I did a post on this a while back. I HATE most internet marketing videos. They're an incredibly inefficient way to provide information.

The bottom line, though, is whether they convert better than presenting the same information in written form, and I don't know the answer to that. I know that I choose not to watch most IM videos or listen to most IM teleconference recordings, but I may be in the minority on that.

I agree. I'd rather read it that way I can speed-read
skim through it or whatever. I don't have the patience
or the inclination to sit here and watch some lengthy
video that's probably going to tell me what I already
know.

Ahhh....people after my own heart!

I love videos but I just don't have time to watch them all if they are longer than 5-minutes. I prefer to listen to audio and read PDF's as I can skim.

They are also frequenly done poorly because the presenters don't know how to teach. They demonstrate but don't teach. That is, they don't focus on the art of knowledge transfer.

Conventional video is generally weak at knowledge transfer because it is serial. It is accessed linearly - not easy to find and repeat parts you want to review. There are flash tools that are an order of magnitude better for teaching than standard video.

- Russ

There are vids that are just blabbing (especially Franks new one on being arrested!), but there are also videos that give good content directly. It does depend on how we learn. Personally, I prefer video, unless it's too much talk, and not enough useful stuff. Then when I am doing an in depth study, for instance on copy writing, I definitely prefer to read. Just to take it at my own pace and let it sink in.

I think there is definitely a place for both, and considering the lack of concentration span of the new generation, video is a powerful tool for selling, and will be even more so in the future.

My Pet Peeve: Internet Marketing Videos that you CANNOT SPEED UP!!.

I get the idea. The marketer wants you to commit to watching the whole thing. Maybe its been tested, but I wonder. In any case, if I see theres no controls to speed forward and skip stuff that I don't care about, I don't watch it - period.

Printed info lets you intake the data faster and choose only what you want.

And I 'd agree with others that many videos are just terrible in terms of execution. Bad sound, always bad lighting, often boring, as if no thought went into it - no planning at all.

I guess if it was easy, everyone would be making Hollywood Movies :-)
_______
Bruce

I find some video's helpful, but I agree they can be a huge time waster, I remember one where the "Narrator" showed me what I had to do to install Google toolbar for like 5 minutes! The rest was pretty good though.

Yep, the internet and some very bright programmers have given us wonderful tools. Just like everything else though; most of the resulting creations will be sub-par.

If you're one of those that think that a busy marketer (and, a serious one) has time to sit around and wade through videos (most of which really suck!) you're only kidding yourself.

And we won't even talk about the programs coming out now that require you to download the videos. Talk about clogging up the works!

When I want to watch a video, I flip on Monday Night Football!

Pete

To clarify: I like it if a video is showing me step by step how to do something, but not if it's just somebody reading something aloud or having a long rambling conversation with another internet marketer, punctuated with the occasional decent piece of information - which describes most IM videos I've seen.

But again, if they sell better, then that's the way to go.

I think it depends how your level of expertise in the field. Newbies would take to video learning more than someone who already knows half the stuff.

I agree though a lot of the videos is just people rambling on about crap and not getting to the point fast enough, so what happens is I stop paying attention and miss the important bits!

One of my biggest pet peeves are videos that start playing automatically when you load a page, GRR! It's annoying when you have 20 browsers open and then you hear sound coming out you dont know where it's coming from! very annoying.

I must admit I prefer text also. I hate watching 30 minutes of video to learn one small thing that if it had been in text I could have skipped past everything I already knew.

That's just my personal opinion though, I guess when there is something to be learned then watching how to do it can be easier than reading it.

I prefer text generally, but in some cases it's video that makes me convert. But useless bonus video? Useless.

I also think that video converts a lot better with people you as an individual can relate to. Frank has me riveted. (Maybe it's the accent.) Eben? No interest here. Ed Dale is somewhere in the middle for me.

What really gets me is conference video. I bought Mass Control and got all the bonus conference footage. Two hours of my life -- and no indication that it was a two hour video, either -- and I learned... nothing. But there was enough going on that I couldn't tune out and get any work done either. Argh.

Definitely transcripts are the way to go. The people who love the video and want to feel like they're there in person can have it, and everybody else can grab a highlighter.

Thanks for speaking up, though. I was wondering if it was just me.

I only like to watch videos if they are tutorials for something that I am interested in learning. I almost ALWAYS prefer to read the material, since I can accomplish that much more quickly.

If I have to watch a video about a product, I prefer that it is 5 minutes or less. After that, I am moving on to something else.

However, many people love to watch videos - as can be attested by the numerous video sharing sites and the THOUSANDS of videos on them...

I love vids hate pdfs
'course if the video is made by some Kn*b shine that is out to boost their ego it going to be a boring watch. Long,verbose and ...sleepy time.

Ken - I have just one question for you...

Just HOW do they MAKE you watch these videos?

Quite frankly, I'd like to have that technology...

[DELETED]

I also hate video with a passion. It's to the point now, that if a product comes in video format and not written, I won't buy it.

Videos are TOO SLOW, dangit. I just don't downshift that low. But if I try to multi-task, then I end up doing none of it competently.

Either give me the material at my speed in the video, or just give me the damn book already. :p

Bailey

Hello Ken,

I hate to admit it I love vids. It condenses what takes me hours to find in a ebook and I like being shown what the author is trying to teach me, just in case I missed the meaning in an ebook.

Guess it's about preferences as we all have different learning styles.

Cheers
Keren

What's the consensus on instructional tutorial/tech instructional videos?

Which is better, a video or a walkthrough with screenshots?

I prefer videos, i learn more from watching videos than i do from reading ebooks

I love video, but most IM videos are so slow, and have so much superfluous nonsense, that I give up halfway through. I don't want to watch you driving, or anything else, I just want you to get to the point. Otherwise, I start yelling at my computer screen for you to do just that, and scare the cats. For goodness sake, think of the cats!

To all you guys dissing video... Frank Kern and this guy seem to totally disagree with you... Quick Video Marketing

Bottom line is videos make a course seem worth buying, even though most of us don't watch them.

Charles

This would be a good thread to read if you are creating videos. I shy away from the tactic of making people watch videos because of the varying experience levels of my readers/watchers.

Marketers need to step up their game in video production and marketing (because it's not going way) and make videos quickly educational, point by point, as short as possible, and produced exceptionally well.

The days are long gone where you can slap up a video from your first take, rambling for a majority of the video, and only making a point or two, if that, that most people would consider education.

I bet the opinions here regarding video vs. text would change a bit if the videos you are being asked to view were done properly.

I agreed. Video product should had made them easier to navigate, can skip topic anytime.

The best video presentation is to concentrate on what you want to say, skip the BS....

Still, video makes good money, although I hate to watch them, kill my time!

The main problem is, most marketers don't understand when video is necessary and when it's not. As a marketing tool on a squeeze page, when done well, it's a huge sales booster. But when video is used in place of written information or training materials just because everybody is screaming "you need video to succeed!" the point of video is missed completely.

Ok, video products take decent time to watch etc etc, BUT as Peter already mentioned- most people are visual and they learn more when they see a video.
And video advertising works because people respond better to MOTION rather than plain text.

But if you decide not to jump on the video bandwagon(wich I believe is the next big thing), you are losing money.

Chris

If I download a video I sometimes would prefer to watch/listen
at 2x speed. I can understand all the information in general
at a faster speed.

As far as watching the newest IM launch videos on a slowed-down
server - I don't do it. I prefer to read - I can process more
information that way and pull out what I want to know.

I have almost zero-interest in the personality-driven IM guru video
marketing that is going around - guess I'm not the target market.

It differs from person to person. I personally like both videos and text. Some people can understand something only when showed in video. To be honest with you, I understood how to setup a wordpress blog (1 year back) only after watching a video. When people said cpanel and stuff like that, I didn't understand anything. Sometimes text is not enough to teach something.

There are certain things text can't teach properly. Sometimes, with text, you may not be understood and worse, you may even be misunderstood. But in a video, it can never go wrong.

But simple things that are easy to understand can be explained using a text. This is because people who have slower net connections or dialup may not have the patience to wait till the video loads.

It is always better to follow the method 30 Day Challenge people followed. They had videos and also had pdf transcripts. So people who can understand by reading can read the pdf and those who can't, can watch the video.

Just my opinion.

As someone who enjoys doing video tutorials, I know that there are both types of learning style so I always try to provide a text transcription as well. I, personally, learn better from written form for the most part and I like having the ability to take notes - that's assuming I can stay awaking. lol Seriously, ever since college, even reading something interesting makes me ready to doze off

I do, however occasionally like video because if the written tells me to do something and I can't find 'where' this person is talking about for instance. I also like video because I CAN multi-task. Not while doing other business activities but while folding clothes, cleaning the kitchen, etc (also love audio for this reason).

As a video producer there are 2 things mentioned above that I need to work on. I do tend to over-explain things and take longer than I should and this is because I try to think of ANY questions that might come up and then cover them. I also was thinking of adding just what Takuya recommends above - adding a breakdown of what's covered and where to find it. So, for instance, someone can quickly find which video contained the instructions for changing a page permalink once it's already been created. But, boy, that's going to take a lot of time to put that reference together.

Quicker to throw a video together?! Definitely not for me. You can go back and easily add forgotten details in a written lesson. If you like to be thorough as I do, it takes a while to get the video right.


Oh, and one more note .. I SO agree that you must be able to FF/RW/Pause videos. I was not able to get some of my swf videos to do this, so I changed them all to flv even though it took up a lot more bandwidth. It's an absolute must.

Christy

"I hate video", is the new "I hate long-copy"...

In both cases, what the complainant REALLY means is:

I hate BORING. Hey, me too...

Give a sales letter reader a dual reading path that makes it easy to skim a 40 page sales letter. Give your viewer a sensible means of navigating a 40 minute video to accomplish the same thing.

Now, I know, I know... We as marketers don't care about making the experience better for the lookie-loos if it loosens our death grip on the buyers (at least we shouldn't as a rule).

Giving a video "skip around" functions very much changes that "stuck watching video" dynamic. By editing and scripting your video based on a potential non-linear path, that problem is largely addressed plus you may just see a lift from reinforcing certain sections multiple times with multiple headings.

Did that make any sense? I was up late...

I am heavily of the mind that the next killer video app will be better annotation and navigation controls inside a flash player. Some sites and players already have it and more will appear. That's a good thing.

Another way people can accomplish the non-linear path is by delivering smaller video segments "wrapped" in complete interface ala SproutBuilder.

Home | Sprout Builder - Create living content.

Internet Marketing is often on the cutting edge, but also on the barrel bottom for laziness. Shit we get away with selling to the IM market of ravenous opportunity seekers would NEVER fly in more discerning markets and through more traditional marketing channels which demand a higher degree of sophistication and execution.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that we can throw up a keynote video with a VO recorded live on a USB headset and have traffic and sales in an hour, but that's also our downfall in many ways.

Brian

It certainly can be.

Though I cater to the video market I rarely watch any video all the way through. If it is interesting I will use a plugin in firefox to download it while I do something else and then I watch it on my desktop and fast forward through it to find any useful/interesting parts.

However, I ignore most videos from most internet marketers because they rarely know how to produce short concise, useful, and to the point content.

Like most people in IM these days I am not looking for history lessons, accolades about other people, or reviews of basic concepts...

I look for meat. Information I can apply immediately.

For this reason I try and make my own videos short, concise and to the point... they show exactly what the visitor is there to find out.... no fluff no filler.

If I am creating a direct response video it must be short. Short and compelling... with the single purpose of increasing interest and delivering a specific call to action.

They are targeted... so that those who are not interested and would not be good prospects anyway know what the message is about and can leave quickly without having to wait around just to find out what the message is about.

Just like a good headline sucks people into the body of a message a video must perform the same way.

"I hate video", is the new "I hate long-copy"...

In both cases, what the complainant REALLY means is:

I hate BORING. Hey, me too..."

Very very well put, Brian. There have been a few videos that I've actually learned and benefitted from. Most of them are just really poorly made and ramble on forever before getting to their point. I can page through a PDF and get to the good part, but it's hard to do that with a video.

I just got an email with the subject heading "7 Online Success Killers." I would have read an article or report on that. But when I saw it was a video I said "eh." Delete.

I would watch a video showing me step by step how to do something - create a website, train a dog, etc. But not everything in life is meant to be a video. Paris Hilton, I'm talking to you, chickie.

When somebody creates a post asking why marketers only provide information in video format, why do a bunch of marketers always get flustered and start saying "because video works" or words to that effect?

The OP was asking why don't marketers provide information in other formats, like PDF?

Yes, video can improve the effectiveness of a sales page, but is not the issue in question.

IMO - Videos are only useful as an information medium when they are short and to the point (and most of them I've watched are not). I believe the best way to produce such a video is to imagine that one minute of video costs $10,000 to produce - You have to pack the information into the shortest time.