How and why I created a promotional marketing video for my online course, Top Squarespace SEO
Hello hello!
Coming in HOT with another “how I did this” educational blog post for you!
I’m about to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the brand new promotional marketing video that I created for my online course, Top Squarespace SEO.
These types of posts are really fun to write for you guys because it’s my chance to share with you, my lovely audience, exactly what I’m working on and show you how I’m doing it.
I can truly show you what I learn, as I go.
There’s something wild about experimenting in your business and then slapping those results/takeaways on the internet for the whole world to see in a blog post LOL! But you know me, always happy to (over)share!
Alright, let’s get right to it!.
To start things off, please take a look at said promotional marketing video (below) so that you know what I’m talking about, and then I’ll catch you on the flip side to discuss how I created this video etc.
Related : An in-depth recap of Top Squarespace SEO: Exactly how I launched and marketed my first online course
Top Squarespace SEO - online course promotional video
click play to watch the video above!
And there you have it, my first ever promotional marketing video :) What do you think?
How this promo video came to be - a little back story
I’m currently writing this blog post in December 2019, during my final launch of Top Squarespace SEO of the year - of the decade too haha!
A few months ago, I planned one final December launch to finish the year off strong… so I worked my tail off creating lots of super-valuable new course content!
You can read all about how I created new lessons, guides and resources for Top Squarespace SEO here.
But just a few weeks earlier (in early November 2019), I did a birthday flash sale of Top Squarespace SEO, definitely worth reading that recap.
This meant I was going to open enrollment for Top Squarespace SEO two times really close together, which is totally fine but I knew I’d have to mix things up a little bit. I would need to up my game with the online marketing this second time around!
So I got busy, started making some big changes and planning things out.
To begin, I first turned my attention to the Top Squarespace SEO sales page.
I had creeped the F out of other successful online course/digital product creators’ sales pages for inspiration/guidance/reference, and had a solid idea of the extra information and sections I wanted to add.
But this was also when I noticed that sooooooo many of the top online course & digital products out there have a promotional marketing video included on their sales page.
Genius! What a great way to increase that like, know & trust factor while also providing useful information about the course to potential students!
Digital products and online courses are funny - the student is essentially paying you to teach them online, and they’re trusting that this random person on the internet knows their shit.
Creating a promotional marketing video to go along with your online course is a wonderful way to develop/strengthen a personal connection with potential students, give them a peek at your personality before they enroll, and reassure them that YOU are the person they want to learn from.
And I figured, if this is what the pros are doing, I should do it too!
Feel the fear and do it anyways!
It goes without saying that this was the first time I have ever created a promotional video, and I was extremely nervous leading up to the shoot - honestly, I almost cancelled it like 5 times haha
I have a lot of resistance to putting myself out there on the internet and getting visible, so recording a video of me talking directly into the camera and using it as a SALES TOOL was obviously going to be really challenging for me.
I’m not an extrovert or someone with a major online presence. I’m barely active on social media (shoutout to my legit 400 Instagram followers!) and I’m still getting better at doing live video trainings that actually show my face and not just a slide deck.
BUTTTTTTT…
I pushed through my total discomfort and did it!
This is going to sound super cheesy but I asked myself two questions:
“What would the most successful version of myself do?”
“How would she show up and sell this bomb-a$$ online course?”
When I look at the leaders in my industry, or my peers who are killing it with their online businesses, I can see that they all have one thing in common : they show their faces and put themselves out there online!
There’s enormous value in developing that “like, know & trust” factor with your audience, especially when you’re offering/selling a digital product that can be hard for people to understand or buy into without seeing first.
I kept seeing these successful people leveraging video content in their online businesses and on their course sales pages, and I couldn’t deny that it was a powerful way to sell digital products.
I knew that if I wanted to challenge myself, push myself to reach my goals and serve more students with my (amazing) online course, then a promotional marketing video was the way to go!
So yeah, I felt the fear and did it anyways.
And now I have a new promotional marketing video that I’m really happy with!
Energy is everything - stay high vibe!
At the risk of sounding woo-woo, let’s take a quick moment to acknowledge that the energy you give off in your promo video is going to have a HUGE impact on how effective it is!
If you are visibly unenthusiastic or speaking in monotone, then that’s going to be a major turn off for anyone watching the video - I guarantee they won’t even finish the video let alone purchase your online course.
However, if the video shows how excited you are about your product, how happy you are to tell people about your offer, and how HYPED you are to welcome people into the course, then that enthusiasm will come across to the viewer!
This is something I really encourage you to consider before you hit “record” - make sure you’re in a good headspace and that you have a positive mindset because trust me, it’ll show in the footage.
Remember, your promo video helps you to create an emotional connecting with the viewer (who is basically a potential student/customer) so if your energy is high-vibe and positive, they’re going to feel that and want to get on your level and work with you.
Before I sat down to record my promo video, I danced around my kitchen to pump up songs so that I was in a really great mood and had lots of energy. It helped that I also had my friend helping me to record the video but if your’e doing it solo, that’s totally fine too - no risk of someone else coming in with bad vibes and throwing you off!
The process for creating a promo video for your online course
Alright, now let’s move onto the more practical information in this blog post.
The process for creating a promotional marketing video for your online course is actually quite straightforward:
Research & watch other promo videos for inspiration
Plan, outline and write out a basic script for the promo video
Record the promo video
Edit the promo video
Publish the promo video online
Embed the promo video on your sales page
As you can see, it’s nothing groundbreaking. Yes, it takes a bit of prep work, but It’s not THAT hard to do!
But I have a few pointers to share with you for each point, so let’s take a deeper look.
Step 1: research & watch other promo videos for inspiration
Ok so let’s rewind to the very beginning. I had it in my mind that I was going to create a promo video to go along with my online course but I didn’t really know what to do - or how to do it!
I did what any good Millennial would do and turned to GOOGLE AND YOUTUBE, duh :)
First off, I did a quick Google search and found these articles/resources particularly helpful:
How to create a promo video for your online course (Thinkific)
6 Steps For Making An Engaging eLearning Promo Video For Your Course (ELearning Industry)
How to Create Your Own Promo Video for Under $100 (Neil Patel)
8 steps to creating a promotional video (Annie Maguire)
Next up, I went to Youtube and watched several online course promo videos. Some were good, some were bad (sorry not sorry) this gave me the confidence that I could create something decent! #DoneIsBetterThanPerfect.
Step 2: Plan, outline & write out basic script for promo video
At this point, I had decided I wanted to do a promotional marketing video where I was going to be speaking directly into the camera (as opposed to a voice-over video showing my computer screens or slides)
The first thing I did here was plan out the video - what information I wanted to use, the points I wanted to cover, calls-to-action that I was going to use, etc.
I opened Google Docs, wrote out a basic script and tinkered with it until I was happy with the outline.
I mostly leveraged text from my online course sales page - no need to reinvent the wheel here haha!
The script ended up being about 1000 words.
Step 3: Record the promo video
I was SUPER lucky that my wonderful friend Johanna helped me to record the promo video. She is a video content wizard and I am so thankful that she helped me create this promo video!
We set up her camera in my backyard and let the camera roll.
We recorded it all in one take so that it was easier to edit, as opposed to piecing together a bunch of separate videos (if that makes sense). Trust me, I made LOTS of mistakes but I wasn’t worried because I knew we could edit them out!
No fancy studio. No production team. Just a couple of friends making shiz happen for our businesses!
You could totally do this part yourself or hire someone to help you record the video, whatever works. We used Johanna’s fancy camera but I’m sure you could still get great results on a smart phone.
Step 4: Edit the promo video
My amazing friend Johanna edited my promo video for me but again, you could totally do this yourself or hire it out.
Like I mentioned above, we had recorded everything in a single video so that we could easily edit it down. The full video ended up being almost 20 minutes but we edited it down to just under 4 minutes. Wow!!!!
Editing the video is super important because when you record, you’re for sure going to make lots of mistakes but it’s great knowing that you can just delete them and keep the good stuff only.
Step 5: Publish the finished promo video online
Once we had the finished video file, I uploaded my new online course promo video to my Youtube channel (see it here).
You could also use Vimeo or any other video hosting platform, but I used Youtube because I already have an active channel.
I decided to keep the video set to Public on my Youtube channel - in case any random people find the video and decide they want to learn about the course, I’ve linked to my sales page in the video description so they can always check out enrollment details & pricing from there.
That being said, you might also choose to set your video to “Unlisted” if you don’t want people to see it except wherever you’ve embedded the video.
Step 6: Include the new promo video on your online course sales page
Now that I had the finished promo video all ready to go, the only thing left was to embed it onto my live sales page for Top Squarespace SEO!
My sales page is super long so this is just a screenshot of the section where the video is embedded. I included the promo video right at the top of the page, below the top header banner image that says “Top Squarespace SEO”. Peep that Deadline Funnel countdown timer in action LOL!
Et voila!
Totally do-able, eh?
Tips for creating a killer online course promo video
I learned A LOT and have a bunch of tips! So I split them up into two sections:
General promo video tips
Keep it simple - people will likely play the promo video while also scrolling the sales page, so you don’t want it to be too involved
A teleprompter would be very helpful if you don’t have the script memorized… but I just had my script up on my phone and would look down at it as needed (i.e., every single sentence haha)
Stay general so that you can reuse the video again in the future. I purposefully didn’t mention any dates, the number of modules/lessons/bonuses/etc. in case I decided to re-use the video for future launches
A good mic will help pick up only the audio of you speaking - but a bit of background noise isn’t the end of the world!
Take a few still photos from the filming session to use as thumbnail image, or even include it on the sales page (see below)
Pause after each time you talk/say something before looking down/away
Don’t worry if you go off script - so long as you get the main information, it’s all fine and you might even sound more natural!
Blink like a normal person (sometimes when you focus so hard on reciting the script, you might forget to blink and then it will look very forced)
Speak slowwwwwwly yet enthusiastically
Repeat your online course/digital product name multiple times throughout the promo video
Content tips for your promo video
Clearly who how the student’s life will improve after they complete your course - main benefits, focus on outcomes and results
Always include a very clear, strong call-to-action (CTA) - something like “Enroll now by clicking the button below!”
Ask the viewer a question - are you looking for XYZ? Do you want to XYZ? Won’t it be great when XYZ?
Solve a problem and tell people that! For example, “Right now you are XYZ but after taking my course, you will be ABC”
Include a section about feelings - e.g., when you take this course, you will not be overwhelmed by tech talk or jargon, you’ll be confident and comfortable, guided and taken care of as you work through the lessons and start implementing the strategies I teach
Use direct language that prompts people to take the next step- “To enroll in the course, click the enroll button on this sales page. From here, you’ll purchase the course then get instant access to the content.”
Hopefully these tips are helpful to you!
What I would do differently next time
Let me preface this by saying that I’m very happy with my first ever promo video and I think it turned out super well, but there are always a few things that you’d do differently next time, eh? :)
If you decide to record the video outside/at home like I did (i.e., not in a studio), start recording earlier in the morning when there’s less noise and it’s not so hot out (#BaliProblems)
Background music might be a value-add
Cut in with videos/pictures of me on my laptop demo-ing the course content so that people can see what it looks like when they log in after purchasing
RELAX and have fun! I was sooooo nervous and kept fumbling over my words, which made me feel super frustrated and I started getting hard on myself. That’s when my dear friend/videographer Johanna reminded me that we could edit out all the mistakes and it was totally fine to take things literally one line at a time. It all comes together smoothly in the finished product!
All in all though, I’m soooo happy with my very first promo video so these are just minor things - not bad for a first attempt!
Repurposing your promo video
Ok so once you’ve got this fantastic promo video up and running, there are sooooo many places that you can repurpose it in your marketing strategy!
Obviously, you’re going to include the promo video on your sales page. Like, duhhhh.
But beyond that you can also share it on social media and on your blog!
For example, you could edit it down to a 1-minute post for your Instagram feed. Or upload it to your Insta story highlights and then save it on your profile.
Youtube is another great place to have the video - especially if you really beef up the video description, you can get a lot of SEO mileage out of your promo video on this platform!
Facebook can be another great place to share the promo video! Share it on your Facebook business page, in your group, on your own profile, whatever.
As for your blog, you can always do something similar to what I’ve done here and create a blog post showcasing your promo video. People might find your video through an online search (e.g., something like “online course promo video”) and then stumble on your blog post and watch the video… and maybe even sign up for your course after, who knows!
If you have a kick-a$$ promo video for your course, get the most mileage out of it that you can and make sure taht you’re promoting it across multiple platforms!
Final Thoughts
I am really proud of myself for just doing the damn thing and creating this promotional marketing video for my online course, Top Squarespace SEO!
It all came together way easier than expected and I love that I can include this promo video on the online course sales page during this launch.
If you’ve ever thought about creating a promo video for your own online course, I highly recommend that you give it a shot! Don’t over think it or let the tech hold you back. Try it out for yourself and I bet you’ll be happy with the finished product!
Not only will it make you feel great to push yourself and try out new marketing strategies, it will also make your online course appear more legit and professional - which in turn helps with course sales and increases your revenue :)
I hope you enjoyed this super detailed & honest “behind the scenes” blog post and that it’s helpful to anyone out there who is looking to do something similar.
Interested in Top Squarespace SEO? Click here for enrollment details and pricing.
If you want more SEO goodness, be sure to check out my Squarespace SEO page for all resources on the topic.
You can also sign up for my newsletter (right here or below), where I often share Squarespace SEO tips, tricks and high-quality exclusive content. I send out emails to my list every week and while I don’t talk about SEO every time, I can guarantee that you’ll still find the newsletter topics interesting, entertaining and worth your time.
Finally, shameless plug : hit me up with any specific questions you have about Squarespace SEO and your website because I’m your girl. You can reach out to me directly if you’re interested in working together on your website and we can talk about whether or not you would be a good fit for my consulting and ongoing services. I can’t take on every request to do SEO consulting but I do pick a few websites and businesses to work with every month and I’d love for you to be one of them.
You may also be interested in:
Top Squarespace SEO - online course details and enrollment
Squarespace SEO for Affiliate Marketing - masterclass
