PostcardPerfect.com/blog

I really think that up-selling is underrated. The potential is huge - but many businesses don’t give it much attention. On the flip side of the coin, some are really good at it. You know who upsells millions of people every day?
TV networks.

Think about it. They want you to tune in for as long as possible, right? You tune in to consume (watch) one show and before you know it - you just watched three. How do they do it? Here’s three tactics I’ve noticed:

1) The theme song comes AFTER an opening scene
There’s a phrase to describe this, I just can’t remember it. “cold start?” “dead start?” Either way, it’s effective. It’s much easier to turn off / change channels during the opening credits than it is during the actual show.

2) Two shows are cross faded
Many channels now practically overlap programs to make sure you see the begining of the next show. For example, they will minimize the credits of the show you just finished to a small part of the screen, and launch into the first scene of the next show. Before you realize it - you just got sucked into something you had no intention of watching.

3) Extended initial segments without commercials
Essentially, they show you a nice chunk of the show before any commercials, and then run ads much more frequently for the rest of the program. This further sets the hook so that by the time a commercial rolls around you are too caught up in the show to leave.

So there you have it, the reason why some of my nights are wasted watching shows I don’t really care about.

There’s a lot more to the concepts they use, but this is enough for one post.

WHAT TV TEACHES US ABOUT UP-SELLING - PART 2

OK, so you don’t run a network. I get it. However, the tactics they use can be boiled down to some basic principles that that can be applied many other businesses….

(Gotcha. Seriously though…read part two here.)