By Maribeth Kuzmeski, PhD
Infomercials help brands sell billions of dollars of products and services every year. While some members of the advertising industry view infomercials as second-rate campaigns, in general, they work. That’s why they are on all the time! We’re not saying you should start running infomercials of your own, but we are saying there may be something that you can learn from them. Here are 3 elements that make infomercials successful that you can apply to your business.
- Infomercials build a comprehensive and convincing case. Infomercials are designed to capture viewers’ mindshare, inspire them to write down their phone number, dial it, and buy. And the only way that will happen is if the infomercial works as a complete stand-alone sales presentation. The goal is to build a comprehensive and convincing case for buying by giving viewers all the information they need to make a purchasing decision. They explain every benefit, answer all objections; and then do it again.
- Infomercials present testimonials to eliminate objections. Infomercials prove the worthiness of a product by showing it in action and then presenting the results with real customers. The goal is to inspire action by taking all of your objections away. But if you can’t use testimonials in your business, don’t worry. You can still verbally explain what others have said about your service and personal touch. For example: “The best way to describe what we do is by sharing what one of our clients said last week…”
- Infomercials provide strong and immediate calls to action. Infomercials make a very specific offer. They don’t give you lots of options or choices to customize; instead, they make the recommendation easy to understand. You essentially have only two choices: buy, or don’t buy. And to get you to act right away, the offer is typically doubled, or accompanied by an additional free product.
Do you build a convincing case, eliminate objections and make a specific offer? If not, it may be a great time to test out the proven methods of infomercials. Why? Because they work!