Lead Generation via TV Is a Natural

By Gene Silverman

As a huge baseball fan, one of my all-time favorite movies is "The Natural." Robert Redford plays the great Roy Hobbs, author Bernard Malamud's fictional baseball star, who could throw a fastball so nasty it would make Babe Ruth flail at thin air. When Roy himself was up to bat, his swing was as sweet as cherry pie and at the climax of the movie, his pennant-winning home run off the light standard in right field ignited a fireworks display of mythic proportions.
Wouldn't it be great if you could connect with your prospects with a call to action, just as natural as Roy Hobbs' silky smooth swing connected with a baseball?

Well, the reality is many marketers do make that solid connection with their targeted prospects every day on television. Just turn on your TV right now and flip through the channels. You will see a plethora of :30 and :60 lead-generating commercials for major brand insurance, fitness devices, nutritional supplements, financial services and numerous other products--all asking viewers to call or go online for more information about their products and services.

3 HOME RUN TIPS
The Center for Media Research says DRTV accounts for more than 25 percent of all television commercials and more than half of those contain a lead-generating mechanism. As we head toward the final quarter of 2007, direct response television (DRTV) commercials are clearly a staple of the TV industry.

Of course, while the DRTV spot itself is just the initial step in any sales process, the many innovations taking place in the call-to-order conversion techniques on the backend of the lead constitute the rest of the story.

Here are three powerful new technologies and strategies, which can make most DRTV lead-generation campaigns more economically viable and efficient than ever:

IVR - Interactive voice response systems are quite sophisticated these days and can be reliably programmed to answer telephone inquiries (and potentially even close those leads) at a far lower cost than live operators. Using IVR technology can lead to a 50- to 75-percent savings on telemarketing fees, with virtually no falloff in conversion rates in certain product categories. Another tremendous advantage of IVR is the flexibility of the digital platform to make quick changes in real-time whenever script tweaks may be required or product information might change.

Consider using the voice of your on-air TV spokesperson as the initial welcoming voice, and have that voice guide them through the various prompts. This can provide continuity and comfort to the caller, while counterbalancing any aversion to the "automated" nature of the IVR process.

Other sophisticated IVR techniques are successfully being utilized, such as the "warm transfer," where once the initial pre-qualification is done via IVR, the call is then transferred to a live operator for further selling, questions and the close.
Because IVR can recognize a caller's phone number (ANI), prospects can be engaged further, by doing a look-up of that ANI's address and sending a direct- mail piece to the prospect's home with an information packet, special offer or DVD.

Media targeting - By now, there is ample history on every cable network and local broadcast channel for determining where and when to run targeted lead-generating TV spots. By "foot printing" the media buy of successful campaigns with a similar demographic audience, huge efficiencies can be achieved in targeting a highly qualified audience for any product or service. It's far easier to reach a target audience with a well-crafted TV message when you know precisely when and where that viewer is watching.

Online video - We've all heard the adage, "The more you tell, the more you sell." Once a TV viewer sees a lead-generating commercial and decides to go online to investigate a particular product or service, current technology allows the selling power of the website to be dramatically enhanced with video clips to further educate and inform the prospect about the features and benefits being promoted. Video-based website enhancements can be in the form of a tutorial about the product, testimonials from raving fans, product demonstrations or other video elements to effectively close the sale. Some clients report up to a 300-percent increase in lead conversions, based entirely on adding a well-designed video presence to their websites.

Plus, the cost of adding video to a landing page may be less than one might think, particularly if the footage can be re-purposed from the TV spot or infomercial.

Interactive television programming - You may have noticed recently that game shows, judge shows and other syndicated or national network programs have integrated opportunities for viewers to call in to participate in voting, opinion polls or for other related reasons. This interactive device can be leveraged to generate leads for virtually any product, by tagging on a question to the caller at the tail end of the call, inquiring whether they would be interested in learning more about such-and-such product "from one of our sponsors."

If the answer is yes, the caller can be immediately transferred to the telemarketing representative for that product and the lead-conversion process begins. These callers may be less qualified than leads actually generated from a specific DRTV spot, but they have raised their hand as interested and may be worth a pre-determined per-inquiry cost.

These are just a few of the many strategies that are making television-driven leads a very hot commodity for brand advertisers as well as entrepreneurs. A seasoned direct response TV agency can guide those who are new to the DRTV space through a best practices lead-generation process, designed to take advantage of these new strategies.

To savvy DRTV marketers, making the most of leads generated from television is like putting a sweet swing on a fastball right over the heart of the plate. It's a natural.

Gene Silverman is vice president, marketing services/account management at Hawthorne Direct Inc. in Fairfield, Iowa. He can be reached at (641) 472-3800, or via e-mail at gsilverman@hawthornedirect.com.