When someone copycats a legitimate DRTV product, everyone loses. Consumers get inferior products and may even get hurt by the counterfeit versions. The original marketer loses sales, incurs legal expenses and winds up with a damaged reputation. The industry as a whole gets a black eye as customers complain about the purchase to friends, family and co-workers.

The days when television viewers picked up their phones to dial toll-free numbers while viewing infomercials could be numbered or, at least, slowly dwindling in favor of other response mechanisms. The economy, a lack of available credit for shoppers, and changing consumer habits are all taking their toll on the venerable DRTV cornerstone known as the infomercial.

Today’s consumers want a cohesive shopping experience. They want to know that the products, colors, sizes and prices they see on television match those that are being sold on the Web, on the shelves of their favorite retail stores and in the print magazine ads that they read while sitting in the doctor’s office. They also want to know that when they visit a company’s Facebook or Twitter page, or view an online video product demonstration, that they’re learning more about the product than they saw on television.

You’d be hard pressed to find a marketer who hasn’t used popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Ning to stretch its advertising dollars. Whether they are broadcasting 140-character updates on Twitter, posting photos from recent company events on their Facebook walls, or responding to customer comments on Ning, companies across all industries are realizing the value of this broad-reaching, and extremely affordable, channel.

Five reasons why the Internet is the DRTV marketer’s best friend.

It's hard to imagine, but there was a time in the not-so-distant past when the DRTV industry was deathly afraid of the Internet. How dare this new direct medium come in and invade a turf that was held sacred for decades? Sales cannibalization was just one of many different fears swirling around in the average DRTV company’s head as E-commerce grew by leaps and bounds in the late 1990s.