I Don’t Have Time to Watch to The Whole Video
One of the most debatable issues when it comes to Video Sales Letters (VSLs) is whether or not to omit the horizontal slider bar. Many do not have a horizontal slider.
If you’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos, you’ll notice you can tell how long it will take to watch a video to the end. Just mouseover to where you would expect the slider bar and it appears, along with figures for the elapsed time and total time.
Also, you can always pull the slider button backward for a replay the last few minutes of the video. Great if you didn’t quite get something and want to see it again.
Most VSLs have video players without horizontal sliders.
Sometimes when I check my email, I see a subject line that stimulates my curiosity. Something like “Four foods that are harmful for your heart” which compels me to open the email. The email itself doesn’t answer the question but there’s a link.
You click on the link, and you see this video about a particular problem or a promise of great benefit. Most of the time, this video player has no horizontal slider bar. If you are truly interested, you‘d keep watching till the end.
However, most people can’t afford to waste time. This video about foods harmful to your heart lasted nearly an hour before it even began to answer the question. And it was not because there was a lot of information to deliver. Oftentimes the video repeats the same things over and over again in different ways. Typical sales rhetoric.
Sometimes, watching these sales videos, you might not quite get something the narrator is talking about and you wish you could replay that bit. You’re out of luck. No horizontal slider button. You might have to play the video all over again, or just stop listening since you might not buy anything for not having that bit of information.
Here lies the conundrum. Not having a horizontal slider bar favors mostly the marketer. They fear the viewer, knowing the video will take an hour might skip it. They also believe they could move the slider button to the end to find out the price, skipping over all the valuable benefits expressed in the video.
Having awaken with a list of things to get done, first of which is checking my email. Responding to some intriguing subject line, I open the message. I click on the link and there’s a video player with no horizontal slider. This could take some time so I “save it for later” it and get back to my to do list. More often than not, “later” never comes. This is how the marketer could lose sales.
Since you depend on your consumers, you need to do what appeals to them. You must provide a means to play back the previous couple minutes when the viewer did not quite get something. You need to enable the viewer to see how long this video will take to play.
Your video sales letters should average 20 minutes duration and rarely exceed half an hour. Your customer’s time is as precious. Don’t try to manipulate how they spend it. Show them some respect and they’ll show you their money.
One exception where a long letter is acceptable is when it has to do with finances and investments. Most viewers stay glued to the tube when it comes to becoming wealthier.
You could do a split test: a VSL with and without the horizontal slider to find out which works better. Any web programmer can develop a system for simultaneous split testing.
Try different versions of your video sales letter. First listen for which ones sound appealing and perhaps you could split-test the two versions.
In all, it makes sense not to leave out the horizontal slider. Make sure it gives a numeric indication of how many minutes and hours the video takes to play.
Most VSLs, even if they have no horizontal slider at least let you pause the video, like when you hear your phone ring. But it’s always better to be able to do instant replays. <>