Video Sales Letters: A Complete Guide

A video sales letter (also known as a VSL) is a video made to sell a product or service. Think of it as a traditional sales letter but in video form.

Video consumption is growing yearly; most people prefer watching videos to reading text articles. YouTube has 122 million users daily, and social media sites engage millions of users daily through short videos.

Still, the written sales message you send your customer in an email campaign can be turned into a video sales letter. With proper planning, a VSL will boost your conversions.

Video sales letter software helps to craft the best message for your audience. Although creating a VSL is not difficult, there are some key points for obtaining the best results.

This article will provide the best tips and resources to craft a video sales letter to increase leads and conversions. Check it out.

What are the main guidelines for creating a video sales letter?

1-Get the viewer's attention. Point at some problem the viewer suffers and invoke a solution you can provide.

2-Do not show features; show benefits instead.

3-Maintain a friendly but authoritative tone.

4-Show how your product or service can fix that problem and how different it is from other alternatives.

5-Tell success stories from those who previously used your product or service.

6-Include a CTA (Call to action) in the end.

 

5 steps to create a video sales letter that converts

1-Determine your audience.

You cannot create a single video for all your audience. Demographics, ages, and individual interests are features to consider. People's beliefs and buying processes are different in every culture. They must be evaluated to craft a successful video sales letter.

2-Determine in what part of the sales funnel your VSL will fit.

Are you targeting recurring customers, leads, or viewers that don't even know your product? Ask yourself these questions to understand what key points your message should address.

3-Write your script.

This is the foundation of the whole video sales letter. A script is a written document that considers the message of your video by organizing it into a structured outline. It includes scene descriptions, voiceovers, and text or graphic descriptions.

A script should consider what the video is about, its audience, the main message you want to deliver, and what visual style the video should follow.

4-Create your video sales letter with a video editing tool. 

More about this later.

5-Promote your VSL.

You can embed the VSL on your website, share it on social media, or through an email campaign. Also, creating a dedicated landing page to drive your viewers is a good resource. It will depend on the specific purpose of the VSL.

For example, if you are targeting a B2B business, LinkedIn (and not Facebook) should be your preferred social media site.

 

RELATED READING: 9 Video Testimonial Software

 

How long should your VSL be?

There is no rule of thumb for video sales letter length. A long VSL can fail to get the viewer's attention, and a short VSL can't showcase the proper message to your audience.

Generally speaking, a VSL for low-cost products can be a pair of minutes long. People don't think a lot when buying a cheap or impulse-driven product. But high-ticket products will need more time to shift the lead through the sales funnel.

You should keep your VSL as short as possible but long enough to deliver your message.

In a video, the human brain decides in the first 30 seconds if it will pay attention to the message on the screen. These first seconds are crucial to engaging the viewer for the full video length.

This graphic from Wistia shows the correlation between engagement and video length:

video sales letter

 

Which methods are available for creating a video sales letter?

There are many options to make a VSL. To name a few:

1-A video editor software like Filmora, Premiere, Camtasia, DaVinci Resolve, or the like. If you have no prior knowledge of video editing, this is not an easy task, and you may face a steep learning curve.

2-Use a downloadable software like EasyVSL.

3- Use PowerPoint to create a video. Get a subscription to Office 365 to take advantage of the last program version and cloud-storage benefits. Not a difficult task, but you will have to invest a decent amount of time into it.

4-Go for a cloud-based video editor. These platforms feature paid monthly subscriptions that usually offer a basic free plan. This is the cheapest and quickest option to create professional-looking videos.

5-And if you don't have the time and interest, hire a freelancer or an agency to do the job for you. Freelancer.com, Upwork, and Fiverr are the biggest names in the freelancing universe. You can pick a freelancer based on previous customer reviews and qualifications.

Which is the best software to create video sales letters?

 

Flexclip

video sales letter

Flexlip is one of the most accessible video sales letter software available. You must select a template, upload your videos or graphic assets, add some dynamic text and music, add widgets and transitions and you are done. The process is straightforward and lets you end up with a video sales letter in just minutes.

 

Key features

1-Free tools like screen recorder, video compressor, and video trimmer.

2-Basic video edition.

3-Millions of royalty-free video, graphic, and music assets.

4-Text animation available.

Flexclip pricing:

Free plan with up to one-minute video length and basic features. The next plan is $5.99/month with three minutes of video length, unlimited video exports, and more.

 

 

 Hippo Video

video sales letter

This is a complete video marketing solution focused on turning your viewers into customers. A set of valuable integrations sets this platform apart since this is not a regular feature in this type of software.

Suppose you plan to create sales video letters (and all kinds of video stuff) regularly. In that case, Hippo Video is one of the best solutions in the market.

Key features

1-Generous free plan.

2-Integrates with Zapier, Salesforce, Mailchimp, and more.

3-24x5 Live support worldwide.

4-Mobile app.

Hippo Video pricing

Free plan with unlimited videos up to 15 minutes in length, HD recording, and no editing. The next plan is $15/month and adds standard features.

 

 

Sendspark

Sendspark is a screen and webcam recording platform focused on sales and marketing. An interesting "request videos" feature allows getting videos from customers with a simple link. Once they record the video, it is automatically uploaded to your account and ready to download or share.

Within Sendspark, there are no editing options. You will have to go for an external application if you need to make some changes.

Key features:

1-Chrome extension for easy screen and camera recording.

2-Advanced analytics, including heatmaps.

3-Team management.

4-Send personalized and branded video emails.

Sendspark pricing

Free plan up to 30 videos per month with no length limit and essential functions. The next plan is $15/month with unlimited videos, CTA's, branding, and analytics.

 

RELATED READING:6 Video Popups Builders

 

 

Promo.com

video sales letter

This cloud-based software has a vast library of templates for creating video sales letters. This is a complete tool for video creation and editing, with a bunch of useful tools that allow complete beginners to create an excellent video with no previous experience.

Key features

1-5,000+ templates.

2-Easy drag-and-drop dashboard to create videos in just minutes.

3-Social media platforms integration.

4-Getty images and iStock footage.

Promo pricing

The basic plan is $25/month with unlimited videos, branding, animated text styles, commercial usage rights, HD videos, and more. Free-trial available.

 

 

Easyvsl

video sales letter

Easyvsl is a downloadable software to create videos using a drag-and-drop dashboard. This tool honors its name. To make a video sales letter, you need to follow four simple steps: paste a script and add slides and transitions, choose a design, add audio, and export or download.

Key features

1-Several voices and tones are available.

2-Kinetic text videos (animations with moving words)

3-Vast library of sounds and images.

4-Can be installed on up to 5 computers.

Easyvsl pricing

$197/year or $97 plus $9.99/month. 30-day money-back guarantee.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Traditional sales letters are an excellent way to sell products or services. Still, a video sales letter can boost your conversions even more. They help to generate more leads and conversions with an excellent cost-benefit ratio.

Ultimately, it is all about the old known formula "an image is worth a thousand words."

Are you using VSL in your strategy? Leave a comment below and let us know.

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