{"id":2339,"date":"2012-05-29T20:26:46","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T20:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bme2.flywheelsites.com\/blog\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/"},"modified":"2020-06-05T20:13:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T20:13:03","slug":"how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/","title":{"rendered":"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the final history of our age is written, one of the most influential people will be determined to be not a head of state or scientist who made a tremendous technological breakthrough, but infomercial hawker pitchman Billy Mays. The (late) hirsute, pudgy, fast talking, emphatic face of a thousand infomercials has become the symbol of our world\u2019s television obsession as much as another age belonged to Julius Caesar or Napoleon. Therefore the photo of Billy giving his trademark thumbs-up wearing an Oxi Clean shirt had to be the lead-in to Jon DiPietro\u2019s superlative article Inbound Marketing Lessons from the PitchMen<\/a> on Domesticating IT. In the piece, DiPietro outlines the key marketing ploys that infomercial masters use to hypnotize entire nations and how they can be adapted to online marketing.<\/p>\n

An Infomercial Opening Pitch Is a… Tweet!<\/strong><\/p>\n

DiPietro discusses the cross-pollination that can be derived from the lessons of the infomercial deities and how they can be applied to landing pages<\/a>, but these marketing fundamentals are so key to any aspect of the arts of persuasion that they can be legitimately leveraged to any online marketing effort. The first factor is the enlightening revelation that the opening lines of each infomercial sums up the product in a pre-packaged, handy, easy to remember… are you ready for this… tweet! The summaries of the product\u2019s pitch line are essentially identical to tweets as they never exceed 140 characters and are so heavily condensed that they tell the entire story right there!<\/p>\n

Any online marketer involved in microblogging should take a graduate level course in infomercial writing as these pitch lines are this century\u2019s equivalent to Haiku. Study carefully the enviable opening lines and summary pitches for Oxi Clean, Quick Chop, Handy Switch and the holy grail of infomercial hucksterism, Mighty Putty: \u201cThe easy way to fix, fill and seal virtually anything fast and make it last!\u201d When you can sum up the values of your product or service with such apt poetic compression, you too will enter the highest echelon of master marketers.<\/p>\n

Jaw-Dropping Wonders<\/strong><\/p>\n

Describing the problem and how your brand solves it is the first key to grabbing an audience\u2019s attention, but of course every infomercial succeeds or fails on the demonstration of the product itself. Oxi Clean magically turns a laundry tub that looks like it\u2019s full of mud into clean clarity in seconds. The Quick Chop pulverizes a block of ice. And in what has to be the prevailing image of infomercial history, Mighty Putty tows an 80,000 lb. eighteen wheeler carrying a Caterpillar wheel dozer! Remember how Krazy Glue held up a man by his hard hat? Mighty Putty tows a tractor trailer! Take that! Indeed that competitor discreditation is at the heart of infomercial strategy, as it has to be shown that any other product on the market is inferior to the jaw-dropping wonders of the subject of this pitch.<\/p>\n

Motivating Arbitrary Deadlines<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sweet spot of infomercials is of course the call to action where every imaginable incentive is applied to get the sale. An artificially high price is slashed in half; the product is pitched at a particular price but if you call now you will receive two for the price of one; you will receive additional bonus accessories; and it always culminates with the \u201cWAIT! There\u2019s more!\u201d A wholly arbitrary deadline is placed on the offer that motivates the customer to proceed to checkout right now or they will miss out on the extremely valuable and additional thingamabob. Once the audience is pushed to the point of frenzy, nothing is left to chance or to interpretation. \u201cHere is how to order now\u201d includes specific instructions that any school child could easily follow to satisfy the newly created need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the final history of our age is written, one of the most influential people will be determined to be not a head of state or scientist who made a tremendous technological breakthrough, but infomercial hawker pitchman Billy Mays. The (late) hirsute, pudgy, fast talking, emphatic face of a thousand infomercials has become the symbol…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters - in<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters - in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When the final history of our age is written, one of the most influential people will be determined to be not a head of state or scientist who made a tremendous technological breakthrough, but infomercial hawker pitchman Billy Mays. The (late) hirsute, pudgy, fast talking, emphatic face of a thousand infomercials has become the symbol…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-29T20:26:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-05T20:13:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hal Licino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hal Licino\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hal Licino\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2fa613dbba6c6712d3e4fc473f5a6ebb\"},\"headline\":\"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-29T20:26:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-05T20:13:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":640,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Beyond\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\\\/\",\"name\":\"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters - in\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-29T20:26:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-05T20:13:03+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/\",\"name\":\"in\",\"description\":\"Email Marketing Software\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Benchmark Internet Group, LLC\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/11\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/benchmark-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/11\\\/2019\\\/09\\\/benchmark-logo.svg\",\"width\":1,\"height\":1,\"caption\":\"Benchmark Internet Group, LLC\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2fa613dbba6c6712d3e4fc473f5a6ebb\",\"name\":\"Hal Licino\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07d4069f9d93e9a7a53f5781e350c7d44a8f8444751b62d37ac7fc9769ba757c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07d4069f9d93e9a7a53f5781e350c7d44a8f8444751b62d37ac7fc9769ba757c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07d4069f9d93e9a7a53f5781e350c7d44a8f8444751b62d37ac7fc9769ba757c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Hal Licino\"},\"description\":\"Hal Licino is a leading blogger on HubPages, one of the Alexa Top 120 websites in the USA. Hal has written 2,500 HubPage articles on a wide range of topics, some of which have attracted upwards of 135,000 page views a day. His blogs are influential to the point where Hal single-handedly forced Apple to retract a national network iPhone TV commercial and has even mythbusted one of the Mythbusters. He has also written for major sites as Tripology, WebTVWire, and TripScoop.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.benchmarkemail.com\\\/in\\\/author\\\/hallicino\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters - in","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters - in","og_description":"When the final history of our age is written, one of the most influential people will be determined to be not a head of state or scientist who made a tremendous technological breakthrough, but infomercial hawker pitchman Billy Mays. The (late) hirsute, pudgy, fast talking, emphatic face of a thousand infomercials has become the symbol…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/","og_site_name":"in","article_published_time":"2012-05-29T20:26:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-06-05T20:13:03+00:00","author":"Hal Licino","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hal Licino","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/"},"author":{"name":"Hal Licino","@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/#\/schema\/person\/2fa613dbba6c6712d3e4fc473f5a6ebb"},"headline":"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters","datePublished":"2012-05-29T20:26:46+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-05T20:13:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/"},"wordCount":640,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Beyond"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/","url":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/","name":"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters - in","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-05-29T20:26:46+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-05T20:13:03+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/how-online-marketers-can-apply-the-lessons-of-infomercial-masters\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Online Marketers Can Apply the Lessons of Infomercial Masters"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/","name":"in","description":"Email Marketing Software","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/#organization","name":"Benchmark Internet Group, LLC","url":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/09\/benchmark-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/09\/benchmark-logo.svg","width":1,"height":1,"caption":"Benchmark Internet Group, LLC"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/#\/schema\/person\/2fa613dbba6c6712d3e4fc473f5a6ebb","name":"Hal Licino","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07d4069f9d93e9a7a53f5781e350c7d44a8f8444751b62d37ac7fc9769ba757c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07d4069f9d93e9a7a53f5781e350c7d44a8f8444751b62d37ac7fc9769ba757c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07d4069f9d93e9a7a53f5781e350c7d44a8f8444751b62d37ac7fc9769ba757c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hal Licino"},"description":"Hal Licino is a leading blogger on HubPages, one of the Alexa Top 120 websites in the USA. Hal has written 2,500 HubPage articles on a wide range of topics, some of which have attracted upwards of 135,000 page views a day. His blogs are influential to the point where Hal single-handedly forced Apple to retract a national network iPhone TV commercial and has even mythbusted one of the Mythbusters. He has also written for major sites as Tripology, WebTVWire, and TripScoop.","url":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/author\/hallicino\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}