#229: Lead Magnets That Still Convert: Video Series

Welcome back to another episode of the Course Creation Incubator podcast. I’m your host, Gina Onativia, tough year here to spark creativity, challenge your thinking and help you take action that matters, whatever it is you’re working on right now. If you are working on a launch, you are building up your course, you’re building up your life cohort, you’re working on group coaching, whatever it is, I’m here to inspire you and coach you and help you get to the next step.

Now we’re continuing our lead magnet series today after already diving into checklists and quizzes. And if you haven’t listened to those episodes, go back because today I want you up to speed because we’re going to talk about another great format for Lead Magnet, and that’s the video series. Now, I love a good video series. You guys have heard all the stats about video.

It is everywhere today. 90%. I was looking at HubSpot blog. 90% of marketers, of course, are including video marketing as their core strategy. It is what attracts the algorithms in terms of social media. You need video on your website. It is a powerful, powerful tool that we we just can’t ignore it today. So I want to talk today and break down a video series, which is one of my favorite lead magnets, and talk through the different elements and how you might be able to leverage it.

Now, before we get any further, this episode is, of course, brought to you by our done for You services course creation, course marketing, high touch, custom done for you. We talk through your lead magnet, your customer journey if you want to work with us and be one of the few that works with us each quarter. Go to course creation boutique dot com slash course to learn more.

Now video is expected to account for a huge 82% of all Internet traffic by this year. It’s just phenomenal, right? You need video today in order to be a successful entrepreneur and a successful course creator. A reason that I love video is that in a world of AI, video puts you your voice, your personality, your quirks front and center.

It makes it so powerful against a AI driven lead magnet. Right. So somebody just created a cheat sheet out of Chartbeat. Anyone can do that now. But if I’m bringing you video of me teaching you something, you’re getting a sense of me. Now, anybody can download a AI generated content these days. However, if I’m making a video, well, one, I’m putting myself out there, right?

So I’m being vulnerable to like I just mentioned, you’re seeing my personality. You’re seeing my quirks. You either love it or hate it, right? So we were like, Gosh, this Gina gal, she’s kind of annoying, right? And that’s okay. Or some will say, Oh, I like her. She’s loud. She puts it out there. She gets right to the point.

There’s no fluff. So with video, there’s no hiding that you’re embracing it. I was just thinking the other day about certification, of course, we put out with Dr. Budd, a chiropractor. And Budd on video is warm. He’s funny, he’s a little quirky, but overall, he’s inviting. And you want to learn more from him. It’s so easy to learn from him and his course.

It’s just a testament to how he has worked with patients for years and years. It’s a chiropractor. A video series would be great with him or for him because it showcases the best of who he is. So if you’re comfortable on camera, if you want to put yourself out there and connect with people in a new way, there’s no better way to do that than a video series.

Here’s another reason I love video series for lead magnets. You can recycle old material. So I remember back in the days when I would do Facebook Lives for gosh, this was years and years ago before I had a podcast and I would go live and I would do four steps to putting out a great content series or whatever it is, and that I would turn into a video series because I thought, Hey, I have this content from years ago.

It was lives. I never put it on my website and it was a really great video series for me. We’re repurposing content right now for a client. We initially did a four part series as a campaign and we realized, gosh, this did really well. People really resonated with this content. Let’s convert it into a video series. So if you have content, maybe it was a blog series, maybe it was even videos yet that you thought, Oh my gosh, this was a great series.

Record it for video. It doesn’t have to be polished. I just want to remind you guys that you don’t have to go into a studio, do it on your phone and script it out a little bit and give yourself some good lighting and frame it and go for it. Don’t delay because you don’t have a professional studio. The raw, the more raw, the better.

So what we’re talking about video series, by the way, I do want to say technical side of this video series. We could have three, four or five videos. I wouldn’t have more than five videos. It just gets overwhelming. I’ve talked about that as part of this lead magnet series. We want to keep it doable. We want to keep it process.

Let’s talk about the technical side of the video series a little bit before we get any further. And we’re talking about video series three, four, five videos that you are dripping out to people. So one video, typically one video a day. I don’t want you guys to go above five videos. Then we’re talking that’s like a course. We’re going more than five videos.

We’re going above and beyond you probably are satiating your audience like we’ve been talking about. We’re also going to put it on a landing page and show one video at a time, One video per day, or we’re going to put it behind a core site. So I love, Joby, that video series I was just talking about in a minute ago that we’re now building for our client.

We are putting it inside of Google so we can drip it out day by day, check the metrics, etc. Now it’s password protected. So there is a little bit of friction in that people have to log in. However, the drip, the drip functionality really outweighs that kind of friction for us. So just wanted to get kind of those technical aspects out of the way.

You guys are probably wondering how long to this. I want you to test if you’ve done video content before. I want you to see what really works for you. Now, typically I would say about four or 5 minutes per video, not technically like really short form content. I don’t really want one minute videos. People are opting in for this, so it has to be some value add here, has to be substantial in a way.

So if you’re going for five 6 minutes at a time, then it feels heftier, feels like you’re really giving them something versus a 32nd video like let’s stay away from the short form content. Also, when we’re talking about a video series I mentioned dripping it out. So you’re going to give them one a day. You’re going to give one email a day.

So you’re going to write some emails and do some marketing to help them, encourage them to opt in, just like we are for our other lead magnet. Then we’re going to drip out one video a day. You’re going to have at least one email a day to remind them to check out the videos. You’re going to have your call to actions to the next step because they’re seeing you.

They’re getting more engaged. They’re getting more involved. They’re learning more. They’re going to want to naturally take the next step. All right. I’m kind of stealing my own thunder a little bit here. But let’s talk through a couple of elements of, I think, a standout video series. Okay. First element, a catchy, curiosity driven title, something that stack, something that promises something just like we’ve been talking about with your checklist, just like we were talking about with quizzes.

And then second, you want to pick a series at Build and Stacks. Each video should carry them further along each installment building anticipation. Right? And you want to build on the last one? Hey, if you watched my other video series, I’m doing a series right now as part of this podcast, and I’m harkening back to the other podcasts, Right?

Hey, did you guys listen to the one on checklist? Remember I said this in the quiz one? Okay, so that’s like that for a video series you wanted to stack. And then I already mentioned this, but you want to is embedded throughout. Now don’t wait till the final video to give them a call to action. You are seeding the next step with each video.

I think this is something that we’ve really had to learn as marketers to not just think, Oh, I just need to deliver a lot of content to them. No, no, no. We need to market ourselves or else it’s not an effective marketing piece to lead them to the next step. As a check, I want you to make sure that this video series is simple, but adds value and make sure it leads to the next step.

I was just looking at this video series the other day and the first video was 45 minutes long. The second video was 15 minutes long. The next one was 10 minutes. I couldn’t get through the first one. 45 minutes. It’s too long. So going back to the right length, make sure you’re engaging people. And maybe there’s little exercises along the way to make sure you’re keeping their attention.

I don’t mind a ten minute video if there’s call to action pieces or take action pieces along the way. Now, here, let’s walk through an example. You guys know I like to walk through examples as part of this series. See, we’re doing a book, pre-launch video series, so I’m a potential book author. The audience here, or I’m about to publish my book maybe next year, and I want to know a great content run up in terms of my book launch.

So I’m going to break it down for you in my video series about how to do a really great run up that build up anticipation for your book release. So I’m a book marketer that could be putting out this video series. So episode one could be the mission behind the book. And I’m telling them to get them connected to your personality and to the why behind the book.

And this one, I want you to share your story and the mission that drives you. Right? So this is what I’m talking about in the video series. I’m guiding them. I’m showing my expertise. I’m showing them how I want them to connect and show off their expertise. Then in episode two, I’m telling them to share some core themes, some core early themes from the book.

 

What are some foundational ideas from the book? So maybe from the introduction or the first chapter. Share those. Give your audience a taste of what they’ll learn. And you’re not going to give everything away here right? So people are so afraid of giving everything away. People hurting in different formats. Reading your book is going to be a very different experience from watching a video for 5 minutes.

So that’s why we talk about in episode two and episode three, I’m going encourage them to share a case study or client transformation or an anecdote directly from the book. Show them how your ideas are going to play out in real life. Again, don’t worry about sharing one story from the book or one case study. It’s going to be a very different experience when they actually get your book and they read it.

Same with courses, right? We don’t worry about sharing little stories like that. And then maybe in episode four, I encourage them to talk about what’s next. TS Also, it’s inside the book, so sometimes with books you’ll have part one, Part two, especially a business books, where you’re talking about the premise, you’re making your argument, and then maybe there’s action items in a workbook at the back.

So maybe you’re teasing that, maybe you’re teasing that take action piece. What makes it unique as part of that fourth video? And of course, you’re having a CTA throughout. So I’m going to say if you want more book marketing ideas and strategies, check out my podcast. That could be a great opt in series for a book marketer. I am a book marketer, by the way.

I don’t talk about it a lot, but but I love marketing books as well. So showing off my expertise, showing off my authority, plus it’s giving them a real added value. So it’s really for book marketers who might not be able to hire a huge agency. Want to get the idea of how to do content for their books in their heads.

And this is a really great introduction to that. So I’m providing value that hopefully they can’t get anywhere else. And how are we differentiating ourselves from me? I always asking ourselves this question now, right? I’m adding stories about other authors now how are we differentiating ourselves with I? We’re always asking yourself this question and I’m sharing stories and I’m sharing examples of other authors that I’ve helped and how they introduce the mission of their book and early themes.

And I just give an example of books that have action items at the back. So bringing up different kind of authors and examples and how they’re doing their marketing and content run up is a differentiator. It shows social proof, It shows that I’ve gotten results, shows and I know what I’m doing and makes me feel connected to you.

And it differentiates us again from AI and just getting it AI driven. Chichi So a video series can be a dynamic personality power tool. Hopefully this has encouraged you to try out a video series, helps you stand out against the AI noise. It helps you build trust and connection quickly and make it a snackable video series, right? Each video about 5 minutes long, you’re going to break them up.

Think about a format, by the way, in closing. Think about like a format you might want to do. Like maybe you tell a short story upfront, then you give them three ideas to chew on, and then in closing, you give them a bonus. So think about the format that you want to play with, just like you would with a podcast in terms of your video series and how you want to build your framework around those.

Hopefully this has been helpful for you. If I have made any kind of impact, I would love it if you would leave me a review. If you’re interested in our Done for You services, check out course creation boutiques column slash course. And until next week, go create be you and be brilliant and get it done.