As a cultural phenomenon that exploded in the early 90s, Infomercials became an entertainment staple for those unable to sleep between two and six a.m.  As more insomniacs began tuning into nightly infomercials, major TV networks recognized value in airing these program-length commercials during daytime and even early primetime.  With sufficient demand for personal development, food and weight loss products, these infomercials demonstrate value in a short amount of time and portray a better “deal” than those found at any stores.

We can all close our eyes and hear the bellowing voice of OxiClean’s former pitchman, Billy Mays' with his coined phrases, “Set it and forget it”, or “Let me show you one more time.”  But with the new millennium infomercials have been establishing their presence on the internet.    For instance, the PedEgg infomercial is displayed on the product website.  The call-to-action is clear with “Click Here To Order Now” button and the highlighted “Special Offer” visual.  This webpage was done right by starting with the closing sales pitch.

However, few infomercial websites have multiple pages on their site.  They focus on eye catching titles, clear and descriptive images and animated movement on the page.  Take Shamwow for example, their tag optimization has room for improvement.  Although their website has a clear title and strong message, it lacks a clear <title> tag text and misses the opportunity to describe the page which search engines ascribe a huge amount of SEO value to the tag’s content.  There is not much SEO power in “product banner” and not including descriptive elements associated with image “alt tags”.  Tag optimization is a huge opportunity to properly introduce the page to both users (via the SERPs) and to search engines (for building keyword relevance).

Typically, Infomercial sites do not use link building or hyperlinking within their websites.  A step in the right direction may be linking their website to a page that talks about the best infomercials of 2012.  By doing this, they would be quickly describing the content to the search engine crawlers which is very helpful in indexing data.   A creative way for infomercials to improve their link building would be by posting answers to questions on blogs or forums that relate to their product/service and then give themselves a little “plug” in their response.

Websites can be a powerful marketing tool for infomercials.  If SEO techniques are done right, they may even be as profitable as the TV versions.  The more relevant information infomercial websites showcase, the better the return with consumers hearing their message, and falling for the same overzealous melodrama and same price-slashing shticks “as seen on TV”.

Is your business thinking of creating a web infomercial? Contact JASE and let us help you capture your audience and drive traffic to your website.

image credit: JAHPEACEFUL666 on Flickr