Are your employees nodding off during training sessions? Are you wondering how to create content that truly educates and motivates? Good news—you’ve come to the right place!
Whether you’re trying to upskill current employees quickly, improve the value of your compliance and security training, or even increase customer engagement, creating effective training videos can help you achieve your business goals.
In this guide, you’ll discover how to develop engaging training videos your learners will remember, helping you operate more productively and efficiently.
What is a training video?
A training video is a type of video that a company uses to teach employees or customers specific topics or skills. Impactful training videos often use lively visuals and audio to illustrate information. Common applications include employee onboarding, product demos, hard and soft skills training, mandatory compliance training, and step-by-step process tutorials.
With these basics in mind, let’s explore why training videos are important and how they can make training initiatives more successful.
Why create training videos?
Providing efficient training at scale—especially for dispersed teams and clients—can be difficult. High-quality training videos can ensure your audience receives a consistent message that’s available on-demand and memorable.
Here are the top benefits of using video to educate your team and customers.
Boost employee engagement
Distractions are everywhere—from constant Slack messages and calls to remote work interruptions (hello, pile of dirty dishes!). Traditional learning and development methods like in-person training and distributing printed materials simply aren’t as helpful or even as realistic as they once were. Add on top of that heightened expectations for fun learning materials thanks to YouTube and social media, and making wow-inducing training content can seem like an immense challenge. How can companies do it?
The answer: your training materials must evolve to meet your employees’ and customers’ high standards and capture their attention.
A recent study found that 44% of consumers prefer video over any other format (manuals, calls, webinars, etc.) to learn. Training videos can deepen engagement and improve knowledge retention by presenting information in your viewers’ preferred format.
Another way to think about it is that training videos simply provide a more compelling experience. You can use a wider variety of visual and auditory elements and incorporate engaging narration, ensuring your learners not only see and hear the information but also retain it.
Reduce training costs
Sitting down one-on-one with each employee or even hosting in-person workshops with entire teams eats up valuable resources. It requires scheduling and planning, which can be disruptive. Plus, costs like venue rental, flight and hotel reservations, and instructor fees can add up quickly.
With training videos, you create them once and use them repeatedly, eliminating the need for expensive, ongoing live training sessions. And if you have an AI video creation platform like Vyond, you can create that content much faster than with traditional digital video tools—and make updates to your videos in minutes when needed.
Increase knowledge retention
Have you ever wondered why you don’t always remember information, especially when it’s essential but kind of boring?
This phenomenon, known as the “forgetting curve,” spotlights why using proven teaching strategies is so important for increasing knowledge retention. Training videos employ a multisensory learning approach, such as interactivity paired with eye-catching visuals and catchy audio, to engage different parts of the brain—an essential technique for improving learning retention.
Lastly, storytelling tactics used in training videos, like humor and character-driven narratives, can create an emotional response in your audience, which further enhance their ability to remember information.
Maximize employees’ time
Learning is most effective when it’s delivered in short, digestible chunks—and when it’s easily available to employees in their moment of need, in the flow of work. Training videos are an effective way to check both boxes in that they provide:
- Asynchronous learning: The beauty of video training is that everyone doesn’t need to be in the same place at the same time. Employees can watch the content on their own time and consume it in small doses throughout the week.
- Efficiency and concision: By condensing complex information into bite-size video segments, training videos help employees and customers grasp key concepts quickly without the need for long training sessions.
- Scale and cost-efficiency: More training shouldn’t require more resources. Instead of bringing on more trainers, make a video and use it to train hundreds of employees at once—without spending more money.
- Personalized content: Every department has unique problems and solutions. Tailoring your videos ensures training applies to each employee’s needs (vs. watching general videos with information they’ll never use). And with AI video tools, updating content to ensure it remains relevant over time is incredibly easy.
Maximizing your employees’ time without maxing out your budget is a win-win. Let’s see how training videos can reduce employee turnover.
Decrease employee turnover
Employee turnover is challenging, especially in the U.S., where the average voluntary employee turnover rate between 2022 and 2023 was 17.3%. High turnover impacts productivity, morale, and, ultimately, costs.
Thankfully, making effective training videos can actually help reduce turnover rates. Training videos provide continuous learning and professional development opportunities. Employees who feel that their company is investing in their skills are inspired to do better work, with 59% of employees saying training improves their job performance.
Training videos also help employees understand available career paths within your company. They more easily see opportunities for advancement, which increases their commitment to staying with your business.
What makes a training video effective?
Creating a captivating training video requires strategic planning and creativity to ensure the content is engaging and informative.
Out of the many tips for making entertaining, compelling training videos, there are several core elements that you’ll really want to focus on:
- It has clear objectives. Define the specific learning objectives for your training video so it’s focused and aligned with the desired outcomes. For instance, if you want to teach communication skills, concentrate on scenarios that show key communication strategies and their impact.
- It’s not longer than it should be (generally). Keep your training videos concise—identify the core message and deliver it without unnecessary elaboration to maintain the viewer’s attention. For example, a video explaining a new software feature should directly show the feature in action, avoiding a lengthy introduction or unrelated content.
- It’s highly relevant. Tailor your training videos to the specific needs and contexts of your audience. Use scenarios and examples that resonate with their daily experiences. For example, a customer service team might create a video that addresses common customer queries they encounter, using actual dialogue and solutions. And with AI-powered video tools, you can easily take customization further by incorporating job site photos as backgrounds and creating animated avatars of actual leaders and employees.
- It engages multiple senses. Use visuals, audio, and interactive elements in your training videos to engage viewers on multiple sensory levels, enhancing retention. A safety training video could include visual demonstrations of safety practices, accompanied by narrative explanations and sound effects that highlight key points.
- It’s surprising or disruptive. Incorporate unexpected elements or creative twists in your training videos to capture and keep the audience’s attention. For example, to illustrate the importance of cybersecurity, start your video with a surprising statistic or a short story about a security breach, making viewers eager to learn how to protect themselves and their employer.
- It prompts reflection and growth. Create training videos that encourage viewers to reflect on their current practices and identify areas for personal or professional growth. Interactive videos that prompt learners to choose what they would do in a particular situation—or reflect on a time when they encountered a certain problem—are two ways to prompt reflection during the video experience. .
If you need more inspiration, look at these examples of effective employee training videos.
You have the ingredients for an impactful training video. Next, let’s explore the types of videos you can create with them.
What are the different types of training videos?
What makes one video more intriguing than the next? It’s all about the style, format and delivery. Let’s review the video types you can create to train your employees successfully.
Animated training videos
Animated videos are a type of video where you bring static elements to life through movement. These videos may use characters, stock footage, photos, kinetic text, music, and sound effects.
Organizations often use animated videos to create scenario-based training materials that ask viewers “what would you do in this situation?” and to explain information that may be difficult to explain purely through speech, such as technical processes, data, or abstract ideas.
Another benefit of animated videos is that you can make them easily without live-action shoots, actors, or elaborate sets. This reduction in resources makes them a cost-effective solution for delivering content that captures and holds your audience’s attention. Here are some examples of animated training videos for enabling a sales team.
Presenter-style training videos
Presenter-style videos, also known as “talking head” videos, feature a person speaking directly to the camera.
Common use cases for presenter-style videos include testimonials, event coverage, and corporate announcements. However, since they often lack visual variety and are more of a passive viewing experience, some audiences may find them hard to focus on. Even more so when the presenter is a humanoid avatar as they often lack the warmth and authenticity of a real human presenter.
Despite their potential drawbacks, presenter-style videos are certainly still a useful tool for particular situations.
How-to videos
“Show, don’t tell” is the best advice you can get as a trainer. And the ultimate format for this is the how-to video, also known as a tutorial or instructional video. It’s the “Here’s how you do it” of video types, turning viewers into doers, one step at a time. Common examples include step-by-step guides for assembling a new product or walkthroughs of a software update.
Done right, how-to videos are practical and actionable, breaking down intricate processes into manageable chunks of information, which allows employees to follow along at a reasonable pace, take notes, or watch and try new skills simultaneously.
Screencast videos
Screencast videos, also known as screen-recording videos, are a common type of how-to video that businesses often use to demonstrate software or digital tools. They zoom in on the action, capturing every click and keystroke in real-time.
For example, a software company might use screencasts to demonstrate a new feature in their application. Adding animated elements can enhance the performance of screencast videos in that they can add visual variety, emphasize key points, and even help clarify complicated processes within the screencast.
Interactive training videos
Engage, click, learn—interactive training videos are the corporate world’s choose-your-own-adventure books. They invite employees to respond to information, making learning a two-way street.
Picture a scenario-based video where each decision leads to different outcomes, teaching through experience without the real-world risks. Interactive videos are playgrounds for critical thinking and decision-making skills.
Two examples of e-learning platforms that enable interactive training are NearLife and Articulate. They make it possible to create courses featuring virtual reality, animations, graphics, Google Slides, simulations, quizzes, and drag-and-drop interactions.
Text-based training videos
Text-based videos primarily use text, motion graphics, and purchased materials like stock footage and music. Organizations may use them when they have a minimal budget or when they don’t want to have to introduce a speaker, presenter, or characters.
These videos focus on relaying information efficiently through dynamic on-screen text and graphics. They’re useful for delivering quick updates, providing a straightforward way to communicate important messages. However, they may not be as visually interesting since there’s less variety and can even require more work on the viewer’s part since they have to read the text rather than simply watch or listen to the video.
How to make a great training video
While you can create a training video the old-school way using professional filming and audio equipment, AI-powered video creation software is an easier, faster, and more affordable option.
In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the step-by-step process of crafting an effective training video using the popular AI video generator, Vyond.
1. Determine the topic and goals of your video
Before you start crafting your training video, first define the topic and goals of the video. This step sets the foundation for your entire project.
Pinpoint what you want your employees to learn and why. For example, if your goal is to enhance customer service skills, your video may focus on empathetic communication techniques.
Or, if you’re addressing a global team, your content may aim to standardize processes across different regions.
To zero in on your topic and goals, consider these questions:
- What is the key message or skill I want to convey?
- How does this topic align with our company’s broader objectives?
- What does my audience already know about this topic—and what’s new information?
- What actions do I want viewers to take after watching the video?
- How will I measure the success of this training?
Within Vyond’s platform, you’ll find tools to bring any topic to life, including a huge asset library, 700+ video templates, and AI tools that let you create new assets from scratch with a simple text prompt.
2. Choose the appropriate type of video
Selecting the right format or video type is critical for communicating your training material successfully. Consider the nature of your content, your audience, and the desired learning outcomes to determine the most suitable video format.
As a reminder, the types of training videos include:
- Animated
- Presenter-style
- How-to (includes screencast videos)
- Interactive
- Text-based
For instance, an animated video can explain abstract concepts, while a how-to video may be more ideal for providing step-by-step instructions.
Vyond offers a range of styles, characters, and scenes to match your desired format, whether you’re creating an animated explainer or talking head or something else. With Vyond, you can tailor the format to your audience’s needs, ensuring your message hits home.
3. Create a training video storyboard and write a script
Crafting a storyboard and writing a script can help ensure your training video communicates your message clearly.
For example, a storyboard for a compliance training video can illustrate key scenarios, while the script clearly communicates legal points.
Here are a few tips for writing a great script:
- Keep it conversational to maintain engagement
- Use storytelling to make the content relatable
- Be concise to respect your audience’s time
- Include calls to action to prompt the desired response
However, with Vyond Go, you can bypass the traditional storyboarding and scripting process. Just give it a prompt, and it’ll generate a script and rough-cut video that you can edit as you see fit, streamlining your content creation.
4. Produce the video in an AI video generator
If you were creating your training video the conventional way, this is where you’d set up your cameras, lighting, microphones, etc. Since AI is much faster at creating professional-looking videos, we’re going to show you how to do it in just two steps using Vyond’s AI-powered script and video creator, Vyond Go.
- Enter a text prompt. Make sure to enter at least 50 words and no more than 700. Try to keep your prompts highly structured and not simply a stream of consciousness as this may produce a lower-quality result.
- Choose layout, vibe, format, and language. At this step, you can select how many characters you’d like in the video (up to two) and location (warehouse facility, law firm office, etc.). You’ll also be able to pick the vibe you’re going for (formal, informative, playful, etc.), format (anecdote, debate, overview, tips, etc.), and language.
Vyond’s platform makes the production phase smooth. With intuitive tools and a user-friendly interface, you can generate your entire video without sourcing any external assets.
5. Edit the video
Editing is a pivotal stage in creating training videos, allowing you to refine and enhance your content to maximize its performance.
From Vyond Go’s Quick Edit screen or in Vyond Studio, you—and any other stakeholder or reviewer on a video project—can make any final adjustments to get your video just right. Things you may edit include:
- Narration: If you’re adding a voiceover, you’ll be able to fine-tune the timing and delivery to match the visuals.
- Visuals: Add or adjust animations, graphics, and text to reinforce key concepts.
- Transitions: Use seamless transitions between scenes to maintain a smooth narrative.
- Sound Effects: Add, remove, or adjust sound effects to add depth and realism to your video.
- Music: Adjust background music that complements the tone and message of your video.
- Length: Ensure your video is concise and focused, trimming any unnecessary elements.
- Accessibility: Include subtitles or captions to make your video more accessible to a wider audience.
Vyond’s editing tools allow you to make precise adjustments, ensuring your video meets your high standards before serving it to your audience.
6. Share your training video
At last, you’re ready to share your video with your target audience!
The most important thing to remember with this step is that training videos are only effective if they’re available when and where people need them. Ensure you deliver the content in the appropriate channel(s) so it’s easily accessible to your viewers.
Here are some common ways companies share training videos:
- Internal Training Portal: Upload your video to your company’s internal training portal.
- Learning Management System (LMS): Integrate your video into your organization’s LMS for easy access and employee engagement tracking.
- AI Chatbots: Use AI chatbots in your organization’s communication channels to deliver training videos based on user prompts or discussions.
- Email Campaigns: Send out email campaigns to employees highlighting where they can find the video and how it will help them.
- Social Media: Share snippets of your video on social media to generate interest and drive traffic to the full video.
* This article was originally published here