Sorry for my month-long hiatus! After vacation and the release of my latest masterclass I am able to finally focus on the community and on my students.
I just released a new course and with each course release comes a new promo video you have to produce. I wanted to walk through tips and tricks on how to build a strong, compelling promo video as it can be the deciding factor for your course to be chosen over others.
First of all, a promo video should never be too short or too long. How do we determine this? My rule of thumb is the longer the course, the longer you can push your total promo video length.
2 minutes is a sweet spot but for a class that exceeds 5 hours, it is very challenging to truly condense all aspects of your course in that short amount of time, so expanding it by an additional minute to 3 minutes is usually a good length. There are times where I need to reach closer to 4 min (like my latest course, still in review) simply because I had a lot of extra downloadable resources, I really wanted to explain in more detail than my usual courses and those are a BIG selling point.
Shorter 2-hour courses should have a shorter promo, perhaps that one and half min mark or less.
Should I start with introducing myself?
Not always. For some, talking about yourself toward the end may work better and putting your course topic and content first tends to grab people’s attention. Of course, if you’re a therapist or in coaching, things may have to shift more toward your introduction. I usually like to keep this super brief and toward the middle/end.
How do you handle music?
Music is so important in peaking one’s interest in promo videos as music can give viewers an emotional response can be utilized to sell your course. I find keeping the background music lower during moments when you are talking is best, making sure the music never overwhelms your spoken words.
A trick I use in my promo videos is to pick multiple songs, perhaps two. I like to start out with a high energy song, and then move into a softer background track for the middle portion and exit with a quick 10 second music clip to end it on a high note. When picking your music think about the emotional response it gives, how can you best use this to sell your course? Is the music too overwhelming? Post it on community forums to get that sort of feedback.
What do I talk about and in what order?
The overall structure I use for my promo videos are as follows:
Course Topic and Overview: Two sentences that sum up the entire course, your thesis statement basically. The software used or the topics should be mentioned.
Who this class is for? Mention briefly who this class is best suited for. Best to do this early to go ahead and weed out students that the course would not be a good match for.
Why I should take this class? Mention the benefits of learning this software or industry. Can it move you higher in your career, satisfy life goals?
What am I going to be doing? When it comes to this section, I am always showing final finished course work (and also showing me in the process of creating it in short high-speed clips). In my field of graphic design, this is a bit easier to do. I show them the final created pieces early, so they know right away what they are going to be able to produce by the end of the course.
What comes with the course? Is there anything that comes with the course outside of just video content? Talk about your downloadable resources, extra community groups, quizzes, worksheets etc. It is best to bring all of these “extras” up right before you bring up your final pitch!
The final pitch and call to action: HUGE one here. Always end your promo with a question or call to action statement. “see you in lesson one”, “Let’s start your new career now” etc. Make this very short and sweet and add that pop of music to add an additional emotional overtone. Try not to end your promo video with a soft statement.
Quick tips:
Make sure to keep each section brief. If you have 8 sections to your course, only spend 15 seconds or so on each section. You can go into more detail about your course in a course guide our course introduction later on.
This is video is meant to sell your courses, not be your course outline. Make sure you craft this video for marketing not for small details. Your most important course aspects should be highlighted here.
Be very visual. Trying to make your promo more polished than any other video in your course. You should spend at least 4x the amount of total editing time for your promo over other lectures.
Make your intro impactful. Studying your competitors’ intro can help you find a way to make yours more memorable and enjoyable.
Just a few tips from someone who has created over 74 promo videos in the last 2 and half years. I do believe my intro videos have helped my course sales dramatically.
Example of my latest intro, a little longer than I usually shoot for, but wanted to accent all the extra freebies the students get and the student Facebook group.
Author:
@LindsayMarsh