So…You Can’t Write A Long Copy Salesletter…

…but you’re going to create a killer video!

Or…

“A simple letter is beyond you…but a Hollywood blockbuster…no problem!”

OK.  Get the picture.

Look, the above comments (hopefully) don’t apply to you.

But I’m going to go on a mini-rant about something that is annoying me at the moment.

Bear with me because what I have to say may well save you a lot of time and frustration and money too.

There’s a somewhat dangerous (in my view) idea going around in marketing circles…

…that the traditional long copy sales letter is dead…

…and that video is the way of the future.

I guess this idea got going, oh, 2-3 years ago with Michel Fortin’s “The Death Of The Salesletter”.

It’s been picked up by other marketers like John Reese and Armand Morin.

In fact in a recent video promoting a new product, Armand boasted that he hadn’t written a traditional long copy letter for quite a while now.

This was in a video that ran for around 90 minutes…

…and ended with an utterly shameless stacking of bonuses on a slide that looked pretty much like…

…well one of those tables you might see in…a long copy salesletter.

My point here is not to dispute or down play the importance of video.

Done properly, video works and will usually boost sales and conversions.

BUT, video works not simply because it’s video…

…but because it’s an effective medium to communicate an effective sales message!

It’s the sales message that is key.

It’s the same with long copy letters.  They don’t work simply because there is 20-30 pages of text…

…but because they communicate a sales message effectively.

Now, you might be thinking, how do you create a great, effective, video?

Well, turns out that the process, the “formula” if you like, is pretty much the same as the traditional long copy letter.

Take a look at some of these video sales letters.

You’ll see the familiar elements of getting attention, building interest and desire, presenting proof and asking for action.

What I’m saying here is that many of the advocates of video either ignore or gloss over the importance of knowing how to craft a compelling sales message.

Bluntly, if you can’t write a sales letter, you’ve got no chance of crafting an effective video script.

In fact, it’s probably harder to write a video script.

Another thing.

Is video always the best medium?

Probably not…depends on your market and the audience.

Even in a market like internet marketing, video on it’s own can have limitations.

Take the recent launch by Eben Pagan of his “Guru Blueprint” program.

Let me say, I have nothing but the highest admiration for Eben.  The man’s a genius marketer and I watch closely what he does.

However, in the middle of the 90 minute video that formed the “video sales letter” for the product, I had to wonder when the hell this thing was going to end.

It was good content, but did it really merit 90 minutes?

Had to smile when the day after the video came out, super affiliate Jeff Johnson came out with an email that confirmed my thoughts when he said…

“Eben Pagan’s Guru Blueprint sales video is too damn long.”

One of the advantages of the traditional sales letter is that you can skim read it and quickly zero in on the key information.

You can’t do that with a video, which is why some experts recommend supporting the video with…

…a sales letter!

As I said before, I’m not “anti-video”.

I regularly write scripts for clients and I’m a big advocate of using them.

I’ve learnt how to script killer videos from the experts…

…and I watch closely how video is used.

You may have noted my occasional series on this blog about “Marketing And Movie Trailers”.

But the medium is NOT the message.

Beware the “Shiny Object”.

There is no substitute for understanding the marketing fundamentals, crafting a killer sales message…

…and then delivering that message via the most appropriate medium, whether that’s video, audio or text.