The Late, Great Billy Mays.

Key to U.S. Hispanic Marketplace – Respect Cultural Values

It seems as though there have been a flurry of recent studies around the U.S. Hispanic marketplace, everything from spending trends to online habits to business growth.  Here at Listen Up Español we say Hurra! It’s time that the U.S. Hispanic market deserved a closer look.  The findings are right in line with our experience and our approach.

The U.S. Hispanic marketplace is diverse and multi-faceted.  Close-knit, with a deep love for family, U.S. Hispanics stay close to their cultural roots.  Relationships, language and heritage play a huge role in gaining their loyalty and trust.  Even though most U.S. Hispanic people speak English very well, many times they prefer to speak Spanish and feel most comfortable when they can speak with a Spanish speaking sales person.

If you need to build loyalty and increase sales conversions, make sure your sales team is well grounded in Spanish culture and language and watch your sales soar.

Billy Mays

We were all shocked at hearing the news of Billy’s death.  He was a nice man and certainly an icon in the direct response industry. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.  We will all miss our good friend Billy Mays!

How to Pick a Call Center – Craig Handley on HispanicMPR.com

CEO of ListenUp Español, Craig Handley, explains “best practices” in U.S. Hispanic Call Center selection in a podcast with Elena del Valle, editor and host of HispanicMPR.com.  Click on the podcast link to hear the interview.

Response Expo – What the experts said about the ‘recession’

Response Expo 2009 was packed with opportunity; to learn, to network, to educate and to sell! We took the opportunity to learn more from the experts in the seminar “Managing through a recession”. Jon Congdon of BeachBody made the point that DR still thrives on selling a solution to a problem. “Our best selling product today is the most expensive one we’ve ever marketed. Don’t assume you have to lower your price. Customers are still looking for a fair price for a good product.” Patricia Romero of Hyundai said that there has been a marked consumer value shift in their industry…that consumers are doing more research and are looking for value….as well as a little something for free. I liked her assertion that “Flat is the new up!” . Manoj Bhargava of 5-Hour Energy really entertained the group with his success story. He admitted that they didn’t know that they weren’t supposed to go to market the way they did…so they did it anyway! His secret was hard work and a ‘weak enemy’. They grew to $300 million dollars in sales over 3 years and have seen 50% growth this year alone. Nice. Manjo spoke about educating consumers about the ‘crash’ that other energy drinks gave it’s drinkers. His perspective is that Product and Marketing are the same thing in the DR industry…when the two are inseparable then the competition has a REALLY hard time knocking you out of first place. One final bon mot…..plan for the sale…which may not necessarily be your end consumer.
Buenas Tardes mis amigos!

Response Expo – Here we come

The Listen Up Español Crew is on its way to Reponse Expo 2009.  It should be an interesting and exciting show.  Most of the top industry professionals will be there and we plan to ask them what they see for the future of DRTV.  We’ll start posting on Wednesday…be sure to check in for the video highlights!

Our clients say it best!

Kathi Moore, Beanstalk Media

DRTV and the U.S. Hispanic market

Is Direct Response Television a winning medium to acquire customers and grow sales in the U.S. Hispanic market?

As co-owner of our 520-seat Spanish-language call center focused exclusively on Direct Response, that’s a question I’m often asked. Here is my experience: yes it absolutely is a great medium for the U.S. Hispanic market when done correctly. Creative and the call to action (CTA) need to be tailored a little differently, but we have consistently been able to create positive ROI without COD.

Hard offer CTA works similar to the U.S. market: talk times are longer and close rates are slightly lower creating a higher cost per order. You can offset this with more effective up-sells and cross-sells to increase the AOV. A great script goes a long way to converting soft offer campaigns with an expectation of a purchase, or trial offers, which again, direct a caller to have a form of payment available.

Multi-pays on the back end of trial offers don’t give the same pay-through rates as the U.S, market, you build in a strong premium to “pay today.” On continuity the tail is shorter than in the U.S., so offer a discount at day 60 or 90 to extend the tail past typical U.S. continuity programs, creating a higher ROI.

What is your experience?

Craig Handley

Consultation the key to growing your media agency

AHAA 2009 Vegas:  Consultation the key to “Growing Your Media Agency in the Current Economic Environment“

I don’t know all the challenges facing y’all (isn’t that a great word…lol), but I did attend a very relevant panel about growth at last month’s AHAA meeting in Vegas that really drove home an important point: growing your business as a media buyer in 2009 (and beyond) is more than just “buying the media.”

As many of the great people I spoke with agreed, to grow your business today you need to be more of a consultant than just a media buyer. Now, I come from the DRTV world — media buyers in my industry have to be consultants. They partner with the fulfillment houses, merchant processing companies, production companies, call centers, and all the consulting firms. They are assistants in the decision-making process, and count on the aforementioned companies to provide the information that media buyers need to perform… and get the referrals they need to grow their business.

I have consulted in DRTV for almost 15 years in the U.S. Market and 3 years ago built this small 20-seat call center to service the U.S. Hispanic market. Today we are at over 500 seats, we’re taking around 70,000 calls a week, and servicing 60% or so of all U.S. Hispanic DRTV calls. There is no end in sight to our growth. My point here is that 100% of our growth has come from our relationships with media buyers. We didn’t spend a dollar on advertising or on the promotion of our business. We did the right job in being a partner, a consultant, and an advisor to the media companies. We grew the campaigns, and thus, everyone we touch is able to enjoy growth.

I really feel that Listen Up Español is the best in the business at what we do. Our results speak for themselves… but without managing Cost Per Order (telemarketing cost) with the media buyer, exploring the cost per call together, working with the media buyer on the call to action for the show, working on the way the continuity works with the fulfillment center, understanding how to make the most of every order… I’m just saying, if the media buyer “just bought media” and the call center “just answered calls,” I’d probably still have 20 seats answering 500 calls a week. But as a consultant to the campaign, I provided detailed reporting and analysis, and worked with all the other people in the puzzle to ensure successful shows.

So one of my key takeaways from AHAA was that if you want to grow your business, “do more.” Next time a client asks you to buy media, ask questions about their goals, make suggestions, introduce relationships that work with you, and for you. If a call center doesn’t want to provide you with the data you need, recommend another call center solution. If a fulfillment house doesn’t have the experience to handle continuity orders, recommend another fulfillment solution. In every aspect of your campaign, make choices that support your growth.

What did you gain from the show? What kind of problems and solutions can we work on together?

Craig Handley