How to Create How-to Guides (Easy-to-Follow)

Excerpt

Do not index

Ready to Publish

What is a how-to guide?

A how-to guide is an informative content that describes how to complete a specific task. It requires taking users through the step-by-step procedure involved in the process.

For example, if your friend sends you a message asking about a particular cake recipe. You have to give them directions for baking this cake through text.

It would involve creating a stepwise process to complete this task, from the list of ingredients to the step-by-step process involved. And you have to be as descriptive as possible.

If they can bake the cake without a back-and-forth with you, then congratulations! You just succeeded in creating a how-to guide.

How-to guides are helpful in any situation, and software tools are a great way to create how-to guides when you have tons of information to share with others.

Splainy is an online tool that can make it easy for you to explain concepts, processes, or instructions. And because it's online, it allows you to share the resulting how-to guides with anyone, anywhere.

The Splainy desktop app or chrome extension will automatically capture what you do on your computer screen and create an explanatory step-by-step guide with relevant photos or videos for each step.

Why are how-to guides important?

A how-to guide is relevant in every field and organization, whether you want to share information with a peer or teach a staff member how to do something.

Here are some reasons why a how-to guide is important.

Lead generation

Making how-to guides part of your content is a great lead generation strategy. The content will attract targeted prospects and familiarize them with your brand.

If readers realize that you usually share valuable content, converting them into paying customers will be easy.

Brand positioning

A how-to guide helps position you as an authority. When readers discover that your brand shares content that answers their queries and solves their problems, they will recognize you as an authority in that field.

You become their go-to expert in the industry by simply telling them how to perform a specific task. This is a way to build a loyal customer base and future brand advocates.

Builds brand awareness and visibility

If you wish to reach new audiences, a how-to guide will help you accomplish that. In addition, providing helpful information leads to trust and brand recognition.

Sharing knowledge with your colleagues will be more straightforward with how-to guides. This helps to improve access to information and makes the knowledge easier to grasp.

Increases customer satisfaction

Some customers may be too busy to contact a customer service representative. But if your knowledge base includes a repository of how-to guides, they wouldn't need to.

A customer-centric knowledge base with comprehensive user manuals will increase customer satisfaction.

Boosts productivity

When you empower your team with the necessary resources, it will improve their performance.

A how-to guide is a manual they can refer back to anytime they are confused about something.

Onboarding new hires

Creating comprehensive how-to guides will help integrate new hires properly into your company. The guide will make it easy for them to familiarize themselves with your organization's processes.

Adopting a new technology

Incorporating new technologies into existing systems in your organization will require teaching your employees how to use them. A how-to guide will train them to use it, encouraging acceptance.

Process standardization

A how-to guide is one of the ways you can unify your process strategy to align with your company's mission. This will document the best practices in your organization to eliminate the risk of variations in production output.

What should a “How-to Guide” include?

Infusing how-to guides in your content strategy is an excellent way to spice up your content calendar. But you must know the essential components a how-to guide must have. Below we list the most important ones.

Step-by-step instructions

A practical how-to guide must include stepwise instructions. It should highlight a logical order of how to complete the specific task you are describing.

Each step must have detailed instructions on how to finish that stage of the activity.

In this how-to guide blog post by 99 designs, they try to describe how to create a brand style guide for their audience.

The guide includes

Five steps with a numbered list.

Each step explains in detail the processes involved.

It is well organized, so the readers can easily jump straight to what they need on the list.

Clearly defined process

A how-to guide requires a clearly defined process and easy-to-understand instructions. Write clearly in simple language.

Depending on your audience, it should be jargon-free. For instance, if your guide addresses professionals in a particular industry, you are free to include technical terminologies.

But if your audience is laypeople, then you should only use terms they are familiar with.

Hootsuite's “How to Create a Social Media Calendar” explains the processes involved in developing a content calendar.

In describing how to complete each step, the instructions are

Easy to understand.

Straightforward and easy to follow.

Interesting and conversational.

It also included a YouTube video of the guide with a free template.

Solutions to the pain points of the target audience

A how-to guide must include answers to the reader’s pain points. At the end of the article, they should be able to solve the problem that made them dive into your content.

You should only incorporate the necessary information that addresses their issue.

This "How to Build a Website from Scratch(in 9 Easy Steps)" by GetResponse has identified the target audience and their pain points. Here they are:

No coding skills.

Poor online presence.

Reduced customer reach.

The how-to guide explains how a reader with no coding skills can build a website from scratch using 9 steps.

Each step also shows them the items they can include to increase their online presence and reach more customers.

Visual elements

Visual elements are one of the hallmarks of an effective how-to guide. These resources can include videos, graphics, screenshots, and pictures.

The visual representation of the procedures will describe the process better.

Partition Wizard attempts to help its audience fix their mouse issue in this “How to Fix Mouse Jumping Around Windows 10” guide.

Each of the five solutions created in this how-to guide is accompanied by screenshots illustrating how a reader can perform the task.

Useful examples

When creating a how-to guide, including examples will help the reader understand the concept and make it easier for them to remember.

ThoughtCo’s “How to Use the Preposition ‘To’ “ uses numerous examples to show readers how they can use “to” in sentences.

The examples include different contexts where the preposition can be used.

Additional information

If you want to attract a larger audience, you should provide answers to the top query in the user questions on Google.

To gain Google PAA(People also ask) presence, include additional information related to your topic.

For instance, for the search term “how to swim”, Google also brought out other questions people are searching for. You can take it a notch higher by providing answers to related questions people type on search engines.

Links to other relevant information

Your how-to guide should be a complete package that provides readers with all the valuable resources they need to solve their problems.

Add links to other relevant resources about that particular subject, such as e-books, YouTube videos, and articles.

This is why your writing process should involve extensive research about the subject before you start writing.

Hootsuite's article contains links to valuable content that may interest the target audience.

For instance, if you click on the "curated content" anchor text, it takes you to an article tagged: "The Complete Guide to Content Curation in 2022". This may interest a reader that wants to design their social media calendar.

They will definitely be interested in content curation for their social media pages.

Contributions from subject matter experts

Consult subject matter experts to create a valuable how-to guide. This is particularly essential when you're a technical writer creating user manuals for a technical product.

These experts have advanced knowledge in the field. They will provide valuable insights that will help you create meaningful content.

Steps to create effective how-to guides

To develop a practical how-to guide template, follow these 6 simple steps

Step 1: Conduct research

This should be the first step in your how-to guide writing process. It will help you come up with helpful content that will be relevant to your target audience.

It will also help you structure your content to make it reader-friendly.

Your research should focus on

Keyword research to know what people are searching for.

Check out forums, online communities, and social media.

The competitors' content to see what they have written and how they structured their content.

The gap in the knowledge you will fill.

Step 2: Identify the pain points of your target audience

Before you start writing, you need to understand your target audience and their pain point. Who will read your how-to guide? What is their level of knowledge of the information? What are their demographics?

The answers to this question will help you decide on the part of the problem to focus on the language you will use.

For instance, if your guide targets doctors, you do not need to define some medical terms.

But if it's targeting people living with a particular medical condition, your language should be simple enough for them to understand. It should also address what they want to know about the disease.

Step 3: Pick a title

The title of your how-to guide does not need to be fanciful. It should focus on directly solving a problem or completing a task.

It should be simple and straight to the point. And it should begin with the "how-to" phrase followed by the topic you want to address.

Step 4: Structure and develop the steps

Write the steps involved in the procedure logically using numbered lists. Ideally, one step should lead to another.

Include bulleted lists or subheadings when necessary to break up the content.

Add a visual representation to illustrate the process involved in every step. You can include screenshots, images, videos, and infographics.

Alternatively, you can install the Splainy browser extension or use the desktop app to capture and generate your step-by-step instructions. It helps you take screenshots of every process easier.

Step 5: Additional tips

This is the time to include additional information you found during your research that may be relevant to your target audience.

Step 6: Proofread

This is the final step in your guide. Before you publish, proofread properly to ensure there are no grammatical errors or hard-to-read sentences.

Your audience should be able to understand what you have written without having to do a series of regressions.

Break up a large wall of text into chunks or use bullet points.

Other tips for creating effective how-to guides

Use active voice

Endeavor to use active voice always. It has a direct, clear tone that helps to pass your message across efficiently.

Avoid passive voice because it can be wordy and makes your instruction vague.

In this wikiHow content about "How to Make Pancake Batter," every line from step one to step five used active voice. Making it more descriptive.

Break up your wall of text

Keep your sentences short. Use bulleted lists, headers, images, or gifs to make it easy to skim through.

A Wall of texts is a huge turn-off for Internet readers. But when you create bite-sized content, it will make it easier for the reader to digest.

Use action verbs in your how-to guide

An action verb expresses an action. Examples of action verbs are Act, enter, click, exit, and remove.

If you're not a writer, you can sharpen your writing skills and learn basic rules in creating how-to guides. Action verbs help you make an impact in the mind of the reader and drive action.

Laptop Mag's "How to Update Windows 10" uses a lot of action verbs. It tells the reader what to do immediately to fix the problem. The guide includes words like Select, go, click, and choose.

They are persuasive. Almost telling the reader: You are here now. You wanted this. Now go ahead and do it!

All the stages involved in this process direct the reader on what to do to update their Windows 10.

Use an accessible format

Your how-to guide should be in an easily accessible format. It should be embedded in the application the readers use to access the content.

Do not send them off to YouTube or make them download a PDF file.

The provided links should be for additional information on the same topic. For instance, you can include a YouTube Video showing the same content. With this, you're presenting them with various ways to consume the content.

And do not make them switch to a laptop browser to be able to access it.

Most Internet users do not have the patience to start chasing your content around. They just want to skim through, find the necessary information, and bounce. And you have just a few minutes to capture or lose their attention with the user manuals.

Wix's Blog article on "How to Start a Blog" is in an accessible format." You can view it with your phone browser, desktop, or laptop browser.

You should utilize digital tools such as Splainy to help create user-friendly how-to guides.

Conclusion

How-to guides are essential for sharing knowledge, training new employees, boosting customer satisfaction, and teaching employees about new technology. They also help you to build brand awareness and position your brand as an authority in your industry.

To create an effective how-to guide, you need to conduct research, identify the pain points of your target audience and provide solutions, create a catchy title, include actionable steps and order them, and proofreading the content.

So why not include it in your content strategy?

The good news is that you can capture your process in seconds by installing the Splainy extension in your browser or downloading the desktop app.

Check out Splainy to get started.