Whether you’re looking to help out your customers, employees, sales team, or new hires, how-to videos are a powerful and easy way to impart knowledge.
Sure, written documents are helpful, and they do have the benefit of being searchable. However, reading through lengthy written guides can be cumbersome, and some people learn better through a visual medium.
So you want to create some more how-to videos—maybe you’ve just bought a fun new tool that you’d like to get some use out of—but you’re a bit stuck for ideas.
We’ve got you.
In this article, we’re going to discuss 14 creative how-to video ideas for different businesses and departments. Then, we’ll provide some tips on how to come up with your own ideas and give you the inside scoop on how to easily create how-to videos using AI.
14 how-to video ideas for different businesses
Use these 14 how-to video ideas as a launchpad for your own ideation, or simply use them as they are.
1. How to submit a timesheet
One of the first training videos a new employee should watch, especially if they’re working remotely, is how to submit a timesheet.
This is a great opportunity for a how-to video.
You can have an AI avatar handle the voiceover and add a screen recording of the exact steps to properly submit a timesheet in accordance with company guidelines.
This example should be a staple in your new customer onboarding process.
A quick how-to video for getting set up with the platform you use can be a great way to either supplement and streamline a human-guided implementation session or replace it altogether for a product-led onboarding workflow.
3. How to perform a compliance audit
Compliance training isn’t anyone’s favorite pastime, but you can make it much more engaging using video.
For example, you could use an AI video tool to create a short video guide on how to perform, analyze, and file an internal compliance audit.
How-to videos are one of the best ways to improve sales enablement. This is especially true of modern remote and hybrid teams, where traditional “all-hands” sales training sessions are a lot harder to organize.
Here’s a simple but effective how-to video idea for sales: “How to handle X common sales objections.”
Of course, you should use the experience of your actual sales reps here—you can even tap into their expertise when writing the video script.
5. How to make an internal announcement
Video is an important medium for improving internal communications and making effective announcements to distributed teams.
One way to upskill your team is to create a quick how-to video on how to use video to make internal announcements, providing insights into using diplomatic language or how you might use visuals like graphs to better communicate complex ideas.
Here’s another instructional how-to video idea for the workplace: a step-by-step guide on how to prepare for an upcoming meeting.
In this video, you might discuss skills like:
Creating a meeting agenda
Determining the meeting objective
Delegating responsibilities
Taking notes during the meeting itself
This will guide employees through the process of prepping a meeting and show them exactly how to use the tools you’ve provided to do so.
7. How to be more productive at work
While you’re creating videos for the workplace, why not share hacks and tips for improving productivity at work?
In this how-to video, you might dive into different productivity tools you find useful, strategies like the Pomodoro Technique, or how to structure your day with strategically placed breaks.
8. How to set goals
Career planning goes hand in hand with goal setting.
A short how-to video on setting career goals can be a great way to inspire team members and improve employee job satisfaction.
9. How to collaborate effectively in your project management platform
Another smart how-to video idea that should be part of your employee onboarding package is how to get the most out of your project management platform of choice.
For this video, use a screen recording tool while you walk through the platform’s features, and have an AI avatar narrate the video and provide expert tips.
10. How to handle workplace confrontation
Conflicts in the workplace will always exist. What matters is how your employees handle them.
A video series on how to handle confrontation at work is a great way to reduce the need for intervention by management.
You can even use AI avatars to demonstrate how to handle specific challenges that commonly arise, such as when workplace objectives clash or when two employees have differing opinions on how to proceed with a project.
11. How to organize online events
You can also help your online marketing team get the hang of virtual events, teaching them how to use your various event marketing tools in an engaging video.
Here’s another how-to video idea for sales reps: how to handle a pricing negotiation.
This how-to video idea is another perfect fit for AI avatars. You can have one avatar act as the customer and another as the sales rep to role-play different negotiation scenarios.
13. How to give effective feedback
Managers need to know how to give effective, constructive feedback to employees in a way that aligns with your business philosophy.
A how-to video on just that topic can be a great training device.
The 14 examples we’ve discussed above are a great start, but to really get the most out of your AI video platform, you’ll want to have some solid sources for your own how-to video ideas.
Here are five areas to investigate for new how-to video ideas.
1. Review your support chat logs
Take a look at the types of support tickets your customers are constantly raising. Are there any trends across the board?
You might find, for instance, there is a specific functionality that many users are failing to work out.
While this should also be a source of information for the product dev team—maybe they need to do a bit of work on the UX—an easy fix right now would be to create a how-to video for that function. Then, you can simply share that video with customers each time they raise a ticket on the matter.
2. Analyze what blog and social media content inspires engagement
Examine how your customers are engaging with the different kinds of content you produce, as well as that of your competitors.
Are there any how-to guides that are getting a lot of engagement? Could you explain them better with a short video?
If so, you’ve got another how-to video idea to throw into the pipeline.
3. Talk to your sales reps
Your sales team is a great source of information when it comes to learning what customers (and potential customers) are struggling with.
Throw out a few messages over Slack or organize a brainstorming session to extract ideas from your internal experts.
4. Collect customer feedback
Ask your customers!
Put out a survey or run some interviews and ask them a simple question: “What how-to video content could we create that would be enormously helpful to you?”
Here’s an example of a quick question about creating how-to videos for Colossyan:
Bring your how-to video ideas to life with Colossyan
How-to videos are one of the most engaging and practical video formats around.
They’re a great form of content for onboarding new employees or providing additional training to your team. You can even use them to support sales and customer success roles by creating customer-facing how-to clips.
The problem with traditional video creation is that it’s time-consuming and costly. Producing one video can take weeks, or even months, and cost thousands of dollars in studio time, actors’ fees, and editing expenses.
As a product manager at Colossyan, David develops interactive features that help workplace learning teams produce more engaging video content. Outside of work, David enjoys singing and nerding out over fantasy books. He lives in London.
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