Video VS Long Sales Letters

yeah... it's a interesting one to test.

sometimes people like to be able to scan through a page and quickly grab the points of interest.

With video sometimes you can lose your audience before you get to the good stuff

Some of the video salespages that I promoted had really high
conversion rates, but then again so did some other
text salespages. I don't think there's a better one. It all
depends on the person who creates the salespage, be it a
video or a letter salespage.

In my experience both can be used equally or together. With longer sales letters the important information that is meant to sell the product is always just in bold.
Videos can be okay but they should be mainly audio as some people do not want to sit and watch a video they would rather listen til it gets interesting and read the copy until then.
Profit proof seems to be a good aim for videos.
And a testimonial or two.

Cheers
Connor McCreesh

Speaking personally, I can not be bothered to scroll through miles & miles of un-neccessary sales guff to get to the button. I am not interested in the lie that it could be sold for $147...or $97...or $47..but today only it's $17. I don't want to read testimonials which (even if they are actually 100% legit.) I am suspicious of anyway. I do not really care if I 'miss the boat' and fail to get some worthless PLR sweeteners by not acting today. These, IMO, are low quality market traders' sales techniques and speak volumes to me about the ability and sophistication of the copywriter.

The problem with the long sales letter is that the writer feels the need to explain in detail every single sales arguement for the product because, I assume, he or she has no idea of the wants or needs of every visitor, unlike if you were selling face to face. It's almost akin to the great old sales crime of raising all learned objections on behalf of the customer (which may have not occured to them) to demonstrate how your product overcomes them!

This suggests untargetted traffic. If you have a very highly targetted traffic stream, you should know what the potential customer is interesed in, narrow the sales points down and not have the need for overselling.

I do like the use of video in a sales page as it can demonstrate how good a product or service is and it can facilitate huge cuts of crap from the sales copy.

So I prefer a sensible, intellegent mix. Well thought out video with brief but compelling sales copy that does not require more than 2 spins of the mouse wheel.

Now, I guess all the copywriting folk will shoot me down as they will say that the miles of sales drivel works. Fine. I does. Some of my older sales pages are still up like this. I am just expressing here how I feel when I see sales pages these days. Maybe the days of forever scrolling are numbered.

I think that, as the use of video becomes more commonplace and more IM folks learn how to really exploit it, we will see far more professional sales presentations on the net and the IM world will move up a notch in people's estimations.

IMO, if you want to glimpse the future, take a look at some of Kevin Riley's later sales/squeeze pages.

I think it comes down to your market and who is doing the video.

Frank Kern and John Reese do great with videos because there is the "celebrity guru" element. People want to see them. They also employ some of the best NLP and visually choreographed videos around.

If you the person are the brand, then a video would probably present your brand in the best possible way.

Then there is the product. A software product with a video demonstration of the product on the sales page does better than the video by itself.

A lot of people want to read more about the software capabilities rather than just rely on the video. They don't think that the video itself explains all of the benefits in enough detail.

A software product does best when the two are combined, the video and the sales page. Then followed by the sales page without the video. Then lastly, the video by itself.

If you are demonstrating a single technique, such as "a cool new way to find hot niches", then the videos have a high conversion for opt-ins.

Another factor that I discovered with my videos was how impulsive the market is.

Most of the highest converting videos I made were ones that headlines that promised you would get the information "right now". This was also combined with the single technique screen capture video.

You have probably seen the Russell Brunson style "My #1 Secret For ________ Revealed In This Free Video".

That does very well for opt-ins.

Ultimately, I found that using videos for opt-ins works better than using them for sales pages.

I still believe that a well written sales letter that presents the information in a way that overcomes objections will always do better.

I combine both in my sales page: The Conduct KNOCKOUT Broadcast Interviews System.
What do you think? Thanks,Ed.

Personally, I may sit and watch around one out of every twenty videos that jump in front of me. I prefer sales copy with bold headers that I can quickly scroll through quickly.

People will buy from you if they know you, like you or trust you. Video is a nice way of introducing your self and your opportunity.

Many videos and sales pages are just to long. I would recommend having a short video and using the video in conjunction with a good sales letter.

Claude
Grand Scale Illusionist

JUST using video sales letters will only work if you have developed a good relationship with your customers and prospects in the months before.

Take a look at Frank Kern. He's built up a great relationship with all of us so when he creates a video sales letter it's almost guaranteed to be successful.

If you're a no body and try this you probably won't be as successful.

Jeff Walker - the sideways sales letter. That's a perfect example of how to build trust and sell at the same time during a launch.

In my experience, having a long sales letter AND a video force the highest conversion rates.