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Chapter 4 Creating Educational Videos 55

Of course, you want to include your website URL or toll-free phone number during
the course of the video. Consider using a title card up front and a credits screen at
the end, along with overlays along the way. It also might be a good idea to outline
the key steps in the descriptive text that accompanies the video.

When you’re putting together your how-to video, you might find that it doesn’t fit
comfortably within a 2- to 3-minute slot. That’s okay; this is one type of video that
can break the attention-span rule. If you need 6 or 7 minutes to complete the proj-
ect, take it. However, if you get up to 10 minutes or longer, consider breaking the
project into two or even three separate videos—Building a Deck Part 1, Building a
Deck Part 2, Building a Deck Part 3, and so forth. You do have YouTube’s 15-minute
time limit to consider, of course, as well as a normal viewer’s attention span.

The Big Picture

For many companies, the most effective way to garner new customers on YouTube
is by offering some sort of step-by-step how-to video. You can show viewers how to
install or use your product, or how to use your product while completing some sort
of common project or task. The key is for the video to be truly useful, easy to fol-
low, and mention your product in a subtle fashion. If you help people do something
they want or need to do, they’ll remember you when it comes time to make their
next related purchase.