Deadly Silence On Video Sales Letters...What's Up!

My observation: For the most part, the differences between video and long form sales letters are only talked about in paid products. So perhaps as a professional courtesy, those who know the secrets are not talking about them publicly.

I'm sure, sooner or later, a thread will appear on this sub-forum titled, "The differences between video and long form sales letters" or something similar. LOL

Alex

To be honest Ewen,

I'd love to hear more about what others have to say about video sales letters as well.

I notice that people often don't like to read... so having a video that delivers the message seems to get a higher response.

My personal guess is that people here don't talk much about video sales pitches because you could essentially take a well-written conversational sales letter, create visuals to accompany it, hire a voice-over actor, and make it into a video pitch.

So perhaps people don't see the need to talk about them for that reason?

But again, if someone has more thoughts on the matter, I'm open to hear about it

Danielle

From my own consumer perspective, I don't like them. That's because I can read faster than most people in sales videos speak.

You can do a lot with video...Kern says video has higher perceived value.

I can't disagree.

And Look at Eban, he is using all kinds of wallet melting persuasion techniques.

anchors, commands... list goes on .. I like a mixture of both. Personally.

I think if you're not aware of the video sales letter... get aware, I'm still trying to catch up to plain old text sales letters so don't feel bad.

@ewenmack

Could you post links to a few video sales letters. That way everyone can weigh in and start dissecting the same videos.

From my experience, the writing process isn't all that different.

There are a few small changes, like most people (in my industry) are getting into the credibility a lot earlier. For example "My name is XXXX XXXX, and these are my expertise..." will be on page 2 instead of buried on page 10.

Other than that it's just writing a sales letter as you normally would, then putting it in slides.

Colm

When they write a script rather than read a sales letter, hire a production team and multi-camera setup, check out and hire an actor, scout and secure locations, direct lighting, produce a video (I mean produce a video -- like on a 3/4" master with a cassete as big as a coffee table -- not sit in front of a webcam without pants), and fund it out of their own pocket to the tune of many thousands of their own dollars on the line and make that back -- plus, then I'll gladly buy to learn how I can do better.

And not until. My wallet remains closed. I've bought lots of stuff ....none from that bunch.

I shall not hold my breath based on the efforts I've seen so far. Wake me up around 2030 when the 'industry' discovers the infomercial ...and Billy Mays stops spinning in his grave.

I appreciate the chatter and OP, but the answer is simple...

- TEST it for lift.

Everything else is just people's opinions, which don't count unless you're buyin' your own stuff.

Everything that's important in a text letter also needs to be in a video. I'm an auditory learner so I need to read stuff to get it to sink in. You might think that reading would be a visual thing but auditory folks (about 45% of the population) 'hear' the words as they read. I need to be able to examine the offer and see what's there, what promises are made. I find that much easier with a text document.

One thing I notice is that people structure offers the way they like things. Apparently, people like videos (50+% of the population learns visually) because they're showing up en mass these days. The mistake people are making is to only offer a product via video. That's a big mistake, IMO. I rarely click on any video but if an offer interests me and has a text version I'll probably check it out.

Another thing I notice is the piss poor quality of the videos I see. If you're going to sell in front of the camera it might be wise to put on some decent clothes and comb your hair. You also might want to practice your presentation and show some enthusiasm.

If you appear bored on misinformed (so many videos come across this way) you're hurting your offer and might want to get a professional actor to record the video. Another turn-off for me is auto-start video or audio. I want the choice on whether I start the thing rolling or not and if it starts automatically, I'm gone.

The moral of the story? Market to people the way they want and expect it. Virtually every offer launched these days needs to be in both video and text formats or you're leaving money (conceivably, a lot of money) on the table.

Very true. But there are ways to target visual or auditory users. If I saw an approach segmented like that, it would cause me to at least consider buying.

That is not the case. So I'll buy something else instead. I just dropped $300 on a monitor. Took five minutes and no sales talent to "make me."

Finally, it would be nice to see video sales for a product or service. Not the circle of sales videos on how to make sales videos for selling people on making sales videos about reading a sales letter in front of a web cam in your underwear.

As a person who has participated in making infomercials as well as video sales letters, my response is...I don't know.

But let me tell what I do know.

We love to point to the IM success stories who are bustin 10 mil out of the park...but we are very silent about guys in the real world hauling down 100+ million, let alone those with 300-500 million...who are using

MULTI CHANNEL MARKETING.

Video, be it on TV or the Internet is only one channel.

And unless you know for certain the numbers, most is either speculation or based upon some marketer told some other person he is doing.

Let's understand that the Copywriter is important on all fronts...and often is involved in several of the Channels of Marketing...often as the lead creative...to insure a continuity across platforms and a uniform message.

There is a different PSYCHOLOGY at work in video, as has been mentioned, some of the face to face skills come into play (although the feedback is assumed or measured, that is, they have to take an educated guess on what the viewer is thinking and responding to)...

ATTENTION can be captured easier with a video...but in the case of the infomercial, it has to be repeated 3 times...so the basic looking infomercial you see on TV is a three act play with mostly repeated messages and within each is the call to action.

On the Internet, the video sales message works if the TARGET actually is the one watching it...and with most of the people you mention, they operate in the general field of "Biz-OP" which includes most money making and IM type stuff and that is a proven market which requires very little effort to get their attention.

The video can also present subtle influences, your NLP strategies and even some hidden persuaders the viewer is totally unaware of.

It also is passive. Reading a letter is ACTIVE. Different parts of the brain come into play.

Video has just as much "influence" archives as does copywriting...so it would behoove you to study both and think in terms of MULTI CHANNEL marketing efforts.

I know the savvy 200 million dollar a year guys use as many different channels as they can...and copywriters are involved in every one of them.

Which is why you see As Seen on TV in every Walgreens and Rite Aid drug store in the country...just another channel for sales.

Video. Let's talk.

gjabiz

As @gjabiz says, multichannel marketing is definitely the best long term strategy for maximizing profits. To @ewenmack's original question about Video sales letters...

It seems like people are reluctant to spend $197 for a program like Ryan Deiss' video sales letter formula.

When it first came out, we spent $297 for this product. I can say that it was one of the best $300 investments we have made. At the time, it took the abstract idea of a video sales letter and provided a step-by-step set of instructions for creating video sales letter web sites.

Ryan provides the basic presentation template, based on the ubiquitous long form sales template ensuring that all of the proper elements (product feature, benefits, testimonials, qualifications, logical call to action, emotional call to action, etc.) are included within the final video. Additionally, he provides information on inexpensive video production and storage.

I know there are other video systems out there and am sure they would probably do the trick. We happen to buy Ryan's videosalesletterformula.com program first.

To do some inexpensive split testing, I would recommend using Google's Website Optimizer. In our testing, most results were expected; however, there were several pleasant surprises.

Depending on the split testing results, you will find which market niches work best with a video only sales page vs. a video/sales letter combination as well as the complexity of the video skin that gives the best conversion rate.

Hopefully, more people who use videos will share their success stories.

Try something, add some split testing and I think you will be pleasantly surprised!

This video is slaying it. Its been running on Drudge for over a month and that ain't peanuts.

Stansberry's Investment Advisory

Like some here in this tread I hate video sales letters because of the time it takes to view them. I read SOOOO much faster and generally with a written sales letter I will skim quickly to the end to get the bottom line asap. Video, while more captivating, is way to slow. I also don't like video training for the same reason plus when you want to go back to check a point you may need a refresh on, like when you are implementing something later, it's very difficult/frustrating going back to the video and trying to find the relevant content. Much prefer something I can print out and refer to quickly, on my desk, beside my computer.

ewen, good post dude. i'm too busy testing my new video sales letter to comment yet :-)

will report back w/ some insights. (or sell everyone a product on it. lol)

Video sales letter are incredible and will become essential. I recommend Ryan Dice's stuff on the subject. KILLER.

I must say when i land on a page with a sales video that plays automatically and has no visual pause or rewind button accompanying the player (just in case i miss something) which about 80% dont have, then im put off the product straight away.

There is nothing more annoying than wanting to rewind a video a few seconds and not having the ability to do so.

What I've noticed about Agora and guys like them (weiss research, wyatt research, lombardi publishing, etc) is that they lead with the video salesletter, then have the long-form "print" version of the sales video VERBATIM on an exit splash when the visitor tries to leave the page.

Might have to subscribe to this thread and read a little bit on this much debated topic!

I have had my customer ask me to replace my sale copy with a video as well as offer my PDF product in video format as well.

I think there are mixed feelings about video sales letters because people feel they're being talked at, they feel they're being manipulated. With text you can skip, skim-read and you feel like you're making the choices.

Personally I think video sales letters will have to become less wordy and visually more entertaining or people will tire of them quickly.

I just had fun working on a powerpoint presentation/video for Generous 121 Training with my 11 year-old daughter - talk about outsourcing! - incorporating animated gifs to lighten the mood of the piece. The range of animated gifs gets better and better.

All other points aside, I saw someone mention "video quality"
but attached a few different definitions.

In my extensive testing for my own brand and few others, I have found that "crappy" video constantly outperforms "well polished" video

I am not talking about presentation skills etc... you need those if you are going in front of the camera. But I am talking about the equipment setup.

In my testing I have found that turning on a camera and starting to talk constantly outperforms a setup with proper lighting, expensive mics, pressed suits and makeup. (yes I am guilty of having worn makeup in a sales video and it didnt convert well)

Now this doesnt mean be a slob, it just means that show it as you are.

why? Well... we have talked about it extensively... and I think it comes from a twofold reason...

1 - you (the presenter) is in your natural environment. Ie.. daily clothes, regular lighting, etc... Its just like sitting and talking. Unless someone is a highly trained actor (none of you are) then being in your comfort enviroment makes "sincerity" come through all that much more

2 - the only purpose of a sales video is to get people to trust you and seeing you in a "real" place as a real person conveys that rather than a highly polished newsroom type setup.

I suppose it really can depend on your marketing strategy, but with the "I'm a guy just like you who discovered this secret" angle then "turn on the camera and talk" video seems to work the best in our experiments.

Also another thing... first take is best take. unless you think you can get it right in the first take, dont even bother starting to film. After the first take it is a quick downwards slope in terms of quality of presentation.