Swipe this sales video trick
The greatest myth in the era of sales videos is that you don’t need good copy to sell with video.
Ludicrous.
No sane marketer would say this unless he was selling you a magic “do-it-yourself” video product.
Then, worse than being insane, he’d be a shameless liar.
We’ve all suffered the wreckage of marketers who “wing it” in video…
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Just hit record and ramble out their message complete with stammers and stutters and painful trips down fruitless rabbit holes.
Catastrophe.
These are the same lazy hacks that never test a scripted version of the same message.
Yet, they’ll swear that “raw” is the only way to go.
We the viewer are the real victims of this senseless crime.
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“Record and babble” marketers think slapping random visuals on the screen will compensate for loose copy.
Not true.
Video sales letters demand even more attention to the rhythm of copy than traditional long text sales letters.
Let me show you what I mean with help from the late, great funkmaster, James Brown.
Here’s a recording of the original version of James’s biggest hit song, “I Got You” (I Feel Good)…
[recording-see video]
In it’s original form the tune was album filler and never made the charts.
Now here’s Brown’s rework of the tune two years later…
[recording - see video]
This version was Brown’s highest charting single and went on to become one of the most famous songs in history.
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The first noticeable difference in these tunes is the sharpness of tone and the alto sax in version 2…
… the subtle change is to the backbeat.
In version 1 it rumbles.
In version 2 it slaps.
Using my music loving family as a test, I played both versions and asked them to dance.
I wish I could show video of this, but I’d be sentenced to the couch for weeks, so you’ll have to believe me when I tell you, the shift in gyrations was dramatic.
Version 1 inspires an “inward style” of twist-like movements, whereas version 2 (as you’ve likely seen for yourself at every wedding reception you’ve ever crashed or attended) inspires an “outward style” arms in the air and shake it like you just don’t care kind of vibe.
That slight difference to the backbeat and ensuing booty shaking it inspires is how James Brown parked “I Got You (I Feel Good)” at #3 on the Billboard charts and has kept it in heavy radio rotation for almost 50 years straight.
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And it’s the same type of rhythm your copy needs to get people opening up and hooking in to your sales copy.
Especially with video.
Commanding your prospect’s attention both audibly and viscerally obligates you to give your video a rhythm viewers can easily fall into.
Pulling this off is easier than you think.
Look back at the first three stanzas of this post.
You’ll see a repetitious pattern to the copy that establishes a pattern so that by the third verse, you’re anticipating the rhythm.
The sentences go, long (15-20 words), short (1-3 words), long, medium (8-12 words), medium.
Long – short – long – medium – medium.
And then it switches up by introducing the audio.
After that is what might be the bridge in a song…
… a new pattern that changes the beat, establishes a new rhythm and moves the listener in a new, but consistent rhythm.
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Now I’m quickly reintroducing the original rhythm of the copy by writing a long sentence again.
Punching it.
Following it up with another long line of about sixteen words that drive the copy forward.
Toss in a couple of medium length line.
And, voila… we’ve written rhythmic copy.
Hope you found this useful...
Kevin