Anybody who's ever stayed up late watching television has seen their share of infomercials. These extended commercials feature many subtle sales techniques, and not all of them are sleazy. Here are a few ideas you can crib from infomercial marketers to help win more sales in your own business.
Sell With Rhymes and Repetition
Infomercial marketers will often use rhymes in their pitches to help sell their product. They'll often also include the benefits of the product in a rhyming phrase. Rhymes work because they are subconsciously perceived as being more factual. They also help audiences memorize the sales message. So the next time you hear something like "It's easy to be green when you use Mighty Clean," think about how the rhyme anchors the product in your head.
Many informational phrases and visuals will also repeat in different segments of the infomercial. A popular infomercial technique is to apply a voiceover while showing examples of how a product is used. These voiceovers often employ repetition to help drive the benefits of the product home. In one infomercial for a non-stick grill, the voiceover keeps repeating the phrase "cook, wipe and done!" over and over as the product is featured in various settings.
Sell by Showcasing Uses
Infomercials frequently showcase their products in a staged home setting. Whether it's the yard or the kitchen, they want you to see how you can easily integrate the purchase into your daily routine. And rather than just list the advantages of the product, the infomercial will show smiling people happily using what's being sold. This enthusiasm is laid on so heavily sometimes that it seems fake. But showing an excited person smiling while using your product is a simple way to increase sales.
A standby call out for infomercials is to make the product appeal to a wider audience. These phrases start with "moms will also love the fact ..." or "kids will enjoy ..." An example would be showing a wife making egg bagel sandwiches for breakfast with the advertised skillet. A person might only be thinking about the skillet in the context of lunch or dinner. Breakfast introduces a new context for the product shows the audience an added benefit. Infomercial marketers show these extra benefits to help close the sale. If a person is on the edge of buying, these extra features might be all that's needed to reach for their wallet.
Speed Sells
One of the most important aspects of infomercial videos is the speed and pace of the delivery. There are parts of an infomercial that are for showing how the product works, and there are other parts that are for closing the sale. If you need to see how an infomercial marketer closes the sale, fast forward to the latter part of the infomercial presentation. These closes always feature a rapid-fire delivery. The marketing message is quickly expounded by getting through product benefits, price, objections and the call to action in quick succession.
This rapid delivery is partly mandated by the time allotment of their ad space, but it's also done for effect. The takeaway is that you can deliver video information at high speed and people will take it in. If you'd like to do the same in your video marketing, you can speed up your video editing with more frequent jump cuts.
Bonus Stacking to Close the Sale
A related infomercial phenomenon is bonus stacking. Appliances don't just come with the appliance itself, but a cookbook and some bonus utensils. One of the earliest examples of bonus stacking is the Ginsu knife. You would receive multiple extra Ginsu knives if you ordered within a set period of time. Bonuses also help close the sale by inspiring some imagination in the minds of the viewer.
I wonder what kind of recipes are in that cookbook?
But the main product is $20. How can they be giving all this extra stuff without charging extra?
That's nice that they're offering two for the price of one. I can give the second one as a gift.
Adding a time limit where the bonus expires can also create a sense of urgency. Home shopping networks like QVC also rely on countdown timers to help nudge indecisive viewers. The people know that once a deal is gone, they'll have to suffer the pain of missing out.
One of the great tricks with videos you is that you can speak while a different visual is on the screen. The viewer takes it all in and starts to form a congruent message using what they see and what they hear. If you'd like to implement some of these and other sales tactics on your website, contact us today.