7 Things To Know About Explainer Videos
An explainer video can be a powerful element of your marketing. These short-form videos are most often used as a way to highlight products, services, or a business-related idea in a way that’s both concise and compelling. These videos might be hosted on a business’s landing pages, or they could be featured on their site homepage. Explainers might also be used to advertise on social media.
1. What They Are
Explainer videos are brief pieces of video content used for marketing. These videos typically include a combination of audio and visual elements. You can provide a summary of what a product or service can do. Explainer videos might be described as providing a bird’s eye view of what you offer, and these videos can also demonstrate succinctly how you can resolve customer pain points.
A good explainer video will not only be concise but will be very focused on a particular purpose. That purpose is to convey the value of a product or service in the shortest possible amount of time. The explainer style is meant to grab attention quickly, so they should have a high production value and include a clear call-to-action.
2. Types Of Explainer Videos
There are a few common types of explainer videos, which are categorized primarily based on the format they use to tell a story.
Animation is one such type. Animations are good for explaining abstract ideas and for creative storytelling. Animation is versatile, and they’re ideal for explaining software or services.
Live-action explainers can help create a connection with the viewer, and you should use someone who’s relatable.
A screencast video can show something in action—usually software. Screencast explainers are a good way to give someone a view of what a product will look like before they try it or buy it.
Then the fourth type of explainer video is a whiteboard drawing. A whiteboard drawing is a way to break down and communicate a larger topic into smaller parts. In the end, you can show everything in context.
Other ways to categorize explainer videos can include whether they’re for internal or external use. While it’s less common, they can be used for training and recruitment and internal communication as well as marketing.
Some businesses use them to tell more about who they are, such as their values and mission.
We can also break down explainer videos into these categories:
• Benefits videos to cover a higher level of information about a product or service
• A how-to video
• Testimonials geared toward building trust and credibility
• More detailed demo videos
• FAQ videos
3. Where To Feature An Explainer Video
You can feature explainer videos on a wide range of platforms, so you can improve your ROI on the cost of making one.
First, social media is an excellent place to showcase an explainer. You can use these snappy videos to grab attention, and if you need to, you can trim them or repurpose them depending on the platform you’re going to post them on. If you answer questions or introduce people on social media to your brand with your explainer videos, you can potentially move them along your sales funnel.
You can post explainers on your website so that anyone visiting will be able to figure out quickly what your brand is about. You can think about these videos as an elevator pitch for your brand.
Your homepage is the perfect position on your website, so more eyes are going to see your explainer.
If you add explainers to your emails, you can increase the likelihood of people seeing what you have to say. In emails, feature testimonials and videos that explain particular features of a larger product or service can work well in the format.
You can also use your explainer videos in more traditional settings, such as trade shows and similar events. You can keep them on a side screen playing on a loop, which will help you maximize your reach if you are at an event.
4. The Elements Of An Explainer Video
If you’re going to create a good explainer, the elements it should include are:
• Your script. This is the heart of your video, and ideally in, this type of video lasts for around 90 seconds. You want to focus your script on the pain points of the ideal audience you’re targeting, and you want to make sure that you’re positioning yourself as the solution to the problem.
• Graphics. These should, again, take your target audience into consideration. You want age and culturally-appropriate graphics that are going to resonate immediately with your targeted audience.
• A voice-over. The voice you choose needs to reflect your brand and overall tone.
• Music. Use music to evoke emotions from the people watching your video.
• Animation style. Your animation should be easy to understand, but it should reflect, again, your brand tone.
5. Know Your Audience
You have seen this fact touched on briefly above, and it’s essential that you have a full understanding of your target audience. You need to make a video that’s both engaging and informative, and to do so, you need to understand your target audience and how and what they’re going to want to learn.
You may have to do market research to figure this out, or you can use things like your existing data from your social media and website.
6. Be Entertaining
It is not easy to create an explainer video that’s entertaining, but you want to set yourself apart. You need to engage your audience. You can use this as an opportunity to be bold or a little unusual. If you can swing it and you’re comfortable doing so, humor can also work well in an explainer.
7. Be Consistent
Finally, you have to stay consistent in all aspects of your branding, and an explainer video isn’t an exception. If your brand constantly seems to change, it is frustrating and confusing for your targeted audience.
In explainer videos, your brand might be consistent in terms of your colors, the voice you use, and your tone.
If you work with a professional video production agency, they can help you keep that sense of consistency across everything you make.
