Video Marketing

Classic salesmanship in print required a killer sales copy roughly encompassing these 4 elements: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action - the AIDA principle. This was accomplished initially in direct response sales letter and later adapted for the web in the form of the Long Form Sales Letter that we have been accustomed to all these glorious days. For those not familiar with the make up of a sales letter, there are variations but a common theme is effective use of the AIDA principle starting with a hard to ignore attention-grabbing headline, fast-paced action-packed writing, emotionally hooking anecdotes and fantastic claims couched in reality, tons of endorsement from happy customers who used the service or bought the product being pitched and culminating in an urgent call to action. Think you can’t do this with video? Think again, see this illustration at Video Info Marketing home page.

With the advent of rich media dominated web 2.0 world what becomes of the beloved Long Form Sales Letter? While there’s a valid reason to be concerned, this is no time for panic. Burying your head in the sand would be counterproductive and absolutely useless. There’s a glimmer of hope for those who understand the fundamentals of the sales process. Dan Kennedy’s 6 steps of sales process outlined in his outrageously amazing book “No B.S Sales Success” is the gold standard. Understanding this process and internalizing it should encourage anyone concerned about the shift towards online video. If you understand online video is just another medium to transmit your pitch, then you should have no problem adopting online video as a vehicle for broadcasting your sales message, getting prospects to take action and having them to stampede in a mad frenzy to your website and buy your stuff.

Another reason to be excited about online video, Infomercials - they provide a template that can be adapted, with some tweaks, to devastating effect.  You see, while a hyper-texted web was finding its footing, infomercials were the medium of choice for savvy marketers who figured the dead airtime on cable and broadcast TV were a gold mine. Their bet was that there is a huge potential in late night TV viewership and the rest, like they say, is commentary. These savvy early adopters cleaned out their competitors’ clocks. This has to be one of the most enlightening stuff Carlton said - everything he says is pure genius!

Ok, If you understand the sales process and can tweak infomercial tactics for the web how could you accomplish this? Before you leap in here’s a cautionary reminder, online sales video must adhere to the same principles that led to the success of the sales letter: Grab attention, hook the prospect and get the viewer to take action. The catch is to do this in about 5 minutes or less. Please understand this, your video should be part of a well laid out and well thought out strategy. The core of this strategy is adding value to your prospects before they buy one single thing from you. Though it’s possible to make your pitch in your first video, you must promise and deliver tremendous value to the prospect if the prospect takes action. Providing social proof, establishing authority and having a ‘reason why’ should be the other key components of your core strategy. This is the secret sauce to video marketing success just as in sales letter - remember the essence of the sales letter hasn’t changed much since Ben Franklin.

Here’s an excellent video that does just that - Spoiler Alert! Self Promo - not that there’s anything wrong with that;). You can start thinking of ways of incorporating its approach to your online video marketing campaigns:  Video Info Marketing

There’s always understandable angst to adopting new techniques, process and ways of doing things. Yet, adapting to rich media based world is a reality you can’t avoid. Those who take action and get started with video will absolutely thump their competitors. You don’t want me to tell you what happens if you ignore online video…You really don’t…Get to work and take action today, break out the screen cam software, Powerpoint or Keynote Presentation and start playing with that webcam.

In upcoming posts we will discuss tools and services that will make the whole process doable and dare I say, fun eh?

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Filed under: Blogging Money and Blogging cash • Make Money Being Online • Videos From Youtube

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