When you buy furniture from IKEA, what do you prefer of these two options
Navigating a new product feels a lot like assembling furniture from IKEA—you’re filled with excitement, but the complexity of instructions slowly drains all your energy and makes you overwhelmed.
What if you could save users from this sinking feeling and keep their excitement levels high from the start? With a video knowledge base, you can.
A video knowledge base includes a collection of product explainer videos, showing different features and capabilities within your product. You can host this knowledge base anywhere, like the resources section on your website or any video hosting platform.
In this guide, we’ll give you a complete walkthrough of video knowledge bases and discuss:
If you’re considering whether creating a video knowledge base is worth the effort, here are six reasons why you must make training videos for your customer knowledge base:
Using videos can be especially helpful for complex or technical topics, as videos show users the steps involved in a task or use case.
For instance, a video tutorial on how to use a new feature in your product can show customers exactly what they need to do to get started. This can be much more effective than a text-based article, which requires users to read through multiple paragraphs of text to understand the same information.
You can make videos interactive by adding quizzes, polls, or other interactive elements. This can help keep users engaged and ensure that they are actually learning something from the video.
For example, a video tutorial on how to complete a specific action in your product could include a quiz at the end that tests the user's understanding of the material. This is good to check if users are paying attention and actually learning something from the content.
Videos can improve your SEO results by making your website more discoverable on search engines. Videos are often more likely to be shared on social media and linked to from other websites, which can earn you backlinks.
Besides, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. So, ranking content there can generate more ROI from your SEO efforts.
You can make videos accessible to users with hearing disabilities by adding captions and transcripts. This also allows you to reach users who speak different languages.
For instance, you can add captions and transcripts to your videos so that users who are deaf or hard of hearing can still access the information. You can also add closed captions in multiple languages to make your content accessible for users who speak different languages.
Video analytics offer real-time insights into how users are interacting with your videos. Unlike textual content, this data is more helpful in getting a pulse of your audience.
For example, you can track how long users are watching your videos, which videos are most popular, and which videos are leading to conversions. This information can help you identify which videos are performing well and which need improvement.
Videos can be used to train customer support agents and help them resolve issues more quickly. This can save agents time and frustration, while also ensuring your users receive the best possible support. This content can be great to store product knowledge internally and train new hires as well.
Despite the many benefits of a video knowledge base, not every SaaS team is able to create video content. Why not? There are many reasons, including these six main ones:
Creating knowledge base videos takes a lot of time and resources. Planning, scripting, recording, editing, and producing high-quality videos can be time-consuming and require specialized equipment or software.
Besides, teams may need to allocate resources for training team members on video creation and production.
Knowledge base videos need to be accessible to a diverse audience, which can pose language and accessibility challenges. Creating videos in multiple languages or providing subtitles for different languages requires additional effort and resources.
Moreover, ensuring accessibility for individuals with hearing or visual impairments may involve adding captions, audio descriptions, or other accessibility features.
Editing video content often requires technical expertise and knowledge of video editing software. Teams may need to learn how to use video editing tools or rely on external resources, such as video editors or graphic designers—which can add complexity and cost to the process.
Lack of technical skills within the team can be a significant barrier to creating and editing high-quality videos for a customer knowledge base.
Determining the effectiveness of knowledge base videos can be challenging. Unlike text-based content, measuring engagement, understanding, and retention levels of video content may require specialized analytics tools.
Gathering feedback from users and tracking metrics such as view counts, completion rates, and user satisfaction can provide insights, but it may be more complex compared to traditional knowledge base articles.
Once you’re done with knowledge base video creation, you need a good platform to host and distribute these videos to reach the intended audience. Selecting a suitable video knowledge base software, managing video libraries, and ensuring smooth streaming can be a technical and logistical challenge.
What’s more, determining the most effective channels/methods to reach your users and promote the videos may require additional effort and expertise.
Knowledge base videos often focus on demonstrating specific product features and workflows. When products undergo updates or evolve with new user interfaces (UI) and capabilities, existing videos may become outdated or inaccurate.
As a result, teams may need to redo or update the videos to reflect the latest product versions, requiring additional time and resources to maintain an up-to-date video library.
Let's embark on a journey through various formats and types, infusing a conversational tone along the way, and highlighting popular SaaS examples for inspiration.
The tutorial videos leverage step-by-step guidance with storytelling prowess. These videos transform complex processes into digestible chunks, empowering users to master tasks with ease. Step-by-step guides that walk viewers through specific tasks, explaining different features & how to use them.
Canva's tutorial videos seamlessly blend educational content with creative flair, guiding users through design techniques and empowering them to unleash their creativity.
Explainer Videos are concise yet informative videos that break complex concepts into simple narratives, leaving viewers enlightened and entertained.
Imagine sitting down for a friendly chat with a knowledgeable friend, who effortlessly demystifies intricate topics with wit and wisdom. Likewise, Dropbox's explainer videos artfully convey the benefits of cloud storage and collaboration, captivating audiences with relatable scenarios and vibrant visuals.
Provide users with a virtual tour of product features and functionalities using demo walkthroughs. These immersive experiences offer firsthand glimpses into software capabilities, guiding users through key interactions and use cases.
Slack's demo walkthroughs showcase the platform's messaging and collaboration tools in action, illustrating real-world scenarios and inspiring seamless teamwork.
Interactive videos turn passive viewing transforms into active participation. These dynamic experiences invite users to make choices, explore branching narratives, and shape their learning journey.
HubSpot's interactive videos engage users with quizzes, polls, and clickable elements, transforming passive viewers into active participants and enhancing learning retention.
Let users peek behind the curtain with behind-the-scenes vlogs, offering glimpses into the inner workings of SaaS companies. These authentic and relatable videos humanize brands, fostering connections and building trust.
Buffer's behind-the-scenes vlogs provide a transparent look into remote work culture and company initiatives, fostering community engagement and strengthening brand loyalty.
Let’s dive into the detailed steps to create a video knowledge base:
Define the goals and objectives of your video knowledge base. Determine what you aim to achieve, whether it's educating users, providing product support, or driving conversions. Conduct thorough research to understand your target audience's preferences, needs, and pain points. Consider factors such as demographics, industry, and skill level.
Prioritize topics that align with your product or service offerings, addressing both beginner-level and advanced-level content to cater to a diverse audience. Brainstorm a list of topics based on your audience's needs and interests, as well as your business objectives.
Break down each topic into smaller segments or chapters, making it easier for users to navigate and digest the information. Include clear objectives and learning outcomes for each video. Define the chapter or video outline of not just an overall video but also the segments in the video.
Experiment with different video formats, such as tutorials, demos, explainer videos, and interviews, to keep your content diverse and engaging. Visually map out the flow of your video, including scene changes, visuals, and narration. This ensures a smooth and logical progression of information.
Tired of the headache of creating product videos? Say goodbye to the back-and-forth between multiple tools and streamline your process with Floik.
Designed for customer-facing teams, Floik offers a user-friendly interface for recording slick screen and webcam presentations. Whether it's a 1-minute clip or a longer form video, Floik allows you to record, pause, blur confidential details, edit, and embed your final masterpiece seamlessly. Say hello to hassle-free product videos with Floik.
Here’s an explainer video created using Floik: