Why I don’t use VSL’s

First, an admission: I’m probably the last guy on planet Earth to ask about VSL’s because I don’t really use them. And the reason I don’t use them has absolutely nothing to do with me thinking they don’t work or whatever. They obvious can work and do for many businesses. However, I also have found them to be completely overhyped since the very first sales letter I ever saw selling VSL software that was literally written as a text sales page — which was beyond amusing & ironic then, and is even more amusing & ironic to think about now. So-called “AI” hype today has the same vibes. How many are using AI to write the ads, tweets, social media posts to promote it? I doubt it’s very many. That said: VSL’s are a perfectly fine marketing media if it works for you. But I don’t use them because: 1. I despise video, video is not my game, and in fact I wish the whole internet would go back to plain text, minimal or no graphics, old school bulletin board-style — when the internet was a lot more fun, scared away the low IQ types who need a bouncing ball to follow a subject & object, and where substance mattered a lot more over style, imo 2. I’m a warm leads kinda guy, not a cold leads guy — not that I am against cold leads, it's just not my game and the older I get, the more I prefer to play the marketing game on easy mode anyway 3. In my experience, selling in multiple markets (consumer and biz) I have never seen a test on said warm leads where video did better than text or vice versa when I’ve used daily emails the way I do them Example: Back in 2011-2012 I co-owned an info publishing biz selling eBooks to overweight females. And one of the other partners in that venture was the late, great traffic maestro Jim Yaghi who put together a video version of my sales letter for the main offer, and ran some cold traffic to test it against the text sales letter. He also tested my warm daily emails pitting the video vs the text sales letter. The winner? Neither, in both cases. One would always barely beat the other and vice versa, every time. No statistically relevant difference in any of the tests, whether to cold or warm leads. The reason? Presumably, because the emails, relationship created, the quality of the info products, the market place positioning, and/or (to cold leads) the appeal of the main offer itself especially did most of the heavy lifting. Plus maybe a thousand other variables, I don't even know, it's been a while — but probably not whether it was video or text or whatever. Another, more dramatic, example: In 2007 I was hired by Mike Dillard to rewrite his Magnetic Sponsoring offer sales letter. So I wrote a long form, text sales letter and it handily won. And it not only won, but whenever I spoke at events where there were a lot of affiliates for that offer hanging around, it was not unusual for them to come up to me and practically kiss my hand (I only slightly exaggerate, but Email Players subscriber Shane Hunter as my witness, he was there at several of them) because that ad helped them make so much money as affiliates. And it was just a "plain vanilla" sales letter. It was also mostly text (minimal graphics, basic stuff). i.e., nothing fancy or sexy about it, one way or the other. Now, “fast forward” 7 or 8 years later: I was speaking at another event where one of the co-owners of the above company told me they tried like hell to beat my text sales letter — including testing video/VSL’s against it. But he said my ugly little plain text sales letter with minimal design won every time. One of the other co-owners (Tim Erway) even recorded a video for me as a testimonial saying how that one sales letter brought in “millions of dollars and probably tens of millions of dollars in backend sales” (his exact words). So if VSLs were this magical “they always out convert everything!” unicorn format that always wins, then that should not have happened. Especially since, from what I remember of those guys, they did not test things lightly, and took their tracking quite seriously. Those are both anecdotal obviously. And I just list them as examples. This is NOT to say plain text is better or that VSLs are inferior. I also know of many other tests where VSLs kicked the crap out of plain text sales letters. And I have seen many other tests where a combo of both worked better than one or the other. I also know of tests where plain #10 envelopes beat the hell out of magalogs, too, so that’s another thing. Which brings me to the point: VSLs, text, audio, online, offline, even fapGPT (to whatever extent it actually works for this — and I don’t believe a single word anyone shilling it says about it right now)…. all are just marketing medias or tools. i.e., they are options to use, test, and get hog nasty rich from in whatever way you see fit. But no matter what media you use, what’s most important is the message to market match which is just basic, Marketing 101 fundamentals. To obsess over video vs text or using one media over another without getting that right first is majoring in the minors at its most gruesomest. Finally: 4. I simply prefer text over video And I prefer text over video for many reasons besides the fact above about how I hate diddling around with videos, shooting videos, editing videos, storing videos, writing slides for videos, or anything else with videos. Text is quick, easy to edit/update, no coding is needed, no video software is required, no outsourcing is necessary, and it’s probably not going to make any gigantic difference in my response either way, with my level of traffic, that is all warm traffic. It’s also more appealing to the people I prefer selling to: Readers. “Leaders are readers” ain’t just a trope from what I’ve seen. And in my business, targeting and selling to leaders has always been a lot more fun than selling to proles & newbies or those who hate reading, prefer watching videos, and prefer getting all their education from podcasts. All right so that’s my take on VSL’s. None of this is to say someone should or shouldn’t use them. Text is just my preference. If you like VSLs, if you make a lot of money with them, or if you just prefer them then use them. Frankly, you’d be foolish not to if that is truly the case. If not, then don’t. But anyone saying VSLs always win or are “better” is out of their mind. And probably selling you some kind of VSL service or software or something. There is no “always” in marketing. There’s just now and what works for you. The rest is just social media fapping and living in a false economy. Kinda like this email is, probably… On that note: The Marketing Funnel of Love I teach up inside the February Email Players issue can work no matter what kind of sales letter media you use. I don’t care if it’s plain text, video, audio, or smoke signals. You send leads in. You use the structure (there is nothing to 'swipe', no examples, either, this is all common sense, self-explanatory) of the kind of marketing funnel I explain inside. You sell those buyers other stuff the way I explain inside. To complicate it beyond that is to miss the point. All right, if you want in, this is it. The deadline is tonight and I will speak no more of it: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle P.S. Along with the February “Marketing Funnel of Love” Email Players issue, I am also including an 8-page bonus called: “The Business of Lust” And it’s like a 10-minute crash course in how I think, write, and make sales with email. If that interests you, here’s some of what’s inside: * Why the best method for making sales in 2024 was figured out in 1994. (The vast majority of money via direct response online today is basically the exact same thing that made the vast majority of money back then in direct response online. Ain’t nothing new under the sun..) * How to “snuff out” email list churn while ramping up email list retention. * Email list subscribers you should rake and scuttle off your list as soon as humanly possible if you care about inbox deliverability, sales, and peace of mind. * How to radically improve your email inbox deliverability with Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. * What the world’s best face-to-face salesmen did to build relationships with buyers that can easily be replicated with email. * Ideas for how to re-engage and win back inactive email list subscribers. * A near “caveman proof” way to integrate email marketing with other digital marketing channels. (Based on how the late William Randolph Hearst integrated the various marketing channels he used in the 1920’s - 1940’s to grow his media empire — with no needing to be a billionaire like he was required.) * Anatomy of a high-converting email landing page. * Why probably the best direct marketing resource you can study is the early Sears Catalog from the late 1800’s. (The technology has changed but not the principles that made it work. Amazon, for example, is simply a modern Sears Catalog according to the founding father of online marketing Ken McCarthy.) * The One-Sentence email campaign plan that’s made my business the most sales over the years. To subscribe before the deadline go here: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2024 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. 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