I found myself today clicking on the link of an email from a marketer I didn’t know and can’t remember why I signed up for his list in the first place.  I clicked it out of procrastination… er…curiosity.  The link took me to a page with a video of another marketer I’ve never heard of.

But the video caught my attention!  This was something new about offline marketing that I never heard of. So I kept listening.

The intro caught my attention, he showed an example of the results and even stated the price. He even described the effort to put this all together for me – all within the first 4 minutes or so.  Then he said the video will continue for another 15 minutes, and he would show how his program works in more detail.  The concept – interesting.  The price – nice.  I wanted to know more!

But then…

He started talking about his money problems…he had big bills to pay. Then he went into the history of why he had the big bill to pay.  At this point, I started losing interest.   Why?

He already had my attention to learn more about his product!  I’m on the verge of clicking the “Buy” button, just as soon as I learn what he’s selling.  But then he had to go into the HISTORY of his debt to explain WHY he made the system?  I lost interest – to me, it was another long-winded story, one that I surely could not relate to.  Then he started talking about other marketers and THEIR stories and how they rip us off with get rich quick schemes. THEN he went back to HIS story.

And worse – there was no fast forward button on the video!  I don’t know how long he went on and on about his money problems.  This went on for many more minutes.

Ugh, well I turned off the video because I was turned off by the video. I even read the sales letter, but it had the same story regurgitated from the video.  Unfortunately, I might be losing on out a great product and a great idea, but there was a lot of talk about ‘him’ and not enough about what he can do for me.

We’ve all been exposed to long-winded videos – and it’s pretty trendy now for marketers to says “I know this is a long video, but bear with me”.  Sometimes they’re good, most of the times they are unnecessary.

How can they solve this issue?

  1. One thing is to guy the viewer an “out” – give them a control bar or a play bar so they aren’t trapped waiting for information.
  2. In this example, I got the price and an example right off the bat.  So put the price up and show a result up front. This will gain attention – not a sob story we’ve all heard before. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s how marketers “relate” to customers, but haven’t we all heard the same stories for the umpteenth time?
  3. Have a webinar instead of a video. If there is so much information you need to dish out to sell your product, hold a webinar instead.  We know a webinar can last for 30 mins, an hour or even two hours.
  4. Have your long-winded video, but put the nitty-gritty details in your sales letter (please don’t have ONLY a long-winded video).
  5. If you must have a long-winded video then make it ENTERTAINING.  At least try to impress your customers with something interesting that will keep their attention from looking at their clocks.  A video of only your talking-head, while beautiful I’m sure, probably won’t keep their attention for too long.
  6. If you still must have a long-winded video, then make it about how you will help your customers and how things for them will change.

Do you have experience with long-winded sales videos?

Filed under: General Tips

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