If you want to start creating more original content that stands out on your social networks, blog or for your website but you don’t know what to do. Videos are an excellent option for your strategy, but if you want something more complete, video tutorials are your best option.
Stay and discover more about these types of videos, what they are, their relevance in content marketing, some tips for when you start making them and above all, the best programs to create and edit yours.
What are video tutorials?
They are an audiovisual resource made specifically for the viewer’s learning on a specific topic. The video tutorials are a guide for the user to visualize step by step how to do something.
While it is true that there are topics that require video tutorials much longer than 10 minutes, most of them, you will find them in short formats to retain the user’s attention.
For this digital resource you must focus on the steps to follow during the process that you explain. You must give a short introduction as a talk about the topic you will address and the objective that the viewer will achieve by watching your video tutorial.
Videos in content marketing
Videos have become one of the most used resources in content marketing strategy due to the ease with which the user accesses it and consumes this content more than once. This allows you to improve the rate of recurring users on your website, as well as the time of permanence, which adds points to the positioning of your website
For a video to have a good response, it must handle content that is of interest to your audience. Among the most popular content are testimonials, interviews with opinion leaders in a certain sector and of course, video tutorials.
Look at 4 reasons why adding video tutorials in your content marketing strategy can be a great ally for the positioning of your blog or your brand on social networks:
You use as little text as possible to explain something. People understand faster with a video than with a text.
It is useful for your audience.
Its content does not expire – although you may have to update it later.
It is informative.
Good practices when making your own video tutorial
Before starting with the list of programs, I will share some useful tips for creating your material:
3.1.Choose useful and valuable content for your audience. Research what are the most frequent doubts among your audience and offer them the answer to their questions with a video.
3.2. Create a script about the narration that you are going to have in the course of the audiovisual material.
3.3. Learn the script. It is not enough to have written it, you must learn and rehearse it to avoid mistakes and have to record the entire video again or make multiple edits.
3.4. Long videos are boring. Avoid making your material longer than 10 minutes or more. If you think that your video will not be able to be developed in that period of time, you can manage it by parts or chapters.
3.5. Don’t use background music. Background music can distract the user. The only sound that should be given full attention is your voice.
3.6. Use clear and easy-to-digest language. Probably the people who see your video tutorial do not have previous advanced knowledge and it is difficult for them to understand some concepts of the procedure that you are explaining.
3.7. Share it on all social networks. This is one of the resources that you can get the most out of. In addition to posting it on your blog, you can post it on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook and see the response they generate.
3.8. Take care of the presentation of your video. Not only is the narration of the procedure what you must take care of, you must also have your images or the screenshots that you present in the course in order.
3.9. Check the lighting in your surroundings. In case your video tutorials are not screen recordings and you have to record the steps of a procedure, get a space to record with the ideal lighting.
List of the best free programs to make video tutorials
Now that you read some tips when you want to make this type of visual content and the importance for which you should do it and add to your company’s content marketing strategy, you need to know where to develop all this material.
Next, I share a list of the most used programs to make video tutorials, their advantages and some of the disadvantages that I have experienced in each one.
1. Wondershare Filmora
It is a very popular program to create your video tutorials due to all the editing tools it offers you. This application has two “navigation” modes, one for beginners, with a friendlier interface and basic tools, and one for expert users where you can make edits that need more details.
Advantages:
- It has templates for the beginning and end that can help you create more formal videos.
- Eliminate background noise from your audios.
- Its shortener is accurate if you need to remove any fragment of your video.
- It is very easy to use and very friendly to novice users.
- It does not add watermarks with its logo or the name of the program to your videos.
Disadvantages:
- If you record the screen and your voice at the same time, the voice may be delayed at times.
- The speed to save your project is very slow compared to other programs.
2. Jing
This program is one of the most used to make video tutorials by offering you to record your material completely free. Because its license is free, you will have fewer tools that some other programs that give you demos can offer you that will get you out of trouble.
It is an ideal tool if you are one of those people who do many video tutorials but have a small budget.
Advantages:
- Its use is completely free.
- You can capture the screen or record it from the same program.
- It is compatible on both Windows and iOS.
- It’s a Camtasia family program, so you know it’s safe.
Disadvantages:
- It only exports the videos in SWF format.
- It doesn’t have as many filters or editing tools.
- Videos can only have a maximum length of 5 minutes.
3. FlexClip
It is one of the easiest video maker to use if you are a beginner creating visual content or managing video editing programs. The software that has multi-language versions are ideal for making your video tutorials without filters or transitions.
Advantages:
- It’s web browser based so you don’t need to download any software.
- It is compatible with various video formats, in case you have previously recorded the visual part of your video tutorial.
- There are many templates to use and get more out of it.
Disadvantages:
- The free version has limited functions.
4. ApowerREC
This is a program that allows you to capture the screen while recording the sound that your computer transmits, from your microphone or both at the same time. The software is very easy to use, compatible with different formats and with a friendly interface.
Advantages:
- It is completely free. No trial version or extra paid elements.
- You can record the sound played on the computer and from the microphone at the same time.
- It has its own format converter to save your material in the format you need.
- Records voice automatically. During the recording of your screen you can program when you want the audio to start recording.
Disadvantages:
- The program comes in English.
- There are not many tutorials to learn how to use it.
- It does not have filters or transitions.
5. Camtasia
It is the most used software to create video tutorials. Although it only has a free version for 30 days, this period of time is enough to be able to create quality videos with its filters, transitions and visual effects that it offers you.
Advantages:
- There is no limit to the length of the video. It doesn’t matter if your video is a few minutes long or you need to create videos that are a couple of hours long,
- You can record any element you need such as your screen, presentations in other applications, with the webcam, with the microphone or an audio played from the computer.
- Not only can you record your video tutorial, but you can edit it in the same project with the transitions, filters or the edits you want to make.
Disadvantages:
- Being a software, it has installation specifications, such as being available only for Mac OS and Windows operating systems.
- Upgrades are paid. That is, if you have the most expensive subscription, nothing happens, but if you have the cheapest version, you will not be able to upgrade to the next version.
Create your video tutorials like an expert
Although there are not many programs that are free and also have enough quality to make your own audiovisual materials, the ones I mentioned are enough for you to start working on your content marketing strategy. People on your social media and your website will thank you and you will start to gain a certain level of authority and relevance.
Don’t forget that the content is what determines how popular your video will be. Always try to make the topic of your video interesting or to help your audience to achieve organic positioning, that is, they will start liking, sharing and commenting if they liked it.