The Ultimate Guide On Creating ‘How-To’ Videos – With Tips, Ideas & Examples

Here’s the table of contents for Ripple Animations ‘how-to’ video guide

1. What is a ‘how-to’ video 
2. Tips on making a ‘how-to’ video
3. Pros of creating ‘how-to’ videos
4. Steps to creating ‘how-to’ videos
5. Tips to make your ‘how-to’ video a success
6. Examples of well made ‘how-to’ videos

What is a ‘how–to’ video?

In short, ‘how-to’ videos, also called tutorials or training videos, are videos that show you how to do something new, train you on a platform or process or help you get answers to questions.

3 Great Tips on creating your ‘how–to’ video

1. When attempting something new,  learners prefer to watch a short video rather than read instructions. Videos are user friendly and make audiences feel that what they are trying to learn is not tricky or intimidating. The length of ‘how-to’ videos depends on the quantum of information you need to disseminate. Try to keep them as short as possible, preferably under 3 minutes, that is unless you’re explaining complicated concepts or long processes or training people…you get the picture. The length depends on the quantum of information you need to get across and since this is a tutorial of sorts, you can’t always cut down information without risking that your viewers will lose out on what they need to learn.
2. When planning your ‘how–to’ video make sure  that the content is detailed, accurate and to the point.
3. When you upload  your  ‘how-to’ video, add a title that is not only catchy but one that also  describes what the video is about. Your video title doesn’t have to start with ‘how-to’ but can start with ‘Learn to’, ‘Fun ways to’, ‘Easy ways to’ and more. Go ahead, be creative!

Pros of using ‘how–to’ videos for your company

1. ‘How-to’ videos empower viewers to learn on their own and in their own time. Your prospects, clients and employees will appreciate this feature.
2. ‘How-to’ videos help customers understand concepts,  fix issues,  operate things…you get the idea…this means you can create videos for conversations that your employees have repeatedly with different customers, thus saving your employees’ time and saving your company money. For example, you can create sales pitch videos or FAQs for your customer service reps.
3. ‘How-to’ videos can be created in multiple languages once you’ve created your master video in one language, giving your business access to new geographies.
4. ‘How-to’ videos can condense the time spent on taking-in information by a ratio of 1:10 as compared to plain text with images. That’s because videos use a combination of voice, supers, visuals, sound effects and motion, helping viewers gain information from different sources at once.  

Steps to creating a ‘how-to’ video:

1. Choose a topic 
2. Write a compelling script
3. Visualize the script and choose an art style
4. Create a storyboard 
5. Record a voice over 
6. Animate the storyboard to the voice over
7. Add music and sound effects 
8. And voila your video is done!  

Tips to make your ‘how-to’ video a success

1. You need to have a catchy but detailed title like we had mentioned before. For example, rather than using a title like  ‘How to make a cake’ you can say ‘How to make an easy, eggless chocolate cake.’ 
2. Your video needs to be visually interesting so make sure you have the right selection of backgrounds, fonts, characters etc. In short, each scene needs to be designed well. 
3. Make sure that your video is concise and clear with step by step instructions so that viewers get what they need quickly and easily. 

Examples of well made ‘how to’ and demo videos

See some of the best examples of ‘how to’ and demo videos here. In case you need ‘how to’ videos or demo videos that drive results, get in touch with Ripple Animation, the best explainer video company in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. We’d be happy to help you with a quote and some ideas on how you can best use videos to grow your business.