Infomercials: A Winner for Sales Growth

Anyone who has turned on the television in the middle of the night has seen them—the infomercial. Your first thought might be to dismiss these sometimes silly and absurd little product promotions. However, infomercials are a big business and an excellent way to spur sales growth. That’s why you see so many of them — they work.

If you are on the fence about whether infomercials might help your business, consider these points.

The growth of infomercials

Once relegated to small channels and off-air station time, the infomercial, or direct response television, has made a massive resurgence in recent years. A recent Businessweek article highlights that the Direct Marketing Association predicts sales from infomercials could reach $174-billion by the end of 2014. When you consider that the average sales price of an infomercial item is quite low, that number is even more impressive.

What is driving the resurgence in infomercial popularity? Likely, it is due to the sharp decrease in video production costs coupled with the ease with which infomercials can be spread online.

Highly targeted marketing

The infomercial landscape has changed drastically since the heyday of the late-80’s and early-90’s.

Slate points out that a market once led by garage inventors and vendors hawking often ridiculous products (think “Snuggie”) is now led by big businesses marketing even complex B2B solutions. Part of this is because of the ability for firms to target their audience at a much more granular level thanks to the Internet.

As mentioned before, with a small production budget, a business can create a clip and broadcast without the need to secure a slot on major networks.  It can simply set up landing pages on its own website, embed a Youtube or Vimeo video on them, and use social media and SEO to attract customers looking for solutions.

Must haves for infomercial success

While much about infomercials has changed, some things will always stay the same; including these four elements that will help in building sales growth success.

1.       Stand out. Being easily recognized is the name of the game when it comes to modern infomercials. For more on unique infomercial approaches, consider this article from Forbes.

2.       Tell a story. Video is an ideal medium for creating emotion and telling a story. Take advantage of this to hook viewers and drive brand recognition.

3.       Sweeten the deal. From buy-one-get-one offers to add-ons and upsells, creating an irresistible value is an essential part of infomercial success.

4.       Strong call to action: Like any other form of marketing, infomercials help with sales growth the best when you tell viewers exactly what you want them to do. Whether it is to buy, tell friends or visit your website, don’t forget the call to action within your infomercial.

Infomercials are far from dead. From online sites to partnerships with retail outlets, the infomercial has evolved from a late-night time filler to a legitimate and effective form of advertising. For more on boosting sales growth using infomercials, check out this article from Inc.