Infomercial

An infomercial, also know as a direct TV (DRTV) commercial is a very specific form of TV advertising. Let's break apart the pieces and identify the parameters and ingredients of an infomercial.

First and foremost, an infomercial is simply a form of marketing. It is a advertising message. It is a "paid program."

Unlike the 30 and 60 second TV ads you see in prime time, an infomercial runs at least a half hour. The reason: a half hour is the smallest block of airtime a TV station will sell without interrupting its programming schedules. Why, no program on TV is shorter than 30 minutes.

Infomercials are TV commercials designed to solicit a specific response directly from TV viewers. What do you want the viewers to do? What do you want to get? These are the two fundamental questions a infomercial must answer effectively.

Infomercials and DRTV commercials (also called spots) commonly ask for either a direct purchase or an inquiry (lead generation) about a product.
Lead generation typically asks the viewers to call a toll-free 800 number and to leave their name and address to receive additional sales information about you product or service.

Sales generation infomercial attempts to get the viewer to call your toll-free 800 number to order a product or service, paying by credit card or COD.

Infomercials are the perfect media to sell products/services. The down side, infomercials are expensive to produce. $150,000 to $500,000 in production costs. And only two in eight infomercials are profitable.

The upside. When your infomercial is successful, it very, very profitable and the upsell potential is huge.

Not all products marketing plan can include infomercials, but if you have the right product and can afford or can get financing for an infomercial it could be a huge success for you.