Affiliate Moguls works in the direct response advertising niche.
Because of this Ryan and I often get the question: What IS direct response marketing and how is it different from e-commerce marketing?
Ryan likes to explain the difference by having you picture yourself at Costco. It’s the 4th of July weekend and you’re hosting a backyard BBQ and need hotdogs.
You get to Costco and head down the meat aisle. You pick up hotdogs but on your way out you realize you also need condiments - mustard, ketchup, onions, relish, and buns. All located in different aisles but are needed to craft the perfect, juicy hotdog.
In this scenario the hotdogs are e-commerce (purchasing with intent) and the condiments are direct response advertising (the extras that you needed for a delicious hotdog!).
Both types of advertising are part of the same family. Yet, consider them to be on different family trees. E-commerce is the act of driving awareness and engagement toward a product or service. Direct response is focused on eliciting a trackable and measurable response immediately.
There are a few key differences that set them apart from each other:
Sales funnel vs. shopping cart
When you purchase with intent you know what you’re out to buy. For example, my coffee maker recently broke so I wanted a new coffee maker. I type into Google “best coffee makers,” do some research, and then go to Amazon and buy.
Direct response marketing operates through sales funnels, not shopping carts.
Sales funnels have a landing page, a check out page, and then many products sold to you after the initial sale. We call these upsells and downsells. These are standalone landing pages that offer products that complement or add-on to what you purchased.
These sales funnels drive up the average order value of each buyer. This is different from e-commerce which is designed for either “one and done” purchases or to then explore other products.
Bonuses
Direct response advertising includes bonuses or premiums. These are free products included sale of the initial product.
This adds value to the product because you’re receiving something for free in addition to the product you’re buying.
Bonuses and premiums go beyond free shipping and consist of either free digital or physical products like PDF reports, webinars, and more.
Emotion vs. logic
The initial product sold in a direct response sales funnel is called a front end product. The price point is below $100 and the landing page to sell the product is very long.
So long in fact we call DR landing pages “long form copy.”
Why is it so long? Direct response marketers know that people buy based on emotion, not logic.
The goal of a direct response landing page is to keep you engaged through a big idea or story.
This is different in e-commerce marketing where the visitor lands on a website where the product’s features and benefits are neatly outlined in bullet point form.
This is “short form copy” and is focused on the company's image and brand.
Is one better than the other?
Not necessarily. They both have their place in the advertising world and there’s a lot to learn from both.
Each requires a budget, intense planning, specific staffing needs, and more.
Because of this, we do recommend focusing on one or the other or else you’ll risk having an identity crisis ;)
Having these discussions and making solid, data driven decisions helps ensure you’re focused to achieve the results you want from your efforts.
