3 Common VSL Book-a-Call Funnel Mistakes (Part 2): All About the VSL

In Part 1, I shared the 3 critical mistakes that can kill your VSL book-a-call funnel's performance. Those blunders lurk outside the VSL itself but wield a significant impact on your conversion rates and overall profitability.

In part two, we're diving deeper into the heart of the matter. Today, I'll show you 3 VSL-specific pitfalls you need to pay attention to.

Knowing these is the secret sauce to turning your VSL funnel into a call-generating machine. A valuable asset to your business.

Let's jump in!

Mistake #1: Me, me, me

In early 2023, an agency client booked a consultation with me. Their VSL funnel was generating calls with low-quality leads AND at a high cost, completely outside of KPI. So they were wondering if they should go for another funnel, try another traffic source, and so on.

I said, let me see the VSL first.

As I expected, it was a "me, me, me" VSL.

See, this agency works with healthcare professionals. They developed a unique offer that delivers amazing results for their clients. But since they're TOO close to their own stuff, they pretty much got obsessed with it. And the entire 44-minute VSL, from start to finish, was all about them and how their offer works.

A lot of offer owners and entrepreneurs make the same mistake. Instead of falling in love with their market, they fall in love with their product/offer. And they end up producing marketing material that's product-centric.

Guess what? That never works, because people are interested in what's in it for them.

Anyone who watches your VSL, reads your sales page, or consumes any of your marketing is always asking the 5-word question:

What's In It For Me?

Also known as WIIFM.

The second mistake this agency was making was that their VSL was literally emotionless. Which leads me to my second point.

Mistake #2: Logic-heavy

Having a great offer doesn't mean you don't need to weave empathy and a little bit of emotion into your VSL.

This client had literally STRIPPED any emotionality whatsoever from their VSL. The owner admitted that he did it intentionally because their market is "B2B." And the people in this market are more "logical" and "analytical."

First off, there's no such thing as B2B. Businesses don't buy things. People inside businesses do. Even if you feel like you're selling to a faceless entity, you're actually not. You're selling to the person inside that entity whose job is to buy things.

Secondly, my client's customers weren't even big corporations. If that were the case, I would've been more accepting of the B2B argument. His customers were privately owned small clinics with less than 10 people on staff.

Here's what I told this client:

"Human psychology has been the same forever. It doesn't matter if you're speaking to a 61-year-old red-neck, a 48-year-old doctor, or a 20-ish chick. People buy with emotion and justify with logic. Don't be afraid to connect emotionally with this audience, as long as your ratio of logic to emotion is in the right range."

The last sentence is key. Failing to nail the logic-to-emotion ratio for a given audience is a surefire way to have a VSL that tanks.

Mistake #3: Low play rate, low engagement rate

Listen, as great as your VSL might be, if no one is watching it, it's useless.

See, somebody came to me with a VSL funnel that was generating calls, but they were way too expensive. That caused cash-flow issues and prevented this company from scaling.

I analyzed their VSL stats, and two things stood out to me:

• 13% play rate
• 9% engagement rate

That's terrible!!

A 13% play rate basically means that for every 100 people they were driving to this funnel, only 13 clicked play. In other words, 87 out of 100 NEVER even watched the VSL.

This means that if the cost per click (or LP view) is $2, they had just paid $200 for 100 clicks. But since only 13 people out of 100 click play, the cost of that VSL play is:

$200 / 13 = $15.38

$15.38 just to get someone to click play. That is outrageously expensive.

The second thing that was killing this VSL was the engagement rate, 9%. This means people were, on average, watching only 9% of the VSL. On average, they weren't even getting to the CTA.

No wonder the cost per booked call was through the roof. In fact, I was surprised this VSL generated any calls at all!