5 Simple Steps to Creating Your Own Training Videos
Practice makes perfect. So does training.
What if there is a way to make training easier to digest and retain?
This article is for all of you who dislike long repetition (like me) and would rather binge-watch something on Netflix than reading some heavy material printed in black and white on paper.
As businesses trying to educate their future customers, they will have to consider people like me. There are some outliers that love to read anything and everything.
Would it be awesome if you can get a better reach to a more audience?
4 Eye-Opener Statistics to Get Started
Let me share some statistics on consumers’ behavior before purchasing a product and how training videos can affect employees.
- There are 4 times as many people that would prefer to watch a video about a product rather than read about it during the decision-making process before purchasing a product
- 7 out of 10 millennials are more likely to watch company video while shopping online
- Less than the top 10 learning and educational videos have a combined view of more than 1 billion views! Per day!!
- On the employee’s point of view, two out of three can complete their tasks better when the instructions are shown visually, and they absorb information 7% faster
Now that you understand how training videos can benefit you, your employees, and your customers. Let’s start making your own training videos, shall we?
Step One: Pick a Subject
First of all, you need to know what you want to teach. Also, you cannot teach everything at the same time. Information overload!
Start with one thing at a time. So focus on one topic per video. If not, the video can be very long and makes people lose interest even just looking at the thumbnail or title of your video, but some information is not relevant to some people.
Breaking it down into a series might be a good idea.
For example, if you’re in the electronics sector, do not jam ALL your available products into one video.
If I plan to buy a blender, I only want to watch your videos on blenders and not on rice cookers, juicers, and so on so forth.
If you ask me to scroll through that very long video of yours just to find one product and spend a maximum of 5 minutes, I will ditch your whole brand altogether!
Choose your audience. Find out if your chosen type of audience is interested in and what do they need help with.
Spend time specifically for this process because this is the deciding factor on whether people will watch your video or not.
If you want to train your audience, it is best if you conduct a few interviews with them to see which teaching method is more effective.
Step 2: Pick a Format
There are a lot of different video formats that exist in the industry. If you try to learn them all, it gets very frustrating because you’ll be given too many choices to choose from without actually understanding which one will suit your needs.
Let me introduce a few of the common ones and you can make your choices.
1) Micro Videos
This video type is generally very short, 1-minute maximum but mostly only 5–15 seconds, and it is very suitable for us, goldfish generation.
It is an excellent option for simple processes videos that rely on visuals and not narration or text.
2) Screencast
This format is something you can easily do on your own because it only involves recording the screen on your computer!
If you’re in the computer system or software sector, this is a must learn. You do not have to make an entire video purely from screencasting, but it’s an important part of your video.
3) Presenter Video
This format generally involves recording a live training session and editing it as part of a learning program video.
These types of videos are suitable for a product demo video and DIY projects, showing how a host teaches and demonstrating to an audience.
4) Role Play
This video format normally requires some acting skills and are generally used to provide a better understanding of how to handle things or how a conversation should go.
Some examples include sales calls, technical support processes, and other social interactions.
5) Animation
Animated videos use both visuals and text to deliver a message and it is highly attractive and engaging.
It is a little bit more technical to create but the results always manage to engage its viewers.
Step Three: Script and Storyboard
This is a step where your imagination comes true by writing it on paper (or a computer).
Think of it as prep work, and without this step you’ll be pushing your own dreams into destruction.
Start simple by having a blank piece of paper and a pencil or a pen (millennials translation: Google Docs).
Write your ideas and what you want to say and when you’re finished, edit it into something that your audience would expect to hear.
Afterward, create a storyboard. This helps you to create a visual sequence of your video through simple sketches.
At this stage, you can already estimate the duration of your video.
Step Four: Lights, Camera, Action
It is time for magic! This is where your idea comes true and where you can finally see the finish line. It is time to get your camera and start recording!
I do have to say that you do not have to own one of the greatest cameras of all time. All you need is ANY camera (yes, your smartphone counts too) and press the recording button.
Editing the video, however, is something that you might need to learn. And no, it is not as hard as you think! Believe in yourself (and the advancement of technology).
This can be a little bit different from animation videos as their characters are all fictional and they are cartoons. You have to physically draw it on a computer and animate it to be able to make a video.
Step Five: Ready, Get Feedbacks, and Publish!
It is time for you to step on that finish line!
However, before you can post your video to whatever channels you choose, it is important to get other people’s feedback.
You know the saying “better late than never”, but I have a better one for you “better early than late!”.
Why?
Because it’s better to get as much feedback as early as possible and fix it before you’ve gone too far with more to fix.
My recommendation from one smart and lazy person to another, it’s a time saver and will take a lot of workload off your shoulders.
I believe that you are insanely creative and have an excellent eye for detail, but just because it works for you doesn’t mean it works for everyone else.
Or maybe other people can give you more ideas to make your video from excellent to perfect.
Other people can also remind you of something you might forget or something you never knew you need!
Once you and your reviewers agree that your video is a work of art that fell from heaven, it is time for you to share that art with the rest of the world.
Choose carefully on where and how your video will be posted. One wrong move may cost you thousands of viewers to miss out on watching the video.
You can start by posting it on your website if you have one, social media, and on a video-sharing platform such as Youtube.
The higher the number of people exposed to your video, the higher the chance for your video to be on Google’s first page.
This is particularly important in getting more new customers.
People Google anything and everything these days. And it is more likely for people to click on the first link they saw rather than scrolling down to page 2, 3, 4, and so on.
Make your video go viral!
Doesn’t sound too hard right?
Try creating your own videos and we’d like to hear about it on the comment box down below!
