In today’s saturated market, consumers have more options than ever when it comes to the goods and services they buy. Access to the web makes it easy for your potential customers to find dozens of companies that may offer what they’re looking for. Today, more than 80% of shoppers report that they conduct online research before buying.

More than 80% of shoppers report that they conduct online research before buying.

If your prospective customers aren’t stumbling across your company as they search, you could be missing out on their business. However, it’s still not enough to get their eyes on your product or service. It’s important to gain their trust and establish mutually beneficial relationships with your audience.

For this, educational video content work just great. What’s even better is that there are different types of educational videos for every brand and business out there.

Specifically, educational videos work to attract your audience’s attention during the “awareness” stage of the sales funnel. From there, these videos can provide actionable and useful knowledge to help shoppers move into the “consideration” and “trust” stages—gaining knowledge and developing more brand loyalty along the way.

5 Types of Educational Videos to Include in the Content Mix

Before you begin writing the script on your first educational video, it’s important to decide on a specific type of video that will best suit your needs. Most educational videos on the web fall into one of five categories, each serving a unique purpose and fulfilling specific goals.

1. Informative Live Streams on Social Media

A live social media stream is a great way to share information with your target audience in real-time. This format can be a great opportunity to demonstrate a new product or to simply educate your viewers about something new and exciting in your industry. Plus, broadcasting on social media is free and doesn’t require any video editing.

In Wave.video, we do live broadcasts on Facebook a lot. We also love to invite guest speakers who bring in their valuable insights, trends and opinions to make these events more interesting and variable. For instance, here is a recording of a recent broadcast about educational videos featuring XayLi Barclay.

 

When you “go live” on a social media platform like Facebook, you’ll also be able to see comments and questions from your viewers in real-time, giving you an opportunity to communicate directly with your audience and answer their questions. This is an excellent way to begin a dialogue with your customer base while building your reputation as a trusted authority in the industry. Meanwhile, your viewers will have the option to “share” your video feed as they watch, which could gain you new followers in the process.

Live-streaming is an excellent way to begin a dialogue with your customer base while building your reputation as a trusted authority in the industry.

2. How-To Videos

Another great way to gain authority standing as an expert in an industry is to publish how-to videos that may be useful for your audience. These clips can walk viewers through the process of completing a task that they may not otherwise be able to do on their own. This can be a great opportunity to sprinkle in some products or services your brand may have to offer without creating a blatant advertisement.

For example, if you own a line of kitchenware products, you might create a how-to video that shows how to cook some delicious meals. As part of your demonstration, you can use a product from your own line and briefly explain how it can help you make it easier.

Wave.video editor comes with a bunch of beautiful video templates to easily create how-to videos. You can choose any you like and customize it to your industry and topic. Here is an example.

Customize this template

3. Product Demonstrations and Explainer Videos

Sometimes, targeting your audience of existing customers may also make sense.

Creating a product demonstration or other explainer video can be an effective way to show customers how to make the most of your product and use it effectively. This benefits all parties because it demonstrates that you care enough about your customers after the sale to create useful content for them.

Meanwhile, these videos can help your customers expand their knowledge of your products and how to use them, which can improve overall satisfaction.

Here’s an example of such an explainer. On this video, I explain how to work with Wave.video’s templates more efficiently.

4. Educational Webinars

Need more lead magnets? Offering a free webinar in exchange for information (like a potential customer’s email address) can be a great way to bring in new leads and grow your database. Specifically, a webinar is usually a live and exclusive event that you host via your web server or another platform. Your webinar can cover any number of topics, with some popular examples including:

• a live product demonstration
• an interview with a known industry leader
• a discussion of the latest industry news

By requiring attendees of your webinar to enter some basic information about themselves to save their spot, you can gain valuable lead information that can be used for your future marketing efforts. Meanwhile, your webinar attendees enjoy real-time access to your brand representatives and exclusive information that’s not available anywhere else!

5. Online Video Courses

Looking for a way to monetize your industry knowledge? Creating and publishing an online video course may be the way to go. This is your opportunity to go as in-depth as you’d like on any given industry topic. For example, Hubspot’s Academy which is known to any marketing professional, I guess.

You can make your video course available for purchase on your website and promote it through your marketing channels, such as email and social media. And creating a video course is easier than you might think; you don’t need a great deal of video-editing experience or other extensive resources to create something useful and polished for your audience.

Educational Videos: Best Practices

No matter which type of educational video you end up choosing for your next campaign, there are some tips and best practices worth keeping in mind.

• Keep it Conversational and Relatable

Remember that most of your audience is going to be made up of potential customers—not other industry professionals. With that in mind, you’ll probably want to steer clear of heavy jargon usage or other industry-language that’s too specific or complex for the average viewer to understand. Keeping your tone more conversational will go a long way towards building a relationship with your audience.

• Be Mindful of Different Learning Styles

Catering to different learning styles is important with any type of educational content, but this is especially true if you’re creating a product demonstration or how-to video. Try to incorporate a good mix of graphics, speech, and text to help key concepts stick with your readers.

• Make Yourself (And Your Team) Present

Educational video content is an amazing opportunity for you to showcase your team and connect with your audience. Your potential customers like to see the faces behind their favorite brands, so make sure to incorporate real employees and team members into your content whenever possible.

• Remember: It’s Not an Advertisement

There’s nothing more frustrating for your target audience than feeling like they’re being constantly advertised to while they’re trying to learn something from your brand. Stay away from salesy content that’s too pushy and stick to the purpose of your video: to educate your audience on an important topic.

There’s nothing wrong with the occasional product mention, especially if you’re demonstrating something in a how-to video—but be mindful not to overdo it.

• Make it Interactive

Interacting with your viewers is a great way to build a relationship with your audience while boosting your brand’s credibility. Whenever video content is published on a platform where comments are enabled (such as on your blog or on social media), take time to respond to comments diligently.

If you’re hosting a live stream or webinar, make sure somebody from your staff is dedicated to addressing comments and answering questions as they come through.

The Bottom Line on Educational Video Content

Carefully crafted educational video content can really set your brand apart from its competitors—and knowing which type of educational video content is best suited for your goals can go a long way. With all this information in mind, which type of video content will you create for your next campaign, and what metric will you use to measure its success?