Hello. My name is Pat, and I’m addicted to watching infomercials.
Call me crazy, but I love to watch infomercials. Why? Because it’s a totally free marketing lesson that we can apply to what we do online.
If you think about it, the whole purpose of an infomercial is to get a direct response from its audience, hence the term direct response television, or DRTV for short. Isn’t that the kind of marketing you and I are interested in? Getting a direct response from our audience?
Whether you’re just a blogger, or selling multiple products online, we’re all trying to follow a similar model:
- Grab people’s attention and make them stick around.
- Connect deeply with people through their desires, emotions, wants and needs.
- Make our audience perform some kind of call-to-action (i.e. comment, opt-in, click on an affiliate link, or make a purchase).
Furthermore, the infomercials you see on television are optimized to the highest degree – they weren’t just randomly put together. In fact, they’re the result of proven formulas, months of production and a long history of sales data, all with the goal of engaging the most people and making as much money as possible.
There’s a lot we can learn from infomercials.
Before a Product Goes Nationwide
Before any kind of product goes nationwide on an infomercial, it’s first tested in a much smaller area to see what kind of ROI (return on investment) it’s getting. If the numbers look good, then (and only then) does it go full steam ahead.
For example, if a company spends $10k on a media campaign and gets $20k in return, then they’ve got a winning product with a 2:1 ROI. All they have to do is pump more money into their campaign, and more money comes back in return (i.e. spend $100k to get $200k). If the product fails to produce a positive ROI, then there’s no reason to spend any more money to go nationwide.
In a very Tim Ferris-esque way, we can run similar tests using advertising platforms such as Google Adwords or Facebook, at a much lower price. If you’ve got a product you’d like to test (or even just a product idea), you can run a small ad campaign to see if you get a positive ROI. If not, then you better be glad you didn’t waste money on a full-blown campaign. If you get a positive ROI, then it’s time to take it to the next level.
When You Watch Your Next Infomercial…
If you’re up late one night, or just happen to pass an infomercial while flipping through the channels on your television, take a minute (or 28 minutes and 30 seconds), to study exactly what’s happening. Don’t get caught up in the actual product, but instead look for the strategies that they use to hook people in:
1. Demonstrations:
Keep your eyes open to see exactly how the products are used, and how easy they make it look.
Ease of use is a huge because why would anyone want to purchase something that’s hard to use or complicated. Remember that when you build your next website, or when you want to create your own online course or membership website.
2. Calls to Action:
I dare you to watch an entire infomercial and keep track of how many calls to actions you hear.
A call to action is simply telling (not asking) someone to do something, and infomercials are full of them! There’s no better way to get someone to call a number than just saying: “Please call 1-800…”.
On the same note, there’s no better way to get someone to leave a comment on your blog than just saying: “Please leave a comment…” or something of that nature.
“Click here to subscribe…”
“Join me on Facebook…”
“Follow me on Twitter…”
“Add to Cart…”
You get the idea.
3. Pricing
A few things to notice about the price:
First, you’re going to have to wait a while until you hear the actual price. The price is never mentioned until way later in the infomercial because they want you to stick around and get hooked on the product first. If you get hooked, then the price won’t matter as much.
Sometimes, you’ll see infomercials where they don’t even tell you the price until you call in. It’s the same idea, but by calling in you’re becoming a super targeted lead for their product because you’ve made the effort to dial in, which has an effect psychological on whether or not you’ll actually complete the purchase.
Secondly, pay attention to the “lead up” to the final offer. Price comparisons with “similar products” and massive price reductions are often what’s mentioned before finally revealing the actual price. Why do you think they spend time doing that?
These pricing methods are the exact same pricing methods people use online for their products. I’ve used them myself, and even prices on Amazon show an “original” price and a reduced price.
And More…
I could go on and on about infomercials because I’m that much of a geek. But, I invite you to watch a few of your own and see if you can find some interesting marketing strategies and tactics being used.
Be careful though, because sometimes these commercials are so good, you might end up buying something as a result. Hah!
Anyways, in my next post, I’m going to highlight one of my all-time favorite infomercials, and break it down and show you exactly why it’s so successful, and what we can learn from it.
Any guesses?
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{ 46 comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below) }
Is it Billy Mays Mighty Putty?
I love that infomercial.
Haha, I love that infomercial too. In fact, anything with Billy Mays is interesting for me to watch. We’ll see on Wednesday!
Hi Pat,
Limited time offers can work well as they create a sense of urgency…but you have to follow thru with this.
If people see the same LTO next week, you lose credibility.
Flickr pis are a nice touch, btw.
Ivan
Indeed, limited time offers are great, but products do lose credibility a bit for now following through, like you said. Sometimes, infomercials show a countdown timer just to push people a little more, but if I don’t “call within the next 10 minutes”, will they not take my order? I doubt it.
Watching infomercials is a great idea to model what works. I like to take a look at people’s newsletter campaigns, sales pages, and the like. I actually don’t have a TV so I never watch infomercials. ( Got rid of it over 2 years ago )
I suppose what I should really be focusing on now is actually spreading the word about my blog rather than worrying about how to convert and what not. None of this info is doing me any good until I get people to see all of the free stuff I have created! lol
Colby, I realize that some of these types of posts may not be valuable to you right now and others who don’t have any products to sell, but knowing these types of things now will get you ahead of the game when the time comes! Plus, there are some audience members who are at this point already, so I like to mix up blog posts a bit and put something out there for everyone
Thanks, and all the best to you!
P90x?
We’ll see Jena, we’ll see!
I learnt about this “urgency” thingy a few years ago in an internet marketing seminar… I agree with Ivan. If you don’t follow through you’ll lose your credibility.
A lot of sales copy I believe use an automated date. When you come tomorrow the date changes and the offer still the same… come one week later and it’s the same.
This might work a few years ago but not anymore.
Chetz Yusof
Chetz, depending on how you use that script, it could work quite well, but a lot of times I’ve seen it used in a way that’s easy for the product to lose credibility, like you said.
I think your favorite would be the one where they’re all sitting on nice, fancy couches – with an actual star or two mixed in, maybe even a star leading the thing – and it’s about clearing up your face. What the heck is that stuff?
This is a great post, Pat – you know what would be super cool? A live preso with an infomercial – if it wouldn’t be some sort of copyright violation. Like have a recorded infomercial and we go through it, bit by bit, with your pausing to teach.
That would be pretty cool, Lisa. I wonder what legal issues I might face when doing so, though – because I know a lot of these companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing and I’m not sure how cool they would be with me walking through a particular commercial and revealing all of their “secrets”, hehehehe!
In the future when you revisit some of these posts after you’d have reached critical mass, I’d think you’d have a budget to make your own infomercial and then you comment on it all you want.
I’m sure you’ll eventually run into someone that has a decent studio that you might be able to partner with…
Positive thinking…
Oh I was a sucker for the P90X infomercial. I am already fit as a fiddle, I run marathons for heaven sake…but dude had me calling in to order his fitness program. Fortunately for me it is challenging enough to be of benefit becuase it caused a virtual fortune. The techniques they used were an absolutely gorgeous well built specimen of a man and testimony from former fatties that used the product and got uber fit.
I agree with you, I could spend all day watching the P90x infomercials (ok, maybe not ALL DAY, but I think you get the idea). Their marketing strategies are fantastic.
Another one of my favs is the Cricket scrap booking machine commercial. Too cool!
I’ve watched ALL of my P90X videos and haven’t really shaped up that much.
I usually watch them first thing in the morning before I get out of bed.
I have to admit I have bought atleast one product from an infomercial, lol, the product of being up late far to many nights in a row and watching the same informercial over and over again till I gave in.
I think I may watch that informercial just to ensure that I dont go buying anything else, lol
LOL Tammy! I’ve never purchased anything directly from the television, but I have purchased “as seen on TV” products before while at the store. We ended up returning it though because it didn’t work as well as we thought it would
one word ZUMBA, hahaha, and im addicted to it, looking around Melb for actual classes as well. However, i think i should stop eating rubbish to help me make the large amount of money spent on it worth it!
I sometimes get caught in those infomercials, esp. ones that are bad (in the sense that they exaggerate the problems). FOr instance, if you’re trying to open up a can, they’ll show a lady hammering it open; when she finally bangs it open it’s all over her shirt and then they show her frustrated look.
I think those types of infomercials are.. exaggerated and probably not as successful.
But, OMG, tune into QVC and it’s over. They’ll have a lady on the phone who looooves the product. They hook you right in!
QVC is another great place to see marketing strategies at work in real time. It would be interested to see what the process is like to get a product from paper to production and through QVC and everything that’s involved. Not so passive though!
They actually showed that on The Apprentice in like the first or second season. Which, btw, is another great place to learn marketing strategies as they are always launching some sort of product or promotion. I haven’t watched it for a couple of years, but that was the format of the show at the beginning.
The one I cant get out of my head – The Ginsu (sp?) knife. They may have been the first (but not the last) to say ‘But Wait there’s More!’ And they made that knife look like magic. Everyone knows about the Ginsu, right?
Yep – I remember those infomercials. So many free bonuses! That’s another great tactic they use, which many internet marketers use as well. (Including me!)
I love infomercials too. I think you’re going to highlight either the Rich Dad infomercial or Tony Robbins’ Get The Edge. Both of those are good. I look forward to seeing which one you use.
Great guesses Rosalyn, I know exactly which infomercials you’re talking about. I’ll let you know soon!
Anything with Billy Mays was/is good. May he RIP. :/
My guess is going to be Sham Wow though, because it was the first one that popped into my head.
I agree with Wesley. There are a million other liquid soaking up clothes out there but this guy got famous by doing that commercial. Although he jumped over to the infamous side when he got beat up by that transvestite.
I heard about that incident…
ewww. That sucks. I didn’t hear about that.
I like the Billy Mays infomercials too(RIP). Did you ever see his show “Pitchmen”? I loved it!
No, I didn’t. I’ll Google it!
Pat I can definitely see you enjoying the Snuggie infomercial!!
On another note, I love the show Shark Tank that comes on ABC. One of the “sharks” Kevin Harrington, is the king of infomercials…his one company has something like $500 in annual sales. But it is very insightful to see the slant that he approaches a new business. If the idea is not easily scalable and capable of a direct buy offer, he is out. End of story. I have learned a lot about how to evaluate a business from his insights and I think you are right on with applying this logic to a blog.
Haha @ the snuggie comment. As much as I don’t like the product, my wife and I do like watching the infomercial because it gives us a good laugh. Especially the one for the dogs.
I try to catch Shark Tank every Friday, because it’s so interesting to watch people pitch their ideas and see why most of them fail. I think it’s a great wayt o pickup on what would actually work, versus, what people just think might work. Good stuff!
Until I rid TV from my life ~4 years ago I used to watch infomercials like a madman. My friends thought I was nuts. But like you put so well in this article, a lot can be learned from infomercials and as marketers/business people/bloggers we should try to learn from wherever we can. Rock on!
I commend you for giving up TV and sticking with that for 4 years now. I know for a lot of people, myself included (although my time watching television is much much less now), it’s definitely a tough thing to do. Thanks Karol!
Beware the infomercial trap. It’s okay to use the principles of the infomercial, but you really need a product that lives up to the hype. I recall watching a news segment on various infomercial items that were no better than run-of-the-mill products you could buy locally.
The key to the sale is definitely in the message and the delivery, but there’s the other side that comes afterwards. That product MUST live up to expectations in order for people to continue taking you seriously later on with new products you put out.
My mother-in-law bought a Slap-Chop and it was a piece of crap. Looks great in the commercial, but it was a dud. Do you think she’d bother buying anything from that company ever again? Not likely.
If you want good continuous sales, you need loyal customers who are satisfied with your product and trust you. Repeat customers are easy to please.
Adwords can be a great tool to discover whether there’s a chance for profits, but sometimes it’s not where you’ll find your target audience. Sometimes all that you’ve proved is that you don’t know the keywords nor have you written proper ad copy for your audience. Your audience might be geographic centric or in a demographic whose internet use is virtually non-existent.
But, on the contrary, a good click-through rate can tell you a lot.
I’m going to guess Lance and his “slapchop” OMG I could watch that guy all day. It’s like a train wreck. Love it!
It’s gotta be the Showtime Rotisserie, right Pat? Is there a more played infomercial than Ron Popeil and his “set it and forget it!” slogan? But wait, there’s more! The guy practically created what we now know as the infomercial.
Hey there pat!
Have been following your blog since your 5th post but actualy never dared to leave a comment!
Just wanted to say thanks for all the valuable informations you provided in those past months.
I tried to implement all your suggestions and knowledge into my newly launched,hopefuly one day “passive income compatible”, project called : http://www.buxler.net
It is a Pay To Click plattform, where users get paid to click on ads and advertisers can buy clicks to get unique, long lasting and even revisited traffic for fair prices.
PS: You look tired on the picture with keoni next to you
Appreciate your work.
regards,
Dave
Sham Wow! I first saw that guy while living in Guatemala and didn’t see the English version until recently. That guy is a stitch! Now I guess that you gave me a reason to go back and watch again.
I never thought of infomercials in this regard. I like how you broke it down in this post! I will definitely implement some of these strategies for my blog. Thanks!
Hi Pat, I will try to sit threw one next time to see the message.
Thank you.
Pat,
This is how I prefer to learn these types of things (copywriting, blogging, Internet marketing, etc.)…DECONSTRUCT THEM! Glad I’m not the only one who likes to look at marketing objectively to distill the philosophy from the approach they take.