How To Write an Effective VOD Description That Brings You More Sales

Picture this:

You’re standing in a room with a potential customer. They want you to pitch them on your VOD business. But, there’s a catch. You’ve only got 15 seconds to convince them!

What would you say?

You’d probably cut to the chase with a clear message about your product, right? You’d want them to know who you are, what you do, and why they should care.

Now, you might roll your eyes and think that’ll never happen. But, it happens every day on your website.

55% of visitors to your homepage will leave within 15 seconds. 

Lots of these potential customers leave forever because VOD websites don’t clearly describe their service. This lowers your conversion rate and costs you real money! 

So, how do you solve this? You learn to write an effective VOD description.

In this article I’m going to show you:

• What a VOD description is
• The 5 elements of a good VOD description
• How to write a high-converting VOD description

Let’s go…

What Is A VOD Description (And What Does It Do)?

Your VOD description is what customers see when they visit your homepage.

It’s the quick-hit of information that:

• Informs potential customers about what you do.
• Shows them the benefits of using your service.
• Converts them into customers.

You need to think of it as an elevator pitch for your website. So, it’s important you make sure your VOD description is…

• clear
• attention-grabbing
• informative
• actionable 

…like Total Immersion Academy’s is here:

Structuring your VOD descriptions this way can have a direct positive impact on your website’s conversions. Even small improvements can increase conversions by up to 8%.

Now:

Writing a good VOD description is challenging. You have to distill your entire product into a few snappy sentences. So, don’t beat yourself up if yours needs some improvement!

In the rest of this post, you’ll find everything you need to write a VOD description that does your video business justice and boost your conversions.

The 5 Elements Of A Good VOD Description

There are 5 boxes your VOD description needs to tick. It needs to be:

1. Attention-grabbing: to catch the customer’s eye
2. Clear: so your message should be easy to understand
3. Brief: by making your point in as few words as possible
4. Benefit-driven: by appealing to your customer’s needs
5. Actionable: by leading your customer toward the next step

This might sound like a lot. But, it is possible to do all of this with just a few lines of text.

To show you what I mean, let’s do a quick breakdown of this VOD description from BFUNK Dance:

Their description leads with a 1. attention-grabbing headline. This provides 2. clear context to their content and what they offer on their platform:

You can also see that the entire passage is 3. brief; they say everything they need to in just 44 words, including the headline.

They then use two sentences that inform the visitor what their product does: 

• “You can now learn some of your favorite BhangraFunk and BollyFunk dances.”
• “Get access to tutorials, live-streams, and exclusive content.”

They also state the 4. benefits of using the platform, and set clear expectations: 

• “From the comfort of your own home”
• “New videos added every week”

Finally, they lead their potential customer to a logical next step by 5. inviting them to join their free trial (actionable):

If you are interested in BFUNK’s content you know everything you need to know and do within 10-15 seconds of landing on their website.

Okay, now you understand the 5 elements and have seen them in action, let’s go through a simple formula you can use to replicate this on your VOD website.

How To Write A High-Converting VOD Description

To write your VOD description you’re going to use a tried-and-tested formula called AIDA.

AIDA stands for:

• Attention
• Information
• Desire
• Action

I’m going to break each of these steps down and show you how to do it yourself.

To help ensure your description is brief, we’re going to impose a limit of 60 words. This should give you enough space to create, without losing sight of the core message.

Attention: Catch Your Customer’s Eye

Your headline is the ideal place to grab your audience’s attention.

This should be a 2- to 5-word statement that explains what you offer on your VOD platform. The more relevant you can make this to the customer’s wants and needs, the better.

A great example of this comes from CETV. Their headline is a clear statement of what their platform does and what their customers want to do:

Let’s say you’re creating a headline for a VOD platform that provides surfing tutorials. You might create a headline that says:

• Learn To Surf At Home
• Stream Your Surf
• Catch The Wave (On Your Couch)

Creative headlines are great, but it’s more important to focus on clarity. A 5-word headline that reveals your product is better than a clever 3-word one that masks it.

Information: Tell Your Customers What You Do

The opening sentences of your VOD description should tell customers exactly what you do.

Your aim here is to show your website visitors they’re in the right place if this is the type of product they’re looking for.

Wanderlust TV has a good example of this:

The message here is crystal clear.

For the surf school example, you might open your VOD description like this:

• Learn to surf with video tutorials provided by our instructors.
• Learn the basics of surfing from our world-class instructors.
• Our expert teachers show you the basics of surfing through video tutorials.

This is another area where clarity trumps creativity. Look to explain your product in the clearest, most easy-to-digest way. 

Desire: Make Them Want To Sign Up

Now’s the time to make your potential customers want to sign up.

To do this, you’ll need to look at the benefits your customer will experience when they use your product, like Magic Stream does here:

Grab a notepad and pen and list everything your platform does. You’ll want to focus on things that will improve your customer’s life, such as:

• Unlimited access.
• Watch on-the-go.
• Stream at home.
• Access to community forums.
• No commitments.
• Access to industry leaders.

Now, you’re going to look at how each feature impacts your potential customer. You do this by answering the question: how does this feature help them get what they want or need?

Let’s go back to the surfing example. Here’s how some of these features might translate into benefits:

• Stream at home = learn to surf even if you don’t live near water.
• Community forums = get help from other surfers.
• No commitments = the no-risk way to try our platform.
• Access to industry leaders = get your questions answered in real-time.

Benefits will vary from platform to platform, so take the time to get into your customer’s head and talk about problems, needs, and desires they have.

Action: Tell Them What To Do Next

By now your VOD description has your customer…

• hooked
• informed
• interested

…now it’s time to close the deal! 

You’re going to create a short call to action (CTA) to tell them what to do next. This is just a short statement, on top of a clickable button, like Find What Feels Good has here:

The key here is to use a verb to get your audience to take actions, like:

• Join here
• Start your trial
• Subscribe today

You can supercharge your call to action by offering a 7- to 14-day free trial of your product. In fact, 52% of people who sign up for free trials become paying customers.

Wrapping This Up…

Your VOD description is your website’s elevator pitch. You have around 15 seconds to tell visitors who you are, what you do, and why they should become a customer.

To do this, your description needs to be these 5 things:

1. Attention-grabbing
2. Clear
3. Brief
4. Benefit-driven
5. Actionable

You can do this by following the AIDA copywriting formula.

If you have any questions about VOD descriptions, let us know in the comments, and we’ll get back to you to help however we can! 

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