How to Create a Knockout Sales Video

sales video

Creating a great sales video is one of the best ways to enhance your company’s visibility, get your product or service noticed and add to the bottom line.  The trick is to create a video that’s sure to get some attention and sure to make the sale.

According to online video guru, Gideon Shalwick, there are some simple steps you can take, and a proven formula, to do just that.  Shalwick, who shares these and other marketing tips on his website, boasts a following of more than 100,000 for his business undertakings, more than 60,000 visitors to his blog and a YouTube channel with more than 10 million hits.

He recommends three simple steps—and one simple formula—to create a knockout sales video:

Step One:  Get a Clear Understanding of the Problem

What’s the problem that your product or service is able to solve?  It’s important to get specific here.  Define the problem as precisely as possible—remember, this has to resonate with your customers, so there’s no room for ambiguity.  And be sure that you’re focusing on a single problem.  Even if you feel you’re solving multiple problems, be sure to focus on the main problem you’re able to solve.

Step Two:  Define Your Audience

This is more than thinking in general terms, like “Gen Yers” or “housewives.”  The best way to define your audience is to imagine a single person, an individual—create a picture of that person in your mind.  Eban Pagan, successful business entrepreneur, author and speaker, suggests you think about this as if creating an “avatar,” with clearly defined characteristics, sort of like a character in a book or play—complete with gender, occupation, age, and buying habits.  If you can clearly envision this character, you’ve gone a long way towards defining your audience.

Step Three:  Think “Tour Guide”

Now that you can describe the problem you’re solving and define your audience, it’s time to think about how you structure your sales video.  Every good sales video needs a structure, and that structure is like a path along which you lead your customers to a specific destination:  the sale. In your sales video, you are the tour guide.

Shalwick provides a simple mnemonic to help you structure your video—SSBGA—where each letter is a step along the path to a sale.

SSBGA: The Story

A good story will get your customers’ attention and make them want to keep watching to the end.  It should be interesting, not in general, but interesting to the imagined character who represents your audience.  Consider a story in which the main character is like your imagined audience character and has a problem similar to the problem you’re going to solve for your customers—which is a nice transition to…

SSBGA:  The Solution

The solution is your product or service.  This should be brief and to the point:  just introduce your product/service and provide a straightforward description of how it solves the problem.

SSBGA:  The Benefit

What are the key benefits of your product or service?  It might help to make a list of all the benefits you can think of, then pare it down to the top three (remember, you want to keep it short and to the point, and to keep the viewer’s attention).

Now, for each benefit, ask the question, “So what?” This is an important question.  You have to explain to customers not just features, but also how those features will benefit them.  Let’s say, for example, your product is a top-of-the-line food processor.  It’s not enough to say, “The Triple XXX Mega Food Processor features an extra-wide feed tube”—you have to add “which lets you insert larger foods for convenience and less time in the kitchen.”  The “so what” takes you from the features of your product or service to what those features do for the person who uses them.

SSBGA: The Guarantee

If providing a money-back guarantee scares you, think of it this way:  if you believe in your product, that it does what you say it does, you should be willing to stamp your guarantee on it.  And a solid guarantee is likely to build credibility and increase sales.  Be specific with your guarantee (as in “90-day money-back guarantee”) and describe it as “generous.”

The Guarantee section is where you should include testimonials from actual customers who used your product or service.  But remember—testimonials only work if they’re believable.  The best testimonials are unscripted.  To get the footage you want, shoot lots of unscripted video, then pick and choose the best (read, most credible and persuasive) footage.

SSBGA:  The Action

Always finish your sales video with your call to ACTION.  Make your call to action clear and keep it simple.  If you want them to click on a button, show them where the button is right in your video.  That makes it easier and makes it look more real.

So, that’s it.  Sounds simple, right?  Well, truth be told, like all good things, the devil can be (and often is) in the details.  Converting the thoughts in your head to video on your website, even when you follow the steps listed above to the letter, takes skill and experience.  Unless you or someone else in your organization has that experience, your best bet is to hand your project over to someone with a successful track record—in short, let the pros do what they do best. For tips on how to hire a great video production company, check out our handy video production guide, “5 Things You Must Know Before You Spend Money On Your Corporate Video”

For more information on creating a dynamite sales video, contact us today.

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