A video mini-course is an amazing lead generation asset for you and your audience. Your audience gets an extremely valuable quick win, which helps them get to know you better and compels them to take action with you.
Why a video mini-course is an amazing lead generation tool
Going on camera is a very powerful way to demonstrate your knowledge and build your authority as a key person of influence more quickly than other methods.
It gives your audience actual time with you, breeding familiarity and trust. And once you’ve created your video mini-course, it will automatically keep generating sales as it’s repeatedly watched, without any extra work for you!
Before you rush off in a burst of enthusiasm to make your video mini-course lead magnet—stop!
Please read this and avoid these 7 common mistakes that will ruin its success. They’re all really easy to eliminate, as long as you build each element into your video mini-course at the planning stage.
Mistake 1: Too many videos
It’s easy to get carried away with the idea of sharing your knowledge with eager listeners – especially if you’ve got 15+ years in the industry under your belt.
But you’re not making Game of Thrones here, you don’t want an epic saga with its own worlds, maps, and languages to explain. Why?
Because there’s an internet’s worth of content already there for people to consume. It’s already vast and, it seems, infinite. Your video mini-series needs to stand out by saying everything that needs to be said, in exactly the right amount of time.
3 is the magic number for your video mini-series lead magnet because:
- 1 video: It may as well be a YouTube video – it’s not a ‘course’
- 2 videos: You probably won’t have shared enough information to address everything your audience needs before they take the next step on their customer journey
- More than 3: Even just 4 or 5 videos will see a major drop off in how many people continue to watch. It drags the learning out too long, kills the vibe and people just switch off – so they don’t get the full value of the lead magnet.
A 3 video mini-course is the perfect length for your audience to learn a new skill, piece of information, or application of knowledge
Mistake 2: Making your videos too detailed
Remember the power of one – your video mini-course is focused on teaching one thing. In only a few minutes, you’re going to take your audience by the hand and lead them straight to the thing they want to know.
You don’t have time to be sidetracked into granular details, the history of the thing, or a full blue-print of the wider picture. This can be difficult because you’re so excited to share your expertise, it’s easy to get carried away and go off into the tangential details.
You need to keep focused on your one learning objective, maintaining a light, surface-level touch, and building the right energy to fuel action.
Mistake 3: Not creating engaging videos
Of course, the ‘what’ of your videos is important. The content must resonate with your audience immediately. But the ‘how’ is equally vital.
Simply put – if your videos are boring, the audience will click ‘stop’. And if they don’t get the value from all 3 videos, they don’t get to your offer.
You need to consider your style of presenting. Don’t suddenly try out your secret stand-up dream on your unsuspecting video mini-course subscribers! And don’t feel the need to adopt a whole other persona just for the videos. Authenticity is easy to spot and almost impossible to fake.
Creating engaging videos isn’t so much about your performance, it’s about connecting all the information and education elements with being human. Use stories to give emotional context to your facts and figures – they’re the secret to making real connections through the screen.
Ask yourself, what will make this more entertaining? As long as it’s appropriate to the content, add whatever makes your videos as interesting as possible. Take a look at examples of some top video mini-courses for inspiration.
Another way to make a stronger impact is to use a quiz to specifically research what your audience already watches and ask them what they find most engaging in video content.
It’s good practice to ask their opinion of your video mini-course after completion, so you’re always making tweaks that keep it fully optimised. But a deeper dive into audience preferences may be worthwhile, if you plan to use video mini-courses as a lead magnet more frequently.
Mistake 4: Failing to connect the different parts of your mini-course
Your mini-course must have connectivity. Think of it like those electrical circuits you built at school.
- Battery: Your clients’ pain points and needs
- Switch: Your landing page
- Tiny bulbs: videos 1, 2 and 3, offer, subsequent email streams
What’s missing? You can lay all this out on the table, as close together as you like and it won’t work. Why? You haven’t used any connecting wires, those ones with the fiddly crocodile clips. No wires = no electrical circuit.
If you don’t build any connecting bridges between each stage of your video mini-course funnel, it won’t work either. You need to compel your audience to move to the next stage of the process.
It only takes a couple of sentences, like ‘Next, in Video 2, I’ll tell you all about…’. But forget them at your peril.
Mistake 5: Forgetting a call to action
You started your course with a learning objective, which your audience will have achieved by the end of Video 3.
But you’ve also got a sales objective, which translates into a clear call to action (CTA) for your audience on the sales page at the end of the course, moving them onto the next stage of your sales funnel.
This is where you tell your audience what the course has prepared them for. That, after completing the course, they’re at the right level to take a specific course of action. Choosing the right CTA depends on the type and cost of your product or service.
For example:
If your product or service costs £1,000s
Your course has convinced your audience that your product or service is right for them – they’re ready to buy now. And that’s what you should direct them to do.
Resist the urge to offer a sales call as the next step here because your course has properly prepared to commit now. Why would they waste their own time (and yours!) on a call when they can just click ‘Buy now’?
If your product or service costs £10,000s
For higher ticket offerings, a sales call is the logical next step as your CTA. What’s invaluable about your video mini-course in this instance is that your prospects are already further along the sales process.
The mini-course has answered their questions, removed some of the hurdles and showcased your expertise. So your sales team is meeting them at a place where they know, like and trust you – shortening your sales cycle overall.
You know your clients best. Present them with the call to action that’s most successful for your business. Just don’t forget about it altogether!
Mistake 6: Not following up with leads
Your automated nurture email sequence should be part of your video mini-course planning process. In our world of overflowing inboxes, you need to remind people that they’ll benefit from your content.
The purpose of these emails might be to watch your video mini course, or to take the next step that you outlined in the CTA.
There’s a tendency to worry about becoming annoying by sending too many emails. And it’s good to be considerate of people’s time. But people are often grateful for the reminder.
Your emails will be personalised and segmented, ensuring their relevance to every recipient and keeping the benefits of your video mini-course top of mind.
Mistake 7: Not promoting the mini-course
When it’s live, you must promote your lead magnet! How else are people going to hear about it? You’ve just created a super-valuable video mini-course that you know your audience wants.
But you need to set-up your traffic system before your launch, otherwise it’s going to take way longer to get off the ground than it should. You’re looking at a ‘wading through treacle’ level of speed.
This is an incredibly frustrating mistake because it’s totally avoidable. You just need to shout about your amazing mini-course, which you’re incredibly excited about, to everyone you know. Share your mini course lead magnet everywhere – blogs, social media channels, email list – and jump straight to warp speed!
Create your successful video mini-course with ScoreApp
Now you’ve got your problem prevention checklist, you’re almost ready to get started. You can also avoid all the technical difficulties of creating a video mini-course by using ScoreApp!
Build, share and monitor your video mini-course all from your ScoreApp account. Are you ready to deploy this powerful lead generation tool? Try ScoreApp for FREE today.
