How to Create an Engaging Video Tutorial

Videos have become an essential means of communication with customers, partners, and employees. 69% of people say they prefer to watch a short video to learn about a product or service. Videos help generate leads, increase sales, reduce the number of support calls, and provide many other business benefits.

This applies only to well-made videos, of course, where ‘well-made’ means informative, engaging, high-quality, and relevant to viewers’ needs.

Step 1: Determine your objectives

Let’s start from the end: what do you want your viewers to do after watching the video tutorial? Let’s say your video is about how to use your company’s app. So, after a person finishes the tutorial, you would probably like them to know about all of the app’s features and how to use them, so they won’t contact your support department or leave a negative review.

Step 2: Research the topic

Once you’ve set the learning objectives, research the topic you’ll be talking about in the video. If it’s your app, explore it and talk to SMEs, who, in this case, would be product managers. This way, you’ll understand what you need to tell your viewers.

Step 3: Identify your audience

This step is crucial because you can focus on entirely different aspects, depending on the type of audience. Let’s suppose you’re creating a video tutorial for young people on how to use a mobile app. First of all, do they need a tutorial for that? Can you imagine a teenager needing a tutorial video on how to use Instagram? This stage might be a good test of how well you set your objectives prior to creating a video on a topic.

Suppose your audience isn’t young people but adults. This affects your approach considerably. Now, a tutorial might be something you need. And the design, duration, language – everything will differ because you need to find the right way to communicate with this particular audience.

Step 4: Create an outline and a storyboard

An outline summarizes the critical points of your video tutorial. Here’s how it might look:

Now, create a storyboard to determine what you’re going to show to your viewers and in what order. A storyboard can include a series of shots, a presentation, a screencast, as well as other elements, depending on the specifics of a particular video.

Step 5: Write a Good Script

By now, you understand what you will show and in what order. Your next step is to write a script. It should consist of three blocks:

Announce the topic and let the audience know what knowledge and skills they will gain by watching the video.

Describe every aspect of the topic in as much detail as needed. After researching the issue, you might forget what it’s like to dive into the subject matter for the first time. You might believe that some notes are obvious and thus need not be mentioned. That’s a common mistake if you don’t have enough experience. Remember the basic rule: explain everything. What is evident to you might be entirely new for your audience, so provide them with every potentially useful piece of information.

Remind your audience of the topic of the video tutorial, what they have learned, and invite them to apply new knowledge and skills. You can also mention another video tutorial here if it’s relevant and might be of interest to your viewers.

When you finish the script, read it aloud a few times. Edit long and complex sentences. Please pay attention to how you sound: you should be informative, yet not, say, academic, as it might be difficult for some learners to follow you. Use colloquial language, let the audience realize that you’re a normal person, not superhuman – thus, they’ll feel they will be able to do what you’re explaining in the video.

Step 6: Choose a Microphone

When you have your tutorial’s ‘what,’ you need to think about the ‘how.’ You might have a great script, but if you have a terrible microphone, the sound quality will ruin the audience’s impression. The primary way to avoid this is to avoid using built-in microphones. Those don’t minimize background noise and don’t improve your voice quality. So, you might need to get a high-quality portable microphone for better results. They come in different types depending on your needs.

Step 7: Shoot!

You’re all set to record your video. To do this, you’ll need either a camera or screen recording software if you’re making a tutorial on how to use a program or your website.

Step 8: Edit Your Video Tutorial

Tools like iSpring Suite help you both record and edit your video with its advanced video studio. You can record both your screen and yourself simultaneously and then edit the footage however you like: delete portions, add a voice-over, add sound effects like clicking or system sounds, overlay music, add annotations, images, and animation, etc. Editing might help you set the right pace for your video and make it more engaging and informative.

To Sum Up

Now you know how to create a video tutorial. To make it more effective and engaging, be sure to use some of these tips:

• Prepare your recording location. The place where you’ll be recording your tutorial should have decent acoustics and no background noise. A smaller area would be perfect, as large rooms might have an echo.
• Connect your segments smoothly. The elements from your outline should flow naturally from one to another. Otherwise, your video will be abrupt and less engaging.
• Tell an exciting story. Whatever topic you’re making a video tutorial on, please don’t make it formal. Try to find something that excites you personally and share this excitement with your audience to catch their attention and keep them hooked until the end.

We hope you found this article helpful. Good luck!

Source: digitalagencynetwork.com