Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello SuN,

I was recently contacted by a product researcher of the "International Shopping Network", which is basically a marketing/distribution company that has lots of those 1-800 product commercials. At first I thought, oh great another scam, but after talking with the company rep I`m not 100% sure if it is a scam. Does anyone know of this company and how much it usually costs to get a TV commercial made and marketed nation-wide? Regardless if this company is a scam I am still interested in getting a commercial made and putting it on TV in various markets, so an advice would be greatly appreciated!

the company`s website is http://www.internationalshoppingnetwork.com/

Thanks...
Pupcentric


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Jamye, owner of PupCentric www.pupcentric.com "Designed for pups...Engineered for people."

First I would probably recommend staying away from Internatinal Shopping network.  No where onthe wbnsite does it tell you anything about past or current clients. This means you can not reserach who they have worked for before and what the results were.

That said the cheapest way to advertise your company is online and via radio. if you are gong to do TV commercials cable is a very viable and cost effective way to go. It allows you to pick specific geographic locations to air your commercial for a more targeted approach.  It is less expensive then buying air time on network television.

I am not sure of your location but most cable companies will work with you and within your budget to produce the commerical and air it.

 

Thank you, LisaPR, I truly appreciate the advice. I agree that their website is too vague, I even looked them up at the BBB and got nothing.  When I called the company to inquire why the BBB had no info about them, my contact told me to go to their website to learn more about the company, humm not very helpful.

I contacted you directly so I look forward to speaking to you soon.
 

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Jamye, owner of PupCentric www.pupcentric.com "Designed for pups...Engineered for people."

Hi Jamye,

I wouldn`t fool this those guys...some previous clients I worked with mentioned they were "taken" by them. So don`t walk away, but RUN!

Also....have you considered making your own videos and putting them on YouTube and the other 30+ video directories? THey`re great for getting leads and sales.

I`ve personally used YouTube on one of my personal products/services and have generated over 12,000 new subscribers in less than 90 days, many of which have purchased products from the site. Take a look at my model here --- but before you get there, the video is cheesy, I just haven`t had time to reshoot it to make it professional like I normally do for others...but this site and concept is now growing at a rate of about 400-500 member sign-ups per DAY:

http://www.FreeMagicSchool.com

I haven`t paid one cent for traffic --- all free from youtube.

So instead, make your own videos --- as you can see, they don`t have to be perfect...just relevant. My product just so happens to be in a market where people in `magic` are fanatics. I`m not the best magician in the world, but I am the big fish in the small pond that I`ve created with my loyal customer base.

Let me know if you need anything more....I use to hang around here a lot, but this project has taken up a lot of my time.

Hope this helps....Cartess

Hi Cartess,

Thanks for sharing this great information with everyone! It`s always good to hear cost-effective marketing ideas that work!

Melanie

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Melanie Rembrandt
CEO, Rembrandt Communications®, LLC
Visit www.rembrandtwrites.com for valuable PR tips and SEO copywriting help!
Twitter: @RembrandtWrites

No problem Melanie...here are a few more stats for you all just to show how powerful this concept could be (making your own videos):

Take a look at the cheesy ones I`ve put on youtube, and keep in mind, these were put up about 3 months ago...(the first one has been viewed over 53,000 times and keep in mind, they only way people find this video is by typing in keywords such as "how to do magic tricks" "free magic trick videos", etc... so these are qualified (targeted) prospects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOixX_ozZ48 (viewed 53,000 times)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOixX_ozZ48 (viewed 26,000 times)

These are from targeted people interested in learning magic. So, I urge you to go out and create your own following with your videos...no need for expensive commercials, make them yourself. I`ve started implementing video for some of my clients and they`re starting to see some amazing results.

Take a look at the video here on this site...while looking at it, keep in mind this video was shot down in my overcrowded and cluttered basement (we were moving and the client needed this video up asap for a lead generation campaign he`s running):

Also....keep in mind I shot this with a $300 camcorder and some fancy software that only took a few days to learn.

http://www.kencompton.com/public/HIMBPN01.cfm

I hope this allows you to see what you can do with your own products or services. We`ve recently stripped down content from this same clients other website and replaced with video to test the sign-up / opt-in rate:

http://www.weinspect4u.com

That was for an home inspection service (early results have already indicated some pretty positive conversions from that video). Now if results can be generated from a home inspection service, its safe to reasonable expect you can have great results with products and services.

We`ve tested and tested and tested many concepts with video, direct mail, ppc, classified ads, etc and we`re most excited about the results were starting to achieve with video. This guy is on track to doing $2+ million in sales this year alone from home inspections --- all because of direct response marketing techniques...the same principles that are implemented in the video (where he is directing them to sign-up for a free report ---> He presented a problem, He agitated the problem and is offering a solution/report.

His video has only received a few views so far i believe but it`s only be up for a few days and we`re making more because you should have at least 15-20 videos for maximum results

Here`s another video we did for the same guy on his Home Inspector Marketing site--- notice he presents a problem...agitates the problem and then offers a solution ---> http://www.kencompton.com

We`re producing another 12 videos specifically to drop on the video directories for lead generations.

A $300 camera and some software and you`re ready to do business.

Go to YouTube and type in key phrases for what you do and you`d be surprised at what comes up. I typed in How to Make Jewelry and this came up:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pv7-VQjmG4A

Now...everyone here can do what she just did...and while the video may be boring to you, keep in mind that those interested in making clay beads will be salivating at the mouth after watching this

And guess what...she`s the expert at this point and at the end of the video, she plugged in her site (if you`d like to learn more about making...then visit my site at www....).

Everyone here can do that...over 2,500 views

Depending on the topic, you`ll see basic videos like hers that have been viewed over 1 million times.

Have fun with the camera and provide relevant and useful advice and watch your profits increase.

Also, Google just recently announced that they will now embed videos from youtube and google video into their natural defaulted search results. So have fun!

Hope this helps --- now I really need to go back and reshoot my own videos so they`ll look more professional. Almost like the auto mechanic, he`ll fix everybody`s car, but will ride his how broken down car around town without fixing it...

Cartess

Thank you so much Cartess!

I actually have a digital video of me demoing my product at a tradeshow in my nice booth with lots of product around, but I didn`t really know what to with it because it wasn`t professional enough to send a cable TV station for a commercial, but YouTube is perfect!

And as far as that company is concerned, I really go with my gut and I never sent them the product sample on Friday and actually started talking with another SuN member in the Atlanta area about PR. Atlanta is a great city with lots of industry pull, but still appreciates stories about local success. I think the new PR approach paired with the YouTube video will be a great one-two combo punch to boost sales and get public support!

Thank you sooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~jamye


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Jamye, owner of PupCentric www.pupcentric.com "Designed for pups...Engineered for people."

I just looked at your videos on YouTube, perfect!!! Very effective, I want to sign up for magic school!!! LoL very clear and very articulate, just great! I could redo my video in the park or something and have my little dog with me...you just sparked my brain going, so thanks a bunch!!!!

~jamye


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Jamye, owner of PupCentric www.pupcentric.com "Designed for pups...Engineered for people."

Ok I`ve checked YouTube for pet product related videos and not much interest in those, some only have two views...but funny dog videos are a big hit, good thing I have a funny little dog, I`ll have to think of some way to make a funny dog video and have the product there somehow.

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Jamye, owner of PupCentric www.pupcentric.com "Designed for pups...Engineered for people."

I`m glad you said the above...because to me, that means..."there`s not a lot of competition" and that means theres more room for you to own and dominate it.

You have to get creative and think out the box on this one...for example, the following video here generated over 24,000 views with people emailing Pee Wee the dog...

Watch this video and let me know if you can come up with 20 different angles from this....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_B7tqApHiRU

Instead of making a "commercial", you provide something of value...such as "How to Give Your Dog a Bath" which is what this guy has done and he`s not selling any products, but if he had some to sell, he wouldn`t have a problem selling it...because after he washes the dog...he could technically "Try on some different Bows" on the dog to see which one looks great on him...from this angle, he has a reason to put bows on the dog because he`s now getting him dress....at the end of the video you could then put in a plug....about the bows.

"Get access to hundreds of bows like the one you seen on the video by going to www.ribbonsandbows-wow.com)

Do u see where I`m going with this...

Make "useful" video content that has value. If you`re doing a video on dog grooming...then you can plug in a particular product. If your dog knows  a unique or special trick, make a video...

This guy has a leash training video --- 8,000 views and he plugs himself in. Also, it appears he has a series of videos.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=f5Oy5AANTpw

So...the game here is to create something unique and useful. And the overall objective here is not to have just 1 video, but you should have many. Create 20 video clips over the course of 60 days (they can be 2-5 minute clips), nothing long, but useful. Submit those to youTube and there are about 50 other great video directories so don`t just use youtube alone.

Go back over your product and see how you could slip the products in...don`t make an outright pitch, but you can have the dog dressed to the point where people would wonder "where did she get that stuff for her dog".

Also, keep in mind, if the clip you make is great, people can pull the video file from YouTube and have the video on their individual site...which means their visitors see the video (and your plugin) and will follow thru to your site.

With projects like these it`s important to have fun...it doesn`t have to be done by a film production company. But have fun with it...if the dog does something funny, don`t cut it out the video.

Heck...take the dog out on a picnic and have some fun music playing in the background with text (similar to Pee Wee`s) video, the owner didn`t talk in that one.

Here is a video we shot of a house we just recently acquired from a home owner who just purchased the house, but ran into some financial difficulty (my wife is into real estate investing),  it`s simple, nothing impressive by itself, but when we added music to the video, it made it more enjoyable and pleasurable to watch:

http://freemagicschool.com/house.html

So take your dog on a picnic and have some fun...give the dog a bath and have some fun,...get the dog dressed up and record the entire segment....try on some different outfits and let people vote on which outfit is the best...when you take the dog to get it`s shots, film the entire process...when the dog has an appt to the vet, film it (you may catch some other dogs acting a `fool`, and it`ll be fun to watch). Do you clip your dogs nails on your own ---- film it and teach others how to do it...

Also, consider getting yourself another URL so it`ll redirect to your ribbonsandbows-wow.com website address...you`ll put this new and simple url on your videos, otherwise you run the risk of people typing in your address wrong --- it`s unusual to have the type of URL you have -- even i had to go back and type that in 3 times before I got it right.

Have fun and I hope this helps.

Cartess

P.S. -- I live in Dallas, GA, about 30 minutes from ATL, where do you stay?