Businesses in various industries successfully use video mini-courses to connect with their audience, generate leads and build their brand. There are loads of reasons why video mini-courses make great lead magnets. But how can you use this type of lead magnet as part of your marketing strategy?
It’s one thing to understand the theory of why something works – it’s a whole other thing to put it into practice in your context. Sometimes the best inspiration is to look at what others are doing well.
6 great mini-course examples
Here are some great examples of real video mini-courses from a range of different sectors.
We’ve highlighted their star qualities and how they link to their main offer.
By analysing these real-life examples, you get a clearer picture of what type of video mini-course will work best for your business.
1. The Insomnia Clinic’s 5-Day Sleep Well Mini-Course
The Insomnia Clinic’s ‘5-Day Sleep Well mini-course’ offers 5 free video lessons to improve your sleep, in 5 minute videos, over 5 days. Its overarching aim is to “help you fall asleep faster, wake less and reduce anxiety around sleep.”
Each 5 minute lesson is Kathryn Pinkham (Insomnia specialist and Founder of The Insomnia Clinic) talking through a different focus, directly to the camera.
Star qualities of this mini-course
- Kathryn Pinkham is an obvious expert who shares her knowledge with the calm, professional tone you want from a medical specialist. She has an open face, is sitting in a homely environment and ends lessons with a friendly smile
- Any necessary technical terms are explained in everyday language, without any assumed knowledge
- The time commitment is small – only 5 minutes for 5 days
- Information to support her position as a subject matter expert: “evidence-based, research-backed and NHS-recommended techniques”, she’s worked as a private and NHS consultant, list of places she’s been published
- Statistic to give social proof: 96% of people who completed the mini-course reported improved sleep
Is it missing anything?
Perhaps they could include a transcript of the videos and an interactive element, like a task, checklist or quiz. Just to engage the audience beyond listening.
How it links to their main offer
The main offer is the ‘Complete Sleep Well and Live Better’ online training course – for people who ‘need more help’. If you complete the mini-course you get a £30 discount and a free gift of membership to a private support group – if you sign up in the next 24 hours.
This makes total sense, as it’s more personalised and goes more in-depth to help people resolve their sleep issues.
Kathryn emphasises this main course’s value for money by comparing it to 1:1 sessions that cost £125 per hour – using the mini-course discount code gives you the full main course for £195.
2. Introduction to the Wim Hof Breathing Method
The Wim Hof Method mini class is a set of 3 videos that introduce and demonstrate Wim Hof’s 3 pillars for a stronger, healthier life: The Power of Breathing, The Power of Cold, and The Power of Your Mind. You get the first video on sign up, then the next 2 on subsequent days.
Star qualities of this mini-course
- Wim Hof is a Dutch athlete, multiple Guiness World Record holder, and he advocates a reconnection with our natural selves to boost good health and happiness. The trademarked full programme is called the Wim Hof Method. The ‘Iceman’ himself is the main attraction – it’s who his fans (called Hoffers!) want to see. And that’s who you get on camera for the whole course – his time, as the expert
- You’re only investing a total of 25 minutes, divided into 3 ‘Beginner Level’ video chunks
- The focus of each video is very clear from the mini-course landing page
- Videos are available in 5 languages, including English
- Wim refers to the scientific research that backs his theories, which is published on his website
- Transcripts of the videos are readily available
- It’s an interactive experience, the audience is being directed to participate in physical exercises with Wim
Is it missing anything?
Aside from the transcript, there’s no other written materials or quizzes accompanying this mini-course.
How it links to their main offer
As soon as you sign up for the first part of the course, there’s an offer connected to a longer, paid for video course called ‘Fundamentals’. It’s introduced with some nice wording: “Since you are keen to get strong, happy and healthy, we want to kickstart your learning journey with an exclusive 35% discount on our Fundamentals video course!”
It’s the chance to dive into a new course, containing 40 video lessons, with homework assignments and a workbook. You need to invest 11 hours 45 minutes in total, to complete the course and it costs £269.00. It’s also available in 5 languages and includes yoga stretching with a professional instructor.
3. HubSpot Academy
HubSpot is a learning inbound marketing, sales and customer service software company. They have a whole host of different free mini-courses that range in duration, category, content type, language and level of learner.
For example, the ‘Search Insights Report Course’ is only 45 minutes long and it takes you from ‘What is a holistic content strategy?’, to a step-by-step guide to building your own search insights report.
Star qualities of this mini-course
- HubSpot has an excellent reputation as an industry leader that they’ve built up over time
- The dashboard for selecting courses is very intuitive
- You can select your course based on: Topic categories (like Marketing and Web design), Content type (Course/eBook etc), Duration, Hubspot software, Learning level, and Language
- In order to access any of the learning, you must create a HubSpot account – collecting those vital audience details!
- Regardless of overall length, courses are divided into short videos that include experts talking to the camera, slides, activities during the lecture elements, and tasks involving using HubSpot downloadables or other features – really high production value here
- An evaluation survey at the end of the course gives HubSpot excellent data to keep improving their offering – and links directly to SurveyMonkey with the question, ‘Want to create your own survey?’
- The final section, ‘recommended learning’ suggests further courses to take on completion
Is it missing anything?
There aren’t any quizzes that add engagement and value to the audience.
How it links to their main offer
HubSpot’s offering is very broad and the relevant elements are cleverly woven into their video courses in a very natural way. No discount codes or special offers for completing the course.
It’s a brilliant example of ‘show don’t tell’ – the persuasion to buy HubSpot’s products is done by showing you how to use them to meet your specific goals in the courses.
4. MasterClass
MasterClass.com has assembled courses with some of the most globally recognised names across a host of different industries.
Star qualities of this mini-course
- They’re a great example of using snippets from an already created, long course as a mouth-watering taster. MasterClass doesn’t call this a mini-course, but a ‘Sample Class’. Whatever masterclass you select, there’s a trailer and sample excerpt from one of the lessons. Some sample lessons include:
- Violin virtuoso, Itzhak Perlman: A couple of minutes demonstrating and explaining the importance of daily octave scales
- Author, Amy Tan: 1 and half minutes on how to deal with writing the beginning of a story
- Designer and businesswoman, Diane Von Furstenberg: 4 and half minutes on the importance of knowing your customer
- Actor, Samuel L. Jackson: 4 and half minutes of his ‘rules to audition by’
- Olympic gold medal winning gymnast, Simone Biles: 1 minute dissecting how to best execute the Yurchenko Full
- These are standalone nuggets of information all by themselves. What seals the deal is the feeling of ‘It really is them!’ when you watch the video sample – and you realise that if you can learn that in a couple of minutes, imagine how much wisdom you can soak up during a few hours. You really are “learning from the best”
- It’s completely clear what the course involved, with a listed breakdown of all the lesson content and the total duration of the course. For example, the Simone Biles course is 17 video lessons and takes 2 hours and 11 minutes altogether
- The collections of masterclasses are sorted by their audiences’ pain points – not just by title of the course. For example, within the Business and Entrepreneurship category, there’s options like ‘Grow with branding and marketing tactics’ and ‘Lead teams to success’
- MasterClass is a streaming service, so you don’t pay by course. Participants pay an annual subscription fee of £120 and then they can access all the masterclasses available in all the categories
- They can claim exclusivity over their content as this is the only place their experts publish any educational content
- Each course has a corresponding workbook and membership includes access to the app and online community
- The mini-videos released as sample classes don’t need to be created separately – they’re simply an edited section of the full masterclass
Is it missing anything?
These are masterclasses that generally follow the structure of a lecture. Depending on the person involved, this may include demonstrations of particular skills, but is largely talking to the camera. There seems to be little interactive additional content.
How it links to their main offer
You can only access any of the videos by subscribing to the full channel. There’s no option for selecting individual masterclasses. But each free sample video is further proof of the quality of the course experts and production levels.
There is a banner advertising their current 40% off, ‘end of summer’ sale at the bottom of every page – just to make it even more irresistible.
5. Coursera’s Free Courses
Coursera is an online learning platform with numerous free video minicourses created in partnership with top universities and organisations from around the world.
Star qualities of this mini-course
- Mutually beneficial relationship between course providers and the platform. The contributors benefit from course visibility and Coursera’s reputation is boosted by their prestigious position in their fields
- Participants can choose a free ‘Audit’ version of the course, or pay for a ‘Certificate experience’ – which gives a ratified certificate to add to your LinkedIn profile and CV
- These are designed as taster courses to encourage enrollment in paid courses and the universities involved – as well as Coursera’s upsell to a paid certificate
- Participants get the chance to try out the course content and leader for free, before committing to a much longer course that requires much more investment of time and money
- Courses are very clearly described, with a menu of lessons down the right hand side of the screen, which also serves to mark progress through the course
- Transcripts of videos are available and further reading is recommended
- There’s a useful ‘screenshot and make your own notes’ feature
- Participants can join forums within Coursera
- In order to do any of the courses, even the free ones, you need to set up an account within Coursera. This gives them lots of additional data, particularly if you complete their initial survey about why you’re there
Is it missing anything?
These are academic courses and largely follow the lecture/slides structure. Perhaps more interactive activities, like a quiz, would increase or sustain engagement.
How it links to their main offer
These short video courses are all standalone learning opportunities. The contributors’ main aim is to encourage more students to apply for longer courses at their universities.
According to Coursera, students are 76% more likely to enrol in a degree programme that offers industry micro-credentials. It’s the power of ‘try before you buy’. Much better to confirm the subject you want to study by doing a mini-course, rather than start a 3 or 4 year long course that you discover isn’t really for you.
6. The Bite Shot’s Food Video 101
The Bite Shot’s free food video 101 is a mini-course that covers all the basics of creating professional videos.
Star qualities of this mini-course
- The course is led by Joanie Simon, owner and founder of The Bite Shot and highly reputed food photographer. Her expertise and positive vibe come right through the screen as she presents to the camera
- Each of the 9 lessons in the mini-course are clearly laid out, with a breakdown of the learning objective and content, and a lesson recap and links underneath each video. Every lesson builds logically from the one before
- On joining the free course, participants also receive a free gift download ‘Onsite Session Gear Packing Checklist’ and the accompanying story explains why this is so important
Is it missing anything?
This is more of a ‘listen, then go and give it a try’ course. The engagement comes with putting what you’ve just learned into practice using your own equipment.
You do have to create an account and join the Bite Shot community before you can start the course – which gives them some lovely data. But they’re missing the opportunity to add a course survey or quiz at the end – to get even more details about their audience.
How it links to their main offer
This free course is billed as the introductory unit to the longer paid course ‘Food in Motion.’ From the comments section, it looks like it did its job whetting the appetite of their ideal clients! It’s not just a good indication of the content people can expect of the main offer, it lets potential subscribers see what kind of learning experience they can expect.
Launch your video mini-course with ScoreApp
These 6 examples are all successful because they match the needs of those particular businesses. As you can see, there are nuanced variations of video mini-courses as a lead magnet – what’s most appropriate for you?
Using ScoreApp to create a video mini-course as a lead magnet has several benefits, including:
- High quality education for your audience
- Demonstrate you industry knowledge and establish authority through the value of the course content
- Build trust with different your audience segments
- Generate warm, pre-qualified leads
- Create opportunities for more engagement, stronger customer relationships and, ultimately, more sales
Launch your first video mini-course with ScoreApp – for free!
