How to Create a Training Video That Works

Video training can be extremely effective for corporations, coaches, educators, and even streamers and influencers. Let’s talk about how to make a training video that will engage your audience and help you achieve your goals.

• What is a training video?

• Benefits of video training

• When to make a training video

• Types of training videos

• What makes a training video effective?

• How to create a training video

• Tips on video training

Before we get too deep into how to create a training video and free and paid tools to help create effective videos, we need to define what we’re talking about. So, what is a training video? A training video is any video that provides instructions and education to help an audience train and prepare for a task. Training videos often include step-by-step instructions and demonstrations, and they can be used for a variety of purposes. They can be used to onboard new employees, train workers to use new equipment, provide updates for communities and organizations, and so much more. The one thing all training videos have in common is that they’re concrete and applicable. When someone watches your training video – for work or recreational activities – they should be able to immediately apply what they learn in the video.

People retain more info from videos than other media

The human brain processes information from imagery 60,000 times faster than words. Watching a video can help viewers understand training materials faster and more efficiently than reading a manual. Consider a training handbook that takes 10 minutes to read. In those 10 minutes, the trainee will only receive the information from the handbook once and will need to read it over again a few times to retain relevant information. Compare that with a 3-minute video, in which you can present the same information in a more engaging manner. The trainee is more likely to grasp the information the first time, and rewatching the video will still take less time and improve retention better than reading the manual multiple times.

Videos are a more engaging learning medium

73% of viewers would prefer to learn via video over other formats and media. If you can present new information in people’s preferred learning medium, you’re more likely to get good engagement and higher levels of retention.

Go to Wyzowl to check marketing statistics

Videos are cost-effective

If you’re putting together a training program for work, consider the cost. Whether you have to hire a trainer to come to your office, or one of your employees has to take time away from their other work to run a training session, it’s costly! Plus, in-person training requires you to ensure that all new employees are present for the training session, which could include flight and hotel costs. Instead, why not record your training session and reuse it over and over again whenever the need arises?

Online video trainings are more convenient

Making training videos and sharing them online provides more convenience for your viewers. They can watch their course videos when they have time, from anywhere in the world. Plus, they can always revisit the training material whenever they need a refresher, instead of having to hunt down an expert or search endlessly online for answers.

Training videos are easily shareable

Instead of spending a lot of time explaining a concept over and over again, you can easily upload a training video to YouTube, your company’s cloud, or any other internal or public video-sharing platform. Sharing knowledge and training resources is as easy as sending a link. This is even better if your training video is customer-facing and can be used as a marketing resource. Consider how many ways you could use a product demo video to engage prospects and enhance the customer experience.

Informational videos build trust and thought leadership for your brand

Speaking of customer-facing videos. Training videos related to your products or services can help build rapport with your prospects and customers. Share quick tips, tricks, and lessons with your audience to show them that you’re the expert in your field and that you care about helping them overcome pain points and achieve their goals.

Training videos avoid PowerPoint burnout

No one likes sitting through a boring PowerPoint presentation. All too often, the presenter just reads the information on the slides, and the audience tries not to fall asleep. A good training video avoids this unpleasant scenario by showing viewers the steps they’ll need to take to complete tasks and understand new information. With the right training video, you can significantly improve employees’ experience in training sessions, and you can give them more freedom to complete their training on their own time.

When should you consider making paid or free training videos? We’ve already discussed a few of the benefits of these videos, but let’s talk about their application and when they’re most effective.

When you’re onboarding new employees

Whether your employees work on-site or remotely, training videos are a great way to get them started. Training videos can help with all aspects of the onboarding process, from covering company policies and logistical details to step-by-step instructions for using specific equipment. 

When you deploy new processes or equipment

What do you do when you install a new printer and no one knows how to use it? Or, if you work in a highly regulated field and new requirements are passed, what’s the easiest way for employees to understand how to comply? A training video is a quick and easy way to answer questions and give your employees the resources they need to better perform their jobs.

When you have a widespread remote team

More and more companies are employing remote teams from around the world. When you work in New York, half your team is in Tokyo, and the other half is in London, how do you get everyone together for a live training session? Unless you want to make some of your team work in the middle of the night, it’s just not possible! But, with a training video, you can easily communicate with everyone on your team – and no one has to lose any sleep.

When you need to increase sales

A simple training video can help your sales team increase their effectiveness. Instead of trying to explain how your product or service could make a prospective customer’s life easier, your salespeople can send links to videos showing the product in action, or demonstrating how your service can unburden their staff and help them gain a competitive edge in their industry.

Before we tackle how to record training videos, let’s talk about a few different types of training videos that you might find useful.

Live training videos

Not all training videos are pre-recorded. Live training videos are especially good for sales presentations and demos for prospective customers. They’re also good for training sessions in which you want to have a lot of audience participation or a Q&A at the end of the presentation.

Simulive training videos

These are similar to live videos, but only part of the training is conducted by a live presenter. In most cases, the training video is pre-recorded and played for the audience at a specific time. After the training video plays, the live presenter will then take questions and conduct an interactive portion of the training. Many product demonstrations, informative webinars, and free training videos are conducted this way. 

Screencast videos

A screencast is a video recording of activity on a user’s screen. Screencasts are often used in live-streaming videos, but they’re also one of the easiest and quickest methods for new training video makers and busy presenters. If you’re interested in how to record training videos but you don’t have a lot of time to put together a huge production, this is the way to do it. Just use your favorite screen recorder and take a quick screencast of your step-by-step instructions and you’ll be all set!

PowerPoint presentation videos

This is another common type of video training, in which the presenter will record their screen while presenting a PowerPoint deck. With this kind of training video, the presenter will typically capture microphone audio, but they may also choose to include system audio, depending on the subject matter and what they want to include in the presentation.

Q&A training videos

Think of all the times you’ve watched interviews with industry experts, celebrities, and other interesting and/or authoritative people. You can leverage this type of Q&A session to create informative training videos for sales, marketing, or employee development purposes.

Of course, not all training videos are effective. Some drone on for too long without getting to the point. Others have low-quality visuals and poor audio. Here are a few tips to ensure that your videos are top-notch and will help you achieve your goals.

They’re brief (less than five minutes)

Unless you’re creating an in-depth training video for an employee onboarding session, keep an eye on the time. While you may have a captive audience for some types of training videos, if you’re posting your video online and you want people to watch it, keep it short and sweet. Ideally, your video should be about three minutes long, and no longer than five minutes. If you have a lot of material to cover, break it up into multiple videos. This way, people can easily access as much or as little of the instructional content as they need.

Quality training videos have clear learning objective(s)

What will people learn from watching your training video? Communicate the learning objectives and the value that your viewers will get from watching your video. You can do this by giving it an appropriate title and stating in the first few seconds what you’ll be teaching in the video. So, if your video teaches viewers how to edit a PDF file, you can improve your engagement by giving it a title like “How to edit a PDF file in 3 easy steps” and stating in the introduction of the video what you’ll be teaching in the next three to five minutes.

They present step-by-step instructions

The most effective training videos help viewers understand the lesson by presenting it in an ordered, structured manner. Don’t skip around from one task to another, and don’t go out of order. Present the information with step-by-step instructions that walk your audience through the material from start to finish.

Effective training videos use ordered scripts or outlines

In most training videos, you’ll be walking your audience through a multistep process. You might think that you have a solid grasp on the material, but even if that’s the case, you might accidentally skip a step or miss some valuable information. Before you start recording, write a script or at least an outline of the video and the information you’ll be presenting. 

The best training videos have high-quality video and audio

There are thousands of training videos available online today on all kinds of topics. The most popular videos with the highest views all have two things in common: high-quality video with good resolution and crisp, clear audio. Whether you’re recording your screen, shooting video on your phone, or you have the budget for a DSLR camera, you should record in the highest resolution possible and ensure that your video-editing software can export high-resolution files after you get done editing. Likewise, don’t rely on your computer, phone, or camera’s built-in microphone if you don’t have to. If at all possible, invest in a directional microphone that will help cut out extraneous noise from your recording.

Step 1. Choose your training video’s topic

What topic are you covering for your training video? If you’re deploying new software or equipment for your team at work, the topic may already be chosen for you. On the other hand, if you’re creating a video that will function as a marketing tool or a sales enablement tool, you might have a little more freedom in your topic choice. For example, let’s say that your company sells software that helps businesses report on their performance by tracking and reporting on key metrics. Consider how your product helps your customer and how you can help them better use it. In this case, an effective training video might be one that walks viewers through the steps to create a report on the previous quarter’s sales numbers. 

If your topic isn’t already chosen for you, take some time to brainstorm a few topic ideas. As you do, think about your audience. What are their goals? What kinds of videos are they searching for? What topics do they need to know about? Use this information to guide you as you choose what you’ll be covering in your video.

Step 2. Choose the type of training video you want to create

Once you have a topic ready to go, you need to determine what kind of training video will best suit your needs. Review the types of training videos in the section above as you consider your options. Different types of videos are more effective for different types of training and education. For example, if you’re creating a training video that walks viewers through how to perform a task online, a screencast might be the best option. If you’re educating people on how to do a push-up at the gym, you’ll probably want to film someone performing the steps you want your viewers to emulate. For a training video in which an expert is sharing their knowledge on a high-level topic, you might want to do a Q&A-style video.

Step 3. Write a script or outline

Next, it’s time to write your video’s script or outline. This doesn’t have to be a professional screenplay, but it should at least cover the main points of the video and the steps in the instructions you’ll be giving. You may want to also include some notes for your voice-over to help you stay on track as you’re recording. 

If you’re going to be on camera during the video, it may be easier to write a full script of everything you’ll say during the training session. Writing and practicing your script will help you sound more natural once you start filming. If you’re doing a screencast video with a voice-over, you can either write a full script for your voice-over or an outline with the basic concepts and steps you’ll be covering. You can then use the outline to help guide you as you record your voice-over.

Step 4. Plan your shots

Whether you’re making a screencast, shooting a video of live people, or animating your training video, your next step is to plan the visual and audio aspects of the video. The easiest way to do this is usually to create a quick storyboard or to make notes about the video details in your script. If you make a storyboard, you’ll have a rough illustration of each shot, and you can make notes about elements to include in each part of the video. This is especially helpful when shooting a live-action video. Even if you’re using a screencast for your training video, though, you may want to draw out a storyboard to make sure that all of the steps and parts of your video fit together well. 

Some helpful steps to take in this phase of your video creation include:

1. Filling in video and audio notes in the script.

2. Creating a storyboard to see the flow of the video.

3. Writing a shot list based on the storyboard that you can use to ensure that you get all necessary shots when you start filming.

Step 5. Record your video footage

After you have your video planned and you know what shots you need for your visuals, it’s time to record the raw footage for your training video. This could mean taking a screen recording of a specific task, or it might include getting your cast and crew together for a live-action shoot. If your video’s visuals will be entirely made up of screencast footage, you can opt to record your voice-over at the same time that you record your video. If you have trouble doing this, or if you plan to edit in other visuals, you can always record your voice-over in a separate track after you record your video footage.

Step 6. Edit your video with Movavi Video Editor

Once you’ve shot your footage and/or recorded your screen, the real fun of video creation begins: the editing! This is where you take raw video footage and turn it into a polished, engaging training video. 

Start by downloading and installing Movavi Video Editor. Next, import your video footage into the program and drag the video file into the editing timeline. From here, you can cut, split, clip, and crop your video footage to streamline the video and cut out dead space or mistakes. You can also choose from a variety of transitions between video clips. 

As you edit, explore the tools and features available to help improve your video. You might want to add a filter to give your video a uniform look and feel. If you didn’t opt for a webcam overlay while recording your screen, you can use the picture-in-picture tool to add an overlay video or image, as well. When you’re done with your other edits, be sure to add an intro with your video’s title, and you can add an outro, too. You can also use the text tool to add captions or annotate your video, too.

Movavi Video Editor also includes audio-editing tools, as well. If you don’t already have a voice-over recorded, you can record one now. If your voice-over is part of your video file, you can separate audio and video tracks to perform edits on each individually. You can also import a separate audio track and edit it to fit, as well.

When you’re done, just hit the Export button, choose your file format, and save or share your training video.

Along with following the steps above, here are a few key things to keep in mind as you get started creating training videos:

Get inspired by similar videos

Before you start planning your video, search for similar videos on YouTube and other video platforms to see how creators are addressing similar content. Make note of what you like, what works, and what you want to avoid, then use your notes to improve your own video.

Don’t bury the lede

Don’t spend a lot of time getting to the point of your video. Start with a punchy title that tells your audience what they’re going to get from your video, and then give it to them. Remember, most people won’t watch a video that’s longer than three to five minutes.

Be consistent

Don’t throw a bunch of different styles at your audience. Choose a single font for your title and any annotations. Don’t switch between several different filters, and stick to one type of transition between clips. The more consistent and straightforward your video is, the more effective it will be.

End with a call-to-action

What do you want your audience to do after they get done watching the video? Whether this is the first video in an onboarding series for new employees or you’re using it for a marketing campaign, guide the audience to the next step in the process with a clear call-to-action (CTA) at the end of the video.

Making training videos can be a lot of fun, and you don’t have to be a professional video maker to create something really great. Follow the steps and tips we shared in this article, and check out some of the useful tools we discussed here, too, like Movavi Video Editor.