Explainer video rocks – well, at least the good ones do. These quick little snippets are like a frenzy of information, packed into a seemly simple little package. Done right, they can be wonders when it comes to boosting conversion rates, driving audience engagement, and building your brand.
But that’s the thing – making a great explainer video, one that’s clean, straightforward, and entertaining enough to break through the constant online noise is anything but simple. That’s not to say it’s impossible, but there’s a lot more to creating explainer videos than simply flicking on your cell phone camera and playing movie director (Of course you could, but seriously, who’d want to watch that?). CEO of ExplainerVideo24, Oskar Majzner says:
“Promotion videos are growing in popularity more and more because they offer an opportunity for you to connect your customers in a direct way to your company, products, and services. Time is valuable to your customers, and most often they don’t want to waste much of it reading through the complex and lengthy text to understand a product or service.”
Here’s what you need to know about creating your own engaging, high-conversion explainer video:
Start With the Script
Let’s face it, nobody wants to read some long-winded copy describing your start-up, and they sure don’t want to listen to you, or someone else, read that same long-winded copy to them either.
The average Internet user either tunes in or clicks away from a video in 8 seconds or less – that means you’ve got about that much time to convince your audience they should stick around and watch your entire video.
Aim for 150-300 words when writing your script – that should take up about 2-3 minutes of video, which is right on target for the ideal length of an explainer video.
Focus on addressing a problem your audience might have, and then flip into telling them why you, your business, or your brand has the solution. Highlight pain points and benefits, and then create a quick call-to-action at the end of the piece.
Choose a Type
It’s cheaper and easier than ever to create animation these days, but that doesn’t mean you should automatically default to an animated explainer video – it all depends on your goals and your target audience.
If your business is selling an actual physical product, a live action video complete with real people (think old-school television ads) can be the best option, while a screencast with voice-over is an excellent way to showcase software or an app. Animation and whiteboards are popular, and when done well can be a great way to integrate high-level concepts through charts, graphs, and other static visuals.
Don’t Cheap Out on the Audio
It’s an easy mistake to make – you spend hours stressing over the perfect script, focus on amazing visuals, and then you drop the ball with the audio quality.
Nothing will turn your audience away faster than the crappy sound on your explainer video, so if you do have a budget available for your project, now’s the time to spend it on some decent audio recording equipment, or a professional voice-over artist.
Remember to add in some music as well during the intro and conclusion to serve as a clue to your audience that the show’s about to start, and if it fits, use subtle music throughout the video as well.
Get Help
It’s ok to admit you need help with your explainer video – in fact; it’s a splendid idea to take advantage of one of the many online services that make it easy for complete newbies to achieve great results in under an hour, complete with animation, soundtracks, pre-made characters, and backgrounds.
There are also tons of services available that will take the reins and create an entirely unique explainer video for you, which is worth considering if you’ve got the funds to hire a professional explainer video production company.
Final Words
Using explainer videos can help your business reap big in the business arena even in the initial stages and for it to achieve desired results; you need to consider each of these aspects. Once implemented, you will realize more conversions within a shorter period, compared to what is the case of other options of attaining this same goal.
