Don’t Touch That Dial!

In many ways, direct response television (DRTV) and cataloging are at opposite ends of the direct marketing spectrum. DRTV promotions — be they infomercials, spot commercials or home shopping — focus on selling to an unknown prospect or customer. Meanwhile, with only a few exceptions, catalogers target their promotions to specific prospects, customer lists or audiences. Yet both have to deal with all the challenges of today’s direct response marketing.

For example, they must present products in compelling ways that make the sale, despite ever-increasing competition from other direct marketers, retailers and e-merchants. Also, they must address customers’ privacy and data security concerns, and deal with today’s multichannel shoppers.

Examining the areas of difference, however, can provide opportunities to learn from one another — even if as a cataloger you never delve into DRTV.

Unique and Compelling Offers

The area where DRTV marketers excel — and which often is weak for catalogers — is developing unique and compelling offers. Because DRTV is so focused on that first sale, DRTV marketers work hard to maximize response from the call to action. To accomplish this, they use appealing offers such as installment payment options, free gifts with purchase and bonuses for orders submitted by a set deadline.

Indeed, DRTV marketers spend a lot of time ensuring that the offer is as compelling and irresistible as possible. Mark Olson of Direct 2 TV, an infomercial scripting and production firm, says the satisfaction guarantee is a critical component of DRTV offers. Such a guarantee encompasses the product’s performance as well as the customer’s general satisfaction — in essence the customer’s assessment that he or she received the value that was anticipated.

Catalog offers, on the other hand, tend to be restricted only to free shipping, a discount percentage off or a few clearance item pages. Few catalogers seem to spend much energy and effort identifying offers that truly resonate with their audiences, for example, a premium-with-purchase offer that would be truly compelling.

Like the DRTV marketer who offers the “mini-trampoline and videos, and wait, there’s more, you also get the carrying case,” catalogers could sell the shoes and matching purse for a special price, or offer the silk blouse free with the purchase of the three-piece suit. The point is to make an offer that increases your average order value (AOV) and is hard for customers to refuse.

To follow the DRTV lead, identify desirable items for your segment of customers and offer a great price.

Upsells

The DRTV focus on offers doesn’t stop once the initial orders are placed. Planning for upsells is an integral part of the DRTV sales process, not an afterthought. DRTV upsells include add-on items, loyalty programs and continuities, as well as converting installment purchases into single payments.

While the customer is on the phone or in the online shopping cart, present upsells to increase your AOV while providing the customer a chance to get an unpublished great deal. When catalogers pay attention to upsells, they often can sell more merchandise to 15 percent of customers, according to my observations of working with direct marketing clients. Yet many catalogers offer no upsells at all.

Where feasible, use contact center software to offer relevant upsells. In other words, upsell items that are most likely to be of interest (i.e., if the customer bought only boys clothing, upsell boys, not girls, pajamas).

Test, Test, Test

DRTV marketers regard testing as routine, and they continually test offers, prices, upsells, creative techniques, etc. Most understand that direct marketing is a business of making ongoing, small but measurable improvements, and they set out to vigilantly work toward finding ways to improve.

While cataloging doesn’t allow for the same quick turnaround in reading results from testing that DRTV affords, every one of your catalog mailings should test something so that you can continually improve your efforts. Every test adds to your body of knowledge about prospects and customers and how they interact with your brand, allowing you to improve merchandising and marketing efforts.

Testimonials Work

The No. 1 creative component of DRTV is one that few catalogers pay sufficient attention to: the effective use of customer testimonials. Most infomercials are testimonial tours de force. In fact, an infomercial without sufficient testimonials is almost always doomed to failure.

Nowhere in DRTV is the power of testimonials more obvious than in home shopping. Sitting in the green room monitoring results for the shopping channels demonstrates in real time the impact of customer testimonials on sales: It’s immediate and significant.

Skeptical prospects in particular seem to need social proof, knowing that people like them have bought from you and were happy with their purchases. Customers can benefit from testimonials as well, reinforcing that they made the right decision in buying from you. And both will take note of endorsements for higher-priced or highly competitive items. Testimonials can help justify why your product is better than someone else’s and worth paying a premium for.

Tout Benefits

Wherever feasible, DRTV makes use of visuals, photos or illustrations of before product use and after (e.g., unpolished floors vs. floors polished with a special solution). Rick Petry, president of agency services at Euro RSCG Tyee MCM, an advertising agency focused on DRTV, notes this

tactic makes the act of establishing proof easier to accomplish. Adding before-and-after visuals to appropriate products in your catalog can be highly effective in presenting the products’ unique benefits to customers and prospects alike.

Susan Bates, a retail and catalog merchandising consultant, is impressed with DRTV’s ability to educate consumers on the unique features and benefits of products through description, demonstration and graphics. She says catalog copy tends to be utilitarian, focusing only on facts (e.g., SKUs, colors, sizes) instead of the benefits of using the products and taking advantage of their features.

Ron Pulga, director of direct response at Bare Escentuals, concurs. As a marketer who uses both infomercials and catalogs to sell his line of cosmetics and personal care products, Pulga says DRTV marketers traditionally focus on how the product offered will enhance a prospect’s life, in essence answering the essential question posed by buyers: “What’s in it for me?”

Show the Product in Action

Of course DRTV excels at product demonstration. The need to show a product in action is a justification for considering DRTV promotion. Complex products often get graphic treatments that show the viewer clearly how the product works. Good examples are infomercials for air filtration systems by The Sharper Image and Oreck.

Though DRTV has the advantages of video that can’t be replicated in paper catalogs, there are ways to adapt the techniques to cataloging. Take advantage of your multiple channels. For example, streaming video on your Web site or a CD-ROM, graphics on the catalog page or in a referenced PDF on your Web site all provide ways to offer more information detailing the benefits of your products. The old axiom “The more you tell, the more you sell” is no less true today than when it was coined years ago.

Steal Smartly

Many famous direct marketers have admitted to “stealing smartly,” that is, borrowing techniques from other direct marketers and applying those to their own brands. Many catalogers track other catalogs and Web sites routinely and steal smartly from them. Why not approach other forms of direct response marketing with the same scrutiny?

Whether you plan to test DRTV or not, don’t ignore the chance to benefit from techniques and strategies your DRTV brethren have shown to work effectively to acquire customers, generate sales and increase AOVs.

Shari Altman is president of Altman Dedicated Direct, a direct marketing consultancy specializing in acquisition and loyalty marketing. Prior to launching Altman Dedicated Direct, she spent 20 years as director of marketing for major catalogers and direct response marketers. She can be reached at (336) 969-9538 or by visiting www.altmandedicateddirect.com.