First let me say I am not ranting against all video sales pages. Some are very effective, especially the short (3 minutes or less) ones.
However a new form of video sales letter has popped up over the last couple of months and I really don’t like it.
The new sales video method is the one where there’s basically nothing on the page except the auto play video and possibly some footer information. The signup form or payment button only appear after the video has almost finished.
Now having nothing on the page except the video may be OK except the sales videos I’m referring to have no visible controls for the visitor to stop, pause or fast forward and the videos last for more than 5 minutes. In fact they usually last for more than 10, or even 20 minutes!
So here’s my beef with these new video sales pages:
1. I work at home and have things interrupting my life like the phone, my spouse and my kids. Sometimes I need to pause a video for a minute and want to resume where I left off. If I’ve already invested 10 minutes or more of my time I don’t want to have to invest another 10 minutes to get back to where I was in the video before the interruption.
2. Fortunately I do have a 99% stable, high speed internet connection. Unfortunately sometimes I’m watching a video during the 1% of the time when I lose a connection. Sure I can get it back in a couple of seconds but guess what. I have to restart the video.
3. And what about those who don’t have as stable a connection as I do? And what about those who don’t have a high speed connection? How much time do they waste trying to watch 1 of these video sales pages before they just give up?
4. Then there are few times when there are mysterious technical glitches. Maybe my connection hiccups or maybe their server does. Either way, you know what happens. The video stops and you have to start from the beginning again.
Over the last few months I’ve been frustrated by this new form of video sales page several times and have given up watching to the end more than once.
But this morning’s frustration was the straw that broke the camels back. I was trying to watch the video when I lost my connection about 10 minutes into the video. So I restarted it. Fortunately my only interruption was while I was still replaying what I’d seen. Unfortunately something hiccupped about 25 minutes into the video and before anything popped up.
Sorry Charlie, I’m not spending any more of my time trying to find out what you’re trying to sell me.
And this isn’t the first time I’ve given up before I knew what was going to be offered.
I just wish all those internet “gurus” who have enough money to invest in the newest and “best” video technology would stop and think about what they’re losing by not allowing their “not captured” audience who may not have the best internet connection in the world to have some control over those video sales letters.
I know they’ve lost me several times in the past and will lose more of my business in the future because I’ve made a new work rule as of today. My new work rule is: Try to watch it once. If it stops for any reason close the window and get back to work.
Sorry about the rant but I’m feeling really frustrated right now. Am I wrong?
To Your Success,
Susan
