Launch Video Maker

Launch videos for courses and creators

Published 28 September 2026.

When you launch a course, a cohort, a paid newsletter or a membership, you're selling what people will be able to do afterwards. A launch video should show that outcome, what's inside, who's teaching and when enrolment closes. Your audience already knows you, so it can be short: 15 to 30 seconds, vertical for Shorts and Reels, with a 4:5 or 16:9 cut for LinkedIn if you teach professionals.

A 30-second reel we made for our own guide library, howtogetaito.com, in the typographic kinetic poem look. Moving type suits teaching: the words are the product. Make one like this The look: Typographic kinetic poem.

What to show, beat by beat

For a 30-second cut:

0 to 4 seconds: the skill, not the course name. "Edit your own podcast in an afternoon" says more than "Podcast Pro Masterclass".
4 to 14 seconds: what's inside. Three lines at most: the number of lessons, the format (live, recorded, email) and one thing people make along the way.
14 to 20 seconds: who's teaching. Your name and one line of relevant, checkable experience.
20 to 26 seconds: price and deadline. The price, any early-bird rate and when it ends, or when the cohort starts.
26 to 30 seconds: where to sign up. A short address on your own domain.

For a newsletter or membership, swap "what's inside" for what arrives and how often: "Every Tuesday, one tool, tested".

Which shape and length for which channel

YouTube Shorts, Reels and TikTok: 9:16, 15 to 30 seconds, posted to the audience you've already built. See our YouTube Shorts specs and Instagram Reels specs.
Your YouTube channel or sales page: 16:9, 30 to 60 seconds, as a trailer.
LinkedIn: 4:5, 30 seconds, if the course is for people's careers.
Your email list: a poster frame linking to the video usually works better than an attachment.

Facts first: no promises you can't keep

Course marketing slides easily into claims about results (income, followers, a new job), and it's the quickest way to lose trust. Don't. In the UK, advertising rules expect you to be able to back up any claim about what customers will achieve, and "students earn £5k a month" is hard to back up. Stick to what you control: what's in the course, how long it takes, who's teaching and what it costs. A named student quote is fine if you have their permission and they really said it.

Mistakes to avoid

Reading the whole syllabus. Three highlights; the sales page has the rest.
No price. Your audience will ask in the comments anyway, so why make them?
A deadline that moves. If you extend enrolment, the old video now says something false. Keep dates you'll hold to.
Only posting it once. Post the same reel near the start and again near the close of enrolment.

How Launch Video Maker would make it

Give us your course or sales page address. We read it, list the facts we could show (price, number of lessons, start date, your credentials as your page states them) with the words and the page each came from, and you approve the ones you want. No sales page yet? Choose "Build it from scratch" and write the facts yourself. Moving-type looks like the one above suit courses well, because your words are the product. There's no voiceover: the reel carries its message in on-screen type, music and sound effects.

A single vertical reel is £9 for 15 seconds or £29 for up to 60. The Bundle (£49) adds the 16:9 trailer and the 4:5 LinkedIn cut. Start with your web address.

See also how to make a launch video.