Video Sales Letters: How To Create The Best VSL in 2023!

Video sales letters (VSLs) are one of the BEST ways to get high-quality leads and clients in your business on autopilot each month.

We’ve tried and tested every kind of lead magnet imaginable (PDFs, Live Webinars, Automated Webinars, eBooks, Physical Books, Free Guides, Free Online Courses, Product Launch Videos, Video Series and MORE).

And guess what works best after spending thousands of dollars on testing and countless hours marketing them?

Video sales letters!

In this guide, you’ll learn everything about using video sales letters or VSLs in marketing, including:

• How to create video sales letters
• What are the best video sales letters examples
• What is the best way to promote video sales letters
• And more!

Let’s get started!

RECOMMENDED

The best converting VSL for sales appointments

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If you’re looking to get high-quality sales appointments each month with your ideal clients, check out this free training which goes through:

• How to create a high-converting VSL

• How to best promote your VSL

• How to automate the whole process

Watch FREE Training

What is a VSL in marketing?

A video sales letter or VSL turns a traditional written marketing sales letter into a video format. So, instead of having a written sales letter, you now have a video sales letter.

Why use VSL in marketing?

Video is a lot more engaging than written content. So if you use a video sales letter, you’ll most likely get more conversions with your target market.

With video sales letters you can:

• Build trust much easier and faster than a written sales letter
• SHOW potential clients HOW you can help them
• Keep prospects attention for longer than written content
• Generate leads by using your VSL as a lead magnet
• Convert leads into appointments & clients (or online sales)
• Fully automate your marketing
• Pre-qualify leads to increase sales appointment quality
• Educate potential clients on the value your business provides

As you can see, using video content in your marketing and sales funnels gives you a lot of advantages. And video sales letters are one of the best types of video content you can create!

How to create video sales letters

Creating video sales letters can be challenging (and time consuming!) for many business owners. That’s why we provide a done for you or consulting option, if you need help.

Otherwise, here’s the step by step process to creating high converting video sales letters:

Step One: Write a video script

Video sales letter scripts starts with a written word document which goes through everything your VSL will say.

Creating a video sales letter script before creating a presentation is useful because it allows you to more easily edit and make changes to your VSL if needed.

For clients in our lead generation course we have a done-for-you VSL script you can use. We also provide you with suggestions & feedback to help you increase the chances your VSL will convert when you start promoting it.

What do you say in the video script?

This is the best structure to follow if you want to create a great video sales letter:

• Part 1: Talk about the problem your target audience have.
• Part 2: Show prospects possible alternative solutions to this problem
• Part 3: Educate leads on why your solution is better than those alternative solutions
• Part 4: Explain the next steps if they want to learn more about your solution (e.g. call-to-action to “buy now” or schedule a call)

Here’s a more detailed video breakdown of what to include in each of those parts:

Part 1: Talk about the problem

• In the first 10 seconds of your sales video make a big promise so you grab viewer attention and hook them into watching the rest of your video.
• After making a big promise, talk about the pain points they have. The better you explain their pain points, the more likely they will be trust you’re the right person to help them.
• Try and be as specific as possible when explaining the pain point they have.
• Use language and terms they can relate to when talking about their problem(s)

Tip: The bigger and more painful the problem you solve for clients is, the more likely they will pay you to fix this problem!

Part 2: Talk about alternative solutions to the problem

• After explaining the VSL problem, talk about alternative solutions
• What have they tried in the past that hasn’t worked?
• What are possible solutions they are thinking of using?
• Explain the pros and cons of those solutions

Part 3: Explain your solution and why it’s better

• Explain what your solution is and how it works
• Explain how and why it’s better than the other alternative solutions

Part 4: Call to action

• Explain the next steps to your solution (e.g. schedule a call or place an order)
• Add urgency or scarcity if you can (but don’t use fake scarcity)
• Use client testimonials or social proof
• Answer frequently asked questions
• Ask for the sale (but don’t hard sell)

Note: These 4 parts of a VSL are a general guideline.

For a more detailed overview of what to include in a VSL, see ‘step 2’ of my free training.

Step Two: Create a presentation

Once you’ve got a great video sales letter script, the next step is to create a video sales letter presentation.

You can use Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote or even Canva.

Most clients use a Microsoft powerpoint video sales letter presentation, but it doesn’t really matter which software you use.

Feel free to use whichever presentation software is easiest for you.

Next you need to copy and paste the text from your video sales letter script to your presentation.

It helps to add photos or illustrations throughout the presentation to make the content more visually appealing.

Step Three: Record the presentation

Next you can use screen recording software such as Camtasia, Descript or even Canva to record yourself going through the presentation.

You can also go on camera if you want to, but this is completely optional.

I don’t go on camera on my VSL and it still converts really well!

Here’s a video tutorial on how to create and record a video sales letter using Canva:

If you don’t like your voice or you don’t want to be on camera, you can outsource the video sales letter recording to freelancers on Fiverr. Here are some top-rated freelancers that can do this for you on Fiverr.

Tip: You can use additional editing tools such as Camtasia if you want to add more visual content or special effects to your VSL. But no need to make this overly complicated! Just start with a basic VSL first and you can always make improvements to it later on.

Step Four: Publish the video sales letter

So that you can get leads, appointments and clients with your video sales letter, you need to host it on a lead generation sales funnel.

If you put it on your website without a lead generation funnel, you’ll get less conversions.

Having your VSL on a funnel allows you to:

• Use your VSL to get leads
• Follow up with leads to maximize conversions
• Remove distractions so leads are more likely to convert
• Track video engagement through your video analytics dashboard

Want to see a video sales letter example? Check out my VSL so you can see how it all works.

I recommend publishing your VSL on Kartra. Kartra is one of the best all-in-one funnel building tools.

Kartra gives you:

• Video hosting and analytics
• Pre-built opt-in forms on your landing pages
• Lots of landing page templates to choose from
• Email marketing automation
• Sales page with checkout forms
• Professional quality templates
• And lots more features!

Step Five: Promote it!

Video sales letters on their own are NOT enough to get sales. You could have the best VSL in the world, but if no one sees it, what’s the point?

So you need a way of getting people to watch the VSL if you want to get more sales from a VSL.

In step 4 of this free video, you can learn exactly how to promote your VSL in more detail.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the best ways to promote your VSL:

Use Google SEO (Free)

Ranking higher on Google is an excellent way to get more people to see your VSL. The key to doing this quickly is to create long-tail SEO content. Long-tail SEO content includes articles that answers a specific question on a page or blog of your website that is related to the services you provide.

For example, if you’re reading this article right now, chances are you came from a Google search related to video sales letters. And throughout this article, there are links to my VSL .

Once you click on one of those links, you’ll be taken to my marketing funnel and you’ll be able to watch my VSL. If you like what you see on the VSL, there’s an option to learn more about working with me.

In your business, you can do something similar.

Don’t make the BIG mistake of creating content for nothing (with NO links to your funnel).

For best results, in ALL the content you create on your website, you need to send people to your marketing and sales funnel (which has your VSL).

Promote your VSL with YouTube SEO (Free)

Ranking higher on YouTube is another excellent way to get more people to see your VSL. Ranking higher on YouTube search, works very similar to Google SEO.

The main difference with YouTube SEO is that you’ll be creating video content instead of written content.

The advantage to using YouTube to promote your VSL is that YouTube has less competition compared to Google SEO and YouTube videos can rank on both the YouTube search and Google search results pages.

Here’s an example of my VSL YouTube video appearing first in a Google search:

Promote your VSL with LinkedIn outreach (Free)

For the right target audience, LinkedIn is a goldmine for promoting your VSL!

But you need to use LinkedIn the right way!

The wrong way:

On LinkedIn everyone else is spamming links to their services, scheduling page or pitching their services.

As you can probably guess, this does not work very well.

The right way:

Instead, a better strategy for LinkedIn lead generation is to ASK people on LinkedIn IF they want to watch a short video that solves a problem they have (which you guess it – is your VSL!).

The more people that say “yes’ to watching your VSL, the more leads, appointments and clients you can get.

Here’s a video I recorded that explains how to promote your VSL on LinkedIn:

Promote your VSL with Paid Ads (e.g. Facebook ads)

If you have the budget, you can get much quicker and more scalable results by promoting your VSL through paid advertising.

This includes:

• Facebook Ads
• Instagram Ads
• Google Ads
• YouTube Ads
• TikTok Ads
• Adroll ads

Be sure to check out ‘Step 4’ of my free Masterclass training to learn how to use Facebook ads to promote your VSL the right way.

Split test your VSL for best results

Once you’re promoting your VSL to potential customers, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your VSL engagement and conversion rates.

If you use a tool like Kartra, you can see if there are parts of the video that are causing people to lose interest:

You can also use Kartra (or any CRM / funnel building tool) to track how many leads and sales you get.

Finally, you can use Kartra to split test different landing pages which have different versions of your VSL:

How long should video sales letters be?

Don’t bore people in your VSL! So, how long should video sales letters be for best results?

The short answer: Your video needs to be as short as possible while at the same time be long enough to motivate people to schedule a call or go to the next step in your sales process.

This (in theory) could be anywhere from 2 minutes to 60 minutes.

But on average, most of our clients have VSL’s that are 5-10 minutes long.

You can learn more about what affects the length of your VSL in this video:

You can use video editing tools to remove parts of the VSL that are not necessary.

Factors that can affect the length of your VSL include:

How complicated is your solution? Is it easy to explain?

The length of your VSL can largely depend on what you’re actually selling.

For example, if you’re selling something that is very straightforward and simple to understand, then a shorter video will probably work best.

But if you provide business services that are a little bit more complicated and you need more time with people in order to really explain the value you provide, then most likely you’ll need to do a longer video.

What is the attention span of your target audience?

Are your potential customers more likely to watch a longer video or a shorter video? In general, the younger your target audience is, the harder it will be to keep your audience’s attention.

If you’re not sure, you can always split test two VSLs on a different landing page to see which converts best.

What do you need to say to motivate people to schedule a call?

Another factor to consider for the video length of your VSL is: Can you really explain the value that you provide people in a shorter VSL?

This is not a question I can answer.

It’s just something for you to think about in your business.

Remember, anyone who schedules an appointment with you after watching a longer detailed video of how you can help them (but not too long where you’re just dragging it out and you’re just making it long for the sake of making it long) is more likely to be a better quality prospect on the appointment.

My recommended VSL length

I typically recommend to clients using our lead gen services that you start off with a shorter video, but not too short to the point where you don’t have enough information to motivate people to schedule an appointment.

The sweet spot is usually between five to ten minutes long (for a shorter video).

Benefits of longer video sales letters

In my own business, I first created a short sales video until I got to the point where I was getting TOO many appointments for me to handle (40-50+ each month). My conversion rate for these appointments was one out of four (25%).

Then I decided to improve the quality of these appointments even further by extending the short video (which was about nine minutes long in the beginning) to about 30 or 40 minutes long.

The longer video got fewer appointments, but the quality was even higher. My sales conversion rate for people watching the longer video was now three out of four (75%).

In your business, I would recommend a shorter video to start off with. Then once you’re getting lots of appointments, IF you want to improve the quality of those appointments even more, then you can consider creating longer sales videos that go into more detail as to exactly what you can do to help people.

Best Video Sales Letter Examples

If you’re looking for an effective video sales letter example, I recommend checking out my short and long VSL’s.

You can see an example of my short VSL here.

And you can see an example of my longer (30-40 min) VSL here.

The longer VSL is what we are currently using to generate leads and high quality appointments each month.

The shorter VSL gets more appointments (quantity) but the longer VSL gets way better quality appointments (almost everyone who schedules a call after watching the longer VSL already wants to buy).

The longer VSL is a great option if you’re really busy and you only want to speak to people who are 80-90% ready to work with you.

Different video sales letter styles and examples

When creating video sales letters there are many styles you can choose from.

Here are some of the most popular video sales letter formats:

VSL Presentation

A presentation only VSL is, as the name suggests, a presentation with text that changes often with a voice-over recorded on top of it. Some presentation-style VSLs will have a few images in them as well.

This is the easiest type of VSL to create.

You can use Canva to get a lot of free (and paid premium) VSL templates.

VSL Presentation with talking head

This type of VSL is similar to the presentation format but with a selfie-style webcam video on the screen to show people what you look like. Being on video can in some cases help with conversion rates.

There are lots of ways to start recording this type of presentation. The image above is recording a presentation with Canva.

Animated videos

Another effective type of VSL is an animated-style video.

The easiest and cheapest way to create videos with animated graphics is to use a freelancer on Fiverr.

Here are a few top-rated listings on Fiverr from professionals who can do this for you.

Stock videos

Another way to create video sales letters is with stock videos. This could be a VSL with only stock footage or a VSL presentation with some stock footage at certain points.

For stock images or videos I use either Camtasia or Canva.

AI video

Yes, believe it or not, you can now create video sales letters with AI!

Key features:

• Use an AI voice or your own voice
• Use AI personal avatars or upload yourself as an AI custom avatar
• Great for recording videos without being on camera
• Saves lots of time

My recommendation for create video sales letters using AI is Synthesia

The pricing starts from $30/month.

Talking head video

The talking head style video sales letter is popular with small business owners who are very comfortable on video.

With a talking head video, you can also have text, images or b-roll stock footage to help with engagement.

If you don’t feel comfortable on camera, you can hire a professional spokesperson on Fiverr to record it for you.

Best Video Sales Letter Software

To create a video sales letter, you can use software to speed up the work and make your life easier. Here is a list of the best VSL software you can use.

For best results, you’ll probably need to use a combination of different VSL software and tools.

Here is a list of the best software to help you create video sales letters:

1. Jasper (to help you write a VSL script)

Jasper is one of the best AI writing assistants to help write content for your VSL (or even your blog, youtube videos and more).

I’ve been using Jasper for years now, and from all the AI copywriting tools I’ve tested, it is, in my opinion, the best one currently on the market.

They even just launched a new template specifically for creating short VSLs as seen here:

Click here to get a Jasper free trial (and 10K free words as a sign-up bonus)

2. Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote

Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote are the most cost-effective tools for creating a video sales letter presentation. Most Windows computers have Microsoft PowerPoint built-in and most Apple devices have Apple Keynote built-in.

So if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to create a video sales letter, you can always get started with PowerPoint or Keynote.

Tip: You can even create a presentation on an Apple iPhone or iPad using Apple Keynote

3. Canva

Canva allows you to build presentations similar to Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote. The advantage to using Canva (instead of PowerPoint or Keynote) is that Canva includes hundreds of beautiful templates, stock photos and stock images that you can use in your presentation.

This makes it easier to create visually appealing video sales letters.

Click here to get a free Canva trial

4. Descript

Descript is an easy-to-use video editor for your video sales letter. You edit your VSLs as if you were editing a word document.

Descript also has screen recording software built-in, which means you can record your VSL presentation with Descript.

Finally, Descript has a fantastic feature called “Studio sound”. Studio Sound allows you to record your presentation without a professional microphone and then it instantly makes it sound as if you were in a recording studio.

Here’s a video to show you how it works:

Want to try out Descript? Click here to get a free trial

5. Camtasia

If you’re looking for a more advanced video editor, then Camtasia is another great option. I normally use Descript for quick edits, but Camtasia for video editing that I want more control over.

Unlike Descript, Camtasia is NOT a subscription-based cost. You just pay once to get access to a video editor that you can use forever.

Click here to get a free 30-day Camtasia trial

Conclusion

Overall, using a video sales letter is the best way to get high-quality leads, appointments and clients on autopilot each month in your business.

If you’d like to see an example of my VSL in action – with extra tips on how to create and promote your own VSL – then be sure to watch my free Masterclass training.

Video Sales Letter FAQs

VSL vs Webinar: Which is best?

Both video sales letters and webinars convert well as a video lead magnet. However, in most cases, video sales letters can convert better because:

1) People can watch the video on-demand (no need to wait for a day/time).

2) It’s shorter than a webinar (so more people watch the whole video).

3) It’s better and easier to optimize for sales

Where can I find video sales letter templates?

Canva has a lot of free video sales letter presentation templates that you can use.
You can also watch my free Masterclass training to see the video sales letter template myself and clients use.

How do you turn a PowerPoint presentation into a video sales letter?

After you’ve created your video sales letter content in a PowerPoint presentation, you need to save the PowerPoint file as a PDF and then open the PDF in full-screen mode.

Now you need to use screen recording software such as Camtasia or Descript to record yourself going through the presentation.

When you’re finished, save the video as a .mp4 file and upload it to your sales funnel.

Do NOT to use the built-in powerpoint presentation recording option to record your VSL because it’s not very good. It will create pauses, gaps or delays as you transition between slides which will break the flow of your VSL.

Can you record a video sales letter on Apple Keynote?

Yes, you can both create and record your video sales letter with Apple Keynote on either a Mac or an iPad.

When you’re done recording the VSL presentation in Keynote, you can save the video as a .mp4 file.

Then upload the video to your sales funnel.

How can I outsource video sales letter creation?

There are a lot of options to create a video sales letter. If you need help with creating the video sales letter script and promoting it, I’d recommend taking a look at our done-for-you lead generation services.

If you already know how to create and promote the VSL and you’re just looking for someone to record it, check out some of these top rated freelancers on Fiverr who can do this for you.

Does a VSL work well better for sales appointments or making sales online?

A video sales letter can work well for both getting leads, sales appointments and making sales online.

If you’re selling a product or service with a VSL for less than $3,000 you can sell it online.

If the product or service that costs more than $3,000 then it’s usually best to sell it via a sales appointment first.

What is the best video sales letter software?

The best and easiest way to create a VSL is to create a presentation (in powerpoint, keynote or Canva) and then record yourself going through the presentation with screen recording software. You don’t need any fancy VSL software to do this.

Do you need to be on camera on a video sales letter?

Being on camera in video sales letters can (in some cases) help with conversions, but it is not a requirement. Video sales letters can still convert well even if you’re not on camera.

How can I improve my video sales letter conversion rate?

The best way to improve your video sales letters conversion rate is to test your video sales letter with people in your target market. Then look at how many conversions you get with your video sales letter each month.

If your conversions are lower than expected, then look at your video sales letter engagement statistics.

Ask yourself: are there any points in the video sales letter that people stop watching?

If so, this is a good indication that you need to change that part of the VSL.
If your first VSL does not convert don’t give up! It can take multiple versions of video sales letters before you create a VSL that converts really well!

What is a good video sales letter conversion rate?

Typically from every 100 leads you get that watch your video sales letter, you want to get at least a 1% conversion rate in the short term and more conversions in the long term as leads continue to get your follow up emails.

What is the best video hosting tool?

Some of the best video hosting tools include: YouTube (free but has ads), Vimeo (paid but has no ads), and Kartra (similar to vimeo, but has lots more extra features).

Can you use video testimonials on a VSL?

Yes, it is a good idea to include some testimonials on your VSL. However, don’t go over the top with testimonials. Create video testimonials that are straightforward and genuine. Prospects only want to see proof that you’ve done what you’re promising before. So just go over a few testimonials fairly quickly and tell people if they want to see more testimonials they can visit the testimonial page on your website.

If they need more social proof, they will visit your website. If they don’t, they can keep watching the rest of your VSL.

Do video sales letters work?

Yes, video sales letters work very well. Video sales letters are actually one of the best and most popular methods to generate leads, appointments, and clients online. All of our clients use video sales letters to get leads and clients.

Ashley Davis (or ‘Ash’ for short) is the CEO & Founder of Skyline Social. For over 15 years, he has been helping business owners with lead generation. Ash specializes in helping businesses get high-quality leads, appointments and clients each month in an automated, scalable and profitable way. You can watch his free Masterclass training to learn more.