Three Big Reasons You Must Start Marketing Online With Video Today… Hell… Go Back In Time And Start Yesterday…
Filed under copywriting, Hollywood Story, marketing, Video by on Oct 24th, 2010. Comment. 
Firstly…
Let me give you the lay of the land in advertising dollars… 
According to media strategists, ZenithOptimedia, $36 billion was spent worldwide, to advertise on radio in 2007. On television that number shoots to $168 billion, almost 5 times radio.
Logic shows an unexplained incongruity with those numbers.
You see… in order to receive marketing messages on television you must be tied to one place. In most cases you need a cable and a big television set. You pretty much need to be at home to watch television, and to have ads confront you.
Radio has a much bigger reach. Radio is portable. It’s in cars… in tiny devices in your ear… in places of business… sometimes pumped out onto the sidewalk downtown. Because of this, radio is and has been for years, the most dominant media in terms of reach.
Yet they take a financial backseat to television.
Knowing this, why do you think so much more money is spent on television advertising, than on radio? It’s simply because showing your prospect something has much more impact than telling them. That’s also why online marketing and video are such a natural pair.
According to techcrunch.com, online advertising in America passed $22 billion last year. Pretty much a dead heat with radio (most numbers say $23 billion in the U.S. on radio).
By the time you read this sentence, radio will probably already have fallen to third place. How long before television is forced to take a back seat to online video advertising? After all, the Internet competes with television by having the best of both the television and radio worlds…
It’s visual… and it’s portable… Not to mention just how inexpensive it is in comparison to either.
Some of the world’s biggest corporations already know this. They are now beginning to tear down their old-fashioned image websites in favor of dynamic, Web 2.0 direct response websites. And they’re finally becoming visual thanks to video.
Here’s an example of an online commercial that is served well by using video as opposed to audio or text.
It’s for Epiphone guitars and you’d think maybe an ad for something that makes music would work best on radio or online audio, but after watching it you can see how much better the features and benefits of the package come across on video.
Now let’s move closer toward info-marketing; The kind of marketing many of you are engaged in. Take a look at this video for a marketer selling a unique way to use video on your website. You’ll see that using a simple screen capture video as he did, does the job much more effectively than if he had just an audio message… or text.
It also proves that you don’t need to be Steven Spielberg to make profitable online videos.
Of course, the hottest videos out there today are also among the simplest to produce…
I’m talking about the Powerpoint video, as seen here www.fatburningfurnace.com.
The phenomenon is so great that Powerpoint really does require its own article. So… I’m not even going to go into it here.
If you recall… way back at the top of this article, I started by saying, “Firstly…” Well… I just wanted to remind you, since it’s been a while.
Anyway, it’s time to move onto… Secondly…
Online video has already grown to the point where consumers are beginning to expect it.
Soon if you’re not using video… or if you’re still using it improperly… there will be a sizable segment of the market that won’t even consider your sales message.
But remember. You don’t have to produce fancy, full-blown infomercials. In some cases those are best. But in other cases, a video as simple as this one by marketer Jessica Swanson can work just as well.
Lastly…
According to the Wharton School Of Business (You know, that school Donald Trump went to)… “video direct response rates can be up to 600% higher” than an ad in print.
That might have something to do with why they produced this direct response video to sell Trump’s appearance at a Learning Annex event.
By adhering to the principles of DR, some marketers have done even better than 600%. I’m not just talking about 1,200% or even 1,500% increases. Marketer Frank Bruno used to talk about increased conversion rates of more than 1,700% thanks to the addition of one direct response video.
But let’s use that conservative 600% number and apply it to you and your business. Take what you make right now and multiply it by 6. That means video can turn $20,000 a year into $120,000… $50,000 into $300,000, and $170,000 into more than $1 million!
Now… what’s your excuse? Why haven’t you started marketing with video yet?
I’d love to hear that, as well as your comments on this post. Be sure to share with us.
That’s my story.
Now… keep the party and the profits rolling.
Vin
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Comments on Three Big Reasons You Must Start Marketing Online With Video Today… Hell… Go Back In Time And Start Yesterday…
Nice article.
It’s funny… last couple big tests I’ve done…
Test 1: Long form text sales page + video WON vs just a video.
Test 2: Just a video WON vs long form text sales page + video.
What never seems to win in my testing anymore is just a long form sales page OR just a long form sales page with audio.
Video is either winning as standalone or along with a long from text sales page.
Jason,
I’ve found very similar results. Usually… best is still video on a sales letter.
Now… here’s where video gets really interesting:
http://www.google.com/tv/
This isn’t just Internet on the TV… it’s Google on the TV… meaning their apps and their ad network is now on the television.
Meaning… the reach of BOTH your video content and ads greatly expands. It also may change the audience of your website where they are more passive.
Anyway, this is something to keep an eye as far as where this goes. But, again, it’s interesting because it’s not just web tv, it’s an entirely new experience where you can interact with the content and the selection of what you watch expands.
Vin, you could not be more spot-on.
As a small business consultant here in Philadelphia, it still amazes me how stuborn some people can be when it comes to using video in their sales funnel, or even in their blog posts.
Now, I am no technical whiz, by far, but I know & implement the use of video whenever I can – especially for my own clients.
Thanks for this post!
-Kevin Puls
Kevin,
thanks for commenting, and you’re welcome. I have to say I’m a bit surprised by the lack of comments here. I guess that’s what happens when I post something that really has no controversy to it at all.
Hmmm… Maybe there’s a contest in this somewhere? I’m open to ideas, gang!
Vin, what are your thoughts on the length of videos in sales letters?
I know you used to favor a quick 30 second intro to get folks reading.
Personally, I’m using pretty much the entire sales pitch in video if possible these days…
Apples and oranges, Matt. I still contend very short videos when they’re in conjunction with a sales page. A “Headline video” to get them started. But powerpoint videos are a different animal. Those should pretty much be a reading of the entire sales letter.
Are you using talking head videos of the entire pitch ON a sales letter or in what capacity?
Yeah talking heads work well (2nd choice would be Powerpoint unless it’s a video-only sales page) and I get them to read most of the pitch.
With multi-tab browsing these days, I guess a video lets the sales pitch sink in while you can get busy doing other things…
Yeah… I’d definitely love to see your numbers… but in most cases I’ve seen a half hour talking head video lose (in a big way) to a short video (or 3) on a sales page.
Well, the current CB No.1 (at least in the marketing section) has a video that goes on for eternity.
Doesn’t seem to hurt but, like you say, wonder if they tested it? (Clue: I doubt it!)
I’d love to know too.
Aaah… well… you may have something else there.
Can’t tell unless it was tested but… interesting how the “pitch” on the talking head video is almost like reading the sales letter. This may be (as we’ve spoken about before) an auditory reinforcement of the written message, much like the reason for the success of the PPT videos.
Not so much a talking head video (although it is that) as it is an old fashioned audio (when you consider most people are probably not “watching” it.
This is a trend I’d keep an eye on.
Nice catch, matt.
It depends on the client, but in the main I advise all my clients to use video in their sales letters… usually as short headline type video you talked about. I don’t know anything better than video to establish that hard-to-quantify and measure “trust” factor. It can give your sales message instant credibility from the get-go.
— Ross
I hope this question doesn’t sound strange…but here goes. Should the headline/talking head video start playing as soon as the web page is fully loaded or not.
I’m asking as I know some people find it really annoying that a video starts playing as soon as web loads.
Jacqeuline,
Not a strange question at all. In fact it’s a well-debated question. Conventional wisdom was always that the video should NOT play. I was taught (and later confirmed) that the vast majority of viewers hated auto playing audios… and by extension, videos.
But…
As things play out, I’ve found the truth to be “it depends…” In some markets (many as a matter of fact) auto starting video kills the manual starting ones. As far as I can tell it has everything to do with forcing the “reader” to see the video… at least the beginning… adds more sales than it takes away.
Anyone else have results on this?
Vin
PS – Great question, actually Jackeuline.
In the discussion of talking head vs. PPT messages… my thoughts are if you’ve got someone who is charismatic and likable you can do really well out of it.
When I did 9 – 5 Annihlation, I wrote a video script. Didn’t initially get used but when the site was sold to Andrew Fox he got someone to shoot the video (as originally intended).
Although I don’t have the exact stats, I’ve had a lot of affiliates told me it’s converting really well for them.
Of course, it was never tested vs. a PPT video… so I don’t know which would win there.
Just thought I’d share a bit of info I had regarding the topic.
-Dan
I think you have a point, Dan. As Matt and I have spoken about, that other page he showed had a professional “actor” in the video.
@Vin Montello:
The results I’ve seen, and I haven’t tested this extensively, is auto-play beat-out non-auto-play. This was for a traffic generation product.
My theory on this is auto-play is ideal for when there’s a lot of noise you’re competing against. You have even less time than normal to suck the reader into the copy. For instance, the make money market, certain weight loss products, a lot of the CPA offers, PPV traffic, traffic generation products and so on. In these situations, I’d be a lot more inclined to use auto-play.
Exceptions where I could see it losing in a big way might be technical audiences, maybe older audiences, and in areas where people might have set aside a lot of time to browse the web.
Vin, do you remember what the audiences were like when you saw auto-play audio lose?
Also, something else that throws this off… is if you don’t do auto-play, then you might have a very effective headline and deck copy that hooks the reader and gets him/her to click the play button. I could see how if you do this right, it’ll be more effective than auto-play.
Anyway, from what I’ve seen, I love to use it.
@Daniel Scott:
>>> charismatic and likable you can do really well out of it.
Yep, I think when a lot of folks sell courses of videos, it’s in their interest to portray it as though you can do everything yourself. I definitely think that a lot of business owners can pull this off themselves.
However, if you’ve ever listened or hired to a v/o artist or actor, they bring a LOT to the table. After all, I think the statistic is 90% of communication is NOT the actual words… it’s the non-verbal communication, such as hand movements, body language, voice tone, where emphasis is placed, and so on.
In other words, I think Dan brings up an often overlooked crucial element…. making sure the text is read right.
The instances where not auto-playing beat out auto playing were mostly in the IM world. I’ll be completely honest, the general consensus was at the time that you just don’t autoplay. I never argued that point until one day I interviewed Harlan Kilstein and he revealed that his testing showed the opposite. I made note of it and began testing myself. And it turned out his results were often the case.
Now… what you say about having a great head and deck compelling them to click vs having just an average head and deck… that is interesting to me too. The reason I say that is I have to wonder if not for other outside reasons like that, it has to mean that people just changed their feelings about autoplay. And that’s hard to fathom.
I find this to be a very interesting conversation one of which I have pondered a lot myself. Not sure there is really a right or wrong answer. I ‘m kind of old fashioned and I still believe that nothing is more hypnotic than good old fashioned salesmanship in the written word.
A killer sales page with the right fonts, colors and layout gives me the warm fuzzies- IF it keeps me wanting more from paragraph to paragraph from headline to add to cart button or whatever. NOTHING in the universe is more powerful than the written word.
On the other hand, as a consumer/Internet Marketer I love a good video too. Not so much the web cam vids with laundry and dogs barking in the background (it’s a no no)…Not so much the old fashioned slides , but I do love “some” of the flash presentations. I personally feel something is missing when you JUST have a video that plays where the add to cart button appears at the end.
I much prefer a sales letter with video to “reinforce it”…Using a pro voice over to me is a must. I think an optimum time for this video is 3 minutes max. Plus I like how they repeat the on page sales text as well but not word for word.
I haven’t looked into the Google factors of how they index video only sites as opposed to video PLUS sales letters IE with “content”…
Just today I saw a product launch from Trey Smith showing he got approval from google for his squeeze pages which looks cool..need to check that out.Of course those are not content rich, so here we go back to the drawing board?
I LOVE green screen videos like Mike Koenigs does, I think it’s the pinnacle of professionalism and I want to beleive everything he’s saying. Of course I know his background with Traffic Geyser etc.
In closing if I had to go with 1 method it would be killer sales text with 3 minute pro voice over narrated video that reinforced the on pages sales copy that didn’t autoplay…I could press play AND pause at will…unpausable videos are terrible…I hate being forced to watch it through when I have to use the bathroom. BUT with that said traffic is the control here…Which site will convert more? The one with 1,000 uniques a month or the one with 10,000 a month regardless of video only or words only…………..(64,000 question) I say the one who gets the most traffic will convert more just based on simple statistics.
My 2 cents
Craig,
I have to say I’m right there with ya, Craig. If I had my druthers it would be micro-short videos reinforcing the sales letter. But as with everything else, we’re slaves to the numbers. When they change, so must we.
Hi Vin,
My thoughts and comments re. video. Hmmm.
First, I have the quintessential Shirley Temple voice. YUCK! NOT exactly what is needed to inspire clients to throw thousands at me to do their copy. It’s much more suited to teaching people how to knit. (And you try filming that by yourself!!)
Second, I’m enough of an old geezer (almost 62) to not expect video on a website. Audio, sure. I guess. But video I somehow find I’m reluctant to click on. Maybe because many “videos” work just as well as audios?
Third, I absolutely loathe sites where you get sound and/or video as soon as you land on them. Startles the heck out of me! So if you do use video or audio, for heaven’s sake make sure the visitors have the option to play it or not!
That said, there are some very personable people (like you, for instance) who look and sound so professional that you’d be a d**d fool NOT to use video at every opportunity!
Nuff said,
Dot
You bring up a great point, Dot. And in my experience smart marketers who don’t have the personality and/or voice/face for videos do very well because they hire out their video stars. It’s quite affordable these days to find talent… especially voice talent.
Vin, terrific post! With regards to video salesletters, I find there seem to be two primary types of presentation…
Predominantly, there seem to be Fat Burning Furnace-type powerpoints, but other respected marketers are adopting a Video Boss-type powerpoint (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bvl_6JCCX0).
Do you have an opinion on which powerpoint-style (generally) converts better?
The Video Boss style is more entertaining, but the FBF style has the benefit of allowing the prospect to hear AND read the sales message word-for-word. Hmmmm.
I’m in the process of select one of these presentation formats for an up-coming launch, so your expert opinion would be much appreciated.
All the best,
- Josh.
Josh,
I’d say FBF is the way to go… but then again, I’m biased. That’s my client.
Okay, that said… I think it’s not always that cut and dry. What I would recommend if you were my client is start out with a standard powerpoint, then invest profits later into the other kind, and split test.
HI Guys
Does anyone know what happened the ‘Peel Away Video’ sales site that was featured in the video here?
I tried http://www.peelawayvideo.net but there is nothing?
–Glen
Not a clue, Glen… But hopefully someone else will know.
Hey Vin,
Thanks. We’ll wait and see.
I did mean to ask, have you ever produced a copywriting course, or do you only do one-on-one coaching from time to time?
Glen,
Actually… later in the year it looks like I’ll be putting out 2 different courses.
Keep an eye out.
Yeh Vin…..I sure will!