The online model for sales pages is an all-out onslaught of page-after-page hard sell…followed by a sequence of upgrade offers, on and on for 20-30 pages or more.

Don’t know about you, but I get super tired of being hammered that way.

What appeals to me is somebody being real about what’s challenging me. I respond when the speaker is somebody I could have a conversation with, who would respect my time and care about solving my challenge that he/she knows how to fix.

What 3 coaches comes to mind when you think about someone who is consistently living real?  Think about what makes them special to you.

To get through the millions of competing messages online, we have to stand out from the crowd of hawksters.  The best way is to have honest conversations that push people’s hot buttons in a deep way to make a real connection with them.

And the best road to connect initially with your Ideal Prospects is video.

Smart phones have evened the playing field by giving everybody a worldwide stage to make videos.  Today 80% of ads now involve video in some way, way up from two years ago, and most buyers are using their mobile phones to watch the videos.

So promoting your brand and programs online needs to be primarily videos and live presentations.  The kind of message you deliver will speak volumes to people urgently trying to find a trustworthy, experienced guide to help them eliminate their main pain in life.

You probably know that getting people to buy your products and services involves Trust, Credibility, and Authority. 

We trust people when they (1) clearly understand what we’re going through, (2) even went through it themselves, (3) but figured out a solution, and even (4) used it to help lots of people eliminate the same pain. (Never underestimate the power of this “hero’s story” cycle to gain trust.)

We find people credible when they show an understanding of our challenge, lay out a few accomplishments that (if true) make them an expert, and when their manner to talking to us feels believable.

We accept their authority when they talk like they know what they’re doing, and we hear from clients who have experienced a transformation of some kind and results we’d love to experience ourselves.

But exactly how do we string together our live presentations and recorded videos in such a way that our ideal customers believe they can trust us as the credible authority regarding their problem?

Here’s an outline of what works for me and many others too as a compelling logical and emotional flow that persuades.

1 – Make it all about your ideal customers, not about you. Too many videos start with “Hi, I’m so and so, famous expert, and I’ve written 10 books on…” – whoa, it’s not about you if you want to grab their attention and stop them from surfing onward.

Start with your hook — the most urgent issue that’s plaguing them. You have 3-5 seconds of their attention to connect, or they’ll scroll onward.

2 – Use their actual words and phrases to describe the urgent issue so they’ll resonate with you. 

We use words that mean something to us.  When we hear another person use the same words, there’s an instant connection of kindred spirits. Makes us feel like the other person really understands our problem.

Note:  You find those words from questions and responses by your ideal customers…by posting a question on social media sites…and even faster, call 20-25 prospects and ask them about their problems. The “hyper-responsive” people who have lots to say on the subject will give you the words you need (according to Ryan Levesque, the quiz and survey expert, and author of the books “Ask” and “Choose”).  

3 – Heighten their present emotional feelings by listing a few painful results they’re experiencing.

Reliving negative feelings heightens their sense of urgency to find a solution.

In your research, you’ll discover most major pains or problems have about 3-5 sub-problems, or segments. Not sleeping well manifests itself in being hard to go to sleep, waking up during the night, not getting deep REM, waking up sluggish, etc. Give a quick example of each of your Ideal Customer’s common pain points that add up to the overall challenge. Everyone will react to at least one of these triggers, and maybe to all.

4 – Tell your “hero story” to convince them you really understand and can solve the pain. 

You might think you need to come across as the perfect guru who never makes mistakes. The opposite is the case.

People want to know you’re human and lived through the same problem, so you can understand their pain. They also want to hear you found a solution and went on to help others. Now they’re connected to you as the hopeful solution to their pain.

Write your brief “hero story” this way:  a brief self-confession of your similar problem and pain…how your broke through with a solution…how you’ve used it to help many others…and now you can help the viewer/reader.

5 – Share results-based testimonies by their peers that talk results, and not just how nice you are etc.

First, there’s nothing better than a third-person confirmation of the results you promised.

Second, the testimony must be transformative – i.e., quick statement  of the great results of your solution that changed the person’s life (can’t be how much they like you, looking forward to seeing the videos, etc. that are not convincing). Get them on video!

At this point, with your induced sense of urgency for solution, they will tend to believe the results are achievable for them too.

6 – Say you have the solution, so just click here (call to action).

Don’t explain the solution, just say you’ve packaged it into an easy and effective program.

Then clearly state your “call to action” (CTA).  Major funnel guru Russell Brunson tells the story of his early presentations that sold nothing, until someone told him you have to directly and clearly call for action at the end. He had nothing but wild success from then on.

That 6-step formula is exactly what I teach in my programs and workshops on high-conversion sales videos. Each step logically and emotionally leads to the next, until the call to click a button to go check out and buy your program is the no-brainer, obvious next step.

This exact flow appeals psychologically to how the human mind wants to hear information. The same steps in the same order have always worked, and will always work. You can’t go wrong with it.

So keep it real, my friend, by focusing on what your ideal prospect needs to hear, in the right order, to urgently want your solution to a compelling problem.