What is Direct Response? Direct Response is a form of advertising or promotion which seeks to generate a measurable reaction from customers or prospects. Print or broadcast advertisements featuring a mail-back coupon or toll-free telephone number are among the most common forms of direct response advertising, such as infomercials, TV spots, or radio ads.

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It is the school of advertising that says, "The Internet is an interactive medium. If the consumer interacts with our marketing efforts, we've done our job." Unfortunately for agencies, there's nowhere to hide with interactive campaigns, as they produce precise success or failure measurements.

It is advertising designed to trigger a behavioural response in target audiences, e.g. placing mailback coupons in the ad, asking people to bring in or mention an ad, setting up a phone number and asking individuals to call for further information etc.

Most inbound call centers can handle direct response campaigns from print sources such as direct mail. Mid-size inbound call centers can adequately handle regional or cable TV advertising. There are only a handful of mega-call centers that can appropriately handle large scale national TV or radio advertising. This is because of the volume of calls that are generated. If you are doing a national ad on one of the major networks and include a toll-free number, if you have only 5 callers from each state call as soon as the ad is over, you will have over 250 calls arriving simultaneously at that call center. That call center must have that many agents available and ready to answer the calls and not abandon a high percentage of call. And 5 minutes later, that call volume will drop off and that call center needs to be able to keep those agents busy to justify their labor cost of being available.

Most call centers that can handle this volume, have many multiple accounts that feed into a pool of shared agents. This means that these agents may have to handle dozens or even hundreds of different scripts for various clients. That means that program specific training of these accounts is almost impossible as the agent will only be able to access and retain what is available through the computer script.

Consider these firms if you are doing Infomercials, TV spots, TV advertising, radio advertising, 30 second spots, 60 second spots or full-length infomercials.

What is an infomercial? It is a long, information-rich television advertisement the format often used in Direct Response Television marketing commercials and on shopping channels. It is the broadcast equivalent of an advertorial. Infomercials usually take the form of talk shows, news program or other non-advertising TV programs

What is DRTV or Direct Response Television? DRTV means Direct Response Television. DRTV is defined as media activity that permits or requests consumers to directly respond to the advertiser. They will ask you to call a toll free number or pull up a website to find out more about their product or to place your order. Direct Response Television (DRTV) is a medium that can show products actually in use. DRTV combines the power of television with the precision of direct marketing techniques. This kind of advertising accounts for 25% of all television ads. This form of advertising has taken on the name of infomercials.

The following is the Direct Response Television fulfillment cycle taken from http://www.direct-response-television.com/

1. Develop the product
2. Create the infomercial
3. Buy the media
4. Run the infomercial
5. Take the orders
6. Fulfill the product demand
7. Manage the customer support

Who is the Electronic Retailing Association?

ERA is the trade association for companies who use the power of electronics to sell goods and services to the public. The purpose of ERA is to foster the growth, development and acceptance of the rapidly growing electronic retailing industry worldwide.

ERA's Mission & Vision

The Vision: As retailers and manufacturers learn to harness the emotive power of television and the efficiencies of the Internet to drive sales, electronic retailing will be the predominant means by which consumer goods and services get bought and sold. The Electronic Retailing Association will be the preeminent trade association serving as the most authoritative voice for and the primary source of information on this most important segment of the retailing industry - e-retailing.

The Mission: ERA is the trade association for companies who use the power of electronic media to sell goods and services to the public. The purpose of ERA is to foster the growth, development and acceptance of the rapidly growing electronic retailing industry worldwide. ERA members maximize revenues through direct response and eRetail marketing on television, on radio, online and more¡­

ERA: Multichannel Marketing with Infinite Possibilities.

Direct Marketing. Please check out the Direct Marketing Directory for further information about Direct Marketing firms that provide direct mail marketing, direct email marketing, and direct marketing call centers.