Do you use training videos or use the same Times New Roman employee handouts you’ve been using since the days of Windows 7?
If you’re still using a handbook, the cracks in your organizational armor might be starting to show as the pandemic limits in-person training time and hours in the office. That means training videos are even more critical to a business’s success as new hires come on, and they need training that can no longer be delivered using methods from the early 2000s.
Did you know that employees are 75% more likely to watch a video than they are to consume any other type of media? (Yes, even media that happens to be career critical.)
Here’re some tips to help you make good, short, information-packed employee training videos.
You Need to Put a Little “Hollywood” Into Your Videos
If you think about it, training videos are video marketing in many ways. You show them to your employees, hoping that they’ll do a certain thing a certain way. In many ways, educational videos will still rely on emotions and storytelling to deliver a set of instructions memorably.
The science backs this up too. Emotions do help you sell better.
Bored out of your mind yet? GOOD! We have an example all queued up for you to break up your reading experience. Below, we have an educational marketing video series we made for Dr. Susan Love.
Now, if you were trying to learn about breast cancer, what would you remember better: a PowerPoint or this video?
We even have an entire video lesson about selling with emotion that you can watch right now, for free! It’s part of our masterclass “Lights… Camera… Sales!” You can check it out here.
Use Fun Stuff Like Graphics to Help Visualization and Retention
Wondering how to create training videos your employees remember?
Having fun helps us remember things better. Additionally, 65% of the world population are visual learners, so you need to include graphics and animations.
Yes, we know, making a “fun” training video is hard. Watch the training video below from Wendy’s in the ’80s. It’s hilariously bad and 100% from the ’80s, but we guarantee you won’t forget how to serve a Wendy’s hot drink anytime soon.
Check out the explainer video we made about the importance of video marketing in today’s economy. (We know, we know this is a shameless plug.)
The graphics in this video wrap our message up into a neat visual metaphor designed from the ground up to help our customers remember our message.
Finally, Training Videos Have to Be Short and Focused
It’s important to remember that you can’t record yourself presenting a PowerPoint, and you’ll still lose people as they fall asleep on the other end of your zoom meeting.
You need to keep every video and segment limited to no more than three takeaways (even three is asking a lot from your audience). You need to break your content up into chunks that your viewers will be able to see, process, and then move on from.
Overloading your viewers with information is the worst thing you can do. All you’ve done is guarantee the fact that they won’t remember what you’ve taught them.
Ready to Start Upgrading Your Training?
We hope that our experience and knowledge were helpful to you and your journey. Now, the onus is on you to think about what messages you need to send out, how they need to be structured, and how you’ll create them.
Will you create training videos for your employees by yourself, or will you ask an animation studio like Rip Media Group to help?
We know your training videos will blow their socks off!