Man presents to a long table of people with gift bags and laptops in front of each one.

Why you need to incorporate video into training materials

Adding explainer videos to your training materials can help you engage, motivate and educate.

Animations appeal to humans for one very simple reason: They’re the closest we can get to replicating how our brains effortlessly perceive the world through sound and visual movement every single day. Half of our brains are dedicated to visual function, so we are naturally drawn to strong visuals like video.

The problem with common training practises is that rely heavily on text or speech is that our brains have to work harder to interpret and apply that information to a real-life scenario.

Explainer videos pull together all the music, words and graphics required to deliver a highly-stimulating audio-visual learning experience. The result? Our brains do a lot less work.

Explainer videos will never replace training – good coaches and trainers are invaluable! Rather, short videos can help you reiterate your key messages in a different way that improves retention.

Don’t believe us? Fast Company reported that people retain 10% of what they hear, 20% of what they read and a remarkable 80% of what they see in visual and graphic content!

To help you get the most out of your training video, we’ve pulled together some of our most commonly shared tips.

Visual cues

There can be a lot going on with explainer videos, so it’s important to ensure your learners are constantly guided and kept firmly on track. Using visual cues to emphasise certain words or phrases will ensure your audience still understand and remember the key points of the lesson.

Keep it real

Although it might be tempting to recreate your favourite childhood super heroes or furry friends to deliver your learning objectives in video format, ask yourself whether they’re really right for the audience and environment. When considering characters, music, tone and humour, think about what will feel most authentic and persuasive to your audience. Not only will authenticity be key to effective learning, but you’ll avoid a few eye-rolls too!

Give the audience control

The great thing about video (unlike other forms of training content) is that animations can be slowed down, rewound, stopped and fast-forwarded depending on the needs of the viewer.

For explainer videos that are incorporated into self-paced learning, these controls encourage learning at a speed that’s right for the individual. In a group setting, they make recaps much easier and allow the facilitator to rewind to specific parts to address questions and comments.

Let the student(s) take the reins with educational video!

They’re great for post-training recaps

Save your videos online (YouTube and Vimeo are popular options) so you can share them with the attendees after training. That way, they can have quick refreshers when they want to review some of the information they learned so they can put it into action.

Ready to spice up your training with videos?

Get in touch with our team today! You can also learn more about Persuaders’ explainer video offering here.

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