Back to school: How to make customer tutorials

Have you ever bought a product and realised you have no idea how to use it?

It's like figuring out a Rubix cube without any clues or driving a car without a lesson.

Lack of information about your new product can be confusing, and worse - frustrating.

When it comes to customer tutorials, there's no room for making assumptions. It's better to ditch any notions of 'self-explanatory' and start from square one.

Because a product could be 'self-explanatory' to some, but what about the customers who have never used a product like yours before?

We all have different levels of self-explanatory, so assume your viewer has never used it before.

And as September rolls us around to the 'back to school' season, what better time to go over the basics of educating your customers about your product?

Why put effort into making killer tutorials?

Tutorials are important, and they benefit your inbound strategy.

The better the quality of your tutorials, the better experience your customer is going to get from using your product or service.

Making tutorials...

• Shows you care about your product
• Gives your customer more confidence
• Optimises the quality of your product/service 
• Helps your customers get the best experience out of your product or service so that they can leave positive reviews and feedback for your future customers
• Reduces the amount of requests, questions and queries about your product

A tutorial should demonstrate your product's features. It should tell your customers how to get the best out of all the features and show why your product will help improve your customer's life.

You want everything to be crystal clear when it comes to tutorials so that your customer has just the right information to use your product in the best way.

Types of tutorials and formats

There are many different ways you can educate your customers about your product.

You could create...

• Slides/cards
• Video tutorials
• Interactive tutorials
• Events and demos
• Print manuals if your product is a physical thing
• Infographics

A combo of all is very helpful, but video tutorial content takes the cake when it comes to effectiveness.

Video demos are king

69% of customers prefer to watch a video tutorial.

SERP results now favour video-based content as responses to text-based 'how to' searches on Google, skipping directly to the part of the video which provides the most useful bits of information.

The video provides a mirror image, allowing customers to learn with audio and clear demonstrative visuals.

Understand how your audience will learn your product best

Optimise understanding by providing content where your audience will appreciate it best.

Would Instagram reels or TikTok videos be best? Or would your audience appreciate a printed manual?

Before you make tutorials, consider how your customers will use tutorial content, and what they need. This helps tailor the content to their level of expertise and interest.

For example, if your audience are 60+ you probably wouldn't create TikToks, but you might create manuals or article/blog content.

Consider accessibility

Everyone's brain is different, and we all process information differently.

Perhaps your customer will appreciate dictation and captions? Make your tutorial information accessible, so all customers can understand it.

For example - Some types of learners might need speech slowed down or subtitles. Or perhaps you have international customers, so you might have to make your tutorials available in different languages.

Creating effective, accessible tutorials is a crucial aspect of enhancing the customer experience.

Making product tutorials: Top tips

• Plan thoroughly for each tutorial
• Introduce your topic clearly before you start demonstrating
• Breakdown the process
• Highlight important details and tips that are going to be the most beneficial to your customer
• Use everyday language, you should be direct and to the point 
• Use visuals to support 
• Include speech-to-text captions
• Demonstrate each process step-by-step 
• Review and edit your content 
• Check for spelling and grammar mistakes
• Double check everything is factual - perhaps you are missing something that is so simple for the manufacturer but not for your customer

Test your tutorials

Before releasing your tutorial, do trial runs. Get feedback from a small sample of customers.

Was the tutorial easy to understand? Could they follow the steps successfully? Take on any suggestions, and tweak your tutorials.

Look at FAQs around your product, and answer these in your tutorials.

Publish and promote

Once your tutorial is polished, publish it where your customers can find it easily, such as:

• Your website
• Social platforms
• Email newsletters

Promoting your tutorial will help reach more customers and encourage them to try your product.

Great tutorials = great customer relationships

Regularly creating and tweaking your tutorials will generate new traffic and strengthen the relationships you already have with your customers.

Tutorials help to fix common customer pain points.

Keeping accuracy and relevance will keep your customers on the same page and strengthen your inbound strategy. You're giving your customers a roadmap into how they can best use your product, which is the sales cherry on top.

Want to show off your product?

Method know a thing or two about creating killer tutorial content.

We've got all the sharpest tools in the design shed, and we'll craft sparkly new tutorial content that really demonstrate all the best features of your product.

Want to show off your product? Drop us a line.