Direct Response (DRTV) with Brand Marketing

By Rick Petry

The other day while holiday shopping, I found myself in a major national bookstore chain poised and ready to pull the trigger on a purchase, when my wife suggested I look up the price of the item from a competitor. Armed with my iPhone, I was able to price shop on the Net and discovered I could save $6 on this one purchase from a certain ubiquitous e-tailer. Since I was already planning on placing an order of sufficient magnitude with this purveyor of e-commerce that would guarantee me free shipping, and the purchase in my hand possessed no timeliness factor, I abandoned the bricks and mortar retailer’s merchandise and left the store to go surfing later. You’ve no doubt heard of virtual cart abandonment; welcome to the era of real world purchase interruptus.

While the consumer in me might enjoy the pressure to push down prices this competition creates, the marketer in me cringes at the way this dynamic creates leverage that erodes prices and margins. The scenario described above is perhaps the ultimate proof that a truly Darwinian rule of law has taken hold – that with the pervasiveness of money back guarantees and liberal return policies creating a level playing field – that it is pretty much price, and to a much lesser extent availability, that drives the marketplace. That being the case, and with a scant few retailers dominating the marketplace, how on earth is a manufacturer or marketer suppose to compete and make a reasonable profit?
- READ FULL DIRECT RESPONSE ARTICLE: Marketers! Combat Price Erosion With Direct Response

By Scott Richards

If you’re a direct marketer then you know how tough it is to get a consumer to raise their hand by calling in to an inbound call center, especially in this economic environment. Among the many challenges that marketers face is the fact that within the direct marketing industry and the call centers that they rely on, there is no clear definition for the various broad categories of call types. These general categories include calls that were:

* Answered
* Short
* Incomplete
* No Answer
* Busy

Within these broad categories, there are sub-categories of various call dispositions. These include:

* Caller Hung Up Before Connecting
* No One On Line
* Prank or Obscene Call
* Wrong Number
* Test Call
* Computerized Autodialer
* Customer Service
* Hung-Up Mid-Script
* Misunderstood Offer
* Doesn’t Have A Check/Credit Card Info Ready
* Question About Payment
* Question About Product
* Will Call Back
* Order Calls
- READ FULL DIRECT RESPONSE ARTICLE: Control Your Telemarketing Data To Control Your Fate

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 Mauricio Duran

The myriad ways that businesses are leveraging SharePoint clearly demonstrate that in today’s Web 2.o world, the Web site is no longer simply online “brochure-ware.” Indeed, SharePoint-built corporate Web sites act as virtual stores, online communities and portal destinations where users visit, buy and interact. Using SharePoint, it’s easy to create wikis, blogs, and portals to enable groups to collaborate and personalize content based on the user’s profile and needs. In addition to sharing and managing content, SharePoint allows businesses to deploy search functionality as well as analyze important corporate data. It is a little known fact that SharePoint is also being used more and more to optimize search engine rankings. - READ FULL DIRECT RESPONSE ARTICLE: Leveraging SharePoint to Optimize Your Search Engine Rankings

By Shari Thurow

When I ask online and direct marketers what they believe the definition of search engine optimization (SEO) is, in its simplest terms, they automatically say, “Making a site #1 in Google.” I understand this common perception. Because, classically, search engine optimization has been defined as designing, writing, programming, and coding (in XHTML) an entire Web site to maximize the chance that Web pages will appear at the top of search engine listings for targeted keyword phrases.

- Understanding Web Searcher Behavior and Search Engine Optimization

A Sony Pictures Entertainment company, 2waytraffic knows television audiences and how to produce compelling content that puts viewers in active mode. Two years ago, 2waytraffic’s EVP of Business Development, James Joyce, created a unique platform that fuses participation TV in programming with telco-based DRTV offers. Viewers are invited by the host, judge or other talent from a popular national TV show to call a toll-free number and vote or give their opinion on show topics. After participating, callers are presented with several direct response offers, which are fulfilled by a live call center agent or transcription database capture.

2waytraffic has successfully integrated this experience into more than a dozen nationally syndicated and network programs, including Maury, Judge Joe Brown, The View, Inside Edition and The Biggest Loser, among many others, offering advertisers a unique opportunity to instantly convert these valuable audiences into customers in a completely measurable way. 2waytraffic inserts advertisers into these programs on a Cost Per Lead basis, making their platform completely unique in the marketplace. Now, advertisers can run per inquiry-based campaigns on nationally broadcast programs in some of the most sought after programs on television, where per inquiry media placements have never been available to them.
- Converting Viewers Into Customers: 2waytraffic gets TV viewers to call

By Rick Petry

With the world mired in the thick of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, a number of products being marketed using direct response advertising are thriving above the fray. What are some of the common characteristics of these goods and their attendant campaigns that are bucking the tide? And what lessons can be uncovered that might help marketers and their supply chain attain similar success?

When basic security is threatened -- from job to housing to financial stability -- one natural course of action is to turn inward, to take stock. In that process, people come to terms with what they truly value. It has often been said that without one’s health, you have nothing, that all of the other things in life that may seem important are rendered meaningless. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that a review of the Infomercial Monitoring Service (IMS) report reveals that health and fitness products comprise over one-third of both the top 25 ranked infomercial and short-form campaigns currently running. - Direct Response: The Hope for Recessionary Woes?

By Scott Richards

One of the oldest and most effective forms of direct response marketing has been the “per inquiry” (PI) model of advertising. PI advertising has been around decades before Google popularized the model online. Simply put, with PI advertising, the advertiser pays only for qualified responses. What constitutes a “qualified response” has always been the tricky part.

While technology has changed, the core model of PI advertising has not. Therein lies the problem. The success of Google’s online advertising platform can be attributed, in part, to its tool, which brought a degree of transparency to the process. - Putting the Trust Back in Per Inquiry Advertising

“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.

There are many different steps to creating a successful Direct Response Short Form campaign but the script is the blueprint that determines all the other elements. A great creative offer follows the ‘problem’/‘solution’ formula and engages the consumer’s attention within the first 10 seconds. For example, “Do you love cooking delicious pasta but hate the mess?” If the consumer relates to the problem, then we have successfully gained her attention. We then introduce the ‘solution’- the product or service being sold. The ‘solution’ should make the consumer’s life better and easier in some way. - Making a Successful Short Form Direct Response Spot What Will Make The Phones Ring? DRTV 101

By Jill Albert

You know that device you listen to day after day on your way to the office, it’s on at the gym, you in fact SING ALONG with it when your favorite song plays, yell at it when RUSH LIMBAUGH is ranting or your favorite team misses a shot. You have come to rely on your favorite radio station for traffic information and breaking news, as well as a recommendation for a new restaurant, how to entertain yourself in the coming weekend, what retailer is having a sale and how to survive in today’s economy. It is true… most of us have an emotional bond with our favorite radio station.

Radio continues to be a staple in America’s daily diet with over 90% of working adults listening two plus hours each day, and reaching over 94% of all people weekly. Radio provides target ability, relationship marketing, frequency as well as REACH and is present with just about every one of those emerging technologies that we marketers are trying to use to reach consumers. Internet users listen to radio more than any other media while surfing the web and over 45% of Internet radio listening is streamed to local stations.
- So what about RADIO?