Video sales letters are the new tool in the arsenal of the big gun gurus – potentially a great way to make money fast online. You’ll have seen them. Mike Filsaime used one for his launch of Traffic Fusion. Michael Cheney did the same for his launch of The Golden Formula. Stompernet, Frank Kern and countless others have used these video sales letters to sell millions of their products.
It was time for me to put them to the test and see if they work. My find was interesting to say the least.
Video Sales Letters – Why they could be an untapped goldmine if you want to make money fast online
I’m big enough and ugly enough to admit when I’m wrong. A few months ago I said that video sales letters were just a ‘gimmick’ and not to be used by the average Joe. Gurus only.
I’m also big enough and ugly enough to admit when I’m right. I said that a video sales letter needs an accompanying text sales letter to go with it or it won’t work. I was right there.
You see last Friday I launched a product to a list of nearly seven hundred people. It was a limited offer and I fully expected to have to roll out to my other lists in order to sell out the packages that were available.
Twenty four hours exactly after I had launched I had made thirty five grand and had to close down the offer.
And I did that without any joint venture partners. Without any big name gurus promoting it or without any marketing costs.
How the bloomin’ hell did I do it?
Well the first part of the formula is very important.
Build a relationship with your email list
Making thirty five grand from a small list of under seven hundred people is virtually unheard of. The reason I can do that is because the people on my list know they can trust me completely. I never have, nor never will, send them rubbish to make some easy money. If I did they’d think twice about buying from me again.
For this reason I can never quite understand why so many well known marketers promote things every week. That doesn’t build relationships, that destroys them. Especially if you’re promoting rubbish.
So rule one is this: Only ever promote quality products to your list. Build a relationship with them by giving away quality content.
Create anticipation
If you’ve ever seen any product launches you know what I mean here. You need to whip people up into such a frenzy that when you send an email promotion with ‘The Site Is Now Live’ kind of thing people flood your web site and start buying straight away.
I did this last week by sending out an email on Tuesday afternoon giving away a video on the subject of my launch. It was twenty five minutes long and covered exactly what I would be doing, why I would be doing it, when the site would go live and how much it was going to cost.
In other words no smoke or mirrors. It was just the honest-to-goodness information that I’d have wanted to know was I in the position of the person receiving the email.
So many people think that you need to be all clever with your marketing. Want to know what I’ve found works best? Honesty. Now the upside to this is you have to be offering something of such value that people would pay ten times the amount you’re selling it for. I say upside rather than downside because if you’re willing to sell rubbish you shouldn’t be in business in the first place in my eyes.
So rule two: Create something of such value people will be getting a huge bargain, show honesty and integrity and create a frenzy.
Create limitation – and stick to it
Something that really, really annoys me is when people say the price goes up at X on Friday or once we’ve sold two hundred and fifty we’re pulling the product off the market. Inevitably the majority of people who say this never do up the price or pull the offer.
Again this is an easy way to kill any long term success. People will start to see the fact you’re talking out of your backside and not rush to by from you.
Last week I was selling a limited amount of licences. I said in the video on Tuesday I honestly don’t know how quickly this will sell out. But when it does, I’m pulling the offer. Permanently.
The result? Six grand in sales in the first six minutes. Thirty five grand in twenty four hours. And I pulled the offer down that day when I sold out. As I said I would.
I’ve received tons of emails from people saying they missed the offer but now want in. I could easily say ‘sure just send me the money’ and let them in anyway. But then what happens next time I do an email promo? Are they going to jump in right away or know they can wait? The people who missed out now know I am a man of my word (builds trust) and also know next time I launch they have to act fast (frenzy).
Rule three: When you launch (if it’s your own product) sell a limited amount at a limited price, or a limited amount full stop. If it’s not your product and you’re promoting someone else’s create a killer bonus and say something like anyone who signs up in the first X days and sends me their receipt gets the bonus. After that you don’t get it I’m afraid so act fast.
Video Sales Letter – a killer trick
Let me state categorically that this is not for everyone. I’ve been doing online video for three years now and am pretty comfortable with it. If you created a video which is a sales pitch, but you’re all nervous and your voice is wavering do you think that’s going to encourage people to buy? God no. People are nervous when they land on a page as it is because they know they’re going to have to spend money if they want the product, so if they hear you and your voice is quivering they’re going to feel anxious and leave.
So firstly if you are going to create a video sales letter practice. A lot. And get comfortable with your voice being out there.
Secondly I disagree completely with what most gurus are doing. Don’t just have a video and a buy now button. Have a video and around five pages or so of a sales letter that has information on the benefits they get if they sign up, what they get if they sign up and how much it costs. Also, of course, what kind of refund guarantee you have.
With Mike Filsaime’s Traffic Fusion launch he just had a video. No sales letter. No real information. Just a video that was about forty five or so minutes long. I’m too busy to wait that long for something that I have no idea what it is or the price is, so I closed the site and left.
The majority of people will do that.
Rule Four: Use a video sales letter with a short sales letter. People will land on the web page and scan the sales letter to see if it’s any good. If it is then they’ll watch the video.
Video Sales Letter bottom line
When it comes to product launches video is vital if you want to make the most amount of money. However this is only if you have a relationship with the people coming to your site (from your email list for example). If you are getting visitors from what is called ‘cold traffic’ as in they don’t know who you are yet, don’t use a video sales letter. By all means give away some quality content in videos but have a sales letter.
Many people are getting hit hard by the recession. Entrepreneurs can make a killing in good times or bad. And that’s what reading this weekly eletter will help you to do if you take action.
21st October 2008