By Lindsey Carnett
BEST PRACTICE BRIEF: MANAGING YOUR REPUTATION—ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK
What do all direct-to-consumer (D2C) advertisers have in common? Visibility! If you are spending ad dollars to promote a brand, the goal is to earn valuable impressions that will convert to sales. Unfortunately, this also makes these brands susceptible to negative press, an online war with the competition or someone looking to ride the coattails of their ad dollars all the way to the bank. How can a product marketer make sure their ad dollars are yielding high returns from start to finish? A positive reputation, brand loyalty and management of the brand messages to own the category marketshare all aid in optimizing advertising campaigns.
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH FACEBOOK AND TWITTER?
By taking an active role in social media communities direct response (DR) advertisers can increase awareness of their brands. Having a D2C product name become synonymous with value, practicality and innovation is key to seeing an increase in orders. The use of social media is fairly new in marketing, but is rapidly increasing. Although 88 percent of marketers surveyed use social media to market their business, 72 percent have only started doing so within the past few months, according to the April 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, sponsored by the Social Media Examiner. Since social media is so new, companies are working to understand how to best utilize it to generate sales.- READ THE ARTICLE: Managing Your Reputation—All the Way to the Bank
By Rick Petry
Many products are successfully sold via short-form direct response television, yet programs that are asking for the order, versus just trying to generate a lead, frequently require a full two minutes. The one hundred and twenty seconds is required because it takes time for a commercial to set up a problem, offer the solution in the form of the product’s unique selling proposition, and then do an offer build and provide the requisite order information. However, whenever a marketer is putting together a “deuce”, as the industry sometimes refers to it, they should also include a 60 second version of their commercial for the following reasons:
Two-minute short-form DRTV inventory can be challenging to clear depending upon what is happening in the marketplace. General advertisers pay a premium for guaranteed placement, whereas DR advertisers are immediately preemptible. Therefore the strength of the general media marketplace determines how much inventory is left over for DR and that inventory can ebb and flow depending upon a variety of factors. For example, if a show under-delivers the audience of a particular demographic that was promised to the general advertiser, the network or station may run free airings to make up the audience shortfall. This siphons inventory away from DR. - READ THE ARTICLE: Why Short-Form DRTV Marketers Need a 60 Second Spot
By Doug Engebrethson
Many companies, start ups, established DRTV outfits and others attempt to handle fulfillment of their products. We define fulfillment as shipping products, collecting payment and handling customer care. While this may seem like a good business decision, it is fraught with peril. The complexities of inventory management, payment processing, reporting and returns require expertise of staff and technology…most times entailing a significant investment. Investments in these technologies require substantial scale to justify the appropriate ROI. Often, but not always, this investment would be better directed to increasing customer acquisition and retention. Loyal customers who buy again because the quality, price and service were exceptional, is the best strategic course to pursue. Creating a good buying experience is akin to handling fulfillment and customer care in a professional manner. Far too often, the lifetime value of a customer is overlooked in building a brand.
Our top ten reason to consider outsourcing fulfillment follow and can be applied to most products and services. - READ THE ARTICLE: 10 Compelling Reasons for Outsourcing Fulfillment
By Justin Kilgore
The commencement of a new Direct Response campaign brings a myriad of choices for a client. Often times, the task of making these choices can be daunting, particularly for the inexperienced. One of the primary choices is that of selecting which call center will represent your company by handling the inbound volume for the campaign. In an effort to clearly and efficiently focus on this step, I’ve highlighted three core criteria a client can use to make the correct selection: product, media format, and co-vendor familiarity. By utilizing these three categories to help delineate their choice, a client can save time, effort, and resources needed to complete all of the tasks associated with a launch.
The first criterion mentioned is product, the basis for the campaign itself. What is the product or service being offered? What is the estimated price point the product will be sold at? Is the product technical in nature, potentially requiring a more in-depth sales approach, or is its purpose more self-evident, potentially requiring a more direct approach? Like DR campaigns themselves, call center vendors come in a wide variety of specialties. Approaching the product from this perspective can help focus the call center search to those vendors with a history of success in handling similar campaigns. According to T.C. Blumberg, CEO of Evolve Tele-Services, Inc., “Most of the major DR centers have handled the gamut of product types at one time or another, but each of us tends to have certain models that work better in our own environments.” - READ THE ARTICLE: Picking The Right Call Center For Your DR Campaign
By Marianna Morello
With more than 30 years of experience in the print media arena, I can confess that 2009 has been a bit of a shocking year, to say the least. Rates for print media have fallen to their lowest levels in 15 years. I am buying opportunistic remnant buys at costs-per-thousand (CPM) that range from $1.25 to $8.00 for publications that would have never offered this in the past.
What does all of this add up to? A buying opportunity for anyone smart enough to get into the print media world. A number of clients have been bitten by the print media bug. They are reaping incredible returns-on-investment, with some reaching media efficiency ratios (MER) of 5.5 and better.
As we are all aware, the stock market and banks are not the places to invest your money right now. If you believe in your product, create a print ad and test the waters. Now is the time to dive in and see your profits grow. Print can give you a better ROI when you consider all the alternatives.
The DRTV industry has always felt that print ads do not pay out. On the contrary, during the economic crisis, print media is the cheapest way to invest money into your product or service, with as little as $3,000-5,000 enough to test a newly developed print campaign.
Remember one thing: you can always use another revenue stream, and print is a stream that keeps on flowing. Even after your short-form campaign or infomercial is off the air, your print ad will keep on returning responses for weeks and months to come.
Need more reasons to try print media? Here are nine reasons (courtesy of Magazine Publishers Association studies from 2007 and 2008) to give it a shot.- READ THE ARTICLE: Why Print Media — and Why Now?
By Todd Gelman
In today’s online environment, virtually everyone you speak with will tell you about all the different ways that you can drive traffic to your Direct Response website. Search Engine Marketing, display ads, email marketing, text ads, and of course social media are all ways to get more visitors to your site. It’s difficult to pick up a direct response industry magazine these days without finding an article that tells you as such.
But what about the other side of the equation? The other side that I’m referring to is a site’s conversion rate. Conversion rate measures the percentage of your site visitors that actually pull out their credit cards and buy your product. After all, what good is driving traffic to your site if the visitors who come don’t make a purchase? Most direct response marketers virtually ignore this notion. Rather than focusing on how they can increase their conversion rate by 20%-30% and generate additional dollars that go straight to the bottom line, their only web related concern is how they can get more Internet traffic. As such, they simply put up a simple landing page that is essentially an afterthought. This is surprising to see – given that this shoestring approach is probably costing them tens of thousands of dollars a month in lost revenue.
Here are some tips to ensure you maximize your odds at having higher conversion rates and increase your website’s contribution to your overall MER:- READ THE ARTICLE: Do you treat your website as an afterthought?
By Rick Petry
Testimonials, a staple of direct response advertising, may be a tried-and-true tactic for arresting consumer attention and eliciting response, but they must be handled deftly to avoid cliché and audience cynicism. So how does a marketer ensure they get it right? The following tips are designed to help assist you in avoiding the pitfalls and getting the testimonial mix right:
Look for Quality, Not Quantity: While many infomercials will feature quick sound bites of various consumers singing their product’s praise along the lines of, “It’s great!” “I love it!” “It changed my life!”, 20 years of focus group experience suggests that nothing tanks interest nor invites skepticism more than this tactic. One reason may be that the approach has been so overused that audiences simply consider these sequences one big unbelievable yawn. There’s a real distinction between someone who is an evangelist for a brand and someone who is merely satisfied. The best kind of brand evangelist is also a natural born influencer – it’s that ebullient force of nature we all know who freely extols the virtues of a product to all of their friends and inspires them to follow suit. This is the sort of testimonial you’ll ideally have in your marketing arsenal, but you must allow them time to breath and tell their story.
At the Same Time, You May Need Quantity: It’s easy to say, “Hey, go round up some brand evangelists,” but while you can try and screen for them, until you turn on that camera, you won’t know exactly what you’ve got. One very successful direct marketer suggested that a 10 to 1 ratio was required to cull out a broadcast-worthy testimonial! Those are pretty daunting numbers, but then when you consider the failure rate of DRTV programs, you have to ask yourself, “Do you want to solve this problem in pre-production or deal with it once the camera is rolling?” That brings us to…
Don’t Rush the Process: One of the biggest mistakes we’ve observed is this: the marketer says, “Testimonials? No problem! We get letters…” then proceeds to truncate the amount of time required to identify and line up great testimonials. Concurrently, the production train gets rolling until it runs head on into what one head of production wryly observed are the three most expensive words in commercial production – “Client will provide.” The entire process turns into a compromised, muddled mess with not only less than ideal testimonials, but fewer of them to choose from in the edit suite. Which is one reason you might want to consider this: - READ THE ARTICLE: Tips for Getting Great Testimonials
By Joey Hastie
There are a number of ways to obtain your ROI goals using the available DR outlets. The question you should consider is, "Am I effectively buying the opportunities that are available to me?" The market is an evolving place and currently a majority of the DR efforts are focused on Television. Of course, this makes perfect sense. This has been the formula that has created a multi billion dollar industry for years. But the digital world is progressive and these changes have sparked an assortment of new opportunities for marketers to take advantage of. Targeting specific demographics becomes more and more of a fragmented process because consumers are accessing media in non-traditional ways. Advertisers using the old model of "broad" casting are finding that obtaining their ROI goals are becoming increasingly challenging.
Why the struggle? What is the stigma behind steering away from the tried and true DR TV campaigns that we are so comfortable with? The obvious answer is fear of the unknown. What advertiser is going to risk failure on a platform they have no background on when the DR TV formula has proved itself time and time again? The reality of the situation is that consumers are rapidly gravitating towards new technologies. DVR's computers, portable music players, and advanced cell phones are now affordable and accessible to most demographic groups. If you were to survey your close friends and family, it is likely that you would find that a majority of them have an mp3 player, messaging cell phone, and minimum of one DVR.- READ THE ARTICLE: Marketing DR Across Platforms
By Rick Petry
As a marketer new to direct marketing, you may wonder how to best evaluate and select a terrific media planning and buying agency. The following is intended to give the reader a few things to consider and qualities to look for when looking for an agency partner.
Size Matters
One of the issues frequently debated is the size of an agency – is it large? Does it have enough clout? And while certainly you want assurances that the agency has sufficient resources to do right by your campaign, there are pros and cons to be weighed between Madison Avenue buying behemoths and a shop that is more of a boutique.
For example, if you’re a fledgling business just starting out, you’re not likely to have a huge budget. It is easy to get lost in the shuffle amid a large agency that is doing hundreds of millions of dollars in billings and may be under financial pressure to focus on established, big budget accounts. Direct marketing is about testing and retesting, and a giant agency may not have the patience or desire to nurture a smaller player. On the other hand, a small- to mid-sized boutique may be hungry and more inclined to invest the time necessary to build a client from a few thousand dollars in media per week to hundreds of thousands over time. - READ FULL DIRECT RESPONSE ARTICLE: How to Select a Great Short Form DR Media Agency
By Mark Lopreiato
Moving furniture, appliances, mattresses, hot tubs, HVAC units, cabinets and the like has taken on new meaning throughout 2010: supporting the fight against breast cancer. A.A.C. Forearm Forklift, Inc. (FF) has launched their newly pink-packaged, pink leverage straps! They’re proud supporters of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). In fact, a donation of $10,000 will be made by FF to help fund the charity’s work.
“My co-workers and I feel like we’re supporting women who look after their wellbeing,” said Mark Lopreiato, inventor of the Forearm Forklift. “All of us here are committed to help protect women’s health and we’re impressed that BCRF is the most highly rated breast cancer organization in the U.S. I found documentation that over 90% of the resources raised by the foundation go directly to research grants and awareness programs. They’re an efficient charity, with a great cause and we’re honored to support life-saving research.”
FF joins many other companies that have “turned” pink to improve awareness and fight one of the most common causes of fatality in women. “BCRF is honored to have Forearm Forklift as a dedicated partner in our fight against breast cancer,” said Robbie Franklin, Dir. of Mktg. at the foundation. According to 2009 findings from the American Cancer Society, women in the U.S. have a 1 in 8 chance of developing invasive breast cancer in their lifetime and a 1 in 35 chance of dying from breast cancer.
ABOUT FF
Forearm Forklift moving straps have a patented design that employs leverage which makes the furnishings carried seem 66% lighter. They also encourage proper body mechanics which reduce the chance of potential injury due to heavy lifting. The straps are also easy-to-use and adjustable. They move furniture off the ground which keeps dollies’ wheels off your sensitive floors. Their suggested retail is only $19.95 for a pair. (www.BuyStraps.com)
Based in Azusa, California, FF is still owned and operated by the former mover who invented the product right after college in San Diego and who shortly thereafter founded the company in Pasadena more than 10 years ago. His company produces and distributes the straps which can be found at U-Haul, Home Depot, Target.com, Ace Hardware and Sears. More information and its complete product line can be found at www.ForearmForklift.com
With help from its one, two and five minute spots for both the English and Spanish markets, to date MORE THAN 6 MILLION PAIR HAVE BEEN SOLD! That’s also a testament of how well the product works and how they’re marketed and quality controlled!
“Without the spots airing on nationwide television, we couldn’t have achieved all the success we have enjoyed for more than 3 years now,” said Mark. “Our direct response campaign has turned our straps into a household name which translates to super-quick turnarounds at retail and big box placement is where the huge volume has been realized for us.” Mark added, “There are two things that I always recommend to people who are where I was ten years ago. First, buy patent abatement infringement insurance because it gives you access to millions of dollars per occurrence to fight against infringers. In fact, we’ve won every defense and earned some high dollar awards through judgments. Second, have a spot produced and invest in media. Buyers love As Seen On TV products. I recommend Direct Avenue!”
MORE ON BCRF®
The foundation was founded by Evelyn Lauder as a non-profit organization dedicated to funding innovative clinical research. In 2009, nearly $29 million was awarded to 173 scientists across the globe. BCRF directs at least 90 cents of every dollar raised directly to research. And for the 8th consecutive year, BCRF has received Charity Navigator’s highest rating, four stars, thus outperforming over 99.8% of the 5,400 evaluated charities. The American Institute of Philanthropy has awarded the BCRF its highest possible rating of A+. BCRF is, in fact, the only breast cancer organization in the U.S. to receive these accolades. For more information, visit www.bcrfcure.org - READ FULL DIRECT RESPONSE ARTICLE: Forearm Forklift supports The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
