Jul 6, 2017 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising
One of the most important elements of marketing and advertising is understanding your audience. For millennials, there are three key factors to consider when marketing a product or writing creative.
1. Millennials have short attention spans.
Microsoft conducted a study in 2015 that revealed millennials have an attention span of 8 seconds. That falls short of 2000’s results of 12 seconds and 1 second shorter than a goldfish. This means your window is very small. But if you can manage to hook their attention, you’re halfway there.
2. Younger audiences don’t like to be interrupted.
Who does? This goes for most anyone, but Business Insider reported in a survey that 51 percent of millennials found YouTube advertisements to be the more annoying out of other groups such as Facebook (37%). The last thing people want to see when they expect entertainment is an interruption. Be sure your attempt to catch someone with your advertisement is not going to obstruct and turn them off to the idea of your product.
3. Impulsive spending is extremely common.
There is a consistent pattern with the spending habits of millennials that is vastly different from Baby Boomers. Owning and saving are out, millennials like to rent and spend. If you can advertise something that is low cost and interesting to spike an impulsive purchase you may have a higher chance for a response from the younger audience.
Millennials are the future. Learning these things and more about Millennials will be extremely beneficial to your overall marketing plan when you have a product or service that targets this growing population.
Jul 7, 2015 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response TV
What is Direct Response Television Advertising?
Basically, Direct Response Television Advertising is advertising that is presented on television and asks viewers to respond directly to the company by calling an 800 number or by visiting a website. It can be either a short form which is a 60 second, 30 second or two minutes in length commercial. Or a long form that is usually 28 minutes and 30 seconds long. It very often creates both interest and demand of a product and quickly turns that interest into an impulsive and immediate sale.
Advantages of Direct Response Television Advertising – DRTV
Since Direct Response Television Advertising is presented on television, understanding brand and converting consumers into buyers is primary. According to thinkbox.com, television is an excellent way to create success for brands over the short-term as well as over the long-term. Let’s look at some of the advantages of TV advertising presented by thinkbox.
- TV is Best at Generating Profits: Of all the forms of advertising, TV generates higher volumes of sales than all the other forms, and at the same time delivers the best ROI.
- The Scale and Reach of TV is Unbeatable: The capacity of television to reach over 71% of people with a plethora of programs and channels in just one day can’t be beat by any other form of advertising. Additionally, Event TV programs reach even larger audiences including the viewing groups that are hard to reach such as men between the ages of 16-34. Therefore, TV is unique and superior in getting brands to appear bigger than they are, building a stature and authority sense.
- TV Creates Fame for Brands:The most famous brands have been made famous by TV brands. Looking at the past 27 years impartially, we can see that TV makes advertising campaigns more effective and outperforms all other channels of media.
- TV Ads are Usually Direct Response Ads: Since marketers are well aware of the fact that the advancement of technology over recent years has made it increasing easier for a person to respond to television. The result of this has caused the key objective for most advertisers to be driving viewers to do something. It might be anything like voting for their favorite reality contestant to buying something online. This is where Direct Response Television Advertising becomes part of the big picture.
How Direct Response TV Advertising Works
Direct response TV ads are best for businesses with a big budget and a product that a demonstration would benefit. The typical cost ranges from $40,000 to $600,000 based on the length of the ad, the location of the business and whether a celebrity is in the ad as well as other things. There are ways to produce ads for as little as $2,500 if your product or service can use voiceover and visuals.
Direct response TV ads can be a short-form ad, long-form ad, or live shopping on channels such as QVC and HSN. The design of these commercials is based on a repetitive reinforcement format. Demand is created by persuading consumers that they want the products being demonstrated or shown. That demand is then converted into sales.
The short-form ads are usually aired but not specifically given a slot of time at the time of purchasing. This type of airing is what is called “run of station” or “run of schedule” (ROS). They can be aired anytime during the day and/or night. However, long-form ads usually are aired overnight at explicit time slots. The slots are usually between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. and in the course of weekends with the program guide reading “Paid Programming.” Long-form ads can be offered during daytime hours on some independent stations.
Long-form direct response TV ads provide sufficient time to fully explain or demonstrate your product or service. If your product is new or coming on the market for the first time, time is an important advantage for you. If you have a limited budget and your product can be easily demonstrated, then you should start with short-form. Production costs are less and testing the creative is much more cost effective. Long-form ads cost between $60,000 to $120,000 to produce. That costs come before you place the first ad. So you need to be well-funded to venture into long-form advertising.
Setting Up Direct Response TV Advertising
Setting up direct response TV advertising can be more complicated than you might think. Usually, the best route to take is to use a Direct Response Agency. If your budget is sufficient enough to consider direct response TV advertising, you most likely have the budget for a professional company to handle it for you.
Details such as setting up a toll-free number make it obvious that you need a professional. Scripts must be written that will maximize both leads and sales. If they don’t work, they then must be rewritten. Operators who answer your toll-free phone number must be thoroughly educated about you as well as your product. They must clearly understand your offer. In addition, the calls should be monitored so you are sure they are professionally handled. Tracking call volume is essential in order to be sure you have sufficient numbers of operators to handle the call load. All of this is just a sampling of everything you will need to have done to run a direct response ad.
Companies that offer direct response TV advertising have developed relationships with station contacts, and for that reason they can help you if scheduling problems should occur.
Your direct response TV ad should be tested to see whether it is successful. If it isn’t, the commercial would have to be both re-worked and retested until it reaches a satisfactory level of response. This can be costly. Therefore, using a professional company can actually save you money in the long run.
In addition, a professional direct response advertising agency can save you time and money because they have a history of knowing which stations or networks perform best for a wide variety of products. Plus they have relationships with the media outlets that give them more favorable rates because of the buying power they have by bringing the stations and networks more than one client.
If you are thinking about Direct Response Television, contact us and we can help you from start to finish to make sure you get the best possible return on investment.
May 22, 2015 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising
There can be many reasons why advertising campaigns tank, but usually it boils down to three reasons:
- Your creative is bad. Have you ever seen a TV ad and asked yourself “What was that about?” Or heard a radio spot that just made you change the station? Sure you have. Bad advertising is all around us. Bad creative makes us change the channel where good creative engages the audience and causes them to do something.
- You paid too much. Many times the people paying for advertising don’t understand all the ways a media outlet can confuse, overcharge or package worthless ads into the mix to make you feel like you are getting a deal when really you just bought junk. Have a professional media buyer on your side. It’s like having a good doctor. They can heal a lot quickly by seeing where your campaign is sick.
- You chose the wrong advertising medium. It’s amazing to me how many times clients have asked me to purchase advertising for them on programs, shows, stations or sites that they like. They paid for this and by gosh they want to see it–never considering where their target customers are consuming their favorite programming. Look at your media mix. Make sure your target customer are there before you invest.
May 22, 2015 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising
Wondering: “How do I improve my advertising?” After 25 years of managing Direct Response advertising campaigns, here are some secret steps to helping you become profitable fast.
Step One: Before you spend a penny, know when you make a dollar.
The heart of direct response is knowing how many responses you need for your investment so the campaign delivers your profit instead of costing you your future retirement. Here are the metrics you need to know:
- How many responses, calls or unique visitors does it take for me to generate a purchase? That is your conversion rate or ratio. If it takes 10 calls for you to generate 1 purchase or sale, then your conversion ratio is 10%.
- Next, how much can I afford to invest to generate these responses? Let’s say your product or service costs the customer $500, and your profit on that sale is $250. If you convert at 10% then your target cost per lead can be no greater than $25 just to break even on your media, or deliver what is called a 1 to 1. Spend a dollar, make a dollar. So any media that delivers a cost per call or response under $25 is a winner.
Step Two: Match your media to your sales system.
Analyze your internal sales system. Do you generate most of your sales from your website? Do you have in-house sales people or a call center answering the phones? When do your best salespeople work? That will guide you to your media mix as to how much Television, Radio, Mobile or Internet you need to be doing.
Step Three: Make sure your creative is really a well-crafted Direct Response piece of advertising.
Direct Response advertising is a totally different animal than branded advertising. There are tried and tested formulas you need to adhere to. Hire a professional Direct Response agency. They will make sure you have the best creative and alert you to any copy that may hurt your response rates.
Mar 3, 2015 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising, Direct Response TV
TV advertisements not working? Here are three simple ways to improve the overall response from your TV campaigns.
1.) Put the call to action up during the entire length of the ad. If it’s “Call now for a free quote” or “Visit our website,” give the viewer the most opportunity to respond to your spots.
2.) Make sure your advertising is benefit-driven and not feature focused. People need to know what’s in it for them right away. If you focus on being the #1 furniture store or car dealer, that does nothing to make the viewer want to respond. However, if you say “We guarantee upfront pricing. Save time. Save money. And rest assured you are getting the best price,” then that speaks to one of the benefits the customer may be looking for.
3.) Don’t pay too much for the spots. Advertising time is a commodity. It’s supply and demand. Many times all you need to do is turn down the first offer from the station. And rates will come down. You can also hire a professional agency that knows the rates that will perform. The can protect you from paying too much.
Buddy Vaughn
Managing Parter
DX Media Direct
Mar 14, 2013 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising
If you want to know the formula for successful Direct Response creative, here you go.
- Identify the problem: “Do you want to get high school skinny?” “Are creditors hounding you for collection?” “Do you need a second income?” Help the target customer know exactly who you are speaking to, and get their attention by grabbing them where they want a change, improvement or need a solution.
- Communicate and demonstrate the solution: “Now you can get high school skinny in 12 days.” “We help stop the creditors from calling.” “You will make more money than you imagined.” The next step is to show and tell what your product or service has to offer in simple, direct terminology.
- Establish credibility: People are smart. And they’ve been burned. So you need to be able to back up your claims. Legitimate testimonials work well. Any accreditations from third-party sources that support the benefits you are offering helps. Let the audience know they can trust you.
- Limit their risk: “Call now for a Free trial.” “You get a 100% money back guarantee plus we cover shipping.” The more you limit the consumers risk the more likely they are to try you out.
- Create a sense of urgency: You have to give your audience a reason to call or act now. That looks like… “Call or click to take advantage of our 48-hour 50% off promotion.” “This is a limited time offer.” “Supplies are limited so act now.” There are reasons you hear these familiar lines in almost every direct response offer: They get the consumer to respond.
- Give a clear call to action: Tell the consumer exactly how you want them to respond and make it easy. Show your phone number and give the website address often or keep it up during the entire length of your TV spot.
Use this formula and your spot will be successful more often. If you need help crafting your next spot and campaign, we would be honored to help.
Written by: Buddy Vaughn
