Explainer videos and why every business needs one
Do you find it irritating when your soap dish is full of slimy soap water, or your pen won’t write smoothly, or your pizza gets soggy in the microwave?
Consumers have problems that bother us and slow us down. We’re always looking for solutions to make our lives easier and more efficient, from the little household irritations that all those “Made for TV” products solve, to more complicated things like how to manage all the moving parts of a business with one customer relations management system (CRM).
What is an explainer video?
Panda character in an explainer video helping a customer on the phone.
Explainer videos tell people what your business does, and more specifically what problems your business solves. They use a simple and effective problem-solution storyline to engage the viewer and to inform them of how your product, idea, or service can help make their lives better.
Most explainers are for marketing purposes, used to demonstrate the benefits of your product or service in order to boost your sales and engagement. These corporate explainers generally last between 45 seconds to two minutes and capture the viewers’ attention through the use of animation and lots of short, snappy imagery.
Not all explainers are animated explainers, though. There’s also the live-action explainer that uses a combination of interviews, voice over, and footage showing the product, idea, or service being created or used. Here’s an example of a corporate explainer video I narrated for Ball SB, a global horticultural company:
There’s also the infographic explainer that puts together graphs and text to explain an idea. Finally, there’s the popular whiteboard explainer, where an animated hand quickly draws static images in a white space as voice over narration tells the story. Whiteboard explainer videos are engaging because the story unfolds as it’s being illustrated.
Benefits of utilizing explainer video marketing for your business
You know the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words?” Well, if that’s the case, then it’s entirely possible one minute of video content is worth over a million words!
With a video, you have the opportunity to engage viewers through more of their senses, by using imagery, text, voice over, music, snappy transitions and other effects.
Here are three ways an explainer video can help your business:
Video marketing strengthens your brand and showcases your corporate culture.
The fonts, colors, and images associated with your brand should extend to your explainer video. Paint a picture of your brand in your choice of text and imagery. Tell the story of your brand not just visually, but aurally in terms of your music and narration.
Similarly, when it comes to your corporate culture, use the explainer to convey the feeling you’re going for. Are you a fun start-up with lots of young talent working remotely from all over the world? Are you a long-standing company with 50 years of service in the industry and people who’ve worked there for their entire careers? Consider your demographic and company persona, and then reflect that in your explainer video.
2. More viewers will engage with a marketing video, and they’ll remember it better.
Let’s face it, most of us would rather have someone tell us about a thing than read about it. Plus, viewers are more likely to share an amusing or interesting video than a link to an article. When you incorporate the style and tone of your brand into your explainer video, your viewers will remember your brand, and that translates to more sales.
3. Explainer video marketing boosts your site’s SEO
Explainer videos, especially animated explainer videos, have a high level of staying power. Unlike other types of video marketing content, people generally watch most, if not all, of an explainer video. It’s probably because explainer video marketing is all about crafting a quick, concise, relatable story, and we are all suckers for stories.
Since SEO is, in part, based on how long people engage with your content, that’s around two whole minutes of engagement per person that you’re getting credit for! In addition, explainer video marketing has been shown to increase click- through rates, another boost for your SEO. For example, a potential customer might view your explainer on social media, prompting them to then click on a link to your business website. Or maybe they view the explainer on your website and then click to a different page to learn more about your company. The point is, the longer you can keep them occupied with learning about your business, the better.
To learn more about explainer video marketing, check out my other blogs on the formula of an explainer video and how to choose the right voice for your explainer.
Contact me at Vanessa@VanessaJonesVoices.com for an explainer video audition or for help with copywriting.