The benefits of commissioning an instructional video

Show and Tell
An instructional video – the next best thing to personal tuition

Educating the masses with an instructional video

Never underestimate how complex a simple process can appear to be to someone who is unfamiliar with it. And never underestimate the power of video for enabling the “unfamiliar” to understand even the most complex of procedures. Video, with its pause, repeat, rewind and play ability makes it ideal for demonstrating operating, construction and basic care/maintenance procedures. Regardless of whether it’s highly complicated or ridiculously simple, from the construction of flat-pack furniture through to computer program control – instructional videos can hold the viewer’s hand through the process at their own pace.

Every manufacturing and service industry spends considerable sums each year on supporting their customers with materials that are designed to help them use their products or processes more efficiently. However, many businesses choose the cheapest possible way to impart this knowledge by use of printed or online instructions. Whilst this might be cheaper in the short term, the long term costs of dealing with customers who have been unable to understand these instructions, or followed them incorrectly, is unknown but likely to be well in excess of the monies saved initially.

Written and diagrammatic instructions still have their place, but in nearly every instance having someone show you how it’s done is much easier to understand and follow. You only have to look on YouTube to see how many films are based on filling in the gaps which manufacturers left out of their instruction manuals. These films are often produced by users who found the process challenging – which isn’t exactly great publicity.

Eye-bolts going in at the Hilton
“What I see I understand”

Producing an instructional video needn’t be expensive but has to be properly thought through and looked at from the perspective of the user. This isn’t always that easy to do from within the manufacturing or service supply business as they will be uniquely familiar with the process and unable to recognise where the challenges arise. This is why it is often advantageous to commission an outside video production company to develop the script and programme structure.

The benefits of producing an instructional video

The benefits of an instructional video to the user are plain to see, but the benefits to the manufacturer or service company go way beyond the cost savings on after-sales support. Here’s just some of the benefits that come to mind instantly…

  1. Providing an effective instructional video will help build a much higher level of brand loyalty amongst customers
  2. A better informed user base will result in fewer returns or damaged good due to misuse or bad construction – resulting in greater profitability
  3. Openly publishing your instructional video on the likes of YouTube or Vimeo can also drive sales amongst potential customers who’ll gain confidence in the product or service pre-purchase
  4. On a more subtle level, the process of developing the instructional video might also highlight areas where the product or service could be improved
  5. A properly indexed, tagged and well produced video hosted on the likes of YouTube can only increase your search engine visibility
  6. Videos are easy to make multilingual – by dubbing or subtitling

The cost of producing an instructional video need not be that high and could in fact be very comparable to producing printed material – with the benefit of easy adaptation and ways to re-purpose video from one instructional video to another.

If you’d like to explore the process and costs of producing instructional videos within your business, please give us a call on 020 3602 3356.

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