Video sales letter (VSL)

The VSL video section is a complete sales page in one block: a video, chapters, an offer that appears only after people have watched enough, an optional bar at the bottom of the screen and a button that can take the buyer straight to checkout. In Overview you see how many people pressed play, how far they watched and how many clicked the offer.

Add it like any other section: Add section → VSL video, or start from the VSL template.

The video

Paste one of these into Video:

Any other https:// address is shown in a frame (most video hosts offer an embed link). Plain http:// links are not accepted.

Video cover image is shown before the video starts. Text over the video and Video length appear in the bar above the player.

Start muted with “Click to turn on sound”

Turn on Start muted automatically for the classic VSL opening: the video starts playing silently as soon as the page opens, with a big pulsing button over it. The first click turns on the sound and starts the video from the beginning, so nobody misses the first sentence. You can change the button text; empty uses a default text in the visitor's language.

The editor preview never starts the video by itself.

Controls, skipping and speed

• Player controls → Hidden controls, no skipping ahead hides the player's controls. A click on the video pauses or resumes it, and visitors cannot jump ahead of what they already watched (going back is allowed).
• Lock the playback speed at 1× puts the speed back to normal if someone changes it.

Chapters

Add items to Chapters: a start time (mm:ss, for example 04:10, or h:mm:ss for long videos) and a title. Chapters are shown below or next to the video (Style tab) and the current chapter is highlighted while the video plays. A click on a chapter jumps there (YouTube, Vimeo and video files). With skipping blocked, chapters can only take the visitor back.

You do not have to sort them: Closer sorts chapters by time when you save and drops rows without a valid time.

The offer

• Offer appears after: seconds of watched video, not time on the page. Pausing, or leaving the tab, stops the count. 0 shows the offer at once. Once a visitor has unlocked the offer it stays visible for them on later visits.
• Small offer label, Offer title and Button text fill the offer box under the video.
• The button can:
  • Open a link: a section, a page, a popup or any address;
  • Buy a product (checkout): pick a product from your Store. The product goes into the cart and the cart opens for payment right on the page;
  • Open a popup: pick one of your popups, for example an application form.
• Urgency text and Countdown after the offer appears add a line such as This offer ends in 14:59. Every visitor gets their own countdown, starting when the offer appears for them.
• Also show the offer in a bar at the bottom of the screen adds a sticky bar with the same button, shown together with the offer. Visitors can close it.

Click any text in the preview (title, button, chapter titles, the bottom bar) to edit it.

From video to checkout to thank-you page

1. Create a page for buyers, for example /thank-you, with a welcome message and next steps, and publish the site.
2. In the VSL section choose The button → Buy a product (checkout), pick the product and, under Thank-you page after payment, the page from step 1.
3. After paying, the buyer lands on that page. At the top they see Payment received with their download code and a button to their downloads. They also get the usual email with the code.

If the button does not choose a page, the page from Store → Settings and Stripe → Thank-you page after payment is used; if that is empty too, the buyer goes to the downloads page as before. See Store.

Tip: the link suggestions in every link field also list your products: Product page opens the product page, Checkout (/buy/product-address) puts the product into the cart, so any button on your site can start a checkout.

Video statistics

When your site has a VSL section, Overview shows a Video card for the chosen period:

• Plays: visitors who started the video (the silent autoplay counts only after the click on the sound button);
• Average watched: an estimate of how much of the video people watched;
• Retention: the share of plays that reached 25 %, 50 %, 75 % and the end. A steep drop shows where people leave;
• Offer shown, Button clicks and the click-through rate (clicks per shown offer);
• the videos with the most plays, by page and section.

Statistics are anonymous and use no cookies: each visitor counts at most once a day per event, and nothing is stored that identifies them. The editor preview is not counted. Statistics are kept for 13 months.