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What's going on with the latest videos I've been seeing on landing pages?

by Nail Yener
14 replies
Lately, I have come across a couple of landing pages, some of them by very famous internet marketers and one thing I noticed is that they are using a video script that doesn't have any video controls for going back or forward.

I tried to think of a sensible reason for this but I couldn't find any. Why wouldn't you want to give video control to your visitor?
#landing #latest #pages #videos
  • Profile picture of the author Zend
    because some people think they are the best marketer out there, and their video is so awesome even Paul Myers will not even blink.
    Or maybe they have very little confidence about their own video that they afraid to let people move it forward or backward to make sure people won't judge their video quickly.
    nevertheless, it is annoying, and I will close it ASAP
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  • Profile picture of the author MrMonetize
    I presume its so you get the entire 'marketing' message. Whatever they are trying to sell, they want to make sure you hear the entire pitch. No fast forwarding to the price etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tony Marriott
      This used to be the norm a couple of years ago.

      Theory being (proved by testing I understand) that if the full sales pitch is delivered you are
      1. more likely to buy and
      2 less likely to refund

      Also if you can't pause you can't go off and forget about it. Although the ones I see now do usually allow you to pause.

      It went hand in hand with delayed display of the payment button.

      I think there was a bit of backlash, mainly from the IM community about the "annoying tactic" and it did seem to fade.

      I suspect though that in practice, i.e. real sales, it is a good strategy. The target market will generally not be the ones that say it annoys them. Or at least there will be more clicking the but it now button than abandoning the videos.

      So looks like it a retesting of an older idea.

      In practice they will almost certainly be split testing the options, so the version you see may not be the one others see. Video controls will almost certainly be one option being tested so that whatever one performs best will naturally be displayed more often.
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  • Profile picture of the author daviddifranco
    I actually came across something like this earlier tonight. There was a moment where I wanted to skip back in the video, but I couldn't. I was forced to refresh the page.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Blades
    They are trying to hypnotize you with the sales pitch, so they don't want you fast forwarding. If they can get you sold by watching the whole video, they will have a better chance of you buying their their gauntlet of upsells.

    If people are doing it, you can bet it's been tested and works...
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  • Profile picture of the author thedark
    I have noticed that vimeo offers you an embed player wich is lighter, without ads. Unlike youtube. With the player from vimeo, the controls will appear only when you mouse over the video .
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    • Profile picture of the author MrMonetize
      Originally Posted by thedark View Post

      I have noticed that vimeo offers you an embed player wich is lighter, without ads. Unlike youtube. With the player from vimeo, the controls will appear only when you mouse over the video .
      I have YouTube videos without ads, you can change it in the settings on YouTube whether to show ads or not. And the controls for those videos only appear when you mouse over in the same way. There's no difference.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nail Yener
    Disabling "fast forwarding" could be somehow understandable but why also disable "going back"? Maybe there is something I couldn't see/hear well or I liked a lot and want to see it again without refreshing the page and waiting for X minutes. That's not user-friendly.

    Originally Posted by Alex Blades View Post

    If people are doing it, you can bet it's been tested and works...
    That might be true but even if all the marketers in the world do this, it is not something I will ever do.

    Originally Posted by Tony Marriott View Post

    This used to be the norm a couple of years ago.

    So looks like it a retesting of an older idea.

    In practice they will almost certainly be split testing the options, so the version you see may not be the one others see. Video controls will almost certainly be one option being tested so that whatever one performs best will naturally be displayed more often.
    Thanks Tony, that makes sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author sabatek
    Originally Posted by Nail Yener View Post

    Lately, I have come across a couple of landing pages, some of them by very famous internet marketers and one thing I noticed is that they are using a video script that doesn't have any video controls for going back or forward.

    I tried to think of a sensible reason for this but I couldn't find any. Why wouldn't you want to give video control to your visitor?
    They want to make you watch the whole thing because there is a timer on when the BUY NOW or ADD TO CART button will pop up.
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    It's a sales page. You only get 'one shot' at people. Why not make sure they're paying attention?
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  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    because it keeps people more engaged and paying attention if they know that if they miss anything they will have to watch the entire video again and if it's a 20 min video then that is a real pain in the back side

    the fact is it works, try it yourself and you will see :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author Nail Yener
      Originally Posted by paul nicholls View Post

      because it keeps people more engaged and paying attention if they know that if they miss anything they will have to watch the entire video again and if it's a 20 min video then that is a real pain in the back side

      the fact is it works, try it yourself and you will see :-)
      I think this mindset of some marketers' is kinda insulting. "Hey you! If you want to learn about my product, you should sit there and watch my 20 min video without doing anything else."

      That mindset is not for me. The last time I started watching a video of that kind, I wanted to go back to watch a section again and then I hit the close button as soon as I noticed it has no controls.
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  • Profile picture of the author Denden
    Originally Posted by Nail Yener View Post

    Lately, I have come across a couple of landing pages, some of them by very famous internet marketers and one thing I noticed is that they are using a video script that doesn't have any video controls for going back or forward.

    I tried to think of a sensible reason for this but I couldn't find any. Why wouldn't you want to give video control to your visitor?
    I have to say, I find it a tad irritating. They want to force you into watching all of it of course
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  • Profile picture of the author kencalhn
    I'm just more likely to be irritated, and have Never watched a video all the way through that has no controls, ever in the history of the internet. I use internetdownloadmanager.com (great, recommended), and just click/save the video file (or all 4 if in a sequence) to a /IMvideos subdirectory on my hard drive, and watch later, often days later.

    I can't imagine people are so (what's the word I'm looking for, lol?) they'd actually sit there and watch a long pitch video with no controls from start to finish. I mean really getalife. Download and watch/skim/scrub later. Also fwiw my favorite video player, I've tested all, is inmatrix.com's zoomplayer, have used it with internetdownloadmanager for many many years.

    From the marketer's standpoint though, yes if it tests out to get better readership and sales conversions than that's the way to go... depends on niche and many other factors. Personally though, I'd think that since everyone's used to having scrub controls on youtube etc, it's an expectation that if not met would just annoy customers. But testing is what proves it, split-testing control vs no-control versions is the way to test it, remembering it's a function of relationship w/list, niche etc
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