How to Create a Winning Video Sales Letter (VSL)

What if your video sales letter was virtually guaranteed to convert traffic into leads and leads into paying customers? Here’s what you need to know.

Video sales letters have become a popular way to generate leads and sell products online.

And for good reason.

82% of internet traffic across the world is set to come from video marketing in 2022.

Simply for the fact that it’s video-based, VSLs can help you keep your audience’s attention, convert more traffic, and even connect with your target market on a deeper level.

But what exactly is a Video Sales Letter?

What is a Video Sales Letter?

A Video Sales Letter has the exact same content as any other traditional sales letter, but consists of video-based content rather than written content. 

Truthfully, most Video Sales Letters aren’t entirely devoid of sales copy… they just have more video and less copy. 

It’s on the video to do most of the selling. 

Here’s an example from Jaimie Cross, a ClickFunnels member who sells organic soaps and lotions.

Notice that her Video Sales Letter still has sales copy… it’s just that the video is the focus and is intended to do most of the selling. 

In fact, if I zoom out, you can see how there isn’t much sales copy on the entire page.

That’s because the focus is supposed to be on the video content. With a VSL, you don’t want to distract people from the video with too much extra sales copy. 

Which is one of the great parts about a VSL; you really just need a video and a headline before you launch. 

You can turn your Video Sales Letter into a funnel by putting video content front-and-center on each page. 

Oh — and here’s Jaime’s video, in case you were wondering what a killer sales video looks like…

The DNA of an Effective Video Sales Letter (and How to Build One)

What are the fundamental elements that make a high-converting VSL? 

It’s actually pretty simple. 

There are really only three things that you have to nail in order to make the launch of your Video Sales Letter a huge success: the headline, the video, and the sales process. 

Let’s talk about each one in a bit more detail.

The Attention Grabbing Headline

As has often been shouted by marketers everywhere, you’ve got to have an attention-grabbing headline. 

This applies to your paid ads and to your sales page itself.

The easiest way to illustrate why this is important is to think about who you’re trying to attract and when they’re going to have the opportunity to watch your VSL. 

If you’re running Facebook Ads to drive traffic, for example, then people didn’t come looking for you… you are interrupting them. 

They’re scrolling on Facebook, probably looking for entertainment, and your ad pops up. 

The only way to get them to stop scrolling is to grab their attention with an irresistible headline.

Here are a few examples of headlines that stop people in their tracks. 

Once people click on your advertisement, they’ll be taken to your Video Sales Letter. 

This means you’ve captured their attention. 

Great job!

But you’re not finished yet… they’re interested but your VSL headline still has to make a big, irresistible promise to keep their interest and build further suspense. 

Here are a few examples of that.

Looking through these examples, you’ll notice that each headline will appeal to a different market… they don’t all appeal to the same people. 

And that’s okay. 

You want to write a headline that is attention grabbing and irresistible to your dream customers. 

Then, once you’ve grabbed their attention, they’re going to watch your video. 

Here’s what comes next.

The Compelling Video

The heart of a Video Sales Letter is the video. 

Your video should do the bulk of the selling and it should be as compelling as possible. 

That is, it should compel your target market to take the next action that you want them to take during that step of your sales funnel.

Maybe that means signing up for a free webinar, opting in to your email list, or buying a product.

More than likely, your Video Sales Letter will turn into a Video Sales Funnel with multiple pages and stages.

Okay. 

So you know you need to use video content on your sales page or pages… but what should you actually say in each video? 

Well, a sales video should flow almost identically to how a typical sales page would flow.

Here’s the structure that world-famous copywriter, Jim Edwards, recommends following…

1. Explain The Problem — What problem is your target market facing? How can you empathize with their challenges?
2. Agitate The Problem — Make that problem visceral for them. Explain why it’s a bigger problem than they think it is and how it’s really going to harm them over the long-run.
3. Introduce The Solution — What is your solution to their problem?
4. Build Credibility — Why should they trust YOU to be the provider of this solution? What makes you so great? Telling a story about your own journey can help build credibility.
5. Show Proof — How do they know that it’ll actually work? Using a case-study or testimonial is a great way to show proof.
6. Explain Exactly What They Get — Explain exactly what the prospect is going to get if they sign up.
7. Give Reason To Act Now — Why should they buy right now? Use urgency or scarcity to put the prospect’s foot on the gas.
8. Close — Close the sale with a final call-to-action.

Remember, this process can be split up over multiple pages to keep the prospect moving forward and to help them make little commitment along the way. 

For example, maybe your first page just explains the problem that they’re going through and emphasizes it’s severity, and then asks for their contact information so you can give them your “unique solution.”

Once they give you their email address, the second page might introduce your solution, build credibility, and show proof of what your product can do. Here, you can then get their payment and shipping information. 

On a third upsell or downsell page, you could explain exactly what they’re going to get, offer an additional product with urgency, and close the sale. 

The point is, this process fits just as cleanly onto a single page as it does onto an entire sales funnel. 

Here’s what this process looks like in action — this is Russell Brunson selling his book, Expert Secrets…

The Easy-to-Commit Process

As with any effective sales funnel, your Video Sales Letter needs an easy-to-commit process.

In other words, it needs to guide people from one easy step to the next… as seamlessly as possible. 

That’s exactly what we’ve built ClickFunnels to do. 

We have sales funnels for generating leads…

For selling products…

And for hosting an event…

If you want your target market to take action, then sales funnels will help you do that.

Each one is built (and tested) to psychologically guide people toward taking the action that you want them to take. 

Here, for example, is what our Video Sales Letter funnel looks like…

No matter which funnel you decide to use, you can always record video instead of writing sales copy… turning each page into a Video Sales Letter. 

Build Your First Sales Funnel For FREE!

Create Your Video Sales Letter in 3 Steps

Creating a video sales letter can actually be really simple.

The bulk of the content you need will be just one or several 5-10 minute videos. Then you’ll need to select a sales funnel, upload those videos, and drive traffic.

1. Choose Your Sales Funnel

The best way to get people to take action online is by using a sales funnel. 

Whereas a website or a single page might confuse visitors about what action prospects are supposed to take, a sales funnel is crafted to intentionally drive the visitor toward conversion.

If you want to sell products, then check out our Video Sales Letter Funnel.

If you want to generate leads, check out our Squeeze Page Funnel.

And if you want to host an event, check out our Webinar Sales Funnel.

And remember, you can turn any funnel into a Video Sales Letter by substituting the sales copy for sales videos. 

Once you’ve chosen your sales funnel, it’s time to record some video.

2. Record Your Video

There are a lot of different styles for Video Sales Letters. 

You could use your phone and do a recording while you hold it in selfie-mode, you could do a screenshare, or you could do a more professional production.

Whatever you decide, the important thing is that your video style matches your brand. 

At ClickFunnels, our style is pretty casual, so Russell Brunson films a lot of videos of just him talking to the camera, unscripted. 

For example…

But that might not fit the brand image for other businesses. 

You might want to start by writing a script for your video and maybe even hiring an actor to deliver the lines.

That’s what we did on our Death of a Website page.

Ultimately, record a video that will fit with your brand style and resonate with your audience. 

Is it personal? Is it formal? Is it artistic? 

Then hit record.

Depending on the sales funnel you’ve chosen, you’ll probably have to record multiple videos for different pages.

Note: As for the content of your video, you can follow the sales process outlined in the above section, under “The Compelling Video.”

3. Drive Traffic

The only way to create a winning Video Sales Letter is to create it and then to drive traffic. 

After all, your video sales letter won’t have a chance at converting if your target market doesn’t even arrive on the page. 

So this is an important step. 

And this is a question you should be asking yourself long before launch day: How are you going to drive traffic?

Are you going to work with influencers? Run paid ads? Promote organically to your audience? 

All of the above?

If you’re not sure, then get yourself a free copy of Traffic Secrets, and check out this article we did with 8 different traffic-driving strategies.

BONUS: The Video Sales Letter Template That Convert Like Crazy

Before we close out this article, we want to share one more example of a high-converting Video Sales Letters with you. 

You’re welcome to take this template and apply it to your sales funnel in a way that makes sense for your business. 

We’ve even included a link to this funnel template so you can start working from the template immediately for free!

You can browse through all of our Video Sales Letter Funnel templates over here. 

There are just four different pages to this Video Sales Letter funnel. 

First, we have the primary sales page.

This is where you sell a no-brainer product to your target market. 

What product do you have that sells like hot-cakes? Or how can you create a product or offer that will be irresistible? 

That’s what you want this page to be about — a low-level offer that excites people and gets them to take action. 

Once they enter their payment and shipping information, they go to the One-Time Offer Page.

On this page, you make the prospect a special one-time offer that goes away if they don’t take advantage of it right now. 

This creates a sense of urgency and will typically increase your average value-per-order. 

Next is the downsell page.

This offer should be a smaller commitment than the product on your one-time offer page. It should be a simple, little something extra that makes people think, “Oh yeah. I probably do need that.”

Here’s what the entire product-flow could look like.

1. Sales Page — “Free Book, Just Pay Shipping!”
2. One-Time Offer — “30 Days Of Our Service For 50% Off!”
3. Downsell — “Also Get My Workbook For Just $10!”

And lastly, we have the Thank You Page. 

This sales funnel converts like crazy and increases your average value-per-order because of how it guides each visitor.

Go here to create your first sales funnel for free!

Ready to Build Your Winning Video Sales Letter?

People love video content. 

And sales funnels convert better than any other online marketing methodology.

By crafting a video sales letter to accomplish your marketing goals, you leverage the synergistic impact of high-converting sales funnels and attention-grabbing videos.

What’s not to like? 

And now, you have everything you need to get started… including a 14-day FREE trial to ClickFunnels! 

It’s time for action!