Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher
I can’t believe I’m recording an episode talking about an infomercial, but here we are. I actually had an entirely different episode planned for today, I was going to record an episode all about boundaries, but I actually pivoted because I had a really interesting encounter this morning.
I went to get my nails done, and while I was sitting there with dead headphones and nothing to do but watch the tv, an infomercial for Nutri Sealers caught my eye. I had the pleasure of watching this infomercial for about 45 minutes, and I actually learned a lot from it. I was so intrigued to watch this infomercial and I kind of asked myself like, what are they getting right? Because I am not a Nutri Sealer customer yet, however, I want to talk about how the infomercial almost made me a customer. So today’s episode is going to be about the five things that I learned from watching an infomercial that we can all apply to our marketing strategy today. What do you think? Should we dive in? Let’s go.
Why infomercials?
When you think about it, to have a successful infomercial, you have to be able to stop people in their tracks, in their lives. I always imagine a mom washing dishes at the sink and the TV is on in the background, or someone who has insomnia, who turns on the tv. You have to catch them and hook them so that they continue to watch, and in the time that they’re watching, make a purchasing decision.
You’re also spreading your net so wide and hoping that somehow you hook a viewer into watching you. Especially these days when we have so many different options on the TV or streaming, we can literally just change a channel and watch anything else. It’s fascinating to me that infomercials are still a thing, but clearly, if they’re still an effective way to sell things, they must be using some tried-and-true marketing strategies that we can apply to our own businesses to help people make purchasing decisions more quickly and confidently.
Positioning
The first thing I caught in this infomercial that I thought was really fascinating was the product positioning. According to the Nutri Sealer infomercial, this was the only sealer that did these certain things. The host included a lot of exclusive talk and made sure you understood that their sealer was superior to the rest. And what is really interesting about this method is they made you think that you didn’t need just any vacuum sealer, you had to get theirs.
I thought this was a really cool marketing strategy because a lot of times we don’t know our own USP, or our unique selling proposition. Let’s face it, no matter what you do out there, there is probably someone else or probably thousands of other people who do the same thing that you do, right? And so it is your job in your marketing to very clearly communicate what makes you unique, what makes you different.
How can you as a business know what your USP is, and how can you make it super clear so that if someone is out there searching, they very quickly know that you are the right fit for them? Think about your positioning. And not pretending like there aren’t other people who do what you do, but challenging yourself to clearly communicate why what you’re offering is the best.
Demonstrate
We as marketers also need to get better at demonstrating, and this became super apparent to me as I was watching this infomercial. The host showed so many different ways to leverage this one product, and it got me thinking about how many of us are not demonstrating how our products can solve a problem.
If you think about it, your product, service, or offer should do one of these four things: save your customers money, make them money, simplify a process, or add joy to their lives. There’s a really good chance that your product does one of those things, so how can we get better at demonstrating this? What kinds of things could we add into our marketing that would help someone see and imagine this product in their life?
I think a lot of times we kind of get backed into a corner with our own offers because we think, okay, this is how people are gonna use it, this is how they’re gonna enjoy it, the end. But to me, if we could gather feedback from our customers or our students or our clients and say like, tell me how this saved you time or simplified a process or show me how you’re using this, you might be able to expand how you can demonstrate how this product will change somebody’s life.
Urgency
Getting off the fence requires urgency. One of the biggest problems that marketers have is that a lot of people are just indecisive, and what’s really fascinating with infomercials is their ability to help you make a decision before the clock ticks down. Something that I would encourage you to do is to find an infomercial and just watch and really pay attention to the ways that they add urgency and sweeten the deal to get you off the fence.
As marketers, it’s our job to guide people into making a decision and to not guilt them about the decision they make. And I think that point right there is worth gold as a marketer, that you are supposed to be guiding people on the path of making this decision. There is nothing worse than moving through life and not making decisions, and I think that for a lot of us, purchasing decisions are often made for us with the clock, right? So many times we miss out on an opportunity because we never actually made an active choice. And so with your marketing, you really want to think about how you can help guide your customers to make those purchasing decisions quickly and more easily.
Final thoughts
Well, there you have it. I mean, I’m actually really shocked that I didn’t buy a Nutri Sealer. I learned a lot from watching the infomercial, and I think this conversation is a really good reminder for all of us entrepreneurs out there that we can always learn new things from studying other peoples’ marketing and asking ourselves what they got right.
To hear all five of the unexpected marketing strategies I learned from an infomercial, you can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you to our Goal Digger Sponsors
Learn more about Nikon’s new Z30, the camera creators have been waiting for | Try Shopify for free and start selling anywhere | Learn how your business can grow better with HubSpot
