I am mad at Eben Pagan, Armand Morin and others

i hear you on that one ideasuniversity....
they should definately provide different forms to get their msg across...

Someone on here tried it a week or so ago. Let's just say it turn out that good.

Because John Reese declared that video on sales letter is much more compelling than odinary sales letter. It is probably the same about pre-launch of product.

Hear, hear!

They are guilty of the fallacy that if MOST people in their audience prefer video, everyone does. That's not true at all, quite apart from the bandwidth issue.

I hate gratuitous videos. I'm a fast reader and an impatient watcher. A video has to be extremely entertaining and not just a talking head to keep my attention at the computer.

Marcia Yudkin

I watch videos SOMETIMES, but I hate wasting computer time watching videos when I can just download the Ebook version, email it to my smartphone and then read it in my free time.

I have approx 8 hours a day to spend on my computer, I can't waste time watching videos when I should be working, much rather read the pdf later.

Same with WSO's and training courses, sometimes I watch the video and sometimes I just take the ebook version with me on my phone and read it on the metro bus or some other time I am wasting time but can't get on a computer.

The other problem with video, you have no idea what parts to skip if you already know it, or don't care. Much easier to do with the table of contents in an ebook, where you can skim through anything you don't need to spend time on. It's much slower trying to do that with video and sometimes impossible when the video is locked down like a frickin Fort Knox and you can't manipulate it. Sometimes when I can't skip through a video sales pitch, I will just stop it, close the page, and move on with my life.

Sometimes I just don't have time for video... other times it's awesome and I enjoy it

i always preferred text over video- you can quickly cut to the chase & get right down to the main parts. thats a huge timesaver.

This is the new lazy man's way to market in my opinion. I live in the country and have dialup so I don't even try to watch videos. If a company doesn't provide a text version of sales letter plus pdf version of their product, I'm not interested in their product.

It would be hard to argue with the notion of simply
putting up an alternative PDF for folks to download...

...except that it's NOT hard to argue.

I'm not suggesting that it isn't frustrating as a prospect.

But can we all please put our Marketer hat on and set
our Consumer hat to the side for the time being?

Great.

Now, why on earth would you want to alienate potential
customers like that?

Why would you want to leave that money on the table?

There IS a reason. Who can guess what I'm getting at?

It's a valid and salient point. So, give it shot...

Why would you WANT to do it?

I'll check back later and see if we're on the same...

...ahem, page.

Best,

Brian

Sales.

Recently have been devoting a larger percentage of my time to video, mainly because of the impact the free Andy Jenkins videos had on me.

My first idea was to create a great report on a topic and then create a video using the report as my narration. Not Good.

A well written report sounded wooden and boring when used as a narration to a video. I realized that writing a video narration was a whole different animal and my research into that area began. BTW screenwriting is not the answer.

If the "pros" simply provided a PDF or text version of their video presentation I'm sure it would be very innefective. To get the conversion they NEED you to watch the video, if they allow too many people to consume their pitch in a less effective form they shoot themselves in the foot.

They could write a PDF or text version that IS created to make the sale but that would increase their costs and time to market considerably.

I'm guessing a great sales letter costs more and takes a lot more time to produce than a good video.

So to answer your question I think they don't provide those options by design. Yes the lose a few customers with slow connections and a dislike of video BUT they more than make up for that by INCREASED conversions from the majority of viewers.

My only point was that they should provide BOTH video and print. Then you can reach EVERYONE who visits your salespage. Besides, my mother is about to go to a training school for medical transcription, don't want all the "video purists" to put her potential freelance career out the window before it even gets started

I'm not a fan of video in sales letters. I would much prefer to scan through the sales letter.

Tony Robbins is another one who does this. He only uses video and high res stuff so on my fairly slow connection it takes up to two hours to watch it. I don't bother anymore.

Well, the logic might be that you have a captive audience who just have to sit through to read your message.

But, putting on only a video, on a commercial, publicly accessible page, is a disaster waiting to happen. Am not about to explain it further and give people ideas.

It is 9:29 PM.....I dont even know where mt camera is, lets see how long this takes...

9:35 PM...waiting for video to upload on youtube. My flip battery died, so had to find new batteries

rant, while I am waiting of whats in the video. Video is a lot easier to make and upload. Having a written copy is a lot more work. I also agree that it helps build rapport with clients.


Enjoy,
Mukul
(9:40 PM)

there's ways to download the video to your computer and then you can watch it in your own time...i don't think that's illegal. eben has most of his videos on his youtube page using something like keepvid you can download it quickly.

Tutorial videos are a completely different thing to sales pitch videos in my opinion. If I purchased a product and it was video, I would watch them - after all, I was interested enough to buy so it's something I want to pursue.

But if you're tying to actually sell to me, then 9 times out of 10 I won't watch a sales video.

Nathan and Kevin - thanks a lot for your insight. Yes, I know what you
mean about scrolling up and down, etc. And I can see the rationale
behind videos for control and conversions.

Bottom line is conversions and sales. As always. Hmmm... got my mind
going, here. lol.

Actually, I have seen really excellent videos, and I've always wanted to
know how to make them. I know perhaps it's best to outsource. But I'm
a hands-on guy. I like 'doing stuff.' lol

Any referrals for sources for making great videos?

The coolest ones I've seen are fast paced, cool effects whizzing by... stuff
like that. Where can I get those "whizzing by" graphics or effects.

Can you guys point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

Alvina... wow.

Oh, the comments you made... I mean. Cough... ahem...

Product idea time...

How about a killer course that teaches how to make ultra killer videos... ??

Anyone? Nathan? Kevin?

I cannot comment from any testing I've done, but on one membership site I belong to, the number crunchers claim the video only page converts at a much higher percentage than a video and text page, or a long sales letter.

It is not a choice of choosing who to satisfy, they are following their own testing, and seeing higher numbers of sales on both low priced items and upper end items.

As they make a strong point to mention, though. You must always test. Just because it converts at a higher rate in their IM business, and some of their other niches, does not mean it will convert higher in every niche.

While we can argue they are leaving money on the table, their numbers are arguing the opposite. They would be leaving money on the table with the other methods.

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is
trying to please everybody."
- Bill Cosby

Waw..that is super expensive.Here in Indonesia, I can get unlimited internet access for less than $30 and it's 100 Mbps, super fast. This is one of my reason why I love living in Indonesia

I hate it when videos just start on a sales page. All of a sudden a blaring noise if your speakers were up for some reason. I leave those pages immediately.

On the other hand - and this is what I do - if the video is on the page and I can click a button to watch it I will if it interests me.

ken? I don't think they would have a problem with it...I mean unless embedding is disabled that means they don't want it going anywhere. I don't know just an idea. Also, eben has a bunch of videos on his blog for download too...and I recall some pdf's that were downloadable...let me go look...

Also, if you just write them they probably would have some stuff to send...I get stuff all the time.

Personally, I HATE VIDEO, the music is intrusive, especially if you are trying to look at it undercover. The people who present are so......................boring. They have not practiced the craft so they make the visitor endure their mistakes =, misquotes and they go on and on and on about their lives. We care, but we did not click to hear the sob story, we cliked to get to the good stuff. What works on paper does not fare too well live (video) give me a good book or ebook that I can curl up to and read at my leisure.

i guess highlighters will be the next casualty of this modern message

I watched some videos a while back from Hubspot, they provided me with a wealth of information and they also provided the information in pdf, video & audio versions.

Some people like to watch t.v, some like to read books, some like to listen to the radio.

Provide your sales copy (product, service) in multiple formats and let the consumer choose how they want it.

Maybe there is a reason for it?....

Maybe, just maybe... the whole process is designed to filter out people based on issues like this? : :

Peace

Jay

p.s. pssssstt!.. Rule Number 1

First, may we know what they've said in their sales pages? Did they put in there that you will only be getting a video/series of videos?

Assuming that's what they've said, then by all means, it's all your FAULT you have purchased their products. Maybe their target market are peeps that love to get info. through vids.

In any case, problems/issues/concerns regarding a product(s) purchased should be addressed straight to the product owners/creators.

Just an honest opinion...

Sorry, but I refuse to invest any more of my time in watching long drawn out sales pitches interspersed with touchy feely interludes "sharing" the ups and downs of the private life of the presenter.

If your research indicates that they are effective and result in more sales, then I would think that this would be only a short term effect in my opinion.
I guess that time will tell.

But I won't be wasting my time watching any of these forced time thieves, whose message can generally be summarised in a few paragraphs that take less than a minute to read. If you don't give me that option, I won't be buying your product.

regards,
Eric G.

Fact is since switching to 100% video on my blog traffic and commenting has grown faster than ever.

The stats don't lie.

Asking marketers who work on the cutting edge to cater to dialup or people who are otherwise bandwidth challenged is ludicrous.

Accessibility issues for hearing challenged people, and the millions target.com was sued for comes to mind.

I'm totally opposite. I get upset that a video wasn't created. I hate reading

You can please some of the people, some of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time lol I do believe close captioning would help a lot of people out also of course- Damian

I prefer the approach where a sales video is also accompanied by sales letter below. That way I can just skip the video to read it instead whenever I don't feel like waiting and watching.

Even when you're on high speed broadband, you will still run into periods of time when connection is incredibly slow. There have been times when my broadband feels worse than a dialup. And this usually stays around for a few days, there have been cases when the connection was terrible for months.

When someone is having a hard time watching your video for whatever reason, chances are they will just close the page if there is nothing else there that will let them know about your product.

And they won't come back.