Saturday, January 5, 2013

How To Increase Axiron's (NYSE:LLY, Lilly) Response Rate

The topic of my adventure with trying to become an Axiron customer has received an overwhelming amount of response from those that follow me in direct response, and direct sales along with professionals in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.

Their DTC (direct to consumer) campaign has been an interesting case study.

The first thing Axiron (Lilly: LLY:NYSE) can do to boost response is test copy and headlines or in the case of TV their opening statement.  They could increase their ad response rate by 100 to 500% just by testing this element.  The great thing about direct response is testing gives you scientific results that irrefutable.

You can only test one thing at a time but with the advent of the Internet you can test several elements of a campaign in a couple of days and use that empirical evidence to increase your campaign's efficiency in other mediums.

The other element of the campaign that is missing is a unique selling proposition (USP).  Andro Gel (Abbott: ABT:NYSE) has a new USP which is you can use less gel and get the same results.

Axiron tries to pass off a feature rather than a benefit as its USP with their underarm application.  By the way, the book, Reality in Advertising by Rosser Reeves, the man who invented the term unique selling proposition (USP) is a great book and worth reading.

However you can have the greatest headline or unique selling proposition (USP) ever and if you don't close the TV ad or Internet, print and radio ads correctly your increased efficiency vanishes.

Allow me to explain...in the current Axiron ad there are two ways to find out more--one, you can call a vanity 800 number to get more information or go to the Axiron website.  Here's what's tragic about the Axiron CTA (call to action), the tag screen with their vanity 800 number is up for three seconds and what's worse is the 800 phone number is the same phone number for all TV ads running so knowing what media works and what media doesn't is impossible.

When you give consumers two ways to respond they delay their decision to act now.  If you give them one ordering option, an 800 number to call to get their FREE 30 day supply they will call that number provided it's up for at least 15 seconds and mentioned at least two times, better still is three times which is the standard for direct response radio.  Doing this would at a minimum triple response rates.

Some folks may search for the website and not call the 800 number but the value of TV is that respondents who act right away are impulsive and are easier sales than those that spend a lot of time on the website.  This is the same for direct to consumer medical marketing, direct to consumer pharmaceutical marketing, direct to consumer medical device marketing and direct marketing medical devices advertising campaigns.

Despite all these tweaks that would definitely increase efficiency and response the campaign will probably succeed simply because of the FREE offer.  I still stand by my statement that I could triple their efficiency in this campaign.

                                                    written by Brad Richdale Author



This story also appears at http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/18/photetica-directors-idUSnPn3BWnyh+98+PRN20150218