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3 min read
Look, prose is great. Writing is important and reading is fundamental. But when it comes to getting an idea across, especially when it comes to imparting key knowledge about your goods and services, nothing is better than video.
Think of it this way â you're on a team that needs to know the ins-and-outs of some key software. Given the choice of learning with a big training manual or a series of short videos, which would you choose?
The way we learn has changed over the last few years, especially due to the pandemic. Today, employees have very little time or patience for long, drawn-out training, yet they rank learning as the top reason to stay at a job.
To a modern learner, time is the most precious commodity. They want to learn only what is relevant to them as quickly as possible. Asynchronous learning (i.e. - learning at your own pace) has become the norm, even for customer education, and video is a critical component of it.
We're in a post-YouTube era. Everybody expects video to be part of their learning experience, with the vast majority preferring watching a video over reading.
But videos arenât just more popular than prose for disseminating information â itâs superior. Here are 7 reasons why:
1. Visuals grab attention
Video is one of the best ways to reach visual learners. 65% people are visual learners. Pretty significant. But 30% of the population are audible learners, and since video has an audio component, videos are great learning tools for them as well. Thatâs 95% of the general population right there.
The eye is naturally drawn to motion, so the movement that videos produce naturally attracts a personâs attention, much more so than static words on a screen.
Ever tried having a conversation in a restaurant with multiple TVs playing sports all over the walls? Even if you donât like sports, you probably keep checking out the screens. The constant movement tells the brain that something new is happening, and your brain wants to see whatâs up.
We can use that same idea of constant movement to keep viewers interested in training materials.
2. Video communicates faster
Crafting words to communicate the exact concept we wish to impart is difficult and time-consuming. Videos can easily convey exactly what you want to show, leaving very little room for misinterpretation.
We all know the phrase âa picture is worth a thousand wordsâ.
A video is worth 60,000.
The brain can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Audiences will absorb information much faster, especially with the option of watching videos at 1.5x or 2x speed.
As the saying goes, "show, don't tell".
3. Video feels easier
Letâs face it: A 10 min video feels less daunting than a 10 page manual. And if something is less daunting, people are more likely to actually use it.
Step-by-step instructions are easier to understand when the visuals perfectly match what the viewer experiences on their end. Users can see how everything fits together, which reduces errors because theyâre not having to conceptualize what something looks like, or how it works.
4. Video is sharable
Video content "generates 1200% more shares than images and text combined.â
Publishing videos to YouTube or Vimeo not only educates about a specific aspect of your product or service, it increases awareness of your brand.
Videos on websites have 41% more web traffic from searches then sites that donât use video at all.
Video also...
- drives organic traffic up by 157%,
- increases time on site by over 100%,
- and offers a 2x increase in overall conversation.
Even if video content was created purely to educate, it has strong secondary marketing potential.
5. Video is creative
Writing is creative, too â but video content is so much more than writing.
Thereâs the script, the visuals, the performance, the sound-design, the editing⊠and all of it comes with creative decision-making.
There are so many opportunities to make a video project meaningful, fun, and engaging to your audience. Plus, video producing is often collaborative, which means there are extra eyes (and brains) on how to make a project perfect for the intended audience.
And because of the massive strides made in video producing/editing software over the last couple decades, creating a world-class video is much easier than youâd think.
Just ask any 12-year-old with a TikTok account.
6. Video is Memorable
Video content is retainable. Videos are a continuous visual aid, and your viewers are much more likely to remember whatâs in it than simply reading text.
Viewers retain 95% of a videoâs message in comparison to 10% when reading the text. And the more video connects to a viewer (by being funny, personal, or even quirky), the stronger the impact the video has on the viewer and the more they are likely to retain information.
7. Video is humanizing
Video allows companies to be more relatable to their audience. Brands can build distinct styles and build their viewership with their own unique voice.
With video you can show the public what your company stands for, what it believes in, and what it's doing in ways that are nearly impossible with just text.
Make more videos with Videate
Now that you know how great instructional videos are, letâs make them together!
Videate enables video production at scale by automating the process. Users simply create a script, then Videate accesses your software platform to capture visuals and generate a video in perfect sync with automated text-to-speech audio. There's no need to manually do screengrabs, record new videos, or record audio.
Videate handles it all automatically.
With Videate, you can update training libraries every time your software gets a new release or change. Videate can seamlessly render hundreds of videos designed for the modern learner. Now you can finally scale production and lower costs.
To learn more about how Videate can help modernize your training, request a demo today.
