brand new buyer can value you as much as 5x extra. And to get them to spend on the present spending degree of your current prospects will value you 16x more, in response to Francis Buttle.
2. Construct loyalty by way of personalization
The effectiveness of cross-selling emails depends in your capability to suggest the appropriate merchandise. You need to know what the shopper is desirous about based mostly on their habits in your retailer or their previous purchases. Then, personalize your product suggestions accordingly. That’s the one strategy to generate gross sales by way of cross-selling.
After all, you don’t have to try this manually. There are many good AI algorithms that collect invaluable buyer information and personalize the shopper provide for you. Such product suggestions study over time, adapt to the consumers’ wants, and simply make an integral a part of your automation workflows.

This personalization cultivates model loyalty over time. Clients will see that you just perceive their wants based mostly on the cross-selling emails they obtain.
Furthermore, they’ll by no means must search for different merchandise elsewhere. That’s since you’ll proactively counsel these merchandise to them. So that they’ll stick along with your model for longer and will even turn into model advocates over time.
In spite of everything, loyal prospects are identified to refer extra folks. For instance, this report reveals a buyer who has made ten purchases from an attire retailer often refers seven different folks to that web site.
Be taught extra about model loyalty from the highest trade’s specialists on our advertising and marketing podcast:
3. Enhance CLV
The most important advantage of loyalty is a rise in a buyer’s lifetime worth (CLV). For those who didn’t already know, CLV estimates the income a buyer will deliver your model throughout the size of your relationship.
Whereas most individuals assume CLV is all about earnings, it goes past that. Let me clarify.
CLV is a good indicator of how deep your relationship along with your current prospects is. What’s extra, it may possibly provide help to establish large spenders in addition to potential model advocates.
So what’s the relationship between cross-selling emails and CLV?
When used successfully, cross-sell emails helps enhance your common order worth. That interprets to a lift in income. An awesome instance of a model utilizing cross-sells emails is Greenback Shave Membership, featured above.
They provide a month-to-month subscription the place they ship shaving merchandise like razors. However earlier than their members’ month-to-month packages ship out, they ship out a cross-sell e-mail.
It comprises just a few associated merchandise that current prospects can add to their month-to-month shipments. Doing this will enhance their common order worth within the quick time period.
In the long term, cross-sell emails result in an prolonged buyer lifetime worth.
How you can write cross-sell emails that enhance CLV

Cross-sell emails are sometimes quick and candy. But when your purpose is to spice up your ROI particularly, then there are specific components you could embody. These are:
Spotlight the product a buyer is seeking to purchase or has already purchased
Begin by reminding your buyer what they’ve already bought. This works when you’re cross-selling in an order affirmation e-mail.
Alternatively, you may remind the prospect of the product they’ve left of their cart if the cross-sell is hooked up to an deserted cart e-mail.
Provide a handful of associated or complementary merchandise
That is probably the most important side of your e-mail as a result of that is the place you provide your buyer different merchandise.
Suggest merchandise that complement the merchandise they purchased. Once more, there are devoted AI options that may mechanically establish the appropriate merchandise and suggest them to your prospects. It’ll prevent a whole lot of time and problem!
That mentioned, be sure that solely to incorporate just a few merchandise. This fashion, you don’t overwhelm your prospects inflicting selection paralysis.
Make it part of a collection and never a one-time e-mail
Each profitable cross-sell e-mail is often a part of a collection. You might must do follow-ups to spice up the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.
Utilizing an ecommerce advertising and marketing automation software, you may ship out cross-sell emails at particular intervals. It’s also possible to deploy them based mostly on particular triggers, e.g., when sending an order affirmation e-mail, deserted cart e-mail, and so forth.
With all that in thoughts, it’s time to reply the large query: truly write a changing cross-selling e-mail?
Copywriting greatest practices for e-mail advertising and marketing cross-selling
To this point, we’ve coated fairly just a few profitable cross-sell e-mail examples. They usually all stood out to us for one cause solely: their wonderful copywriting.
So listed below are some suggestions to remember when working in your subsequent copy.
1. Write intriguing topic traces
You received’t promote something in case your cross-sell e-mail by no means will get opened. So listed below are just a few hacks to create killer topic traces.
- Maintain your topic traces quick quick and candy
- Add an emoji 🙌
- Use personalization, Alex
- Reply the query, “What’s in it for me?”
- Strive our new AI Topic Line Generator

Utilizing these topic line suggestions can drastically enhance your e-mail open charges.
2. Craft participating preheaders
A preheader is that quick piece of textual content you see subsequent to the topic line when your e-mail inbox.
Preheaders are invaluable in elevating curiosity and drawing consideration. In copywriting, the preheader is synonymous with a lead. Listed below are 6 methods for beginning your preheader:
- Provide lead, e.g. “Get our newest footwear at 40% off”
- Promise lead, e.g. “Get ripped in 3 months with no negative effects”
- Drawback-solution lead, e.g. “Bored with sporting boring outfits? This outfit will make you appear like a runway mannequin…”
- Large secret lead, e.g. “Uncovered: The one everlasting, long-lasting treatment to hair loss…”
- Story lead, e.g. “I didn’t imagine it the primary time till it occurred once more…”
The purpose right here is to entice your reader to open your e-mail.
3. Add social proof

Nothing will get your buyer over the sting higher than social proof. This may be within the type of testimonials, evaluations, and so forth.
You wish to make your buyer really feel extra assured about their determination. Due to this fact, be sure that your e-mail copy offers social proof.
4. Give them a cause to behave now
Are you working a clearance sale? Black Friday sale? Put a timer on it and persist with it.
It’s also possible to obtain this by providing a restricted variety of merchandise or an expiring low cost code. Doing this places stress in your prospects and offers them a cause to behave earlier than they miss out.
5. Provide a powerful assure
How assured is your message? Amazon does this with Amazon Prime. Are you able to assure quick buying? Are you able to provide a 100% money-back assure?
Your purpose is to remove as a lot threat out of your buyer that it makes it onerous for them to say no.
When is it good to ship a cross-sell e-mail?
Now that the ‘what’ and ‘why,’ it’s time to determine on the ‘when.’ You may have 4 predominant alternatives you may capitalize on to ship cross-sell emails.
After a earlier buy
Right here you may give a buyer suggestions on different associated or complimentary merchandise. This can be a distinctive alternative so that you can capitalize on whereas the shopper remains to be within the shopping for temper.
Ralph Lauren (featured above) does a superb job of those e-mail campaigns. It’s also possible to do that along with your order affirmation, replenishment, and delivery affirmation.
Within the cart abandonment e-mail
One other alternative for a cross-sell e-mail is within the cart abandonment e-mail. When guests don’t take a look at, you may ship them an deserted cart e-mail that cross-sells.
Use this chance to encourage them to take a look at and add a few objects to their cart. You possibly can see this motion within the above cross-sell e-mail instance by Massdrop.
Including a cross-sell in these emails also can inform the prospect of different associated merchandise, which can set off their curiosity as soon as extra and drive a worthwhile sale.
In common gross sales emails
Obtained a sale occurring? Cross-sell emails may help you maximize it for the next ROI. You possibly can flip any common gross sales e-mail right into a cross-sell e-mail. Because you have been going to ship the e-mail anyway, why not take that chance to suggest extra merchandise?
Google Retailer does a superb job at this for one among their Black Friday Gross sales.
Within the welcome e-mail collection
When folks join your publication, they’re declaring that they wish to hear from you. They wish to obtain product updates based mostly on what they’ve proven curiosity in.
That offers you a novel alternative to inform them about your different merchandise.
Lush does an exquisite job of welcoming prospects whereas providing some merchandise.
Sorts of merchandise you may suggest
Cross-selling is about recommending associated or complimentary merchandise.
Often, you’ll have the info for all buyer purchases and searching habits. With this information and an AI advice software, it’s best to have the ability to establish and suggest the appropriate complementary merchandise to your prospects as an integral a part of their pure buying cycle.
Plus, you may automate the entire course of with superior ecommerce advertising and marketing automation software program, like GetResponse MAX.
As an illustration, the automation function enables you to set dynamic section filters. By combining it with an AI product advice, you may guarantee your prospects solely obtain related product recommendations.
For those who don’t have the info, choose your best-selling or hottest merchandise as suggestions.
Listed below are a number of the suggestions you may show:

Now, let’s check out some good examples that you should use as cross-sell e-mail templates to your marketing campaign.
5 good examples of cross-sell emails
1. Methodical Espresso
That is an instance of an embedd that cross-sells inside your typical product gross sales e-mail. With the topic line “Methodical Greatest Vendor” and a espresso emoji, it grabs your consideration.
They go straight to the purpose with the headline “crowd favorites” and add a contact of persona with their quirky product names.
2. Crate & Barrel e-mail instance
Discuss maximizing each sale alternative! Crate & Barrel reveals us how one can add a cross-sell e-mail to an order affirmation e-mail with ease.
They suggest 4 merchandise utilizing a easy, clear design proper after the order particulars.
3. Saatchi Artwork e-mail instance
Saatchi Artwork leaves no stone unturned to enhance its e-mail advertising and marketing ROI. First, they give you a reduction to return and take a look at. Then, they embody just a few items of artwork to lure the shoppers in with extra beautiful items.
The topic line “The Artworks You Checked out Are Being Found;” stirs your aggressive spirit and offers you a way of urgency and FOMO.
4. Soak & Sleep e-mail instance
Right here’s an instance of a cross-sale masquerading as a clearance or common gross sales e-mail.
With a topic line providing a reduction of as much as 50%, they know make prospects really feel they’re getting an incredible discount.
Furthermore, they use belief badges for social proof. Additionally they show their new product line in addition to their high sellers.
5. Atoms e-mail instance
Yet one more common gross sales e-mail turned cross-sell by Atoms to make the most of the back-to-school fever. They’re providing two shoe fashions and “On a regular basis Masks” as a part of the cross-sell.
Begin cross-selling right this moment!
Electronic mail advertising and marketing helps nurture and deepen your relationship with prospects. However cross-sell emails give your marketing campaign enamel. These emails assist drive repeat purchases, construct loyalty by way of personalization, and finally enhance a CLV.
You possibly can embed these emails in most of your common e-mail campaigns. That features welcome, deserted cart, order affirmation, and thank-you emails.
With the confirmed copywriting greatest practices and cross-sell e-mail examples to attract inspiration from, it’s best to have the ability to launch a profitable cross-selling e-mail advertising and marketing technique to your retailer.
Prepared to start out including cross-sell emails to your e-mail advertising and marketing marketing campaign?