What Is the Impact of Video Training on Time to Value?

Have you ever started using a product that took so long to figure out that you gave up on it? If so, would you consider using the product again? Probably not. 

This is why you need to shorten your time to value (TTV). 

TTV is how long it takes customers to realize your product’s intended benefits. The shorter it is, the better your chances of achieving high customer satisfaction rates, increasing adoption, and converting new users into brand advocates.

Here, we look at the impact of video training on TTV and offer some tips to help you shrink yours via this content format. 

Why video training shortens time to value

Companies typically try to address low feature adoption challenges and shorten their TTV through traditional methods like in-product pop-ups, text-based how-to guides, webinars, and, in some cases, blog content. 

It’s easy to see why these methods would be a go-to for many. They’re fast to produce and familiar, so teams don’t have to put too much effort into the creation process. 

There’s only one problem: They don’t meet employees’ or customers’ needs, so they have little impact on conversion or TTV. 

Video, on the other hand, promotes better employee or customer understanding and engagement. It’s proactive, people-first, and more accessible, resulting in a better TTV.

The best part? With tools like Snagit and Camtasia, you don’t need to be a professional editor or graphic designer to create high-quality customer education videos. 

Here’s a little more on why video training is the perfect secret weapon for a shorter TTV:

Video makes training accessible on demand

With American companies increasingly hiring abroad, U.S. workers landing remote jobs from overseas companies, and more brands operating on a global scale, language barriers have become a real challenge in onboarding processes. Unfortunately, this can slow user adoption and stretch out TTV. 

However, video onboarding has changed the game. With AI translation tools, teams can improve accessibility for employees and customers, no matter where they’re tuning from. 

Other features, like AI voice generation, can even make video content more accessible for people with vision loss. 

Video onboarding also lets employees and users learn at their own pace and revisit instructions whenever needed, which is impossible with traditional solutions like live training sessions. This streamlines the onboarding experience, which can help people see the value of your product much quicker. 

It scales repeatable knowledge across teams and customers

It’s tough to maintain consistency when you have multiple managers running training sessions or if you have to constantly repeat the same content. Some trainers may skip details, and other trainers could add their own twists to training programs, ultimately resulting in inconsistencies. This could mean longer TTV. 

This is why video training is so important. Whether you’re onboarding one client or ten of them, now or a few months down the line, it ensures everyone receives the same message or process walkthrough. This is especially vital in high-growth and SaaS companies as it promotes seamless scalability and reduces the risk of missing crucial product details. 

Visual learning increases comprehension and retention

Remember the phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words”? It’s more than just a phrase — it’s a fact. The way our brains are wired, we process visuals faster than text and retain information better with video. So, a basic UI walkthrough in video format will be more valuable for employees and customers than a comprehensive text-based guide, shortening your product’s TTV. 

Video is also effective because it allows audiences to pause and replay sections as often as they want. This means those who learn via repetition are covered. 

It frees up internal teams from repetitive tasks

Nobody wants to repeat the same type of content and answer the same questions over and over — not even your hardest-working employees. It gets boring fast and can affect the quality of training, ultimately impacting your TTV. 

With video, trainers can say goodbye to endless live demo sessions and repetitive training calls and instead direct audiences to consistent video resources that cover all the basics. This frees them up to focus on more strategic work while still ensuring customers and employees get the help they need whenever they need it. 

The icing on the cake? Creating video training materials doesn’t have to be hard. With TechSmith’s suite of tools, trainers can use screenshots and screen recordings to create professional-level visual content — no video editing skills needed. So, not only do you have an effective means to shorten your TTV, you also have a relatively easy time creating the content you need.

When and where video training is most impactful

Video training can work wonders across the entire customer journey. That said, there are specific circumstances when it’s not just nice to have; it’s a must-have for better TTV. These include:

Customer onboarding

The value of video training in customer onboarding, aka the “make or break” stage in the customer journey, is enough to justify its cost. Welcome videos, quick-start guides, account setup walkthroughs, and FAQ content quickly get customers acquainted with your product and brand. 

They break down first-use experiences, making it easy for customers to determine how your product fits into their processes and reducing the number of support tickets in the early stages. The better their experiences here, the likelier they are to stick with your product (and brand). 

Employee enablement

Employee training is a crucial part of any business. It empowers staff with the skills they need to do their jobs and reach maximum potential, which can improve retention rates. 

With video, internal teams can easily get employees up to speed on everything from standard operating procedures and company tools to compliance requirements and company culture. It lightens the load on trainers by eliminating the need for repetitive sessions and enhances employee experiences by providing on-demand guidance — without the hassle of reading through long documents or syncing calendars with trainers for live sessions. 

New product or feature releases

Saying that new product or feature releases can be nerve-wracking is an understatement. Still, you need to bring your A-game to secure customers. 

Video helps you do just that. It quickly showcases what’s new and highlights the benefits of your new product or functionality. This can build excitement, reduce confusion, and help customers adopt new features fast. 

Take a short explainer video that spotlights your software’s new feature, for example. It not only drives user attention to the latest functionality but also generates excitement, which could enhance customer engagement and adoption. 

When should you start building training videos for customers?

As soon as possible. You need to make sure customers have the easiest time with your product to shorten TTV and encourage loyalty. 

Video production speed is even more crucial if:

• Your company grows and attracts new customers: They’ll need a “crash course” on your offerings. 
• You introduce new products, services, or features: Customer education is necessary to prevent confusion. 
• There’s an apparent demand for self-service and self-guided learning options: Video training allows users to find answers without waiting on customer success teams. This lets you focus on complex matters, which can improve your customer service quality. 
• The complexity of your product increases (maybe because of new features): Quick-reference guides prevent customers from getting stuck. 

Ideally, your videos should cover the essentials, like your product’s navigation, before moving on to more complex topics, like how to configure dashboards or set up integrations. This way, you don’t scare customers off in the early stages. 

Video content should also proactively address common pain points and answer FAQs to guide users toward value faster. 

How to create customer video training (without a full production team)

Video format can appear scary at first, especially if you don’t have editing or graphic design experience. But, with the right tools (like Camtasia and Snagit), expertise doesn’t matter.

Whether you have decades-long experience or are only used to creating TikTok or home clips, you can build high-quality, professional customer training videos.

Here’s how to create video training guides without going all out on a production team. 

Use Camtasia to record detailed process walkthroughs

Camtasia takes the hassle out of creating guides by offering an AI-powered video editor. You can seamlessly record your screen, add voiceover, and include annotations or effects to highlight vital details, all without previous videography experience

Some of the features that are sure to help you create high-quality videos include :

• Ability to highlight and magnify cursor movements: Draws attention to key details.
• Text-based video editing capability: Increases video editing efficiency. 
• Automatic audio cleanup functionality: Seamlessly removes filler words from recordings. 
• Generative AI-powered script creation, translation, narration, and avatar generation: Lets you create polished, interactive, and accessible videos.
• Separate tracks for screen, cursor, mic, and system audio: Allows you to update training videos without starting over. 

Please note that some features above are only available in Camtasia Pro or Camtasia Create tiers. With advanced Camtasia tiers, you also unlock functionalities like Audiate, Assets, and Screencast Pro. These promote seamless voiceover editing, unlock millions of creative assets (videos, images, and sounds), and simplify video exporting and sharing. 

Thanks to these features, Camtasia is best suited for detailed content like step-by-step video tutorials, software training, and product explainer clips. 

Use Snagit to capture quick tutorials and how-tos

Snagit is well-suited for non-professionals looking to adopt video training. With features like short video recording and annotations, it’s perfect for creating bite-sized videos or annotated screenshots to support the detailed tutorials created via Camtasia. 

It would be great for sharing troubleshooting guides, showcasing case studies, and offering quick software tips and tricks. 

Focus on clarity over production value

Focus more on ensuring clear audio, clean visuals, and concise delivery than showcasing your latest editing skills. Remember, your goal isn’t to wow audiences; it’s to deliver relevant and consistent content to shrink TTV. 

With TechSmith as your trusty partner, this is relatively easy. Even with zero video or audio production experience, you’ll have no trouble creating valuable content for your target audience. 

Start with your most frequent support or training topics

The truth is, you can’t possibly cover everything that has to do with your product or service — not in the beginning, at least. So, try not to put too much pressure on yourself. 

Rather than trying to record everything, pull insights on what trips customers up the most from FAQs and support tickets. Creating videos that address common concerns will lessen your burden and significantly shrink TTV by making it easier for customers to understand your product. 

Embed videos in help centers, product tours, and email onboarding

Training videos will only shorten TTV if they reach your target audience. So, embed them in as many customer touchpoints as possible. 

Some excellent placements include:

• FAQs pages
• Onboarding emails 
• In-product pop-ups
• Your website 

You can even share them via physical materials like business cards or pamphlets. To do this, link the videos to QR Codes and then add the codes to your preferred print materials. 

Help customers and teams find value faster with the right tools

Video training shortens time to value by making complex concepts easier to understand and reducing the need for repeated support or training. This can improve employee and customer relationships with your business, boost conversion rates, and reduce churn. 

Video training would be particularly ideal when onboarding new customers and hires, updating employees on SOP changes, launching a new product or feature, or if you want to support self-service. 

With TechSmith’s Snagit and Camtasia tools, you can create valuable and professional-looking videos to help shrink TTV, even with zero prior experience. Our tools are user-friendly and feature-rich, comprising functionalities like text-based editing, AI-powered scripts, and annotations to enhance the learning experience. 

Want to shorten your product’s time to value with high-quality training videos? Try Camtasia and Snagit today!