Video Sales Pitches: The Long & The Short of It

| by Paula Brett |

I was a bit frustrated last night, and now I’m a bit perplexed, so I’d like to hear your thoughts…

Opening my inbox there’s various emails telling me to go look at Mike Filsaime’s latest product (no, I’m not trying to do a sneaky promo). So off I skipped to the page and there’s the pre-requisite black screen telling me that I’m in for a video.

Where’s the play button? Ah, click on the black screen (maybe it’s my naughty browser not letting me see the play button – my browser can be a bit cranky and dictatorial sometimes- “no, Paula, you’re not looking at that today, but you can look at it tomorrow!”)

Where’s the fast forward, where’ the time counter? OMG, Video Length 50 Mins 27 Seconds

And there’s me, at the end of a long day, flicking through my `to look at later’ emails thinking I could have a quick trip through and see what’s going on and who’s doing what. I really didn’t feel like or have the time to sit and watch a video for nearly an hour.

Now, I’m not criticizing Mike for the video but it hit me last night that I really do have problems with vids in general. Not necessarily techie probs, I can usually sort that out, but actual `getting to watch them’ problems.

I’m a full-time-stay-at-home-marketer-mum and it’s so difficult to sit down and say “right, I’m gonna watch this vid all the way through without any interruptions”.

I’m finding myself pulling on the reigns before I click the play button to check first if there’s a pause button or a fast forward button. If there is, splendid, I’m happy to watch as I know there’ll be loads of stopping and starting going on whilst I’m breaking up fights between Edge and Triple HHH, (pause) clearing up Co-Co Pops from the kitchen floor, (pause) helping with homework, (pause), having a flaming row with my husband (double pause) etc .

OK, so training vids, great, I understand that you schedule your time, because you’re learning something, being tutored, and I’m the first one to dive on the latest Kevin Riley vid, just like the next person. But whomping great big sales pages…?

So, back to last night… I’m staring at this black screen and I really just want to get the gist of the product and find out what it does and how much it’s gonna cost me? Is that so bad? Am I any different from anyone else? Am I weird, lazy, a bad marketer, not the sort of customer that IMers want?

Now my questions are:-

1. What do you think is the purpose, in internet marketing terms, of these video sales pitch, apart from the obvious, of course, of selling the product? Is this just a pure, cold-light of day business thang?

2. What do you think goes through a marketer’s mind when he wants to launch a product and he has to chose a sales pitch format and why do some marketers decide on video sales pitches as opposed to a traditional sales page?

3. Are video sales pitches done because it’s easier, more econimic time- and money-wise to use a video instead of a normal, traditional sales page that one can read?

4. Are video sales pitches a more effective way of securing sales?

5. Are they used to combat those potential buyers who read the headline of a sales page, skim and then whizz to the bottom of the page to see how much the product’s gonna cost?

6. Is the length of a sales video crucial to producing sales, in the same way that many repeat the mantra that the longer the [traditional] sales page, the more likely the reader is to buy?

7. Many marketers believe that you’re `leaving money on the table’ if you fail to understand that your potential buyers all prefer different methods of learning and absorbing information; some respond to written media, some to audio, some to video and some to a combination. They advise that to provide all of them is a great way of showing that you understand your customers and that you’re willing to cater for them.

Could the same apply to the way you sell a product? Would it be suicide to provide say a vid sales pitch and a traditional sales page? Are marketers leaving money on the table by not doing that?

I did actually watch 15 minutes of the video as I was genuinely interested. I got the gist of it, but had to ask a friend who’d watched it to confirm that I’d got the message about what it was, and the price.

I suspect that I’m not the only one that did that…. and perhaps that is indeed one of the purposes of video sales pitches – to weed out all those who `can’t be bothered’ [read: any other reason for not watching].

For me, though, I think that perhaps if the vid hadn’t been so long, or if I’d been offered “don’t want to watch my pitch in video format? Prefer to read my pitch? Go along to the sales page at www….” , I would have done so and perhaps I’d have converted.

I want to stress here that I’m not moaning or whinging or criticising, I enjoy watching how different marketers do their thing… and I’d genuinely like to hear your comments and thoughts.

On a lighter note, here’s an irreverent look at how a sales page should be Enjoy!