619 – A powerful way to boost business: Tom talks Video Sales Letters

Episode 619 – Video Sales Letters
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with Episode 619 To Screw the Commute podcast? Today, we're going to talk about video sales letters. Now I don't want you to worry about video. Many people say they don't like being on video. Well, that's okay. I've bought and sold tons of stuff off videos where all I saw was what I would kind of call a PowerPoint presentation. And I've sold tons of stuff without ever being seen on camera, so there's nothing to worry about. I'll be covering that first so that you can, you know, allay your fears about that. But we'll also copy about when you are on video. And we're also copy and we're also cover the kind of things you should say to structure your video. All right. In the last episode, and it's kind of how I got thinking about video sales letters, because in the last episode, 6 to 18. I was revisiting copyrighting. And, you know, video sales are pretty much a verbal copyrighting thing. So I was critiquing a video sales letter for somebody else, and that's where I kind of got the idea to put this episode together for you now to really important back episodes to listen to if you really want to sell stuff or episode 13, that gives you five critical copyrighting techniques. And this last episode 618 I mean, any time you want to get to a back episode, you go screwthecommute.com, slash and then the episode number right down or listen or copy somehow 13 and 618.

[00:02:13] So that'll give you a ten copyrighting techniques you can put in immediately to help improve your sales. And if you're really serious about this, you can check out copywriting901.com. That's my entire very cost effective course on getting people to buy stuff. So there you go. And by the way, if you if you ever wonder, you know, I talk about a lot of stuff. You know, I've been on online 28 years since the commercial Internet started and in business, 45 years. So I've been around for a while and done a lot of stuff. But if you wonder in this particular episode how I have the right to teach you about video sales letters, well, listen to this. Just one of mine we've estimated as brought in about $13 million. Right. So there you go. I don't know if you know too many people that's running their mouth about this stuff that ever did that. All right. So make sure you pick up a copy of our automation e-book. It's screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Save yourself 27 bucks of buying it off my website. And it's a thank you for listening to the show. And you will thank me if you do the darn things in the book because you'll have so much more time, you know, to sell things, video sales letters instead of fighting with your computer.

[00:03:39] So pick that up and while you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app. It's screwthecommute.com/app and you can put us on your cell phone and tablet and take us with you on the road. All right. Okey dokey. Let's get into video sales letters now. I just told you, you don't have to be on video to sell like crazy with video sales letters. I'm going to cover that first. And and then if you don't mind being on video or you want to do a combo of you being seen along with you not being seen on the same video, then I'll cover that. And lastly, I'll cover a plan for making the video. In other words, what to say on the video to get people to buy. All right. Now, the first type of video I'm talking about is technically called screen capture video. What you'll do is you'll use software that can capture anything you can display on your computer screen. The viewer will hear you talking. Unless you. Create everything and then hire somebody to do the talking. But you don't need to do that. And by the way, when you hear a voice, but you see the graphics or video playing, that's called voice over. And basically what I'm suggesting is that you display stuff on your computer screen and talk about what the viewer is seeing. That's voiceover.

[00:05:14] They don't see you, but they see what you have on the screen and they hear you talking about it. So for those of you who don't know what voiceover is, that's what it is. Now I do this quite frequently when I'm selling an affiliate product. Maybe I like a piece of software. So I do a screen capture video where I'm teaching people how to use it and telling them the great benefits they would get if they use the software. The thing is, they can't get all those great benefits unless they buy the software. And naturally it's going to be through my affiliate link and then I get paid. Another way to do screen capture is to display pictures and graphics of what you're talking about. You can use some stock photos, but, you know, don't overdo it. People don't really like stock photos that much anymore. And I covered I mean, but if you do need to get some graphics and stock photos, I mean, yes, you can still use them, but just don't overdo it. I covered great places to get free graphics and photos without getting sued for copyright infringement in episode 603. So that's screwthecommute.com/603. Now when I say don't overdo it, I mean whenever you can use real photos of your product. And hey, maybe, you know, if you're worried about being on video, maybe you don't mind having a flattering picture of you, which you can control which picture is shown on the video of using your product.

[00:06:55] Maybe, maybe you're okay with that. Or maybe you show pictures of your customers using the product and giving you a testimonial. And by the way, I'm covering some really cool techniques about getting testimonials in the next episode. That's going to be episode 620. So watch for that in a couple of days. All right, so, screencaps, your video can be a great way to sell things. And as I said before, I've bought and sold tons of stuff without seeing who is selling it. And my buyers didn't see me. Now one big boo boo mistake people make with screen capture video that will cost you a lot of sales is using the stock small cursor that most of you use on your computer? Yeah. When you're sitting there at the computer, you can see the the cursor and you know where you're trying to click. All right. But this is terrible for screen capture video. People get lost because you're clicking around and talking and they can't follow what you're talking about because they can't see the cursor. It's so small and it's got to go through video and through the internet and everything and they miss it. So make sure whatever screen capture program you decide to use that it allows you to make big, colorful cursors so people don't get lost. When I do a Camtasia, that's what I use is Camtasia screen capture video. My cursor is a great big yellow ball that's translucent, which means people can still see through it to see what I'm clicking on.

[00:08:41] It also has a red circle around the edge of the yellow ball that flashes when I click. And then add to that. A clicking noise they can hear every time I click. Guess what? People don't get lost watching my screen capture videos. Say and that's. You got to make sure your screen capture has that capability. Okay. Now let's switch gears to you being on the video. Remember, I'm still not talking about what you should say. I'm going to get to that later. I just want you to see the many ways you could do these videos. One way is just to be sitting at a desk or on a couch in your living room or a bar stool. You can also stand in front of a whiteboard and draw on it. If you want to see an example of this, check out Dr. Eric Berg on YouTube. He has over 8 million subscribers and he just stands in front of a whiteboard and tells you stuff about health. There's absolutely nothing fancy about his videos. So you don't have to do cartwheels to get good help. Good. Helpful message across. All right, now back to sitting at a desk or a couch or something like that, please, for all that's good and holy in the world. Okay. Kill the electronic backgrounds. Almost always. They just look stupid and high quality. Excuse me. Stupid and low quality. To do them well at high quality requires a lot of know how.

[00:10:29] And I see people all the time. They've got blonde, wispy hair and it just it's just disappearing. The background is disappearing and appearing around their head. That's just stupid looking. It ruins your credibility. Just set up a nice background with a bookcase or plants or wall hangings. And and then here's a real important tip. Get as far as you can away from the background. This is really important. And I got to tell you about this. A long time ago, there was a mac commercial for, you know, Apple commercial, and they had a real cool guy that was representing the Macs. And then they had a big fat guy, dumb, dumb, dumpy looking guy representing the PC. Maybe that was me, I don't know. But they were standing in front of a white background. And so people started to try to emulate this in their videos. Well, what they didn't know is that white background that in that TV commercial was probably 40 feet behind those two actors. When people tried to emulate it, they would stand right against a white wall. And and we we people that know video call this the convict. Look. It just is terrible. You see the shadow of yourself behind your head. I mean, it's just stupid looking. So get away from the darn background and stay away from green screen, too. That's another thing that just looks stupid most of the time. All right. It sounds cool.

[00:12:12] And, yeah, I know how to do it properly, but most people don't. And most people aren't willing to get all the lights to light the background separately and make sure the wall is perfectly with no wrinkles in it and the proper green. And you're away from the wall far enough. You have enough room so that the green isn't bouncing off the light isn't bouncing the green off the wall onto the edges of you that look stupid. All right, so please, unless you're super into this and willing to spend the money and the time to learn how to do it, don't do it. It's not necessary. All right. Now let's another way is a is about going on location and I teach you how to do this in my VIP video weekend training. You should be able to shoot a marketing video anywhere you happen to be and tie wherever you are into your marketing message. Now, this takes training and practice, but it's extremely interesting from the viewer's point of view. And for an example of this, you check out Kaiser and Bender on YouTube. That's Kaiser PR and Bender Bender on YouTube. I think they may be retired now, but all their videos for years and years are on location. Now. They don't have a tremendous amount of views, I'll admit that. But they don't need them to get big contracts with retailers, which is their target market say. So they don't have to have a million millions of views to get big this big money out of what they did.

[00:13:50] And all of them were on location. So you can see examples of that. And they aren't slick either. I mean, I remember one of them, they were sitting at a picnic table outside the Indianapolis 500 and you could hear the massive noise of the race cars behind him. And they still did a great job on the video. So if you'd like to have an immersion training weekend, either one on one or in a small group, check out Screw the Compucom slash video weekend, whatever dates there is probably the last one, but we have one on one available that you can come any time we can schedule it. So check that out. Screwthecommute.com/videoweekend. Okay. Now let's get into how to structure a video sales letter. And first, I got to tell you, if you had 100 people that sell with video, you'll get 100 different opinions on how to structure your video. What I say here is not gospel, trust me. And when people tell you this, the only way to do it run away and grab your and hold on to your wallet as you're trying to get away from them because nobody knows exact thing when it comes to copywriting and video sales, letters to be sure, are made up of spoken copyrighting. You must test all kinds of things price points, targets, angles. And what I mean by angle is, is I know I was working with this guy the other day, it sells health stuff.

[00:15:19] So an angle would be he could emphasize one video towards leaving your spouse as a widow or widower. And he could use another. Video and emphasize being a burden to your kids because you're sickly as you get older, that kind of stuff. So those are different angles is what I'm talking about there. So you got to test just like everybody else who makes a lot of money selling online with these things. All right. So let me boil this down for you to give you an easy place to start. Pretty much everyone will tell you you have to do something to grab attention right at the beginning. Now, this is especially important if you plan on doing any YouTube in-stream ads where the people watching the ad must watch it for 5 seconds before they can click the skip button. Now, I covered those kinds of ads on episode 175, so screwthecommute.com/175. Then you have to highlight the problem. Your product or service will solve and talk in terms that prove to the viewer, you know, the pain they're feeling from that problem. Then somewhere in there you can you can do a thing called future pacing, in other words. What would it be like if this problem was all taken care of? So get them picturing. Oh, it would be so wonderful if I didn't have this or that problem. Then you can let them know you have an effective solution.

[00:16:56] But don't tell them about it yet. Tell them some of your credibility, not your whole CV for since kindergarten. All right. Some of your credibility, like how long you've helped people solve the problem, how many people or businesses you've helped solve the problem, how fast and easy you can solve the problem for them, that kind of stuff. Then show some proof in the form of stories. Case studies and testimonials. Remember, my next episode will teach you cool methods of getting testimonials. So that'll be what, 620, I think. Episode 620. Then give them a call to action. Now, that could be a direct purchase for a smaller ticket item or a phone call for a bigger ticket item, whatever you want them to do. You've got to tell them people will do what you tell them. If you tell them, you can't just assume that they will do it. Now, somewhere in your call to action, you could give them choices like, och, do nothing and things. And the problem that you're having trouble with will remain the same. It's not going to work itself out on its own. And then another choice could be figured out on your own. And spend a fortune and take forever to give your. To figure this out. All right. And then, of course, give your solution a chance would be one of their choices. And you can talk more about your solution at this point without giving away the farm, for sure.

[00:18:29] But don't hold back. Make people really believe your solution could be the answer. So that should get you started on creating your script of things that should be in your VSL. Vsl is video sales letter. If you see that term, that's video sales letter. Now, if you're especially glib, like Kizer and Bender, you could just have bullet points taped up somewhere which remind you of what to say, and then you could just ad lib the content of each bullet point. And then add an opening and closing and voila, you have a sales letter, you're on your way to a VSL that sells for you. Now, if you'd like training on this and the 1000 other things you need to know to be successful online, check out my mentor program. It's the longest running, most successful, most unique ever in the field of Internet and digital marketing. And I triple dog dare anybody to put their program up against mine and they won't do it because they'll be embarrassed. All right. So so check it out and check out our VIP video weekend. If you're not ready to go for the full mentor program and you can come on your own, get one on one attention for two full days, and you will leave here with skills and abilities that can just skyrocket your business. All right, check it out. And guess what? I will catch you on the next episode, 620, which is all about cool ways to get testimonials. All right, see you then.