Infomercials – is there really money to be made with your product?

Written By: Jim DeBetta

We all know about Infomercials…the stuff of late night TV legend.  It slices, it dices, and wait…there’s more!  Selling products on TV is a decades old business and some of the great products we know today were Infomercial items like the Ab-Roller and the Ginsu Steak Knives.  It seems more and more that inventors want to get their products on TV so they can potentially make millions with very little risk but the truth is the risks can be great and the costs even greater. 

The stats are kind of scary….just a handful of the thousands of items that are tested on TV actually perform well according to a couple of the industry leaders.  Everything has to be just right.  You must produce a great sales script that gets people excited and willing to “buy now.”  You also must secure the right airtime and have just the right price for your product.  How do you do it?  What does it cost?

There are many companies that can assist you but you must be careful about who you do business with.  I personally like the firms that do not charge anything up front but they will take most of the revenue the product earns leaving you with just a few percent in the form of a royalty.  Think of it like a licensing deal where you get 5% or so of the sales.  However, these firms front all of the costs to produce the Infomercial, secure the best airtimes, and provide the personality who sells the product on TV.  It can cost hundreds of thousands to do this correctly so it is no wonder they wish to earn most of what sales are generated and rightfully so.  They took the risk….and so they should reap most of the reward! 

There are also many companies that charge tens of thousands and up to do this work for you but you then earn much of the revenue that comes from the sale of the product.  However, some of these firms may not handle the business correctly, can’t get the prime airtimes, and do not have big personalities that get people excited and motivated to buy.  These companies may have a selection process but are usually not as picky as the above mentioned firms who front the costs.  Why?  Because you are bearing much of the costs and hence the risk as well.   Just be careful about companies that promise great results because the fact is most products do not perform very well and there are often much more effective ways to spend your marketing dollars to expose your product and grow your business.

To learn more about Jim DeBetta please visit www.jimdebetta.com