Categorized as Animated Explainer Video

Explainer Video 101: What You Should Know

explainer video
by Andre Oentoro Originally published   ·  Updated 

Explainer videos are undisputedly an excellent marketing strategy to promote your business, especially on the internet. Given the statistic that over 82% of today’s internet traffic is video, incorporating this strategy will significantly impact your products’ promotion. 

Since companies have to manage online campaigns carefully, choosing the right content to hook your audience can be challenging. Not to mention that you have to compete with others in giving the best impression even at first glance. 

Thus, it becomes essential to select the best content strategy to acquire potential customers.

In this case, explainer videos are ideal in helping businesses achieve their goals. The video allows you to present useful information while also being entertaining so that people can enjoy the message thoroughly. 

What Is An Explainer Video?

An explainer video is a highly-compelling content that focuses on showcasing a brand’s or organization’s values through engaging stories and clear narration. 

The short-lengthed video often includes animation or live-action to best narrate the whole information. 

Animated videos are great to use for delivering complicated information as they can easily break down into bite-sized messages. The animation also offers different approaches as it’s often perceived as fun and entertaining pieces. 

Companies can incorporate this style when youthful states are needed or when you want to convey in a non-serious approach.

On the other hand, live-action is best to use when you want to humanize your brand in public. Sometimes, even having 3D characters won’t address your message effectively, especially when you need to show viewers the appearance of your tangible product in real life. 

So, if you want to create physical product videos or simply want to put a human face to your brand, opting for a live-action style would be a better choice.

Here is an example of animated explainer video:

Benefits of Explainer Video For Business

There are many key advantages to having explainer videos in your online campaign. However, you’ll get to find out the four best benefits you can get from using the video. 

1. Raise Awareness

Internet users prefer video content when receiving and looking for information. This is supported by the fact that YouTube becomes the second-largest search engine worldwide, meaning that many people browse from this platform. 

The reason why video has become one of the most favorable formats is that it gives a quick explanation with visual presentation. Therefore, it’s easier for the viewer to understand the message without spending hours just to read a plain-long article.

It means that explainer video provides you a great way to expand your reach and boost your brand awareness. The video can easily be found and shared through different social networks, resulting in getting known by many. Not to mention that the short-form helps it spread and understand quickly. 

2. Boost SEO Rank

Explainer videos can help you improve your rank on the search engine. When you include the video on your site, you allow Google crawlers to detect relevant content that matches users’ keywords. The more relevant your video is, the more likely it’s getting noticed.

Moreover, visitors will stay longer on your site when you offer a quick and simple explanation through a video. Explainer videos are great to introduce who you are and showcase your company in an engaging manner. Since videos are much more enjoyable to digest, viewers will tend to spend more time on a website that has a video on it.

The longer visitors stay on your page, the higher opportunity for you to land on the first page of the Google search engine. That’s because durations determine how helpful your site is for visitors. When visitors land on the right page, they won’t bother to stay longer to receive more information about the brand. 

3. Drive More Traffic

When you finally land on the top search engine result, your chance of getting more traffic is higher. Explainer videos can help you drive more visitors as they provide relevant information to what they’re looking for. 

That being said, make sure to upload your videos on YouTube as it helps you increase your SEO rank. The reason is that Google embedded YouTube videos on its search result whenever users type a certain keyword. You’ll get more clicks eventually and increase your site rank. 

Not to mention that each explainer video is equipped with call-to-action (CTA) to lead viewers to take the desired action, such as visiting the web page. When you put explainer videos on social media, where people are practically online at all times, you have a bigger chance to receive a surge of traffic from the social platforms.

4. Increase Conversion Rates

The utmost benefit you can get from having explainer videos is winning more conversions. As mentioned above, every explainer video has a call-to-action (CTA) to help viewers take action. The CTA can lead the audience to sign up for the program, visit your site, as well as provide a copy to lure them into purchasing your product.  

Unlike other videos, this marketing tactic can significantly improve campaign performance as it offers engaging information that entices people to connect with your brand immediately. As a result, you’ll receive higher conversion rates even from a single video. 

How to Create Explainer Videos

Making explainer videos would need ample expertise to deal with the production process. Although leaving it to the professional to take care of the video is the best option so far, here, you’ll understand what steps need to be done when creating an explainer video.  

1. Write the Script

First of all, you need to brainstorm ideas and prepare video scripts. Since high-converting explainer videos won’t take more than 2 minutes long, it’s essential to make your script short but fruitful.  

A good video script should concisely address the pain points that the audience goes through. It must deliver messages in the right tone that viewers can easily comprehend. 

Moreover, make sure to communicate with viewers through a clear step that they can follow later on.

2. Make A Storyboard

A storyboard is a crucial step to visualize how your final video will look like. It isn’t just drawing and such; it transfers the storyline that you previously wrote into a graphical presentation. 

With a storyboard, you can point out the flaws from your narration and match-making with the animation.

You can make some improvement when you present it in a visual sequence. For example, you can place the right element for one narration or delete trivial parts that only make your video longer. You can also modify technical details, such as character, background, and text to fit your storyline.

3. Collect Your Resources

Whether you’re working on animated or live-action explainer videos, having your resources set is vital. Choosing an indoor or outdoor studio will affect your production process. 

If you’re filming a live action one, pay attention to how you use the lighting source and the location to shoot. It can be challenging if you don’t prepare beforehand.  

Crafting the animation won’t be much different as you have to prepare the studio and software for that purpose. An animated video often takes a longer time to make, as a simple edit can greatly change the whole concept.

4. Shoot and Edit Your Video

It’s the due day when you realize all the monthly preparation. Shooting videos is one, and editing is another. 

Often, the shooting is done relatively at a shorter time than the editing process. In this stage, you may add a voiceover to complement the narration. 

You might as well add background music and sound effects to hook your audience in an instant. Besides, you can practically modify clips with some animation or make an image collage. 

5. Host Your Video

Lastly, all you need to do is post your explainer video on your site and social media. 

Make sure to add a keyword-based title and description on each post to help you with the video SEO. 

Share your videos to other platforms — avoid relying heavily on YouTube since there are other robust video hosting sites that can bring your explainer videos the limelight it deserves. Also, don’t forget to engage with your viewers through every comment section.

In addition, you need to check the explainer video performance by looking at the metric. You’ll get valuable insight from the campaign, and you can directly change your posting strategy to achieve your marketing goals.

Takeaway

An explainer video is great in attracting attention. Thanks to its engaging scenario, people can develop their interests even in a short time. Incorporating this video content can benefit brands, especially to gain a new audience and increase conversion rates. 

The video is excellent for conveying even complex messages in a fun, concise manner. As a result, viewers can quickly understand the context of your campaign.

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About the Author

Natasha Rei is the Digital Marketing Manager of Explainerd, an explainer video production agency. She ensures strategic goals are met by directing online and social media campaigns.

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