Explainer video production makes it simple to explain a complex message. Explainer videos themselves are especially ideal for businesses that have a difficult time explaining product features and services. When created and used correctly, explainer videos increase brand visibility, enhance lead generation, and ultimately, result in higher sales. They can even improve your bottom line by reducing the money you spend on PPC ads.
Other important stats to know about explainer videos include:
- 81% go on to buy a product or service after watching an explainer video.
- 76% of marketers agree video marketing increases their sales.
- 47% say video decreases support queries.
Consumers buy products because they believe it will meet their needs. You can have a product that is far superior to your competitors’, but your audience must understand the how and why behind your brand. Why should they purchase from you instead of a competitor? If a competitor’s solution is more affordable, how does yours provide more value? How can your product better meet the needs of the customer?
Explainer videos explain the how and why. They provide a visual format for expressing a message. Statistics show 85% of consumers wish brands would deliver more content through video marketing. By 2021, content like explainer video animations will account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic.
Explainer videos are of particular importance for you to be looking out for when hiring a B2B marketing agency, as they’re crucial marketing tools to help close big time deals.
Simplifying Your Message With Animated Explainer Videos
No matter how good of a copywriter you have to create product descriptions and blog posts, written content only goes so far. And try as you may, sometimes it’s nearly impossible to come up with a descriptive sentence that truly explains the message you are trying to communicate. This becomes an even bigger issue when you’re attempting to explain a new idea or concept.
What Are Explainer Videos?
Explainer videos serve as a lifeline to difficult-to-understand written content. They bring the words alive and help the viewer understand exactly what you’re showing and telling.
Download our Beginner’s Guide to Explainer Videos for an even closer look at using this video content marketing method.
There has been much debate on the exact percentage of communication that is nonverbal.** The truth of the matter, however, is that nonverbal communication is at the heart of effective communication. With video, the viewer gets to see all aspects of nonverbal communication being used to tell a story.
Explainer videos go a step beyond traditional video marketing by providing the audience with a valuable lesson. Your goal of the video determines its length, but it’s important to note that you have only 10 seconds to capture the viewer’s attention. After 10 seconds, viewers will click out of the video if they don’t find it engaging.
How to Use Explainer Videos in Your Video Marketing Strategy
Ideally, you’ll want to keep it as short as possible. For example: Company A has a 90-second explainer video on “3 ways to carefully curate product descriptions.” Company B has a 3-minute explainer video on the same topic. Because viewers treasure their time, they are going to pick the 90-second video over the 3-minute one.
An animated explainer video allows you to visually showcase a problem. As the viewers are watching, they will think to themselves, “hey, that’s the same problem I’m dealing with.” This captures their attention. It entices them to keep watching to learn how to fix the problem. Not only are they hearing or reading how to fix the problem, but they get to watch animated video characters acting out the solution. They will relate with those characters and think, “I really need to purchase this product now so that I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
Visual aspects in an explainer video evoke emotion and create a strong connection with the audience. Studies show purchasing decisions are largely fueled by human emotion, particularly B2B purchases.*** This means your marketing strategy must integrate tactics and strategies that directly build an emotional connection with your target audience. To do this, you must first create and study your buyer personas. This allows you to pinpoint the unique wants and needs of your customers. From there, you can create explainer videos that appeal to those wants and needs on an emotional basis.
Modern emotions are derived from four core feelings: Happy, sad, surprised/afraid, and angry. Explainer videos give you the opportunity to connect with your audience by evoking any of those feelings. You can present a rational argument in a very easy-to-understand, visual format that leads to your desired effect. This greatly improves the chances of the viewer following your call-to-action.
How to Structure Your Explainer Videos
A lot of brands using explainer videos for marketing make the mistake of only showcasing a product’s features and benefits. They fail to EXPLAIN how those elements actually improve the customer’s life and serve as a solution to a pain point.
In your explainer videos, you must explain a feature/solution, show how it benefits the customer, and then show what those features and benefits result in. For example: A company is selling accounting automation software. The three-part structure would look like the following:
- Feature: Invoice automation
- Benefit: Reduce human error
- Which means: Accounting department is more productive because staff doesn’t have to focus on correcting errors. Invoice processing costs are also reduced and invoice closing times are increased.
Outlining pain points is another way explainer videos simplify a message. You’ll not only be able to show people what it is that your brand does but also how you can remove a pain point the audience may or may not know they struggle with. Even better, instead of having to share the same message with different people, again and again, the explainer video can serve as a go-to resource each time someone comes into contact with your brand. You don’t even have to be there for them to watch it. When partnering with a reputable and knowledgeable explainer video partner, you can use the video in various aspects of your online marketing, including social media, your website, through email marketing, and more.
Another notable way explainer videos simplify communicating a marketing message is by getting it in front of its intended audience. Google has taken note to the fact that consumers prefer content in a short video format. When paired with targeted keywords and an SEO optimized thumbnail, an explainer video is more likely to rank you on the first page of Google than a text-based only piece of content, which is vital because this page receives 95% of all internet traffic.**** More so, being ranked on the first page of Google gives your brand credibility as being a company that puts forth effort in getting to know its customers and then refines its digital marketing strategy accordingly.
Ways to Ensure an Explainer Video Is Simplifying Your Message
Creating an effective explainer video requires incorporating various elements. Without each of them, your audience may become confused. This is why it’s important to partner with an explainer video creation company that has extensive experience in creating videos that increase conversion rates.
The first crucial element is a voice-over actor. This adds a personal touch to the video, especially when it’s a voice the audience can relate to. If the voice over sounds approachable, the audience will likely continue watching, which, of course, is paramount to communicating your message.
An explainer video creation company can assess your goals and marketing message to determine who is best for doing the voice over. Take for example you are selling a marketing tool that stay-at-home mothers can use to sell items on Etsy. Using a female voice would work best. If you are selling a medical service to men, a male doctor’s voice will likely work better. It all depends on your goals and the precise audience you are targeting. Also of importance is to consider whether there are any cultural or language barriers present. If so, a voice-over actor who can break through these barriers will be best suited.
The next element that an effective explainer video will have is animation combined with graphics. These elements provide visual stimulation and make it simple to summarize your points, thus simplifying the verbal message.
Explainer videos give you the opportunity to appeal to your audience according to different learning styles. While one person may prefer reading text more than listening to or watching a video, statistics show the majority of people prefer video content. The great thing about an explainer video is you can attach a transcript to it or allow a person to watch it with subtitles. You are literally appealing to every learning style in a single format.
There are many ideas and concepts that simply can’t be explained in words. Video gives you the chance to show stats, ideas, and concepts using animations and graphics. So, while you may not be able to capture a statistic on camera, you can present it to your audience in a visual format with an animated explainer video.
The last element that is necessary for creating an effective explainer video is the use of a storyboard. This storyboard is used throughout all parts of the video creation process, allowing the creator to make adjustments as necessary. More importantly, by using the storyboard, it ensures the final product is going to tell a story, which is extremely important for making sure the audience can easily follow your message.
How Long Should an Explainer Video Be?
Explainer videos allow you to convey a message in only a few seconds that is far more detailed than what you can explain in a lengthy article that your audience may or may not read. The goal is to explain a message as thoroughly as possible in as little time as possible that moves the audience to follow your call-to-action. Ideally, it will be 90 seconds or shorter.
It’s usually best to start out by outlining a problem you know the audience is facing. Let’s take you for example. You know your brand needs to use explainer videos but you don’t know if you have the time or resources to create them. A short script for an effective explainer video that will appeal to you will look something like the following:
“Mark has been doing everything he can to get his brand to rank on the first page of Google. He’s tried optimizing his site’s current content with SEO tactics and while he’s seen some improvement in site traffic, it’s still lacking when compared to his competitors. One thing he has noticed is almost all of his competitors on the first page of Google are using explainer videos on social media and on their websites. Mark has decided he wants to create an explainer video too but he doesn’t know how. After partnering with Video Creation Company, Mark has been able to learn about the video creation process and how it impacts his site’s ranking. More importantly, his site now ranks first for a variety of keywords and Mark doesn’t have to lift a finger. Video Creation Company does all of the work for him without breaking his budget.”
The message above is short, to the point, and clearly outlines a struggle, the services provided by the featured brand, and how they benefit the target audience.
Simplify Your Message With Explainer Videos
Explainer videos increase conversion rates, build branding, have a strong ROI, save on ads, achieve optimal brand recall, and help you rank high on Google.
There’s no denying that creating effective explainer videos requires creativity. If you don’t have experience in developing scripts, storyboards, vocals, animations, graphics, and sound, the video creation process can be overwhelming. But all of these elements are key to creating an explainer video that simplifies your message instead of complicating it.
You’re not going to create an explainer video that conveys every message you’re wanting to communicate. Instead, a single video for each message is needed. As your site starts becoming filled with explainer videos, you’re not only going to enjoy higher search engine rankings, but you’re also going to deliver a better user experience.
Creating the videos is time-consuming and requires a vast number of resources, like special software. Partnering with an explainer video creation company is an excellent way to achieve a strong ROI on your explainer video investment.
Up Your Conversions with an Explainer Video Today
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Sources
* https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-video-marketing-new-data
** http://www.nonverbalgroup.com/2011/08/how-much-of-communication-is-really-nonverbal
*** https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2014/05/07/how-personal-emotions-fuel-b2b-purchases/
**** https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/06/11/best-ways-to-improve-your-seo-and-why-you-need-to-do-it/#2d28924c5948
