Direct Response (DRTV) with Brand Marketing

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 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 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 Hal Altman

This year, the retail industry has experienced the closing, bankruptcy or near bankruptcy of some of the largest and most successful retail names of the last twenty-five years. Others such as Wal Mart, Costco, Sam’s, Target, and Bed Bath and Beyond seem to not only survive, but are also able to show profits in our unstable economy.

What does this mean to the Direct Response industry? Less outlets to sell product that television, radio or web has worked hard to advertise, establish and create a brand for.

Retail chains have not only breathed life into Direct Response products, but in most cases, successfully outsold traditional Direct Response sales exponentially.
In tough economic times, retailers search for recognized Direct Response product and know that with continued television and radio coverage, combined with retail exposure, this can be a win-win situation for all.

The next question is how do Direct Marketers prepare and get into the lucrative world of retail? The answer is easy, and doesn’t cost any more to prepare for retail distribution while you introduce your product via traditional Direct Response channels.

Look into a retail distribution company that can guide you through the process of packaging your merchandise so that it can be easily and inexpensively ready for a rush retail test. You don’t want to ever be caught in a position of not being able to immediately furnish your product for a retail test if the opportunity arises. - READ FULL DIRECT RESPONSE ARTICLE: Having a Plan Will Save you Money

By Frank Nichols

The old adage, "Throwing mud against the wall to see what sticks," has relevance across many businesses, especially those whose rate of success is directly proportional to the number of trials it takes to attain goals. It is appropriate in many forms of marketing where random learning plays a part in ultimate success or failure.

It seems to be the accepted and widely used methodology for designing media strategies for many extended DRTV campaigns — both long and short form. But, is that the best targeting methodology? Is there a better way?Throwing It Against the Wall

By Frank Nichols

The rapidly changing world of communications and advertising is beginning to fit the paradigms of exponential transition as defined socially by Alan Toffler in “Future Shock” and technologically by Nicholas Negroponte in “Being Digital.” Since society and technology are intrinsic elements of change in marketing methodology, it’s easy to see why the basic principles of direct response media are in a constant evolution that affects not only the increasing number of available media conveying advertising, but also the modes of delivery and, in turn, the economics of generating consumer response. It's Not Your Father's Same Old DRTV

By Robert Graham

The road to DR profitability is more obtainable due in part to payment options that make consumer purchases simple and affordable. One of the hottest techniques is the use of credit card "multi-pay” or “easy-payments” credit terms. Direct Response Payment Options Lead Buyers to Act Now!

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. Picking the right call center for your DR campaign

By Kim Stearns

There are countless articles and media circulating around discussing the pros and cons of behavioral targeting and its apparent “creepiness” but there is little mention of another segment of BT that may suit everyone’s needs. Retargeting addresses all of the privacy concerns and performs so effectively that companies already doing behavioral targeting, are spinning off segments that solely focus on Retargeting. Meet Retargeting: Behavioral Targeting’s Better Half

By John Yarrington

In the Chinese calendar, the Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. In a time where a barrel of oil costs more than $130 and the national average for a gallon of gasoline is $4.10, direct response marketers, much like the ox, will need both fortitude and hard work to find opportunity and success in 2009. 2009 — The Year of the Ox

By Denise Marie Deptula

So, you want to have a successful DR show. What does it take to make it succeed? It doesn’t have to be complicated. Keeping it simple and focused means looking at the Five Basic Elements of a show. DR 101: Five Elements of a Successful Show

By Mick Rispoli

Your media buys are successful, the call center is exceeding your expectations on upsells, and it looks like your campaign is going to be a great success — only to receive a phone call from your merchant processor that your account has been frozen because you have exceeded your cap. Of course, this means the fulfillment house can’t upload batches of transactions from the weekend and you’re not getting a deposit into your bank account from this month’s transactions. The money is frozen and suddenly your campaign is out in the cold! Don’t Let Your Campaign Get Caught in the Cold!

By Osania Del Rio

There are many things to consider if you plan on taking your product to overseas markets, especially if you are marketing your product via DRTV. While it may seem daunting and overwhelming just thinking about all the cultural differences and the numerous regulations that govern each country, in reality it really is a manageable process and planning ahead will certainly save you a lot of time and money, and most importantly, help maximize sales. The following are some tips that you may find helpful.GOING INTERNATIONAL

By Kristy Pinand-Dumpert

“When a sixty second ad can convince a consumer to grab his credit card, pick up the phone and order a product instantly, that’s my definition of a success” says Collette Liantonio, president of Concepts TV Productions. Success in Direct Response can also mean placing an order on the internet or calling to sample a product in a free trial offer. Success in Direct Response means getting the consumer to take instant action in response to the ad. “Making a Successful Short Form Direct Response Spot: What Will Make the Phones Ring? DRTV 101”

By Ken Osborn

Most of today’s DR TV marketers have a business model where retail sales is the primary end goal. This is a fantastic way to create wealth, but some practices being used by these marketers, and the parties they employ to wholesale their products, are doing something to undermine the DR TV ad campaigns themselves. If the campaign is being undermined then it can’t succeed and in turn the retailers will most likely not purchase the item. The issue has to do with selling the retail version of the product to entities that in turn market the it online for less than the TV offer, especially early on in the life of the campaigns. Are You Undermining Your Direct Sales?

By Rod Kempkes

Far gone are the days of simply processing an inbound telephone call for the latest gadget driven from print or television. Today’s direct marketers are well funded marquee brands with life time value of each customer in mind. When call center market growth is steady but slow, the best way to increase growth rates is to introduce and perfect the use of new technologies and methods to increase our client’s customer value. In the not so distant past, it was computer-telephony integration (CTI), which allowed substantial improvements in cost efficiency. The Evolution of Blended Technologies

By Scott Swanson

When you want attention to a special project, you seek out a specialist. With retail sales and distribution this is no different.

You need a system that provides an end to an end solution for multi-channel initiatives designed to serve the retail industry’s specific needs. Look for web-based tools for visibility and control across all steps in the commerce supply chain. Find a single source integrated solution provider for warehousing, transportation, destination, cross docking, load consolidation and inventory management as well as other value added services. Retail Sales Merit Special Attention