In the crowded landscape of online advertising, it’s rare to find a marketing campaign that truly towers above the rest. Consumers’ attention is a precious commodity, and a multitude of brands are vying for it at any given time. If you can interest someone enough to stop them from scrolling, you’ve won a part of the battle — if you can hold them long enough to get them to buy your product, you’ve achieved a major victory for your brand.
Of all the various forms of online marketing, video sales letters (VSLs) are one of the most consistently effective. A modern twist on the time-tested practice of written sales letters, VSLs allow brands to tell their stories and pitch their products to consumers in an engaging, accessible way. VSLs can vary widely in their length, structure, and style, but they all have one thing in common: they are designed to convert a stranger into a buyer by pitching a product or service in a dynamic and exciting fashion. With a few simple techniques, your brand can use VSLs to differentiate yourself in even the most crowded of spaces.
Why VSLs?
Successful VSLs achieve the ideal balance between informative and entertaining. Traditional sales letters provide potential buyers with extensive details about why they should buy a particular product or service, but are often skimmed through, as they tend not to be engaging and do little to capture the viewer’s attention. By contrast, VSLs combine audio and visual elements to grab and hold the viewer’s interest and get them emotionally invested in the product.
VSLs are also far more flexible than traditional sales letters. They can vary widely in length and content, from one- to two-minute slideshow style videos to ten-plus minute testimonials. Often, VSLs will feature a spokesperson, which presents a powerful opportunity for creating real, lasting connections with your audience. Not every business can afford top-tier celebrity endorsements, but these are not necessary for driving huge traffic: all you need is a relatable spokesperson who can speak directly to the impact your brand has had on them. Being able to put a face and voice to your product or service gives you the ability to gain your audience’s trust in a far more powerful way than traditional advertising.
A True Scroll-Stopper
When it comes to VSLs, the sky is truly the limit. All it takes is a single hit to drive massive traffic to your brand and build multi-million dollar campaigns. Following are five must-know tips for crafting VSLs that really resonate with your audience:
- Have a Strong Hook. The first three to five seconds of your VSL are the most critical. Internet users are inundated with hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of content on any given day, and if they are not immediately hooked by your VSL, they will keep right on scrolling. Like the first sentence of a book, you want the beginning of your VSL to create intrigue and get the viewer asking questions. Using a startling statistic or leading with a provocative question can create the momentary pause that makes the difference between a missed opportunity and a conversion.
- Identify Problems, Provide Solutions. Building on your hook, you want to give the viewer an outstanding reason to go forward with the purchase. Instead of focusing on the product you’re selling, focus on the problem you’re solving. Painting a vivid picture of what the problem is and what causes it primes the viewer to be extra receptive to the solution your company offers.
- Focus on Connection. Impactful VSLs not only drive conversions, but create connections. They help brands win loyal customers who will make the product their go-to. To achieve this, VSLs should include an element of authenticity. One of the best ways to create this effect is to utilize spokespeople who can share real-life stories about how your brand has positively affected their life and helped them overcome certain challenges. This helps make the content relatable and trustworthy, shaping a more lasting positive perception of your brand.
- Include Calls to Action. Another massive advantage of VSLs is the ability to embed calls to action within the video itself. Features such as buy buttons and links to your products make it so that viewers do not even need to open up a new tab in order to buy your product. This unmatched convenience helps you close the time gap between securing someone’s interest and securing their business.
- See What Works. As with any art, one of the best ways to improve your VSL game is to study the greats. Familiarizing yourself with content by the world’s best VSL advertisers is a great way to get a feel for some of the tips and tricks that have been proven to work. Once you’ve gained a thorough understanding of the most effective VSL templates and strategies, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to adapt them to the unique character of your own brand. Adapting and perfecting a proven formula based on the particular character of each new sales campaign can help you drive consistent results.
Sound Strategy
Of course, simply creating a well-made VSL is not enough — you also need to be strategic about how you promote it and deliver it to your target audience. There are a variety of different avenues you can take, each with its own particular uses and advantages. In general, once you’ve created an effective VSL, you want to promote it in as many places as possible. Sending VSLs via your email list and posting them on social media are effective ways to expand your reach and gain new customers. Also, embedding them on your website and adding them to landing pages is a great way to convert curious customers into buyers. VSLs can also be included in paid advertising campaigns to achieve maximum reach.
One of the great advantages of VSLs is that they do not have to cost much to create. A simple VSL can be recorded at home on a relatively inexpensive camera and edited using free online editing software and still get the job done. However, as your brand grows, you can afford to start making more professional-looking videos, scaling up their quality as your business scales. One of the great advantages is that, even at the highest level, VSLs can deliver massive returns with relatively minimal investment. For this reason, they are an essential part of any serious marketer’s toolkit.
