Explainer videos are short, concise videos designed to explain an idea or system using animation. Through artwork, any concept can be presented in an engaging way and then easily understood. Political processes, scientific methodology, innovative business models, and everything in between can be brought to life through a well-made explainer video.
Hundreds of thousands of companies have commissioned them over the last decade to help deliver messages in an appealing way. Have you put marketing dollars toward an explainer video? If not, you should. Here are three reasons why.
Video is King
There are business owners out there who think the one effective thing they’re supposed to do to engage with their audience is upload a written blog to their site every so often. This is certainly better than doing nothing. But the fact is that video is THE most consumed type of content. Did you know YouTube gets more visitors in a day than Facebook? Today, video is king. It’s what people prefer. And if all you’re doing is creating written content and nothing else, you’re not doing what’s most effective.
When potential customers are visiting your site for the first time, there needs to be a quick video on your landing page explaining precisely what you want them to know. A 2015 Google poll showed that over half of internet users feel more comfortable with websites that have instructional video content. This is because video content helps to legitimize your company, in addition to effectively delivering your message. By the way, the same study showed that the probability of someone buying on online product goes way up if they watch a video about it first.
Nothing is More Effective
Explainer videos are fantastic at catching attention quickly and retaining it. A Forbes study last year concluding that 4 seconds is all you have to engage someone before they click away. This is why well over half of all sharing on social media is video. Why do explainer videos catch attention so well? Because animation is less predictable and more appealing than live footage which makes it more intriguing from the get-go.
Animated explainer videos also have an incredible charm about them. Using visual thinking and metaphors, topics come to life effortlessly in a fun and engaging way. People love them. Plain and simple.
ROI
But the real reason why you need an explainer video is because of the tremendous ROI. Companies who don’t employ video marketing grow more than 50% slower than those that do. A recent study from Adobe polled a large number of marketing professionals. Over half of them said that video has the best ROI compared to any other type of content they roll out.
Why You Need An Explainer Video – Conclusion
There’s no reason why an explainer video wouldn’t help what you’re trying to accomplish. Especially if what you’re doing involves complicated process or new ideas. If that describes you, contact us and let’s talk.
We’ll Leave You With This
In the early days of Dropbox, their first huge boost came from an explainer video. Within a year of posting it, their revenue increased by over $50 million. Their user count increased by over 10 million. All directly traced to their decision to create and publish an animated explainer video. Sit on that for a while.
We are always producing new explainer videos and I at times I forget to check out our latest merchandise. Well here are some fun new and exciting explainer videos.
The explainer video industry is still going strong and I wanted to update everyone and show how we can make it a little bit better. More and more companies are realizing that people are tired of the same old thing, but we are still missing a couple of key points. Meetings are too long, videos are too complicated, and our delivered messages are not being heard. Why is that? Because we are still trying to be overly sophisticated when simplicity is the key. Blah Blah Blah by Dan Roam says:
“In order to stand out in this crowd, one of us starts talking a little louder and a little faster. That works for a moment, but to compensate, all the rest of us start talking louder and faster, too. Things ratchet up until a new blah-blah-blah equilibrium is reached, at a volume, velocity, and quantity that make it difficult to know what’s worth listening to. And that’s the real danger here: With all our clamoring words, it’s not long before we’re so busy keeping up that we not only stop listening to anyone else-we stop listening to ourselves. Pretty soon we don’t remember what our own idea was-or whether we even had one. All that matters is being heard.”
All of us are trying to communicate a message and do so effectively but we have missed the mark a bit and need to adjust the scopes. But first a quick commercial break. Ydraw creates whiteboard explainer videos and we are actually pretty good. The video below was produced for Oxford Properties. It communicates effectively and delivers a message in 2 minutes. It has been one of my favorites due to the fact that it is simple, well written, has a story, and delivers the message. Check it out.
So what makes a good explainer video? One that is effective, short, simple, and will cut through the noise, change minds and move others to take action. It is not simple, but doable. It all starts with a script and ends with the music selection. You can mess up your video on each phase so you will want to put in the effort all throughout the process. A great script produces a great video so make sure you pay to have it done right or at least take the time to do it right. Heck, if you are desperate, find a video that you like then adjust the script to fit your business.
Story (a simple story with characters, to show your product in action)
Problem (let the audience know how bad their life is without your product. What problems are they facing)
Solution (show how your product can solve the problem)
Call to Action (tell the audience exactly what they need to do to take advantage of your product)
Pitfalls of Scripting
Too Long (No blabbering. Deliver the message and be done. If it takes 10 minutes that is fine)
Too Complicated (at the end of the day products or services provide a solution to a problem. If you can’t identify the problem and solutions in a couple of sentence, go back to the drawing board)
Too boring (Explainer videos should be educational, but at the same time they need to be entertaining)
2. Pictures and Visuals
We all know the power of pictures or at least we did back in kindergarten. I will never forget a picture I drew when I was 5 years old. It was a turtle and I colored it every single color I could fine. To me it was amazing, but my crush Andrea had the nerve to make fun of it. I will never forget that picture; and Andrea if you are reading this you are forgiven and we love you. Some where between childhood and adulthood the pictures stopped and words became our primary tool.
Pictures are a part of thinking that provides us with guidance and direction. It’s the “big picture” that lets us see where we’re going. Pictures aren’t training wheels; pictures are the front wheel.
3. Voice Over
Here’s a secret. Crapy voiceover equals a poor explainer video. Pay the extra money to get a good voiceover. A great place to search for one is on voices.com or you can find someone on fiverr.com for 5 dollars.
4. Music and Sound Effects
Some videos have music others have sound effects. Either one works, but I tend to lean more toward both. Check out the the video below and you will see what I am talking about.
I love innovative commercials and I especially love an innovative explainer video that is fun and likable at the same time. Many say Mitt Romney lost the elections because of his like-ability factor, so do not lose customers over videos that nobody likes. Be fun, be creative, and be likable. Here is a great little video that was created for World B Free. It’s just a guy telling a story and we added some great animation to it. The 76ers were talking about their hero Dr. J
I also love it when corporations decide to go out of their comfort zone. Here is a great commercial created by Mercedes.
This video did not take a huge risk, but it is fun and speaks highly of Mercedes. Most big companies have the hardest time creating great material due to the fact they they have so many checkpoints, regulations, and committees. But when they decide to step out of the box, the results can be amazing.
We all have great product and I know we want to share them with the world, but you want to restrain yourself from talking too much about your amazing product. We like to talk about features, services, and products when nobody really pays any attention to those things. Be likable first and then you will get the attention. Companies like to keep their explainer videos safe and with that comes a loss of innovation, creativity, and likability. Some might disagree with this statement but that is what I have seen and continue to see. Instead of producing something that is exciting we usually end up with something that is boring and nobody pays any attention to. Lets discuss a few things to watch out for and a few ways to improve our videos.
1. Be Likable and Fun
This should be one of the number one requisites when producing any type of material. Check out this VW commercial that was created in 2011. It has 55 million views on YouTube and it does not say a word about VW’s features, looks, or excellent customer service.
This explainer video is likable and brought VW a lot of success. The VW video should give you something to shoot for along with old spice commercials. The idea should be to create a video that the viewers will watch over and over just because they like it.
“But things really got rolling after the début of a Volkswagen commercial featuring a little boy dressed as Darth Vader, who brings a 2012 Passat to life using “The Force.”
How do we do this?
Be creative, think outside the box, do random things, do the unexpected, add music, be optimistic. People like to feel that everything is on the upswing especially with todays crazy media. We are bombarded with so much negativity from the internet, to the radio, to the TV. It is nice to get a break from it all and find a video that is upbeat. The exuberance of optimism as expressed in the song hit, “Oh, what a beautiful morning ” gives exhilaration and increases people’s over all confidence. Make your audience smile and feel good about life. Any product or service that inspires someone becomes their favorite. Never ever create a video that can make an audience feel deflated. I am sure many of you would agree that the world could use a lot more positive, videos. Stay away from cynicism, sarcasm, bashing and pessimism, those things hardly ever win followers.
Explainer VideosBecoming More Popular in Marketing Circles… Don’t Miss the Boat!
If you’re not familiar with explainer videos, they’re short, engaging, online videos that explain and promote a company, product, or service. You will find plenty of examples at Ydraw.
Why Have Explainer Videos Grown in Popularity?
There are no shortage of statistics that show the positive effect video can have on conversion rates, sales, and information retention, but the bottom line is this – if you could learn about something by watching a quick, entertaining video, or read a page of text, which would you choose?
Explainer videos can cut short the time taken to explain about a business and its products. They are a fun way to engage the visitors, who may not always be in a mood to go through the loads of texts available on a website. Being equipped with texts, graphics, sounds and moving images, they can give a movie like effect to a viewer.
According to a recent survey conducted by Video Rascal,
85 percent of people are more likely to buy a product once they see an accompanying explainer video.
Explainer videos help budding business owners keep tally of how many visitors on their sites could become actual customers. Although most businesses manually count sales to see what products are most popular, explainer videos keep track of what product or service potential customers are interested by displaying the number of views on each video.
Text can be tricky since there are so many ways people can interpret what they read. Explainer videos take the guess work out of explaining the usefulness and basic function of a product or service. People gain a better understanding of a product or service once they see and hear someone explain it. An explainer video helps you to connect better with your potential customer by explaining what your business can do for them and why they should choose you over other competing businesses.
Statistically speaking, stale websites don’t do well. Websites that contain endless pages of block text and images rank low in Google search, which means less exposure. This also scares away customers who want to quickly understand a product, and purchase it right then and there. In most cases, the average person takes less than a minute to make a purchasing decision. An explainer video will get their attention immediately.
According to Spork Marketing and several others, websites with videos rank higher in Google universal searches.
