You can find lessons for your business anywhere. In “Lessons That “As Seen on TV” Can Teach About Marketing,“ Carol’s recent post on the Nextiva blog, she shares some techniques we can all use. Carol begins:

If you are an insomniac like me, you may turn to your TV late at night for some distraction.

And, if you’ve done this at any time in the last couple of decades, you may be the proud owner of a “My Pillow”, “Shamwow” cleaning cloth or one of a cornucopia of other gadgets and items that are so effectively advertised with the “As Seen on TV” infomercial formula.

Granted, the Internet may today be the best go-to marketing format vs. those As Seen on TV (ASOTV) infomercials. But, the lessons learned from ASOTV successes remain true, regardless of media.

Here are 5 ideas that can work when marketing any type of product or service, even if you never sell on TV.

1. Convince consumers that your product solves a problem

The beauty of ASOTV advertising is that it reveals solutions- even when consumers formerly did not know that they had a problem.

Of course, the successful ASOTV actually solve real problems; consumers do not always remember every-day annoyances until a commercial converts a forgotten need into an urgent one.

Your marketing scheme can reveal real problems that customers don’t always recognize, regardless of your industry or if you sell products or services. For example, if your messaging to potential customers reveals the true costs of producing annual reports in-house, you can easily convince them that they can save substantially and get higher quality by outsourcing this type of project to your business.

2. Make it urgent

It seems like most ASOTV ads sell limited time offers. Consumers stand to pay way more if they don’t buy in the next 5 hours.

If you run holiday sales or any type of limited time offer, then you already know that they can increase your income substantially, even during off-seasons. Offering prepaid spring lawn service discounts while snow drifts abound is one example.

You can read the rest of the article here.