The DNA of a High Converting VSL

With marketers constantly looking for new ways to optimise their landing pages, VSL has become a fast growing method of use to help businesses increase conversion rates.

It is well known that people buy from people so by making your sales pages more personable by adding a video rather than a load of text, it  generally establishes more trust with that user as well as capture their interest a lot quicker than text might.

With a VSL, you will be able to get your point across a lot better than in writing and will be able to create a buzz about the product or service you are selling.

As well as creating a buzz and having a human to human interaction, you will be able to educate the user by showing them exactly what the product looks like and what it does.

Sometimes pictures just aren’t good enough; especially if it is quite a large purchase your customers are making.

Using VSL’s are certainly something you should be doing or at least split-testing if you want to see improvements in conversion rates and an increased ROI from your marketing and advertising spend, as well as improve your SEO results.

I believe you will be pleasantly surprised with the results and will wonder why it has taken you this long to trial it.

I’m going to tell you everything there is to know about VSL’s by explaining exactly what they are, how to create them and how to make sure they convert.

What Is A VSL?

VSL is an acronym for “Video Sales Letter” and in short, is a sales letter that includes a video rather than a load of text.

There have been reports that sale pages which include videos see a much higher conversion rate than sales pages that just have text and images.

This report was based on stats across all industries so it isn’t something that you should shrug off as “it’s not relevant to my industry”.

We would, however, say that you need to split-test this change before installing it onto all of your landing pages and monitor the results to see if the VSL does, in fact, generate a higher conversion rate.

Create a VSL that highlights all the key features, benefits and USPs of your product or service. Make sure it is friendly and the person in the video can relate to your target audience.

For example, you wouldn’t have a man in his fifties on a fast fashion website whose audience are predominately women aged 18 to 30.

Your VSL should still include a contact form or buy button with your video subtly directing users to the converting net. After all, if it were a regular sales page, then you would probably have a call-to-action directing users to convert and so instil the same thinking into the video.

How Do You Create One?

There are a few options you can choose from to create your VSL depending on the time and budget you have and also what it is you are selling.

Whatever option you go for, it is important not to skip on quality.

A video sales page that is not well thought out, doesn’t have any key information, isn’t interesting enough or has poor quality sound and picture, people aren’t going to buy into it.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to make a high-quality video for your sales page… even on a tight budget.

If your budget doesn’t allow to video in a beautiful location or hire professional videographers, you can still create a high-quality VSL by using an online tool.

Such tools allow you to create and collect all your VSL projects on one dashboard.

One of the instruments is EasyVSL, and as the name suggests, it isn’t too difficult to use.

All that you need to do to create your VSL is add a new VSL project, paste in the script that you have already written and choose a theme or template you think will work best for your target audience or upload a custom theme you have built yourself using Photoshop or PowerPoint.

You will then add pointers to the script so that the tool you are using will know when to transition into new slides that you can then add a voiceover.

Once you are happy with everything, you can publish the VSL to the destination directory for you to add to your landing page.

How Do You Make Sure it Converts?

While we have said how much a VSL will help boost conversion rates, whether it works or not does depend on you.

Throwing up any old video on a landing page isn’t going to improve conversions; time needs to be taken to make sure it is the best that it can possibly be.

Take the time to write the script for the video, making sure that you include key points that you believe will push users to buy.

Choose a design for your VSL that will stand out and visually capture the user’s eye.

Make sure that it is of quality and not something that will have the opposite effect to its intended goal.

The important thing when using a VSL is to continuously split test it like you would with a landing page. You can then be constantly optimising it to increase conversions continually.

For example, you have a VSL already built which has been running for some time and conversion rates have stagnated again so you publish the same VSL but this time with a different background to see if this leads to a change in conversion rates.

If it does, you can change the background on all the other VSL’s you have created.

You can test each element of your VSL such as the voiceover, font, colours and script using this method to make sure it is always improving your conversion rate.

Another thing you may want to split test is whether your VSL should start on autoplay when a user lands on the page or whether you wish to let the user hit the play button themselves.

How Does it Compare to a Sales Page?

How it compares design-wise is that the VSL has a lot more visual impact which is very important considering visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text and viewers spend a crazy 100% more time on pages that have a video. You just can’t argue with those kinds of numbers.

With a typical sales page, a user will have to find out the information for themselves rather than someone telling them about it.

If the person in the VSL is confident and excited about the product or service, those emotions may just rub off on the user who then might be more inclined to buy.

Where a sales letter may have a title, bullet points to highlight key features and additional text for further details, a VSL would have a video to highlight key features and to show the viewer how a product works.

How Long Does it Take to Make?

How long a VSL takes to make depends on many things just as with how you create one.

It could take just 10 minutes to create a single VSL that consists of a slideshow with voiceover or it could take a full day.

You will also need to consider the time it takes to write the script.

Yes, copywriting is involved,

And that is the heart of a real VSL. The compelling copy which someone reads to make them buy the product or service that is being discussed.

The objection handling, making sure you hit the prospect’s fears and frustrations.

Some scripts for sales letters cost upwards of $50,000 if they’re being added to a website which gets hundreds of thousands of visitors per month.

Just take a look at the number 1 ClickBank product, Fat Diminisher which is likely to be making five to 6 figures in revenue every single day!

So the answer here is a little ambiguous.

If you’ve got the script ready to go, it might only take you 15 minutes, if you still need to write (or wait for a copywriter to write) a script then it could be days or even weeks.

But as I mentioned earlier.

Don’t rush the quality, this is the centerpiece of your conversions.

Visuals are Bigger and Better…

Before I leave you to create a VSL for your landing pages, here are a few important points to remember to ensure your VSL will bring success:

1. Make sure the VSL has strong copy behind it. That’s the core.
2. Split test the VSL before creating one for every product or service. You want to find the secret sauce.
3. Make sure the quality of the microphone you’re recording it with and the quality of the movie you upload is clear and in high definition. There’s nothing worse than crackly microphones and 144px video.

Now you’re on the right track to building and launching your winning VSL!

What’s your biggest hurdle you’re yet to overcome when launching a VSL? Let me know in the comments below!

Of course it doesn’t have to be this complicated. Want to get some free Funnel Graffiti? Check it here!