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Video - to pause or not to pause...

by Traci
10 replies
Anyone test a video at the top of a sales letter with and without the ability to pause or stop the video? I've seen many that you can pause and just read the letter, but lately I've come across a few that leave you no choice but to listen/watch them, or close/mute the page.

Has anyone tested this to see which is more effective?
#pause #video
  • Profile picture of the author Summertime Dress
    I think it's a personal courtesy to give your viewers control of their video (pause, fast forward, rewind) as well as tell them how long the video will be (i.e. with a mouse scroll over). If you think in terms of the overall user experience, there's a percentage of viewers who want to skip right ahead to the offer and then come back to the "content". If you don't allow this option, you'll give a bad impression and they may not give you a second chance and just click away.

    Another problem I see with a lot of product launches and forced video...no way to rewind. What if you've said something profound and I have no way to go back and replay except to refresh my browser and start over from the beginning.

    I think forced video is tantamount to spam, personally.
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  • Profile picture of the author Traci
    Personally, I feel the exact same way. I HATE videos that start up automatically and have no buttons to pause or rewind and restart every time you load the page...

    It's annoying as hell to me.

    But I know that what I think and what the market reacts to are sometimes very different. That's why I'm looking for anyone who has tested this.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Michael
    If I can't pause/stop a video then I close the page. No if's and's or but's.

    Especially since most of the ones I've seen are just plain annoying, and the person's voice just gets on my nerves..

    I can think of at least one in particular that I STILL, to this day, cannot get that annoying, slurring voice out of my head. It was brutal. I would NEVER even consider buying that product just because of how annoying it was. lol
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  • Profile picture of the author sanjaypande
    Here is my opinion (backed by data but all situations are different).

    It depends on the traffic source.

    Where did they land from - direct, endorsed, from an e-mail to your own list, on an upsell?

    I'll give you a very good example.

    I just recently bought something from a fairly decent marketer and it had an upsell. The upsell had a video with a sales message and no controls except pause and play.

    There is a VERY GOOD CHANCE that I was interested, and just wanted to fast forward to the end and decide - buy or not. But, he took way too much time to actually get to the offer.

    He lost a sale!

    I don't have time. I want to be able to go to the end of the sales message and see the offer and make a decision. On the upsell, I'm actually between what I've bought and the delivery so the decision process is much, much faster.

    Giving control to your viewer should also help cut down on refunds (because they don't feel as manipulated which reduces "buyer remorse").

    Take Care,

    Sanjay
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  • Profile picture of the author gppierson
    I have tested both ways and automatically always get better conversions for me!
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    • Profile picture of the author sanjaypande
      Originally Posted by gppierson View Post

      I have tested both ways and automatically always get better conversions for me!
      Conversions are an irrelevant measurement. ROI is what matters.

      How many dollars earned per dollar spent?

      A 0.5% conversion on a $2000 product vs a 10% conversion on a $10 product - Even with a small sample size of a 1000, you're talking 1000 bucks vs 100K.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    The only person who has done that (and he does it rarely) that I'll accept a video from is Brendon Burchard. I know his info will be decent.

    Anyone else, no. I hate it and recommend to my clients that they include the controller.
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Schenk
    FWIW This past week I received several email from Frank Kern selling his newest thing and basically giving away MC2 as a bonus.

    Interestingly Kern has now put a pause control on his videos, and a time bar so viewers know in advance how long the video is.

    I suspect he has tested this. Maybe not.

    :-Don
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  • Profile picture of the author RefundHost
    Dear SmokinHotTraci,

    I have not tested as per your query, however all videos on my sites do autoplay
    and since I use YouTube to do it, they can pause - and scan ( ff, rew ) the video.

    I think
    the length of the video
    whether or not we can see the time remaining
    and
    how relevant is each minute of the video
    would each be factors here.

    I too have run into several videos which force the viewer to either WATCH ALL
    or abandon. Some have timed links/buttons that appear as the video progresses.
    But unless the video is really good for me from the start, I'm outta there.
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  • Profile picture of the author LeeMark
    I think a video should not be paused. It should run in continuation.
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