Jonathan Edwards: Bringing excitement to tutorial videos

Have you ever needed to make a small home or car repair, decide to maybe save yourself a few bucks and look up how to do it via an online tutorial video? I know I’ve done it on occasion over the years. But admittedly, most are often fairly dry, step-by-step instructions. But if you are looking to supplement your online marketing with video tutorials you should consider one thing that would make your videos memorable, and even drive viewers towards your other content – Be a nerd.

If you have watched videos on YouTube for as long as I have, you are probably very familiar with the genre of “unboxing” videos. If not, the concept is simple. A person would open up a package of some new consumer good and record their first, initial reactions to it. Usually the person making the video is excited about the product and is catching their reactions in real time as they examine and maybe even start to put to use the item being featured.

That very first unboxing video – in which an early YouTuber opened up their brand new Nokia E61 cellphone – kicked off a genre of YouTube videos that still thrives today. It has even spread to other video platforms like TikTok and Instagram, albeit formatted to the particular styles native to those other outlets. Additionally, while the trend started with consumer electronic products, especially high-tech gadgets, it has spread to cover virtually every kind of product imaginable from cosmetics to collectable toys to clothing to special edition books and more.

Now you may be asking yourself, “Why would I want to watch some person unpack their brand new whatever-it-is they just received?” (Trust me, this does get around to tutorial videos.)

The answer is to put yourself in their position and think about how you would react to receiving some new item that you were excited about being finally in your hands. I know how I am when a new piece of equipment like a new camera lens comes into the studio. I can’t wait to rip it out of the box and give it a run through its paces. It is that excitement that the creators of unboxing videos bring to the product they are highlighting.

But unboxing videos also do another important thing, one which can serve a business owner’s needs very well. It serves as a promotion for the items being unboxed. Now it would be disingenuous to say the least to fake up an unboxing-style video for a product or service you provide. The internet is pretty savvy and can smell out a fake pretty quickly. What you would want to do, is bring the excitement of an unboxing video to your own videos, specifically your tutorial videos.

Let’s face it, the people who make unboxing videos are fans of the things they are unboxing. They are going to ooh and aah over cool packaging, sleek product design, innovative new features and ease of use. They are, in the very best way, nerds for whatever the product is. And when creating tutorial videos for your product, you need to be the nerd for that item.

Knowing your product is one of the key components in being able to sell it effectively as it is a component in being able to identify and provide a solution for your customer’s needs. But that is just one factor involved. Enthusiasm, being the nerd for the item, is another key component. If you do not have the excitement about the product, the potential customer might not be enthused enough to reach for their wallet.

Let’s go back to the example of me and a new camera lens. If I were to make an unboxing video or if I were to make a tutorial video about how to use it, I would still be hitting on a number of similar points. I would talk about the build of the lens, the plastic casing, the precision of the optics. But with a tutorial video, I would go one step further and show you why those things are important or cool. I would show off features and their uses in a number of ways, maybe some that a potential customer wasn’t looking for but it sparks something in them that they might want to try. But that’s because I am a nerd for cameras and lenses. And that’s the kind of energy you need to bring to your tutorial videos because when they see that nerdiness, they’ll know that there is a true passion that matches their own. And that forges a great bond between business and customer.