Direct response marketing is a marketing tactic which dates back to the first television infomercials and which can now be used as an effective marketing technique online. Let’s talk about what is direct response marketing and how you can use it.

What is Direct Response Marketing

In the 1970’s, infomercials began to take off as late night television advertising was beginning to take off, and advertising costs were very affordable and manageable. During the 1980’s and especially 1990’s infomercials really exploded in popularity as products in the convenience and self improvement niches became en vogue.

Just as they do today, the infomercials would generally revolve around one product in particular, and rather than a conventional commercial which would promote a product which you could later buy in stores, the point of the infomercial was to solicit a direct response (hence direct response marketing) from the viewing audience to get people to purchase that product immediately, typically by telephone.

Once the internet began to gain steam and popularity, savvy advertisers saw it as a perfect forum for promoting their products through direct response marketing and thus the mini site (see what is a mini site) was born.

Through these mini sites, one product would be showcased in particular just as if it was being advertised on television. Direct response marketing works so well online because everything about it exudes immediacy which people love and is in part why they use the internet. This especially rings true when it comes to downloadable products and offers. Any kind of software, eBook, internet based training course, etc., all of this can be immediately accessed right no your computer.

Unlike an infomercial advertising something which you may be interested in at that very moment, you have instant access to most things advertised through internet based direct response marketing. The transaction is simple, as well; you purchase the product which was advertised to you through direct response marketing and you gain immediate access to it.

That’s extra incentive as opposed to something you see advertised on television via infomercial which you may want in that exact moment but you won’t receive for a few days at the earliest. This can deter you from going through with the transaction because of that lack of instant gratification, but with internet based direct response marketing for immediate access products this is a non-issue.

Direct response marketing isn’t only for selling in the conventional sense, however. Nowadays it works very well for capturing leads, as well. It works even better than selling a product, actually, because people are much more motivated to part with some information such as their email address as opposed to their money.

This is why squeeze pages work so well when it comes to direct response marketing; they are pages which focus around one task which is typically soliciting someone to give their email address. Coupled with an effective call to action, you can grow your list insanely quickly.