I remember when I first got into video marketing, I would watch one video after another. This stuff was really fascinating because a lot of the materials that I was viewing really told great stories.
A lot of them were well-produced, they were crisp, they were clear. A lot cracked jokes. In many cases, a lot of these videos connected with me on a very deep level. In fact, a tremendous amount of them were very insightful.
They taught me a lot of things that I did not know before. I was able to connect the dots as far as online marketing goes, thanks to these videos. In fact, I owe a lot of my skill set to these videos.
Interestingly enough, despite the dozens of marketing videos I consumed, I never really signed up for any of the products they were promoting. Believe me, they were promoting products. That’s the main reason they were produced in the first place.
It’s not like the marketing experts and gurus behind these materials had nothing else better to do. They definitely were not producing high quality, high-cost educational videos for their health.
Where did they fail? Where did they go wrong? What element did they fail to include in their video? This omission, it turns out, was one of the most important lessons I, as a marketer, had to learn.
It’s one thing to produce a video that’s slick, talks about the right things, creates the right emotional environment, but ultimately, if you don’t include an effective call to action, you’re just wasting your time.
It’s as if you got the viewer to get all pumped up and excited about the fact that you can solve a problem, but you did not get around to letting the viewer know that they should sign up for your solution. Talk about a joy kill. Talk about going 99% of the way, only to drop the ball when it counted the most.
Sadly, even the most polished videos commit this mistake.
Here are the steps that I use to create video calls to action that really work.
First, I start out with a case study. You have to remember that a human brain makes sense of the world through stories. There are lots of data in the world, but the human brain doesn’t function with data.
When you are presented with raw data, you can’t make heads or tails out of them. Instead, you want to piece it all together into a form you can readily recognize and you can readily engage with. This is where personal case studies or stories come in.
You can talk until you’re blue in the face regarding a particular business opportunity, but believe me, people are more likely to listen to you if you tell them the story of your uncle who actually carried out and took advantage of a particular business opportunity.
All of a sudden, what would have been a theoretical opportunity to make money becomes a real personal experience that you would want to listen to.
I always start out with a case study, and I walk the viewer through the story elements of the case study. This leads me to the benefits.
Basically, they have a problem and we distill that problem using a story form into benefits. I spell these out. I clearly identify them.
And then, now that we have established that they should shoot for certain benefits, I line up other solutions that supposedly bring the same benefits.
But here’s the catch, I use a comparison method. The other methods that competitors bring to the table may be too expensive, take a long time to use, fall apart quickly, are inconvenient, or have a bad reputation.
Whatever the case may be, I would line them up regarding how well they deliver the benefit, then I would find a hole. I would find a weakness. I would find the inadequacy. I would find something missing.
I then bring it all down to a crescendo. It is kind of like a classical concert, there’s a crescendo.
Now that we know that there are these set of benefits that we’re shooting for, but a lot of the stuff out there simply fall flat for a variety of reasons, there must be one solution. There must be at least one exception to this.
And that’s where I talk about my solution. I talk about how my solution, which leads to the product or service that I’m promoting, succeeds where everybody else fails.
Of course, I do this in a strategic way. I’m not going to compare the strongest points of the competitors to the weak spot of the product that I’m selling. That does not make any sense. That makes me look like a fool. That makes my product or offer look weak.
Instead, I line up what’s wrong with the other alternatives out there, and then I compare that or I line that up with the strongest point of the service or product I’m promoting. This is how you distinguish the solution. This is how your solution appears black and white.
I then create an emotional hook with the benefits. Since the video begins and ends with a focus on benefits, I then create an emotional connection between the action that they’re about to take and the benefits that they will get.
“Wouldn’t you like to live your best life today instead of constantly waiting?” “Wouldn’t you like to get the best skin that leads to greater confidence and greater appreciation?” “Don’t you deserve a better life because you finally let go of your belly fat? “
There has to be an emotional hook. And this emotional hook must be directly plugged into the benefits. Because the more you remind the viewer of the benefits that they would be getting, the tighter the connection between your solution and those benefits.
They develop a sense of emotional urgency and don’t be surprised if they whip out their credit card at that point to fill out an online form so they can add dollars to your bank account.
That is the bottom line. It’s all about crafting video calls to action with the right emotional punch.
