Explainer videos can be a powerful marketing tool for your business; however, their usefulness doesn’t stop there. If explainer videos can be effective for explaining your product or service to someone, they certainly can be effective in explain other information. When people want to learn how to do something, a how-to video is often a top resource. This could be why you’re considering using an explainer video for training purposes. This post is an overview of why and how to use explainer videos as part of your training program.
Why Use Explainer Videos for Training?
Video is a power tool and can make the delivery of your training program more effective, especially if it’s a self-study training program.
Explainer videos are versatile and can be used for a range of topics and appeal to different learner types. By having your messaged delivered in a way that appeals to more learner types, your participants are likely to take in the information more effectively than if knowledge is presented in just one way. So, people who are more visual or auditory learners will benefit from a training program that makes use of videos far more than a program that is purely text because you’re reinforcing your message visually and verbally.
What’s the point of training if you can’t remember what you learned, right?
Another benefit of delivering your training with explainer videos is that it can help make abstract concepts easier to grasp. Imagine reading about how to solve a math problem through words only. All the information is there, but it’s often easier to just show someone how to solve the equation. If you’re trying to train someone on concepts that are easier to show, a video is just the tool to do that. For example, if you need to train someone on how to use a phone, this topic lends itself to demonstration rather than explanation.
Explainer videos can also make your training seem more engaging. Perhaps you’re training someone on customer service. They can read about providing good customer service, but showing someone will be far more engaging. And again by having the message reinforced visually and verbally, your participants are likely to recall their learning when they need to apply it in the moment.
Even if your training is face to face, remember what it’s like to sit in a room listening to the same person for hours on end. People learn best in 20 minute segments, so the use of explainer videos can help maintain tour audiences’ attention by “breaking” up content into 20 minute chunks. Even if your training is 4 hours long, changing the focus on someone’s attention helps them feel readjust their attention, so you’re helping them reset their attention time limit. And the same applies to your online training.
How to use Explainer videos for Training?
Explainer videos can be integrated into both online training or face to face training sessions. So you can make them the core of your program or supplemental material to your session or module; however, you don’t have to make everything a video. You can easily pair your information with short example videos to help extend on your point. For example you present information in text, in person, or in video and then you can follow the content up with some kind of practice.
Going back to our customer service example, perhaps you’re trying to train someone on call center procedures. You can present your knowledge point in text, show a short video showing this scenario, and follow up with a few concept checking questions or some discussion questions.
Training with “Micro-lessons”
Irregardless of what your video is about or whether you’ll have one or 20 videos, explainer videos are best when they are short. If you have a lot of content, consider breaking up the content into a few videos. It is incredibly difficult to keep people focused on an hour long video. As I’ve said before, people learn best in 20 minute segments—that’s why Ted Talks are so popular.
So it may be useful to view your training program as a collection of “micro-lessons”. Micro-lessons are great for training because they are short and to the point. They can be anywhere from a minute to about 10 minutes and can be self-contained on a singular topic or build upon each other like a series. If you’re using a platform like Vyond to create your training videos, you can create a template for your videos and make modifications as you need rather than starting from scratch for each video.
Start by having a look at the content of your training program. What do people really need to take away from it and what is the most concise way to present it? What logically groups together?
Back to our call center example, you need to train someone on 4 topics:
- How to use the phone
- How to use the software
- Topics to cover when speaking to a customer
- Descalation tools for customer complaints
You could make a video combining all of these that is 20 minutes, or you could have four 5 minute videos. But maybe how to use the phone and how to use the software are linked, so you can create one video addressing both topics.
By breaking up content into “micro-lessons”, you also give the trainer an opportunity to have a practice activity with each video so participants are both presented with information and have a chance to practice it.
This is a good place to start if you’re planning to convert some of your content into videos. The script of an explainer video is crucial to the success of the video, and generally concise, simple scripts make the best videos. So planning out your training as a series of “micro-lessons” will help you break up your content into manageable chunks for both you and your participants.
Conclusion
Explainer videos are useful tool that can enhance the deliver of your training program. Whether you use it as the main focus of your program or you are using videos to supplement your live training program, explainer videos can be a great addition. It’s best to keep videos as concise as possible to maximize their impact. But given their versatility, explainer videos can be integrated into your program in any way you see fit.
