Yesterday I sent an email to my subscribers with “The DEATH of the Sales Letter” as the subject line. In the email, I included a link to a video highlighting the power of video sales letters. Here’s the link to the video if you missed it:

The Video Sales Letter Video

Many people replied to my email asking if sales letters were really dead? In fact, here’s part of a question I received from one of my Master Marketing Club members:

“I guess the long and the short of it is that I was intrigued by the video sales letter and am wondering if this is the wave of the future and something I should be working on in addition to the written sales letter or something to work on to replace the written sales letter?  If the video sales letter actually draws three times better than a written letter it seems to me to make sense that it’s the way to go.  Your thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.”

This is a very good question and I thought I would answer for everyone. Let’s spend a minute on how you can use sales letters to get new clients or sell more homes. I’ve used sales letters for the following in my real estate business:

1.To get investors to join a membership I created to buy single-family homes.
2. To get foreclosure buyers and investors to “apply” to become a client.
3. To get short sale seller prospects to “apply” to have you list their home.
4. To sell a larger investment property.
5. To promote a special home tour to buyer and investor leads.
6. To promote a special class on how to buy foreclosed homes..

I don’t personally believe the written sales letter is dead. Yes, in some instances it’s not as effective as it used to be. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. I still use sales letters in almost every aspect of my business and will continue to do so going forward. Having said this, I do think it makes a lot of sense to test other lead conversion strategies, too. Testing is, and always be, a required part of your marketing.

If you see other marketers use video sales letters in their businesses, you should think about testing them in your business. I constantly study information marketers and watch how they generate and convert leads. When they repeat what they do over and over again, I feel confident that their strategy works. They measure what works very closely and can see very quickly if a marketing campaign is working or not. And guess what? They use video sales letters extensively.

I believe video sales letters are very powerful and should be used in addition to regular written sales letters. In fact, I believe you can increase your lead conversion dramatically using both in your business. Here’s an idea of how this might look with a hypothetical marketing funnel on short sale seller leads:

By overlapping the written sales letter and the video sales letter, you’ll ultimately convert more leads. As an example, let’s assume you generate 100 seller leads. Here’s what your conversion might look like using both strategies:

-8 sellers apply to have you list their home from the first written sales letter.
-4 sellers apply to have you list their home from the second follow-up sales letter.
-10 sellers apply to have you list their home from the video sales letter.

The video sales letter might help you convert twice as many leads into listing than the written sales letter on its own. Please understand that you’ll need to test video sales letters in your business. It’s not too complicated, but you need to follow certain rules with your video sales letter. These rules are in place because they’ve been proven to increase conversions.

You can learn more about creating video sales letters in this video (click on it to play):

As you watch this video, understand it’s a video sales letter. See if you think it’s compelling. Also as you watch it, think about how you might use this strategy in your business. Could you turn your written sales letter into video sales letter simply by recording a PowerPoint Presentation? Could you create a short video sales letter for one of your listings? Could you create a short video sales letter highlighting a special foreclosure home tour you’ll be hosting? Could you create a short video sales letter promoting a great deal you’ve found on the market to your database?

You’ll see in the video that video sales letters:

1. They only take minutes to create
2. Your face is NEVER on the video
3. You don’t have to use your own voice
4. May REPLACE old websites
5. They sell 300% BETTER than sales letters