VSL vs. Sales Letter...

10 years ago

I personally think that you lose a lot with a VSL. When I read a sales letter I like to skim it first and then dive in if it grabs my interest. With a VSL you are putting yourself in a box and hoping that your first 10 seconds are good enough to grab attention.

I do not recommend a VSL alone but I think a video in combination with a traditional sales letter can still be a powerful tool. But a video with no sales letter to me is like peanut butter with no jelly!

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tyronne78

10 years ago

I agree with you Ryan. A video embedded on a long-form sales letter is like icing on a cake. Never been a big fan of video sales letters since I can't consume the information at my own pace like I can when reading something.

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Randall Magwood

10 years ago

I dont think i could sit and watch a 45 min sales letter. Only way i would is if i were looking to buy a Gulfstream Jet. With the long form sales letter... it takes the average prospect 5 minutes to read it all. Plus i'm lazy. I had a guy tell me i'd make more money with a VSL rather than my long form sales letter. I totally disagree. It's been working for me too well for so long. I aint changing jack.

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Miguelito203

10 years ago

Originally Posted by mhdeaton

I've tried a 45 min. VSL of my own with great success, but it was for a product that had a short life span and it ended. (Took me 70 hrs to write and record)

Something I've noticed in going through a several VSL guru style courses, and don't get me wrong I like the VSL, its here to stay, but Here's what I've found...

Even VSL's done by makepeace, I find that lots of these VSL's have reverted back to long form sales letters...

Do you think its because sales begin to drop or???

Just an observation, and just wondered your thoughts?

I'm a "video person" when it comes to learning, so I like VSLs. However, some of them can be really long and don't provide you with a way to skip through the video or whatever. I can't stand that. I think it's best to use video/written sales letter combo.

Joey

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bug119

10 years ago

for me I like to watch a video not read a large page you get the idea

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TheFrenchOne

10 years ago

Weird how most people answering the thread are judging VSL/sales letter more as their own experience as a user/consumer/buyer, instead of the results they get using it to make sales.
The fact that you think you enjoy more reading a sales letter and think 'you get more out of it' or watver, IS IRRELEVANT.
All what matter is 'does it convert more or less than sales letter' The only person allowed to give their opinions are people who have actually split tested that on a significant amount of visitors and generate significant amount conversions during the split testing to be able to answer that question. (of course this will be relevant only for their market, and for that particular offer, but still this will be much more useful info than 'yes i think sales letter is better cause i get more out of it when i read a sales letter' type of answers.
Anything elso is useless non sense.

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JEasy

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TheFrenchOne

Weird how most people answering the thread are judging VSL/sales letter more as their own experience as a user/consumer/buyer, instead of the results they get using it to make sales.
The fact that you think you enjoy more reading a sales letter and think 'you get more out of it' or watver, IS IRRELEVANT.
All what matter is 'does it convert more or less than sales letter' The only person allowed to give their opinions are people who have actually split tested that on a significant amount of visitors and generate significant amount conversions during the split testing to be able to answer that question. (of course this will be relevant only for their market, and for that particular offer, but still this will be much more useful info than 'yes i think sales letter is better cause i get more out of it when i read a sales letter' type of answers.
Anything elso is useless non sense.

You have a point, but most VSLs are lame and time consuming for the viewer. I say down with them.

I'd love to here from people who have awesome conversions from VSLs. Is it the real deal or not? Seems pretty lame to me tbh.

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pxjenkins

10 years ago

My two pennies worth on this: there's a reason why people like Jeff Walker are using video alongside text. Done well, it communicates passion and gains engagement wonderfully.

It's true, of course, that things need to be split tested. The specific journey you're taking the customer down is crucial, also.

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RogozRazvan

10 years ago

In the end, you need to split-test.

I've always preferred letters vs VSLs. This is because in a VSL everything is sequential. You have to wait a lot until you can finally order the product. In a sales letter, if you've found the benefit that you want, you can simply jump to the end. This is both from a consumer and a copywriter POV.

However, sometimes VLSs and whiteboard animations tend to convert better. In the end, you should simply split-test. From my own experience, the best results were when I've combined text with a 7 - 12 minute VSL.

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RyanJohnson1

10 years ago

Originally Posted by mhdeaton

I've tried a 45 min. VSL of my own with great success, but it was for a product that had a short life span and it ended. (Took me 70 hrs to write and record)

Something I've noticed in going through a several VSL guru style courses, and don't get me wrong I like the VSL, its here to stay, but Here's what I've found...

Even VSL's done by makepeace, I find that lots of these VSL's have reverted back to long form sales letters...

Do you think its because sales begin to drop or???

Just an observation, and just wondered your thoughts?

Most people are saying their personal opinion but not their experiences from the actual empirical data collected from their own split tests...

In my testing for my own offers anything over $7 i have had better success with a vsl versus a sales letter in any sales scenario outside the warriorforum...

And all of my vsl's work best when someone tries to exit I redirect them to the text based version of the vsl in sales letter form...

So to answer your question Both...

Lead with the vsl, and have it exit to the text version if people try to leave...

also make sure you're remarketing to the people who leave using retargeting either through facebook, or perfect audience ( or any other retargeting network)

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algreg

10 years ago

Totally agree with The French One. The only thing that matters is conversions. What we "think" doesn't really matter. Unfortunately, I don't have stats to prove any of my claims. I'm just saying that conversion is king.

Having said that, I think I'll advise my clients to test with long form (or at least bullet points) in conjunction with their videos.

Right now I'm only telling them to test between doodle and PowerPoint style.

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VSL vs. Sales Letter...

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