Infomercial Media Buying For The Professional
Direct Response Marketer

What a combination! A great product completely described and a special promotional offer worth taking advantage of right now, instead of a consumer walking into a store, asking a salesperson (who knows almost nothing about your product) why this is such a good product, watching the same salesperson fumbling around for five minutes to figure out one benefit which is not even necessarily the unique benefit of your product, only to see the customer look at something else.

The direct response marketing way gives you a very intimate setting, (in their living room), to have that very best spokesperson explain the uniqueness and benefit your product offers.

Direct Response Marketing is powerful!

If you have done the creative side well, then it’s up to your media buyer to get this offer to your target demographic.

Not!

It’s up to your media buyer to get this offer to people who will pick up the phone, call, and buy! This is not general advertising and the entire approach to media is very different. Direct Response Media buying is usually purchased by a direct response media buying agency, not a general ad media buying agency or the media buying division of a big general ad agency.

In fact the big agencies are all scrambling to put into place direct response divisions so they won't miss out on this phenomenon that has been going on for the last 15 years. Sales people at the media buying outlets are mostly different for direct response buys than for general rate advertising.

And…

When anyone goes to the direct response sales person at a media outlet with a new campaign, if the sales person senses that person's inexperience, the prices go up immediately! That is the nature of direct response media buying.

A DR agency once wanted to compare its rates with general ad rates. In order to do that, they hired a consultant from the general ad industry, and gave her a schedule to price out. Three days later when that person came back with the rates, the DR agency was in disbelief when the general ad rates were 85% higher than the DR rates.

85% HIGHER!

Let me give you the real numbers to avoid confusion. The general rate consultant came in with 30 different airings for a total of $ 42,500.00. This included National Cable Purchases as well as local broadcast stations.

The DR agency had already purchased the same exact schedule for $ 6,375. This was unbelievable and in fact no one believed it! Except one woman at the DR agency who worked in general rate advertising for 15 years. She insisted it was pretty close. The study was performed again with only 20 airings all completely different and the results came out only slightly different. Only 2% different.

Who will buy your media is one of the three most important questions to be answered in a direct response campaign.

Quite frankly that is just the beginning. You know the saying well begun is half done. So, if you already have an agency, then you are only half done. And the next half will be the difference between success and failure.

Our Direct Response media management course is critical for anyone embarking on a Direct Response campaign. Our “Winning the Media Game” course will teach you:

· The parameters experienced direct marketers evaluate when choosing an agency;
· The techniques to get the best results from your agency;
· How to get your agency to micromanage your account instead of you;
· How to turn your agency around if you think they could be performing better.

It is not unusual for a good media manager to save 20-25% on the cost of media. Are you getting the best media your agency has? Is the price right? Are you paying too much for your media? Are you sure that your agency is working for you, and not for the media outlet it represents?

What's the difference between a good media buying manager and a bad one? Direct response media is very different than general ad media because everyday you can see which airing made or lost you real dollars.

There is no future, no excuses only results to be analyzed and acted on. There doesn't have to be budgets or campaign lengths, everything is determined on the results.

This is why you need a great media agency and even more importantly this is why you will have to know how to manage that agency. If you can, then you can understand the necessity to have a media manager that understands the intricacies of media management.

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Register for our next media-focused course. Along with comprehensive training in DRTV campaign management, marketers can learn some of the best practices of managing and buying media for DRTV in this three day intensive training: 

DRTV Management Boot Camp
• December 8-10, 2010 -- Santa Monica, CA

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For more information on media buying and how to choose the right vendor, contact the Direct Response Academy at 512-301-5900 or email us at info@dracademy.org.

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