HOW DRTV CAN WORK FOR YOU / WHITE PAPERS
Making DR Radio Work: 6 Steps To Success!
An InfoWorx Research Analysis
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Does Direct Response Radio work? That question is being asked more and more these days as advertisers look for new ways to cut media costs and raise profits at the same time. At InfoWorx, a direct response infomercial production and media company, we spend a lot of time making our Direct Response Advertising campaigns successful whether they are DRTV, DR Radio, or direct response digital media. They key to direct response success is in generating a response, and radio can be a very profitable media alternative if you follow the six steps we use to maximize every direct response radio campaign.
1. Profit-Oriented Creative Team
A wise old marketer once said, "It's Not Creative Unless It Sells! There has never been a time when that saying is more true. Today, we face consumers with less discretionary income than ever, and some inscrutable soft-sell concept is not going to compel them to pick up the phone or go to your website and spend their extremely precious cash. It is important that the creative team understands the personal selling process and creates a "profit oriented" program that is designed to generate an impact, and shamelessly sell your product.
If the concept for the creative seems to be anything other than straight forward, hard sell ditch it. You might win awards to put on your shelf, but you won't put any money in your pocket.
No one can afford to take a risk in today's market. Making sure your creative team understands how to sell, knows what sells, and is determined to generate profits by maximizing your response and sales, is the first step to a successful Direct Response Radio Campaign.
2. Test, Test, and Test Some More!
If your campaign is a hit right out of the box is it time to sit back, relax, and let it go? No!!! Most campaigns do not start out with resounding success, and even the ones that do might even become more profitable when a test reveals something you may not have expected. I've had a golf product that generated more sales at $39.95 than it did at $19.95. If we had not tested it, we'd still be selling less product for less money. In this case, we learned that the perception of the product at the higher price was that it was more credible, and thus, more golfers were willing to try it.
Many direct response clients are entrepreneurs who are often under funded, and so they decide to only try one offer and put all their money on that one horse. This can give you false information about your chances for success. InfoWorx had one client who refused to test a free offer because they wanted the cash flow right away. Fortunately, they listened and tested a free offer with automatic auto ship enrollment against a paid offer. By testing, they found that the free offer generated thousands more phone calls, and was far more profitable in the long run than insisting on money up front.
There are many things you can learn from testing, and the best result is that through testing you can often learn to be more profitable than you ever realized.
3. Establish Metrics Up Front
Before the Direct Response Radio campaign ever airs, you should have specific sales goals so that you have distinct metrics that you can measure the success of the campaign with. The sales to media cost metric is an extremely important one. Cost per customer acquisition, lifetime value of a customer, cost per order, conversion of calls to orders, and other statistics are all metrics that need to be tracked.
A cost per customer acquisition can be high if the lifetime value of the customer is equally high. If your conversion from calls to orders is low, it may indicate that the creative is working but the telemarketing is not.
If your sales versus media spending ratio is a 1.0, you may have a success. If it's a 0.5 you may have to test another option.
4. Capture And Analyze The Data
The beauty of direct response marketing is that it allows you to capture tons of data which can translate directly to profits on your bottom line if you are diligent and take the time to properly capture and analyze the numbers. It can be a nuisance to create a spot with a different phone number for every station or every program, but that trouble gives you the ability to instantly analyze what is performing and what is not.
Many clients - especially with Direct Response Radio - like to use vanity numbers which are easier to remember and don't have to be repeated as often. The problem with these is that tracking where your calls are coming from, and which station is performing best becomes difficult and complicated.
Take the time to collect the sales data, do the math, compare cost to sales ratios by station and program, and take a hard look at your calls to orders conversion ratio. These numbers will paint a very clear picture of what is working, what needs work, and what is a not helping the campaign.
5. Streamline Fulfillment
Getting the phone to ring is important but it is only the first step in the process. Fulfillment is not an afterthought. It is an essential part of your campaign and can mean the difference between success and failure. You must be ready to sell, and that means having your fulfillment process streamlined and ready to go. Whether you are using IVR or live operators, your phone scripts should be written, analyzed, implemented, and monitored in a way that will maximize conversions. The merchant processing system must be in order, the website should make it simple to spot and order the offer from the radio, upsell strategies need to be in place to increase total sales and profit margins, and fulfillment needs to be ready to pack and ship the orders as they come in.
6. Maximize Customer Relations And Retention
In Direct Response Radio as well as any direct response marketing, your customer is precious and must be treated as a valuable asset. Treat your customer right! Make the initial order easy, offer upsells that are related, and follow up. Customer contact after a sale is essential. When customers believe you are looking out for their interests, they will trust you and become brand loyal. This is the Holy Grail in marketing. That initial sale will probably not get you a lot of profit - if any. A loyal lifetime customer will build a business that will grow for you year after year.
So that's the InfoWorx six steps to Direct Response Radio Success. Much of it is applicable to Direct Response Television Success, and even Direct Response online and digital marketing success. If you can properly execute these six aspects of any campaign, you will put your self and your product in a very favorable position for outstanding direct response radio success.
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