A video sales letter template is a fill-in script plus a page layout. The script runs in 11 parts, from a 30-second hook to an FAQ after the close. The page shows a headline and the VSL (video sales letter) first, and reveals the offer when the video says the price.
The part most templates leave out is timing. The order buttons belong at the second the price is spoken, and that second comes from your script.
What a video sales letter template covers
Most VSL templates online are a script and nothing else. The script is half the job.
- The script: what the video says, in what order, and for how long. This is where the sale is argued.
- The page: what sits around the player, and what appears when the video reaches the offer. This is where the sale is taken.
A good script on a page that shows the price too early, or never shows a button, loses the buyers it just persuaded. So this template does both, then shows them built as one live page. What happens after the click (checkout, upsells, thank-you page) is covered in how to build a video sales letter funnel.
The VSL script template, part by part
Eleven parts, timed for a 15-minute video. Move the minutes around, but keep the order.
| Part | Starts | Words | Its job |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Hook | 0:00 | 75 | Name the problem and promise the answer |
| 2. Who is talking | 0:30 | 150 | Why listen, and what the video will cover |
| 3. The problem | 1:30 | 300 | The problem as the viewer lives it |
| 4. Failed fixes | 3:30 | 225 | Why what they tried fell short |
| 5. The mechanism | 5:00 | 375 | The real cause, and the new way around it |
| 6. Proof | 7:30 | 225 | Evidence the mechanism holds up |
| 7. The product | 9:00 | 150 | What it is and how it is used |
| 8. The offer | 10:00 | 300 | Packages, price, bonuses. Buttons appear |
| 9. Guarantee | 12:00 | 75 | Take the risk off the first order |
| 10. The close | 12:30 | 150 | Exactly what to click and what happens next |
| 11. FAQ, then ask again | 13:30 | 225 | Answer the last objections, repeat the ask |
Parts 1 to 7 earn the right to name a price. If the price lands before the mechanism has been explained, the viewer has nothing to weigh it against.
Review a draft starting from part 5. If you can't repeat the mechanism back in one sentence, the rest of the script has nothing holding it up, and no hook will fix that.
Copy the VSL script template
Replace each highlighted slot, then read the whole thing aloud.
- Hook · 0:00
If you (have the problem), give me the next few minutes. I'm going to show you (the one thing) that (the result they want), without (what they hate doing).
- Who is talking · 0:30
My name is (name), and I (the credential this buyer cares about). In this video you'll see (point 1), (point 2) and (point 3).
- The problem · 1:30
You know the moment. (A specific scene from their day). It happens (when), and it costs you (sleep, money, time, confidence).
- Failed fixes · 3:30
Maybe you've tried (fix 1) or (fix 2). They (what they do), but they never touch (what they miss). That's why it keeps coming back.
- The mechanism · 5:00
Here's what is really going on: (the cause, in plain words). Once you see that, it makes sense why (the new approach) works where the others stop.
- Proof · 7:30
(A demonstration, a study with its source, or a real customer's words used with permission).
- The product · 9:00
That's why we made (product). It's (what it is). You (how it's used), (how often).
- The offer · 10:00, buttons appear
Today you can get one (unit) for (price), or three for (price) each. Most people pick three, because (the reason). Take six and you also get (bonus 1) and (bonus 2).
- Guarantee · 12:00
Use it for (days) days. If it isn't right for you, write to (email) and you get your money back.
- The close · 12:30
Click the button under this video, choose your package and fill in the secure order form. (What happens next: shipping, access, the first email.)
- FAQ, then ask again · 13:30
You might be wondering (objection). (Answer.) Repeat for two or three objections, then: so click the button below now, and (the first thing they'll notice).
Write it for the ear. One idea per sentence, numbers said the way people say them ("forty-four dollars"), and no line you'd feel silly saying to a neighbour. If you record over slides, put one sentence on each slide.
Parts 5 and 6 are where an ad reviewer, a payment processor and a regulator read most carefully. Every claim in them needs something you can show: a study you can link, a customer who agreed to be quoted, a demonstration on camera.
How long should a VSL script be?
Spoken scripts usually run at 140 to 160 words a minute. At 150, the word count tells you the running time.
| Script length | Running time | Usually fits |
|---|---|---|
| 750 words | About 5 minutes | A known product at a low price, warm traffic |
| 2,250 words | About 15 minutes | The template above: a new idea, one strong proof section |
| 4,500 words | About 30 minutes | A long-form VSL: cold traffic, a higher price, several kinds of proof |
These are rules of thumb. Time your own read: some voices run at 130, and a script full of numbers runs slower. The number that matters for the page is the minute and second where you first say the price.
The VSL page template around the video
The page has two states. Before the pitch it does one job: keep the visitor watching.
| Block | When it shows | Mirrors script part |
|---|---|---|
| Who is talking, headline | From the start | 1 and 2 |
| Video with a click-to-listen prompt | From the start | All |
| "What the video covers" bullets | From the start | 2 (the three or four points) |
| Offer: packages and prices | At the pitch | 8 |
| Reviews, order button | At the pitch | 6 |
| Guarantee | At the pitch | 9 |
| Bonuses | At the pitch | 8 |
| FAQ, then the offer again | At the pitch | 11 |
Three settings decide whether the reveal works:
- The reveal time equals the second your script names the price, measured on the finished video.
- Returning visitors see the offer at once. Someone who watched yesterday and came back to buy should not sit through 10 minutes again.
- A text version of the pitch for people who won't turn the sound on. A long-form advertorial or sales letter does that job.
The template, built: a relief cream VSL page
The ElasticFunnels kit library has a VSL page built on exactly this layout, for a made-up relief cream brand called Calvessa. Every screenshot below is the live preview.
First screen: parts 1 and 2
- Headline: the hook, written as a quote from the person in the video.
- Player: starts muted with a Click to listen overlay, hosted on TrackPlay.
- Sound note: one line saying the video can take a few seconds to load and to turn the sound on.
There is no button on this screen. That is deliberate: anything to click above the video is a way out of it.
Under the video: what it covers
The four bullets are the script's spine in one line each: the mistake (part 4), the discovery (part 5), how people use it (parts 6 and 7) and how to try it today (part 8). The bracketed name and credential are kit variables you fill in once.
At the pitch: the offer drops in
| Package | Per jar | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Basic, 1 jar | $44.00 | $44.00 |
| Popular, 3 jars | $40.95 | $122.85 |
| Best value, 6 jars + 2 gifts | $35.95 | $215.70 |
- How it appears: the TrackPlay player fires its call-to-action event at the pitch timestamp and the page shows the offer. If the event never comes, the offer shows after a delay you set (two minutes by default).
- Remembered: the reveal is saved in the browser, so a returning visitor sees the packages straight away.
- Prices: read from your products, so the per-jar figures follow whatever you charge.
One trap: the "63% discount applied" line is a separate setting and does not follow your prices. Set it to the saving your packages really give, or remove it.
After the offer: parts 6, 8 and 9 on the page
Between them sit a reviews band and an order button, and after them an FAQ and the three packages once more. The page repeats what the video already said, in the same order, for the viewer who scrolls instead of watching to the end.
The kit ships with sample reviews and comments so the layout reads right in a preview. Replace them with real ones, or delete the blocks, before a single ad points at the page.
Use this video sales letter template in ElasticFunnels
The relief cream page is one of the published template kits, and the relief cream kit page lists everything inside it. Applying it gives you the VSL page plus the rest of the funnel.
- Find it: Create page, Choose Template, then the Kits tab.
- Review it: What's inside shows the funnel journey, every page and every product with its price.
- Apply it: the pages, products, checkout and funnel are created in your project.
- Fill the slots: your video, the expert's name and credential, the guarantee days and the support address.
- Set the reveal: the second your price is spoken, from your finished video.
Then test it. A split test in ElasticFunnels runs up to 5 variants under one URL, and a component test can swap just the video or the headline, so the ad link never changes. The test I'd run first is video against text: the same offer on the VSL page and on the kit's sales letter, judged on revenue per visitor. More on that in how to split test landing pages.
- Custom checkout with a package switch, an order bump and free gifts.
- One-click upsells after the payment, four of them in this kit, with a final offer on the last no.
- Every feature on every plan, with a 14-day free trial.
The whole funnel, page by page, is on the VSL funnel builder page.
- Write part 5 before part 1. A hook written first promises something the mechanism then has to stretch to cover.
- Record a rough read on your phone before paying for production. Ten minutes of listening usually finds more dead lines than an hour of editing the text.
- Don't put a price on screen before the offer section, even in a slide. Viewers who see a number early start judging it instead of listening.
- Make every bullet under the video something the video really delivers. A viewer waiting for bullet three leaves at the moment it fails to arrive.
I spent nine years as CTO of a direct-response company, building the funnel system that pages like this one run on. Scripts get rewritten again and again before launch, while the reveal time is usually typed in once and left alone. It deserves the same care, because it decides whether a viewer you just persuaded finds a button.
Fill in the template, read it aloud, then open the live page above and watch where the packages appear. Put yours at the same moment in your own video.
