Mastering the Art of Training Videos: 7 Essential Tips for 2025

Ever Googled something just to pick a video result instead of a web page? Spent hours scrolling through TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube?

You're not alone.

Video is an increasingly popular format both for entertainment, and knowledge delivery. Companies increasingly use training videos not to just entertain, but to teach.

That's why mastering the art of creating training videos is more important than ever.

Whether you're creating employee training videos, onboarding videos, or an online course, let's dive in the seven essential tips for creating impactful training videos in 2025.

These tips will guide you in selecting the right format, crafting engaging content, and utilizing effective production techniques.

Let's dive into the steps to elevate your training videos and maximize their effectiveness! :)

Before You Decide on Creating Training Videos

Choosing video for training can be a smart move, but it's also often expensive (both in time and money) to produce.

While video can help visual learners remember things better and faster, you can achieve the same with visual guides that can be produced in a fraction of the time and cost with automatic guide creation tools.

If you're looking to create SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) or step-by-step guides, I encourage you to consider training manual generators like Glitter AI (free to use up to 10 guides). Tools like Glitter AI let you create step-by-step guides in seconds instead of hours.

How To Create Effective Training Videos

When you make training videos, you better know who you're making them for. This means digging deep to understand your audience so you can make videos that are right for them.

Here's a tip: tell your viewers what they'll learn right at the start. This way, they don't waste time on stuff they don't need.

A couple of important points to remember:

1. Learn about your audience (try to put yourself in their shoes)

2. Shape your video to fit what the viewers need (remember attention spans are shorter than ever nowadays).

3. Set out clear learning goals in the beginning (tell you audience what they're going to learn)

4. Deliver! (actually teach them what you promised when you began the video).

Choose the Right Type of Training Video

No doubt that video is an effective format with 96% of learners saying "that e-learning tools are fun to use and help them learn things on their own."

However, to make sure your audience actually learns, it's important to choose the right type of training video. There are six main types of training videos you can choose from:

1. Presenter-style training videos (AKA talking-head videos)

2. Instructional videos*

3. Screen recording videos*

4. Interactive videos

5. How-to videos*

6. Microlearning videos*

* Check out Glitter AI for if you're looking to create one of those

Choose Your Video Content

People have different learning styles, so it's important to pick the right format depending on who you make training content for.

How-To Guides

If you're looking to create a high-quality training video, you might consider the how-to video format.

How-to guides are the bread and butter of training materials. How-to guides are great for providing comprehensive step-by-step instructions on how to get stuff done!

Because they're often used as reference materials, it's helpful to put a link to a written step-by-step guide underneath the video (Glitter AI is a great process documentation tool that can complement or replace screencast videos).

How-to guides are great for visual learners.

Screencasts

Screencasts are super helpful for showing how to complete a complex process that requires a deeper understanding of the "how" and not just the "what".

During the recording process, you just capture what's happening on your screen and explain not only what, but "why" you're doing things.

Unlike professional videos, screencasts (otherwise known as "screen videos") are also pretty cheap to produce.

Screen capture software like Camtasia, Snagit, and Loom make this a piece of cake by helping you record your entire screen and yourself at the same time.

However, if you're camera-shy, they may not be the best-of-fit tools. While they do provide a "quick and dirty way to do product demonstrations (which is mostly how I've seen them used), there is a better way to achieve the same thing:

If you're primarily looking to create an SOP (standard operating procedure) or showcase step-by-step instructions, consider using a tool like Glitter AI for your recording process.

Interactive Formats

Interactive formats are like the secret sauce of training videos. They get people to do more than just watch -- they actually participate.

This is really important when you want to hit those learning objectives and cater to different ways people learn.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are an excellent fit for interactive learning as they facilitate engagement through features like quizzes, discussion forums, and gamified content. Those allow learners to actively participate and track their progress.

Focus on Engaging Content

If you're looking to create a training program, you should know that a good training video is more than just facts and instructions.

I've definitely fallen asleep before watching a badly produced training video. You don't want that.

To catch someone's interest and help them learn, you mix educational stuff with fun visuals and a bit of humor. At the start of each video, it's smart to state clear learning goals. This fires up learners and makes them curious about what's coming.

Here's a quick rundown of what can help make a video stick in a viewer's mind:

• Clear learning objectives

• Fun visuals

• Humor (personally, I love throwing in jokes -- no better way to build rapport and create engagement than humor -- even when it's cringy like my dad jokes)

Other Types of Engaging Content

For visual learners: video content that includes graphs, examples, and tables can make a huge difference, too. They help make the content relatable and easier to remember.

Subtitles or captions are super important. They break down language barriers and make learning possible for more people. And if your viewers are anything like me, they may prefer watching with subtitles to better "digest" the content.

Develop a Clear and Concise Training Video Script

If you want to make a great training video, you need to have a clear and concise script. A good way to think of the script is as the map that guides viewers through the information.

When you write your script, pull from reliable sources like product manuals or employee guides to ensure you get the facts right.

For a simple internal training video, feel free to ease up on the script. I've seen internal corporate videos that made me want to yeet my laptop out of the window (woosh).

Don't be overly formal. If you want to deliver information, speak to people like... well, people speak.

If the video is aimed at folks outside your company, like customers, you may need to adjust for how you brand is perceived. You probably wouldn't want to use too much slang if you're training, say, government employees.

A Word on Using AI to Write Your Script

AI, and specifically large-language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and the likes of those are awesome tools for generating content for an effective training program.

However, I recommend that you do not solely rely on them for your final script, or you're going to end up sounding super robotic.

In my view, using AI is fantastic for generating content briefs and structure, but then you want to flesh out the actual content yourself, or you end up sounding... well... artificial :)

To Storyboard or not to Storyboard?

You don't always need a storyboard.

Especially if you’re short on time, you can describe the visuals in your script or utilize ready-made layouts.

Another way is to ask ChatGPT to do it for you. I don't just mean describing your storyboard in words: you can ask ChatGPT to actually produce pictures for you by simply describing what you'd like to see. That's how all the photos for this blog post were produced! :)

It's a cheaper way to produce the storyboard than paying someone to do it, and it helps if you're a visual learner like me.

Ultimately, your goal is to create professional-looking videos that teach your audience, so if a storyboard helps you, then by all means, go for it. Just don't break the bank producing it -- it's just a visual aid to help you produce content.

What Length Should My Script Be?

That really depends on you, but generally speaking, prefer shorter content. Here's why:

Short-form videos are super popular on social media, and as a consequence people are getting used to watching those. That means attention spans are shorter than ever.

However, sometimes you need to deliver longer content.

So if your video must be long, a quick hack is to keep the actual sentences short in your video script. This both makes for an easier listen to, and also creates a better-paced video people can actually pay attention to.

Using Effective Production Techniques

When making training videos, it's super important to focus on both the visuals and the audio.

If either of these are crappy, they can mess up your whole video. No one wants to squint at the screen or struggle to hear what you're saying.

Choose a quiet place to hit record, so that you cut down on annoying sound junk that can throw viewers off track. Let's break those down into more specific categories:

Lighting

If you want your training videos to look awesome, lighting plays a big role in that. If you position yourself behind (as opposed to in front of) a window, or pop a desk lamp in front of you, it can make a world of difference.

If you fail to do this and end up with sh***y lighting that makes everything harder to see, you'll turn away your viewers.

It's also important to keep your camera steady. Use a tripod or set your camera on some stable platform: a shaky video feels like you shot it while riding a bicycle -- not cool (even if it's a bicycle training video, haha).

Great lighting keeps viewers hooked and helps them remember what you're teaching.

Quick tips about lighting:

• Face a window or use a lamp for better light.

• Light quality matters as much as what you're teaching.

• A steady camera makes your good lighting work even better.

Sound Quality

Here's the deal with sound: it can make or break your content. You could have a video that's pure gold visually, but if it it has poor sound or a crappy audio quality (like you're talking from the bottom of a well), viewers will bail (I know I've done that before).

The good news is that it doesn't take much to get good-enough audio. Just get your hands on at least an an "okay" microphone (even a cheap lapel mic can work wonders, as long as it's attached to you).

I've seen training session videos where people record their voice separately and later squish it together in post-production, but unless you nail down the editing process, it doesn't sound natural.

Camera Angles

Camera angles -- mix them up to keep folks watching.

Kind of like how a good DJ switches up beats, it's great to switch up the angles of your videos.

I used to watch lots of LinkedIn Learning videos (previously called Lynda), and they've always been pretty great at doing this to keep viewers' attention.

Throwing in different camera perspectives can help with telling your story and making sure your viewers stay glued to the screen (or at least don't fall asleep in front of it).

Post-Production Editing

Post production (or "Post" for short) in training videos, is the step is where you edit and refine raw footage to enhance clarity and engagement. It's how you make sure that the final product effectively delivers the intended instructional content.

How to do Post Production for Training Videos

1. Organize: Start by organizing your material. This means sorting through video files and deciding what to keep.

2. Make cuts: Once you have everything in order, make your cuts. Trim out the parts that don't help your training goals. Go for a clear, concise video content structure that will make learning easier.

3. Assemble: Now, assemble these parts into a rough cut of your video program. You'll show this version to get feedback from people involved in the project. They might ask for changes, so be ready for more rounds of editing to get it just right.

4. Sound: Sound matters a lot, too. Good sound mixing and editing can make your message come across better. This is the time to balance the volume, clean up any background noise, and possibly add music.

5. Trim the script: During editing, it's smart to keep a close eye on your script. Check off each part as you record it. If you need several tries to get a section perfect, note that down. When you coordinate with lots of people, this tracking is super helpful.

In the end, your goal is to put together a polished video that aligns with your training goals and makes folks who asked for it happy.

Cost Savings through Training Videos

Training videos are a smart way to save cash on teaching staff new skills. One crazy example: Microsoft cut its training bill from $320 to just $17 per person by replacing corporate trainers with on demand training videos (for internal employee training)

These videos pack a punch for several reasons. First, they're cheaper than old-style training, meaning firms get the big wins without burning money. In 2023, businesses in the US threw a huge $101.8 billion towards training. Think about the chunk of change videos could save there!

The Downside of Training Videos

When your process updates, inevitably, you'll need to update your videos, too.

Unfortunately, training videos can be hard and expensive to update due to the need to re-shoot or edit existing content.

Additionally, ensuring that all changes are accurately reflected in the visuals, scripts, and supporting materials can further complicate and increase the costs associated with revisions.

If that's the case for you, and you're looking for an effective way to teach your staff or customers stuff, consider creating a Glitter AI guide instead:

Glitter AI: The Perfect Companion to Your Training Videos

Creating professional training videos is a great start! But what happens when the viewer need to follow the process you show in your video?

Watching and re-watching a training video is the best experience when you need to actually go through a process.

If what you really need is to teach someone a process via a guide or SOP, consider adding a step-by-step guide as a companion to your video.

Many companies now use tools like Glitter AI, which create step-by-step guides automatically. You may even find that in some cases, the video itself is not strictily necessary.

Tools like Glitter AI cut down on the cost of producing step-by-step videos, and are generally way easier to update (you just edit text and you have an updated guide).

How Glitter AI Works

While you're doing something on your computer, just click and talk out loud. That's it!

Every click you make, Glitter AI captures a screenshot. Every word you say, it transcribes it into text.

In the end, you get a neat set of screenshots and an article that goes with them.

Here's a quick run down:

• Cost: Way lower than the old-school way of making videos

• Effort: Just click and speak, Glitter AI does the rest :)

• Outcome: Screenshots plus a written guide!

To get a feel for how easy it is, I invite you to try Glitter AI for free for 10 guides. Just head over to www.glitter.io and give it a go.

Say goodbye to the headache of making training videos the hard way. Try Glitter AI and see how it complements your training program :)