Your Guide to Using Video for Customer Education

Videos—they’re engaging and entertaining, but take more time and cost more to produce. So why use video for customer education?

We recently connected with Matthew Tidwell, founder of ThinkThru, to talk about all things video for customer education.

Here’s what he shared.

Why Use Video for Customer Education?

Videos provide a format for us to inform, entertain, and build a relationship with learners in a way that’s difficult to achieve in other mediums. It’s also incredibly powerful for showing processes, establishing locations, or conveying emotion in a way that text-based or image-based content simply struggles with due to limitations in the format. 

By using video for educational purposes, we can help viewers process information through audio, visuals, stories, and establishing time or place. 

Customer education is a particularly good candidate for this format because it’s a content type that:

• Customers engage with regularly
• Can be distributed across multiple platforms and channels easily
• Gives organizations a scalable means to deliver value, build trust, and help customers success

These factors often then improve business performance through increased revenue, reduced churn, lower cost of acquisition, and higher NPS or CSAT scores. 

The effectiveness of video in building relationships, trust, and engagement is evident in its growing consumption. Year after year, online video viewership continues to rise, with smartphones being the most popular device, followed by TVs for video-on-demand content.

In many organizations (especially SaaS and technology organizations) customer education video content helps bridge gaps between marketing content, sales enablement materials, and onboarding materials. When viewed as the “glue” between these team efforts (instead of a siloed spend), strategic teams are able to optimize the total spend of media production while serving the needs of many departments and goals within the total organization. 

Customer Education Video Formats

When it comes to how we can use video for customer education, we wanted to know: What formats are most popular? This is what Matthew has found:

Tutorial Videos

These are essentially product videos that go beyond “knowledge base content.” Think: workflows, use-case videos, and content that speaks directly to the problem and promise of the product.

A fantastic example of this style of content is from Webflow University. These tutorials are hilarious, memorable, and helpful, all at the same time.  

Strategy Education/Industry Focus Videos

Matthew thinks about strategic videos as a combination of case study and thought leadership-type content. The purpose of these videos is to bring industry perspectives together around the central challenges that your product/platform/service solves in the market. 

These videos are great for helping customers understand the “art of the possible” with your solution in context with the major challenges or use-cases for the specific solution.

Inspirational, Entertaining, and Mission Videos

These videos serve an entirely different purpose than traditional education—but perhaps the most important purpose. These videos highlight the reason why people remember and advocate for your brand, product, or service. 

Sharing and educating customers on the successes others are having can inspire them to push for more within their own organization, hopefully increasing the use of your solution while inspiring them to advance their own mission. 

5 Building Blocks for Impactful Customer Education Videos

So what exactly goes into making a customer education video truly effective? There are a few critical elements that every video needs to grab attention, keep viewers engaged, and ensure your message lands. Whether you're creating short tutorials or more in-depth resources, these foundational components can make all the difference in helping your content resonate and provide real value to your audience.

1. Opening hook.

Every great video has a punchy hook that establishes the promise of the content in 15 seconds or less. 

Two popular hook options:

• Open with an important question
• Jump straight to the point about what the video covers

Matthew likes to start videos with “here’s what we’re doing”, including some context as to why it’s important. 

2. Engaging and comprehensive script.

Great videos create information loops that keep you curious and engaged throughout the video. 

You can do this through organizing your content in lists or steps and then structure the video in such a way where you’re continually leading the viewer to “the next big thing” and keeping them curious about “what’s next.” 

Matthew called out the 4MAT Framework for scriptwriting. (Matthew’s Pro Tip: Not every video has to follow the exact format every time, but it helps to start with these four questions.)

• Why does this matter? 
• What is the “thing” or “concept,” specifically? 
• How do I do it?
• Now that I know this, what’s next?

Consider Alex Homozi, one of the biggest names in online education, sales, and entrepreneurship. Alex is a master at creating “information loops” throughout his content. 

Matthew would argue that 90% of Alex’s content is educational through his telling of stories and lists about building and growing businesses. 

While his style may be drastically different from the standard SaaS brand, the lessons and take-aways from his formatting—which have gotten him millions of views on nearly every piece of content he’s published—are definitely a model for successful, engaging videos. 

3. Show, don’t tell.

While your script is important, visuals are perhaps even more important. Whenever possible, Matthew tries to find a way to “show the thing” that’s being discussed—whether that’s through simple lists on screen, images of the framework or concept, or screenshot from the platform.

4. Great title or thumbnail.

Because most customer education material often falls into a learning management system (LMS), it can be easy to skip this step. Most people will grab the title slide from a PowerPoint and call it a day.

But when you’re competing for attention online, purposeful design matters. You must be intentional about the thumbnail design to ensure potential viewers click to watch the video in the first place!

Ali Abdaal is an online educator and advocate for the importance of creating compelling thumbnails to “package your video content.” 

Here’s a post from X where he’s provided multiple resources for A/B testing video thumbnails. 

5. Expert voice or persona.

It’s not just the introduction of AI—as humans, we’re wired for connection with people. 

A great way to establish (and maintain) brand trust is through personal connection. Featuring consistent faces, voices, and personalities helps customers build a relationship with your company. Think of people you regularly see on social media who you feel like you “know” without ever speaking to them. That’s the type of personal relationship we’re talking about!

Go Beyond Simply Sharing Information

Creating effective customer education videos isn’t just about delivering information—it’s about engaging your audience, building trust, and empowering them to take action. By focusing on storytelling, clear visuals, and a strong connection with your viewers, you can transform your content from simply educational to truly impactful. Remember, every video is an opportunity to not only teach but to inspire. With these strategies in mind, you’re well on your way to producing videos that not only educate but also drive meaningful outcomes for your customers and your business.