It’s All About the Offer: But Wait, There’s More

Offers that drive response to DRTV spots

The offer presentation in a direct response television (DRTV) spot is a careful orchestration: The marketer wants to build up perceived value for its product with value-added deals, while also convincing prospects that the price is nowhere near the actual value of what’s being offered.

In fact, says Ron Perlstein, CEO and executive producer of Infoworx, a full-service direct response television agency in Boca Raton, Fla., often you want the premiums to look more valuable than the core product.

Establishing a market price for each product and premium and then presenting your reduced deal is the basic way to generate excitement and drive response. But it’s not the only way. A variety of offer tactics are being employed successfully in DRTV spots at the moment. Can one or more of these ideas work for you?

1. Trials
Trial offers have become more popular in the past four years, notes Tim Hawthorne, chairman and executive creative director of Hawthorne Direct, a full-service direct response television advertising agency in Des Moines, Iowa.

An example of a trial offer is giving prospects the option to test a $300 exercise machine for 30 days for a trial fee of $9.95, explains Hawthorne. When the 30 days are up, the prospect returns the equipment, or is charged the full price.

This offer is proving to be a good way to overcome consumer reluctance to purchase large-ticket items, regardless of the moneyback guarantee.

2. Easy Payments
A natural extension of the basic offer presentation that attempts to minimize price is installment billing. Multi-pay offer structures allow you to present a workable price point, says Hawthorne.

A good way to leverage multi-pay offers to drive response, says Perlstein, is to reward prospects for calling within a certain timeframe by knocking off one of the installments.

Depending on your program goals, you might want to consider deferred billing. Perlstein points out that while you experience more returns with this type of offer, you also get to build a database of customers/inquirers for future contact.

3. Soft Sells
For products on the more expensive side or that have a complex value proposition, the soft-sell offer is becoming more prominent.

This approach delivers product detail but no price, says Hawthorne, to generate leads that skilled telesales representatives will attempt to close. The basic call to action asks prospects to call for more information.

Soft-sell offers get a lower conversion rate than other DRTV pitches—about 20 percent. Generally, you want to secure a 50-percent to 85-percent conversion rate on DRTV offers, says Hawthorne. But soft sells can be made to work when the price point is considerably higher than the average DRTV product that falls in the $19.95 to $39.95 range.