How I Made a Video Sales Letter (VSL) in About 30 Minutes

Have you heard of a video sales letter (VSL)? It’s exactly what it sounds like, a sales letter created on video that inspires your customer to choose you. Keep reading for video sales letter examples, video sales letter templates, and video sales letter software that you can use to create video sales letters.

If you’ve been avoiding creating videos for landing pages and opt-in pages because you don’t like it, you think it’s expensive, hard, or takes forever. this cheat sheet is for you. After 15 years, I’m embracing video sales letters and sharing my short-cuts. Fellow video avoiders — help is on the way!

I hate video. I know I’m in the minority because the statistics don’t support my preferences. So, let that be a lesson to you. Marketing isn’t about you and what you love – it’s about connecting with your audience. And my audience loves videos. Want proof?

What is a Video Sales Letter (VSL)

A video sales letter is a short, persuasive video that is used to sell a product or service to your target audience. It is typically between 2 and 5 minutes long, and it is a great way to connect with potential customers. establish rapport, and create a connection that can lead to a sale.

A video sales letter can be as simple as a written sales letter converted to video, to a talking head video (where you appear on the video) and do a simple presentation.

What Makes an Effective Video Sales Letter

In order to create an effective video sales letter, you need to keep a few things in mind. First, you need to identify your audience and craft your message accordingly. Second, you need to make sure that your video is visually appealing and easy to follow. Third, you need to ensure that your video is properly optimized for search engines. Finally, you need to track your results and adjust your strategy as needed. By following these tips, you can create an effective video sales letter that will help you boost your sales and reach your target audience.

Do Video Sales Letters Work?

I always like to say that if video content didn’t work, no one would use it. The following data shows that videos are a very effective way to create sales letters to deliver a sales pitch.

According to Wyzowl:

• 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
• 88% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
• 78% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software or app by watching a video.
• When asked how they’d most like to learn about a product or service, 73% said they’d prefer to watch a short video. This compares to 11% who’d rather read a text-based article, website or post, 4% who’d like to view an infographic, 3% who’d rather download an ebook or manual, 3% who’d rather attend a webinar or pitch, and 3% who’d like a sales call or demo.

That’s market research. The data has spoken. And that means that I’m going to create videos. Oh, there’s this other reason too — I want to increase my conversion rates by 80%-86% by using video compared to a 5.31% conversion rate without a video.

But first, a little context.

The evolution of the video sales letter (VSL)

A video sales letter (VSL) is …you guessed it – a sales letter in video format.

Ever since David Ogilvy said that people will read any length of copy as long as it’s about them, sales letters have been an insanely effective form of direct marketing.

And then, when video technology evolved to the point where the rest of us could create high-quality videos, the video sales letter was born.

The first video sales letters were text with a voiceover.

It looks something like this: a PowerPoint slide video with large text and a simple voiceover.

Don’t judge. Even though these videos weren’t fancy or pretty, they were insanely effective. During the 2010’s they were all the rage and marketing were using them to sell everything from $15,000 programs to books.

As you watch this video pay attention to how they address their customer’s pain points.

The next big thing was explainer videos

But then beautiful, high-quality videos became even easier to make. And so — videos with both text and videos are even MORE effective.

This is an example of an explainer video. It uses highly effective visuals that support the voice-over to explain a concept, product, or service.

So now, when you land on the homepage of a website, a landing page, or a sales page the video you see there is — some variation of a video sales letter.

Heck, if you’ve watched TikTok, you’ll notice that many of those videos are (in essence) a video sales letter – especially if you turn on the captions.

Now you know.

OK – You want to make a video sales letter – now what?

There are hundreds of articles and videos out there that will give you templates and scripts to create a video sales letter. And you are free to search Google and do that work. Or — you can pay thousands of dollars to have someone do this for you — and not give you what you paid for.

Here’s my solution.

It’s short and sweet. You will pay something for the tool but believe me it is WORTH IT!

Let’s get started.

Sign up for Jasper.ai

No — seriously. I have written video sales letter scripts before and it was long, hard, and painful. It took me about 40 hours to write the script and create the video. (I’m bolding this so you can come back and compare).

I’ve also hired people to do this and paid them thousands of dollars to screw up something I could have done for free. So there’s that.

Jasper has just added a video sales letter template that is worth the price of admission. Check this out!

In this image, you can see that Jasper offers a template form for you to fill out. And then turns your answers into several variations of a video sales letter script.

Here are the form fields:

• Your Name
• Company Name
• Who is your ideal buyer audience
• List your key benefits and features
• What current pain or negative circumstance is your customer facing now?
• What’s a true negative or scary fact?
• What’s the big idea in 2-3 words? What hook makes your product difference?
• Number of customers for social proof
• What is your niche?
• What is customers’ initial goal?
• What are customers’ ultimate goal that results from the initial goal?
• How is your product delivered
• What is your product name?
• What’s your product’s price?
• Tone of voice

The real magic is when you click on the “Generate AI” button. I generated 3, but you can generate as many as 15. Believe me 3 is enough.

It took me about 15 minutes to fill out this form. It might take you as little as 5 minutes.

I got my 3 versions and had the final script in about 2 minutes.

Adding Video Testimonials

I want to say a few words about video testimonials. You don’t have to use video testimonials, although collecting written customer testimonials and featuring them in video form is very effective.

If you don’t have testimonials right now, don’t let that stop you. You can include them in future videos.

Turn your script into a presentation video

My next step was to create a basic presentation video. Remember, I don’t want to be on camera, so presentation video first.

Again, I’m lazy and cheap. So I’m looking for a video tool that’s going to convert this script into a gorgeous video in a few minutes.

I tried a couple of tools. Here’s what I got and I’ll tell you, and show you what I chose.

Lumen5

I have so much love for this tool. I use the free plan because I get unlimited videos if I let them show their logo. This is such a great tool – I’m happy to show their logo.

Normally, I use this tool to plug in a URL from an article and their AI generates a quick video from the content.

I’m not kidding — it’s that easy.

Granted, you will have to do some video editing. Be real — it’s a machine! But not too much editing.

In this case, I cut and paste my script and messed around with the slide design.

Here’s what that looks like.

It was ok. It didn’t make me smile or anything. But, hey, it was free.

My next stop was:

invideo.io

Like Lumen5, invideo had a similar interface, where you drop your script into the workspace and the system creates slides from your script.

The experience was a little easier for me than lumen5 for this particular project. And I was seriously considering using it. But then I remembered.

Adobe Express

I pay for Adobe Express and believe me it’s worth every penny. But don’t worry, there is a free version as well. All I can say is – there is so much to love.

Adobe Express has this fool-proof feature that creates gorgeous professional designs with no effort on your part.

I used their easy video creator for this project.

I simply broke up the copy to fit into the slide. I selected different formats from the left had menu and went from one slide to the next until I was done with the script.

Adobe had an amazing bank of free images to choose from – so that was easy.

And, I was also able to use my brand colors and fonts.

One more thing. Adobe also has the ability to add music and a voiceover.

<iframe src=”https://express.adobe.com/video/nvQ3asrjR3lil/embed” width=”960″ height=”540″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

There are other tools out there, but these are the ones I used and why I ended up going with Adobe Express in the end.

What I’m going to do next – Testing

My next step in this video sales letters process is to actually create a face-to-camera video where I go through this script in front of a camera. I intend to do captions as well just in case there are other people out there who don’t like having videos play out loud.

Then, I’m going to do an AB test with these two versions of the video on a landing page to see which one performs better.

But that is the EASY part.

The hard part was getting to this point.

Best VSL Examples

Here is my final video sales letter

Next, I want to show you some sales videos by marketing experts who use their own video sales letter formula to great a great video sales letter.

Here are the Best video sales letter examples:

Frank Kern

Granted, Kern didn’t “invent” video sales letters, but since he’s an amazing copywriter, and someone who understands what motivates and persuades his audience, his video sales letters are extremely effective.

I’ve been following Kern for years and I think he is the master of sales video. In fact, I’ve purchased several products from him based on a sales video and have found the content wasn’t for me – but the sales video — perfection.

This is one of his early video sales letters where he’s literally taken a written sales letter and transferred it to video and BOOM!

Jeff Walker

I can’t say enough about Jeff Walker. While Frank Kern is more of a traditional salesman, you’ll notice that Jeff Walker’s video sales letter example is more educational. Walker has a “steady” communication style that makes me think that he’s more of an introvert.

In fact, his Product Launch Formula (that he’s describing here) is ideal for content marketers. In this case, he’s not using a video script, rather, he’s educating his target market. He grabs the viewer’s attention with this educational live action format.

Video Sales Letter Funnels

After creating an effective video sales letter, setting up your email list and having a well-thought-out campaign plan in place, the next step is to build a VSL Funnel. A VSL Funnel consists of 4 pages:

1. The VSL + Order Page – This is the first page where customers will watch the video and then an order form will be displayed to them. By filling out the form, they can move on to the OTO page. This page contains all necessary information and encourages customers to act quickly on their decision.
2. The OTO or One Time Offer page – It incentivizes customers to gain access to extra services or purchase additional products based on their original purchase decision. Also, it enables a time period which gives customers an urgency feeling and increases chances of conversion rate significantly.
3. Downsell page – It targets buyers who are not interested in purchasing anymore and offers them other options like digital copies of physical books, etc.
4. Offer Wall Page – This is the last page which acts as a thank you page for buyers containing details about their orders with links to other subscription services related to their primary purchase decisions.

FAQ: Video Sales Letters (VSL)

Now it’s your turn

So, now it’s your turn. If you’ve been avoiding video sales letters like I have because you don’t like yourself on camera — then do this simple text video.

If you’ve been avoiding doing a video sales letter because writing the script is hard or expensive – don’t. Use the Jasper.ai tool I recommended.

And, if you’ve been avoiding video sales letters because you can’t make pretty videos — check out the video software tools that do it for you.

Overall, there’s no excuse!