What Today’s Marketers Get Wrong About Infomercials
- Harvest Growth
- Feb 5
- 27 min read
Updated: Feb 24
In this episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, Jon LaClare sits down with Jim Warren, founder of Infomercial.com and one of the most respected voices in direct response and infomercial marketing.
With decades of experience spanning traditional DRTV, long-form infomercials, and modern digital campaigns, Jim breaks down what still works — and why the core principles of infomercials are more relevant than ever in today’s TikTok, YouTube, and CTV-driven world.
Together, Jon and Jim explore how to build marketing creative that actually converts, why long-form storytelling continues to outperform short ads for many brands, and how smart marketers blend TV and digital to scale profitably. They also dive into attribution challenges, creative burnout, audience connection, and where brands should start when launching a new product in 2026.
Whether you’re running Meta ads, launching on TikTok, testing YouTube, or considering TV for the first time, this episode is packed with timeless insights you can apply immediately.
In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we’ll cover:
Why infomercials still work — even in a digital-first world
The biggest misconceptions about direct response TV today
How to create marketing videos with longevity (not one-hit gimmicks)
Why long-form content builds deeper trust and connection
The reality of attribution across TV, digital, and multi-screen viewers
Where Jim would launch a brand-new product right now (and why)
You can listen to the full interview on your desktop or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Or, click to watch the full video interview here!
Learn more at Infomercial.com.
Get Jon’s book The Perfect Launch System at PerfectLaunch.com
To be a guest on our next podcast, contact us today!
Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands that now total over $2 billion in revenue? Set up a free consultation with us today!
Transcript:
Jon LaClare [00:00:00]:
Today's episode is a real treat for anyone looking to make their marketing more persuasive and more profitable. I'm joined by Jim Warren, the owner of infomercial.com, one of the longest running and most trusted resources covering the direct response and infomercial world. In our conversation, we break down timeless infomercial principles like how to structure your marketing video, how to keep viewers engaged, and how to build urgency that work just as well online as they do on TV. Whether you're running ads on Meta, YouTube, TikTok, or preparing a full DRTV or infomercial campaign, these lessons will help you convert more customers and scale more efficiently. Let's dive in.
Announcer [00:00:43]:
Are you looking for new ways to make your sales grow? You've tried other podcasts, but they don't seem to know Harvest the growth potential of your product or service as we share stories and strategies that'll make your competitors nervous. Now here's the host of the Harvest Growth Podcast, Jon LaClare.
Jon LaClare [00:01:03]:
Welcome back to the show. I am super excited today to be speaking with Jim Warren. He has been in the infomercial industry in one way or another for a long time and I'm really excited to hear some of the insights that he has and share them with you, our audience as well, both from some of the history of infomercials as well as what's going on today, both at his current company as well as just in the industry in general. He stays on top of trends and shares a lot of those on his blog slash website, which is infomercial.com if you've ever googled infomercials in any way, you've probably come across his website. It's been around for a long time because of that. It ranks very highly on Google for a lot of infomercial terms and he's very highly respected. So other companies link into him quite a bit. So you've, I'm sure, come across him. If not, you're going to really enjoy this conversation today. But Jim, I want to first of all, welcome to the show.
Jim Warren [00:01:55]:
Thank you very much. It's great to be here. I'm honored to be a guest.
Jon LaClare [00:01:58]:
Oh, thank you. So we're going to dive into the infomercial.com and just kind of talk about a lot of infomercial general stuff that our audience I'm sure, is eager to hear about. So the industry certainly changed a lot, right, since you and I first entered a long time ago. It's different today than it was before, but it still works. What would you Say, do you get like, what would you say is a big misconception? Maybe one of the biggest misconceptions about infomercials today versus maybe what it might have been several years ago?
Jim Warren [00:02:26]:
You know, it's interesting. You would think with all the work that Bill and Greg did years ago for their skin care products and some of the other products that they've launched, people would understand that it's not just, you know, late night hucksters. It's not people that are just putting get rich quick products on the air. In fact, there's very few of that anymore. But it's still a taboo. The word is, is very negative. You know, it became a mainstream word when Ross Perot used it to launch his presidential campaign. And it became part of our vernacular. It was a word that, you know, people call them info commercials and, you know, late night, long, long TV ads, et cetera. But once Ross Perot came on with his, you know, his chart and his pointer and sort of talking about the budget and, and the part of the wheel that was debt versus non debt, he kind of glazed everybody over. But he. During primetime television on a primetime network. So, you know, that was a long time. That's probably 30 years ago now. And the biggest misconception is that it's really the biggest challenge I have with the misconception of that it is late night hucksters and get rich quick stuff is that both advertising agencies and talent, both the individual talent themselves, actors and actresses, as well as their agencies, their managers, their talent agents, their attorneys, those people still have a stigma with the phrase. And often in agreements, you'll see that, you know, the host of or spokesperson for a company will not be affiliated with a, quote, infomercial. And they really don't even know what that word means, but they put it in there because of the negative stigma associated with infomercials.
Jon LaClare [00:04:31]:
It's funny, you know, we years ago started using, which I think is the correct industry term now, at least for short form, is direct response television ads. Right. That's a correct way of saying it. And you know, in the industry, infomercials traditionally mean long form, often 30 minute shows, et cetera. But it's, it doesn't resonate with people. They don't understand what that means. Nobody knows what, you know, the audience that knows what direct response television means is much smaller than infomercials. We've kind of gone back to. It's what people get. But with that, it comes with a sort of a negative connotation until you Explain it right until you can get in front of them to visit your website and learn about the power of premium infomercials.
Jim Warren [00:05:10]:
Right?
Jon LaClare [00:05:11]:
And learn in conversations that they don't look today like they did before. What do you think really has changed? You mentioned one thing where it's no longer just these late night hucksters like the Shamwow guy or you know, even Billy Mays for example, I learned I worked with directly for many years. I wouldn't call him a huckster. Depends on how you use that terminology. Right. I'm very careful because I respect and love Billy a lot and. But you know, he has that late night TV pitch man or had that style for sure. And it's, it is different today than it used to be. But what do you think has most changed? What comes to mind besides that? What has changed to today versus what it used to be 20, 30 years ago, back in the sort of heyday or original days?
Jim Warren [00:05:50]:
I would say I don't know if it's the biggest change but the first that comes to mind to me is the kind of the grouping of the users. So meaning specifically it's prime from where I sit, it's primary pharmaceutical companies, some finance firms and a lot of insurance companies. With regards to direct response television. You know, we used to have, I feel like when I was doing at&T DRTV long form, short form, you know, we did half hour infomercials, we did two minutes, we did even 90 second at the time we did one minute. That was before the onset of three minutes and fives which are pretty popular nowadays. We saw a lot of different types of people exploring direct response television. I think a lot of those people who are smaller brands and products are going directly to a digital platform and they are bypassing traditional direct response television. We all know that digital is direct response. It's a different form of it. You used to have direct mail, you had catalogs and you had newspaper and all of those things have kind of gone the way of the dodo, if you will. And Dr. TV is still there, still relevant, but probably not a number one thought when you're launching a product or service. So the diversity in the types of products that we see coming to market now is I think a lot less than what we saw years gone by.
Jon LaClare [00:07:25]:
Yeah, no good point. And I think there are a lot of companies that do think digital first. Right. TV seems old, old school, whatever it might be. But you know, you and I are still in the industry and can see that the results can be phenomenal. On tv, it doesn't mean we don't use digital. Right. They work well together. But, you know, why do you think TV continues to work well, even though TV viewership certainly is on the decline, especially, especially linear traditional tv, cable TV etc, versus streaming? You know, we see it on a downward trend, but we still have, you know, our clients are still very profitable. They're growing and you guys are as well. Right? It's, it continues to work. Why do you think that is? So, in a, in a world where digital is growing and changing, really every how or why do you think TV continues to be such a powerful vehicle for a lot of businesses?
Jim Warren [00:08:14]:
You know, it's a great question. I would say, you know, it's really segmented by the, by the consumer. Right. So 76 million baby boomers control 70% of the disposable income and only 21% of them are shopping online, based on some of the studies that I read recently. And so direct response television, still very relevant for that, that age group. I am one year before the last year of that age group. So that age group is the last year was born in 64, I was born in 63. So, you know, it, it's my era, my generation. And since we control so much of the disposable income and the dollars that are spent on discretionary things, and that's where we still get a lot of our information and make a lot of our viewing choices, you know, it makes a lot of sense that the medium could still do well at a time when most people expect it to fail. You know, as I said before, direct response advertising, almost all digital is still direct. But with the onset of OTT and ctv, we are seeing less efficiency as an industry. Not necessarily giving information on our company, but we certainly do see across the industry, if you talk to the media companies out there, there is less efficiency than there ever has been in general.
Jon LaClare [00:09:46]:
Yeah. And I, because of that, what we've used a lot more of, you know, I would say more and more every year, is the combination or hybrid approach. Right. Where TV as a, in a vacuum wouldn't work as well today as it did 10, 20 years ago.
Jim Warren [00:10:00]:
Right.
Jon LaClare [00:10:00]:
So it's. It when it's combined with a digital approach or, you know, when you combine linear with CTV for retargeting, for example, it gives you that chance to really envelop the consumer, the potential customer, where they are. Right. And really get that efficiency over time as opposed to maybe on the initial viewing. Well, you know, you run, as we Talked about the infomercial.com, i kind of call it the unofficial record of the industry. It's very well respected and regarded. And like, like I said, you've got a lot of followers, not just, you know, some of our audience, right, that might be consumers or potential infomercial users, but people that have been in the industry and companies that have been in the industry for a long time. What trends have you been seeing as, you know, as you pay attention to the infomercial industry as a whole? What, what trends are happening right now that are kind of at the forefront of infomercials?
Jim Warren [00:10:48]:
You know, it's, it's. I don't know that I have anything that is kind of groundbreaking, but it certainly is shoppable and addressable interactive ads we're seeing more and more. It is amazing to me that it took so long to get here. I remember speaking to people when I lived in Camarillo, California. I was putting in some large screen TVs at that time. They were giant screen TVs and I was trying to explain to my employees and some of the folks I had. Sometimes we had some of the old pitch guys, they would stay at my house when they were in California and I remember explaining to them one day that, you know, the TV that we were watching, eventually we were going to be able to see what the women were wearing on Melrose Place and we'd be able to just click on that blouse or the man's khaki shorts and we'll be able to just literally identify it during the show while it was running, click on it and have that product shipped to our home. And that seems so far fetched to people, yet so simple to others. And in the reality, it's taken 30 years to get here and still not quite there. I saw demos years and years and years ago from many people about how that was going to happen and even, you know, beta tech demos. But, you know, now that's happening. I sit at home on Hulu or one of my other streaming platforms and, or YouTube for example, and I get ads that pop up that say ship me the information or QR codes that allow me to click on something to get content sent directly to my home. And in other cases on Amazon, I can actually purchase the product right then and there and have it shipped to the house if I'm tied in with my account online. And so that's, that's the biggest breakthrough. It just took a lot longer than I think most of us saw come to actually come to reality.
Jon LaClare [00:12:48]:
Yeah, that's it's funny I hadn't thought of that perspective because I remember having those conversations or similar ones right. 30 years ago and thinking it's going to happen someday but having no idea how we'd get there. And we're, we're kind of there and it's, it feels like it's happened fast over the last couple of years especially and it's, it's changing and improving every day.
Jim Warren [00:13:07]:
Well, as long. I mean it took so long to get here and then it really started. Yeah, I agree with you that once it started happening in the last 18 months to two and a half years, I would say I've really noticed a significant ramp up and especially in the last year, year and a half.
Jon LaClare [00:13:23]:
Yeah, no, I agreed. If we think about the creative side of infomercials, you know, my company, we focus a lot on the production. We do digital media buying and we help our clients with get media bought on TV through a partner of ours, etc. But you know, our, our first focus with our clients is on the creative side, getting the messaging right, etc. And I have my answer to this question which is at a high level, you know, why do infomercials work well in the digital space as well? And why? We've had good success by using principles that you and I have been using or knowing about for decades. Right. But all these new entrants to the digital marketing world aren't aware of them. Right. They've maybe seen them but they, they think they. And they're starting fresh. Right. So I use a lot of the, of similar techniques. The videos look different on Facebook than they do on a news station on cable. Right. But a lot of the principles and science is the same. I think when you take learnings from one and apply to the other, you can really succeed in the digital space as well. Are there creative elements that stand out to you after being in the industry, in, in the industry for so long that you think perform really well? So what creative elements of infomercials or direct response TV style videos continue to be really strong today?
Jim Warren [00:14:36]:
I anticipated this question and I looked around, I'm in the middle of moving offices so I had a hard time getting my hands on any content that's not boxed up or already in transit. But the simplest answer is years ago, Tim Hawthorne used to put an ad in the back of Response magazine. I don't know if you remember seeing that ad, but it was, it was wonderful and it was just a checklist. What are the things that will let you know if Your product is right for an infomercial. And it was really so simple that almost everything qualified. But Tim being a guy of integrity and truly is and was back then especially too, you know, it had a good checklist. Does it, Is it demonstrable? Do you have a good before and after? Do you have testimonials? Back then I think it was, do you have a 9 to 1 cost versus retail? You know, there was a very simple formula and if you entered in, you know, a certain number of yeses, then he, he would say, great, call us, we're a good outlet. Tim was a competitor of mine up here at the time, so I only wished that I would have come up with that, that marketing effort. But you know, it's really. Can you be. Can you afford to purchase the media if you have the good markups? You know, is it a. I don't know, depending on what your price point is, is it three to one? Is it a four to one, a six to one? When I started, if, you know, we wanted a 12 to one, which is why people were selling books and tapes because they were so inexpensive and had such high perceived value. But you know, demonstrable testimonial, credible history behind the product. Now reviews are more important than they ever have been. I forget the percentage, but most gen zers shop by reviews first and foremost. That's where they start. So, you know, those are the things that I think make first blush. When you're looking to consider direct response television, those are the first thing you ought to be looking at.
Jon LaClare [00:16:45]:
Yeah, no, I totally agree. I remember that list we've used ourselves many times. And I didn't realize Tim was the one that originated that back in the day. But it's. Yeah, because that stuck around for a long time and we've used similar, you know, comments. I've heard it from other people over the years too. And he's, he's a good guy. Certainly has a lot of experience or has a lot of time in this, in this industry. Is on the creative spot, a spot front. Like you're thinking about developing a new spot for our listeners or viewers. What do you think makes a good spot? Because it's, you know, all the things you talked about can kind of generate getting credibility, getting testimonials, maybe in there, making sure your margins work. It. That makes it good. Right. But what separates it to really make it a really profitable campaign? Right. Not, not the profitable metrics, but what creative elements stand out today to make a video or a campaign that's going to Work and be super profitable versus one that's just maybe pretty.
Jim Warren [00:17:36]:
You know, I. This is my own opinion. Like everything I'm going to share with you on this show today is. But I think one of the things that I've always felt real strong about is having something that has legs. So what I mean by that is we spend a lot of time and effort, not just the production money, but on whether you're developing a product and you're getting bringing it to market. You've got to have four shots off of a production line. You're testing that, you're getting it validated with the different agencies that have to approve it if you have to go through that. So there's a whole lot of money to, in a startup of bringing a product or service to market. And once you do that, if your commercial is so caustic or bombastic that it's. While it may get a ton of attention and response, if not sales right out of the gate, is that going to be something that just burns out? And I use a couple of examples. I'll give you my opinion on fresh examples when I see the Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty insurance commercials. Right. So the limo emo spots are great. They're fun, they're cool. But after I see the same spot six, seven, eight, nine times, I'm kind of done with that one trick pony. Whereas I feel like the Geico spots have a little more texture, a little more depth. And while they are gimmicky, I don't feel like they're so over the top that it's a one joke, you know, punchline that I'm tired of after I see it three or four times. And I think that was real important when I worked with the AT&T ads and all the direct response commercials and half hour stuff that we put out for them. At the time, the agency I was with was also doing the Southwest Airlines commercial commercials. And some of those spots, they are, they were iconic. They weren't considered direct response by the agency, but they were certainly considered direct response by me. And I worked with those folks on a regular basis day in and day out. The work that they did was so good. Some of them burned out real quick, some of them had legs. And I think that was one of the things that we tried to do with AT&T because it took so long to get the commercials through all of the approval processes because they're such a behemoth company, we didn't want to have something that came on and was going to burn out so quickly. And burnout's a real thing. You see it every single day in direct response. Having seven or eight or nine creatives that you can rotate in and out at different lengths with different offers is an important aspect to the business. If you have the ability to put that much money and time into the production effort, having one or two spots can be a real killer for you.
Jon LaClare [00:20:21]:
Yeah. And I would add, you know, for those that might be listening, with smaller budgets, I think you'd probably agree with this. If not, let me know. But in the early days, if you're starting out right, of course, you know, you can start with one or two, get it working, but just realize, you know, use some of the funds that are coming in early profits to then grow your campaign, grow your creative. So it will be here for many years to come and not burn out. So you don't need to start off maybe with 9 or 10 again, depending on your. Your budgets. If you can, all the better. But if you need to start off with one or two and make it work and then grow, that's part of the strategic process. I agree.
Jim Warren [00:20:56]:
Yeah, no, absolutely. You have to reinvest those dollars and, and hopefully by then you've got maybe a testimonial or a review or, you know, some history that you can incorporate into the next round of the creative that makes people feel confident about the longevity of the organization or the product or service, not just the campaign.
Jon LaClare [00:21:14]:
That's good. Another question I get that I know you'll be able to answer as a true expert in this field. You probably get the same question or have had it over the years, too, because of the onslaught of digital or the change, right? This, this big approach into Digital. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, a lot of the ads are 15 seconds or shorter. That works well in that space. So people come to us like, why do I need more than 15 seconds to sell spot? So in their world, they would consider anything long form, that's probably a minute or more, right? So the old days of TV infomercials would say half an hour for sure, maybe five minutes or long form, and I'd even call it one or two minute spot, short form. But if we kind of equate all those together, let's say, so everything kind of a minute on up is, let's say, long form, or certainly compared to digital, it's longer form. Why do you. What. I guess, what are the advantages of. Of that in your experience, you know, understanding this industry as you look at it? Why does long form or how does it Help us as compared to only doing short snippet. 15 second, maybe 30 second ads, like not only on Facebook and Instagram, but also like a lot of branded ads that we see on network or network intelligent, you know, Liberty Mutual, typically those are 15 second ads, maybe 30 seconds. Right. But for other businesses, you know, 1 minute, 3 minute, 5 minute, 30 minute can be very effective too. So what do you think are some of the advantages of longer, for longer formats?
Jim Warren [00:22:35]:
Well, there are so many, right. So there's, there's the advantages also come with disadvantages, right. So that the additional cost for those, those seconds or minutes are prohibitive for many people. But if you've got a product or service that is a very simple to understand and it's price driven, you know that having a short creative often is all you need, right. If you, if the service isn't going to be tremendously different and you're going to be running price over price, you know, there's some, some reason to do that and not spend those other dollars. But if you're trying to build a connection with somebody to not just be a single one time purchaser, you know that you're going to have multiple viewings of that creative before they're going to make a purchase and you want to instill into them that that product or service has history and legs. You need some time to do that and you need to have the ability to connect with that, that viewer on a way that is hopefully an emotional connection, not just, you know, some, some kitschy information or just price sensitivity. So in my mind, but I always believe the longer that I have, the better. A good friend of mine, Tim McClure, used to talk about, you know, the uninvited guest in his. In your room. Right. So when we pop onto someone's screen and a television at, we are not an invited guest, we are an interruption in whatever it is they were doing. And so if we can do that in a way that allows them to want to listen to us longer and keep us in their home a little bit longer, there's a nuance to that and not everybody can figure out how to do that. If you look at the old data would tell you that, you know, people were watching shows three, four or five times before they purchased. But back, you know, when JCPenney's and Macy's were where Sears were, where people were shopping, we knew very specifically when I launched a product, a fitness product with Bruce and Kris Jenner on television, I knew how many of those were going to be selling at retail. Afterwards, Right. So for everyone I sold on television, I knew we'd sell five or six at big five or whatever the sporting good and big box retailer at the time was. We'd sell those on the back end and that takes. It took time to be able to get a. The recall so people would remember the product or service but also build some, you know, they weren't quite sure to ready to purchase on television, but when they went into that retail outlet, it made it much easier for them where they saw it on an end cap and they would purchase. While that's not necessarily the mode today, it certainly is when they go from television to online purchasing, we see that happening every single day more and more. So having the time and the luxury to stay connected with that person who didn't invite you into their home is, is something that if your product or service and production company quite frankly can figure out how to do that, it's all the better for, for the person who's launching that product.
Jon LaClare [00:25:45]:
I love how you talked about connection. I often use the words credibility or building trust. And I like, I actually like yours better. I think it's, it really is about connecting with the audience so they don't just trust you, but there is that moment of connection that they're gonna hopefully buy from you. Right. But also stay with you writing, want to continue. It's a long term trust, I think, which is bigger than just trust and credibility. That ultimate connection. I like that. You also talked about results. Right. So along this entire conversation, right. It comes back to getting results in a campaign. And I want to ask you about attribution specifically because it's changed. Right. 20 years ago, when you and I were doing this back at that time, it's, it's funny because I, you know, I think TV was probably the best vehicle for attribution. We would put a unique 800 number on every station. Right. And when people called in, which might have been sometimes 70% of the orders depending on what category you're in. Right. It's. And you, you'd know what station they watch by the phone number they dialed in. Of course that's morphed over time and you know, many spots or infomercials don't even have a phone number anymore, right. Depends on the business you're in. So you've got to be able to attribute what station, what demographic, etc, where do they find you on tv. And now we've got the introduction of, you know, last decade or so really or 15 years, call it of digital where attribution is maybe easier, right? We see, we know what they clicked on and it's not perfect, right? It changes how you have to do that every year. But TV has gotten a little harder. So how do you, in your experience, as you analyze this industry and look at other brands, how are they attributing this, TV stations, maybe the type of media that might be working, have you seen any trends that work there?
Jim Warren [00:27:24]:
You know, you really hit the nail on the head. It's a completely different world, right? With the phase out of third party cookies and the complexity of cross platform viewing, keeping track or identifying where that, whether it's first touch or last touch, whatever you're using, latency, whatever formula you're using to measure where that client or prospect came from when they actually shook hands with you or connected with you, that's a tough thing. It used to be a lot easier. I think they call it mixed media modeling. Now we call it mixed market modeling. Back in the day, I could drop, when I had my own agency, I could convince a client to drop a form of marketing, right? I would say, you know, let's find out because, oh, is it wanamaker who said 50% of my marketing media dollars are wasted. I just don't know which 50%. So, you know, it was fairly simple back then to say, okay, look, let's not do the credit card stuffers, let's not do the direct mail piece, let's not do the email piece. You know, we could stop something for a 30 to 45 day period while we had ever everything else in market so we would be able to identify. And the agencies back then were coming up with very complex algorithms to attribute every specific airing on a cable network and even down to the broadcast networks. And having been a part of some backroom conversations about that attribution, you know, I didn't put a lot of faith in felt. To me, whoever had the biggest budget and whoever was doing the attribution got the benefits of that attribution. Often, not all the time, but often. And so, you know, it's, it's. I don't know that it's any easier today. It certainly is if you're in the digital world. But once you have a complexity of four or five or six different media tactics that are out there and people are literally watching three screens at one time, you know, and there. I remember the first time I walked into my son Drew's bedroom. He was in junior high school. He is 31 years old now. I walked in his room, he had his television on his computer on and his phone on. And one was watching a surf competition, one was watching a motocross competition, one was watching a skateboard competition. And I was like, what in the heck are you doing? And he was shocked that I was, what do you mean? He was like, what do you mean? So what are you watching? He said, surfing, skateboarding and motocross. Why? And I was like, wow. On three different platforms, completely different screen sizes, different types of streaming outlets. And had he made a purchase at that time on another computer from something he saw on one of those, which is highly possible, how would you have known where that that lead came from? And that was an eye opener for me at that time. And so I really started digging into that and working with some folks in New York that had rooms that were set up at some of the different agencies that actually mimicked that almost exact scenario. So they were able to create these perfect environments for millennials to say, okay, how are they going from one item, one outlet, one platform to another? And what's that look like? And how should we be able to capture that? I don't know that it's a whole lot better than it was back then because the choices are so much more vast now. That's a long answer to a short question. I wish I had a better answer for you, but I would tell you the attribution is something that I talk about a lot.
Jon LaClare [00:31:14]:
Yeah, no, and it is. There's no clean answer. Right. I always ask the question because someday I'm going to get a good answer, like a complete answer, but in reality it's just not there. Right? You've. You've gotta. You've gotta work towards it, and you get directional answers on what is working and, you know, doing trend analyses, etc. But nothing is going to be perfect, even when you think you have it perfect. Right? So let's say you're running a Facebook campaign, and Facebook marks a sale as being attributed specifically, and you think, well, I'm comfortable there because they've got the pixels on my site. They saw that, they clicked on it. That's where it came from. But in reality, they may have seen your TV spot 5 times before they saw it on Facebook. They visit the website, it goes to retargeting. That's why it showed up in the first place. So really, where do you attribute. And it becomes a really hybrid answer to get at that. But it's the importance of figuring out what medium or. Or what channels of marketing make the most sense for any individual business. And, you know, Work towards it. You kind of gotta massage it, nuance it. And the more experience you have or you know, your agency or partners might have, the better chance you'll have to get at the best, the best answer to see really what's working.
Jim Warren [00:32:17]:
When you get that single, when you get that single answer, please don't hesitate. Call me, text me, let me know, because I want to know who you got it from and I want to speak to those people.
Jon LaClare [00:32:27]:
We will, we'll publish it on infomercial.com first. That's where we'll stick it so everyone can go there. I love it. That's great. So last question I want to ask you is if you're launching a brand new product, let's say, so you've been doing this, you've been in this industry for a long time and have huge amount of experience. If you were launching your own product or somebody came to you, had money and a partner or whatever and they wanted your help, what would you do first? What would you, how would you tackle that? Again, just a high level. We don't need to get into great detail because that's a two hour conversation probably. But what, what, what would, what would you do first?
Jim Warren [00:32:59]:
From what I know today, I would say TikTok and YouTube. Those would be the first two I would go to. You know, it amazes me. I was at Home Shopping International for a few years working with Kevin and Tim Harrington and, you know, bringing products from the US to multiple countries. I think we had 42 countries and I was consulting with them and bringing products from other countries into the US and that was a fun and exciting time. I've been on qvc representing products of mine and my clients both. To see the changes at the shopping channels is staggering to me. To see QVC making a significant push to TikTok. I remember telling many people that QVC was the smartest marketing organization on the planet. They had more data about their clients other than Sam's Club as far as I knew. And they knew everything about their clients. And, and eventually I remember the day when I was home shopping, they decided to share that information with the vendors and that became a huge day for us with, with shopping channels becoming less and less dominant to the point where they are not dominant and they're hanging on by their fingernails these days and them making a pivot towards TikTok and my own opinion of YouTube as an outlet, I would say that's where I would probably start because it's got the least startup cost. You know, I look at Everything in direct response television as high risk, low risk. That testing, you know, the production cost, the media phase, setting up, the phone call if you're going to do that, or the shopping cart, all of that is high risk dollars. And once you get past that high risk dollars, if you've got a pulse and a heartbeat and an roi, that's going to be okay for you. Everything else is low risk dollars. So if you can test on a TikTok or YouTube and get a not outrageously expensive test to get a pulse, then I would immediately go to television right after that. Because whatever you got on TikTok or YouTube will only be exponentially better by having television to drive that. If you have the. If money's not an object, I would start with direct response television and support it with all forms of social that are targeted towards that viewer base that you're trying to reach with your television.
Jon LaClare [00:35:26]:
Yeah, I would answer that question. Similarly, we also do a lot on Facebook and Instagram, which I view. They're very similar to TikToks and YouTube. And it kind of depends on what product category you're in. But. But the basic part of that answer I think is start small, get learnings in whatever marketing channel is going to be best and whether that's Facebook and Instagram that we focus on first, find them, they're more mature as categories. You get a lot of learnings. And it depends on your age of your audience too. Younger audience. TikTok. Absolutely. YouTube's fantastic for education. So a lot of ways to answer that. But start digital first for sure, because then once you get to tv, you've got a lot of the basic questions answered, what stations you should be on, you know, is the call to action optimized, is the landing page optimized, etc. Get those things answered less expensively. And I think you alluded to this too, but it's pretty quickly too. The nice thing with digital is you can pivot quickly to end up where you need to be. Well, Jim, this has been a lot of fun. I really appreciate your time. I encourage our audience, our viewers and listeners. Please go visit infomercial.com if you want to know anything about the infomercial industry. I always say it's linked in the show notes. That's a pretty easy URL to remember. But if you do, forget you're driving and go back. Of course, it's in the show notes. You know, what we do here is we uncover the stories and strategies behind some of the most successful marketers out there and if you're looking to take your own business to the next level, be sure to visit perfectlaunch.com you can grab a free copy of my book, the Perfect Launch System. It's packed with proven principles we've developed over the past 20 years, helping hundreds of businesses launch and grow successfully. Plus, you'll also get exclusive one page summaries of some of our most popular podcast interviews. There's real world insights you can apply right away. Head to perfectlaunch.com and start building your perfect launch today. Until next time, keep learning, keep launching and keep growing.
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