Introduction

We all know about explainer videos and how they are vital to digital marketing nowadays. But why? What makes them so unique? 

This article breaks down explainer videos and tells you all its secrets of success. However, when we talk about the impact of explainer videos, we’re automatically considering they are good explainer videos. Not the average, over-the-top explainer videos which are just there for show!

After you’re through with this article, you’ll know the following things:

• What makes an explainer video successful?
• The outline of your explainer video so that it has a structure for maximum engagement.
• And how, after implementing the above things, your business will be benefiting from explainer videos!

The Secret Recipe

1. Simplicity

Simplicity goes a long way, especially in explainer videos. Since the point of the video is to make people understand, keep the explainer video short, sweet, and to the point. The ideal length of an explainer video is around 60- seconds. This is where you can pull a maximum engagement of 77% out of your viewers. After this, the number keeps dropping as the longer a video becomes. 

Your explainer video also shouldn’t be wordy. For a 60-second explainer video, keep the total words around 150, so you’re not info-dumping on the viewer. This will just result in confusing your audience.

2. Script is Everything

CrazyEgg’s founder, Neil Patel, said that the video script drives conversion rate, not the video quality itself. This is huge coming from a digital marketing guru. 

According to this study, people retain 10% of the information they read, as compared to 50% of the information they hear and see. Hence, proving that videos take the definitive edge over articles.

Animations are there to engage the readers, and the script actually converts customers and influences their buying decision.

3. No jargons

As mentioned earlier, keep your explainer videos short and sweet for maximum engagement. The whole point of your explainer video is so that it represents your business and explains your service to the target audience. 

This is best done when you avoid the use of jargon to come off as authoritative and smart. Don’t! You’ll be driving away your customers. 

Remember, you want to educate people, not confuse them further. Nobody wants to know about CPI, CTR, CTA, and KPIs this way. Okay?

4. Pitch to The Right Audience

This is probably one of the most essential ingredients that could make or break your business. You spend thousands of dollars on marketing, right? Would you want to waste that chunk of money on people who don’t care? 

Before starting any marketing campaign, you have to build your buyer persona first. All of the content and strategy that you design will be around it. Hence, consider doing the proper research to know your target audience and then go ahead. 

This way, your explainer video will strike the right chords with the right audience. Not having a target audience is like shooting arrows blindly, hoping it will land at the right target. 

Moreover, by having a clear image of your buyer in your mind, you’ll also be able to talk to them more efficiently.

5. Emotions

The most effective way to remember something is when it has induced emotion in you, correct? Your explainer video should be able to make people feel things, and guess what, you get to control what they feel through your video! 

It’s all down to the way you animate and write the script. To make a lasting impact on your audience, your explainer video needs to trigger emotions!

6. Storytelling

We all love a good story, right? So does your audience. Use the art of storytelling to highlight the problems your audience face and convince them why they need your product or service. 

Appeal to the emotional side of your audience by telling them a story so they can slowly build up their decision.

7. CTA

A CTA is a must in the beginning or at the end of your explainer video. Tell the viewer clearly what you want, so they follow the direction you provide them. This is an excellent way of shifting the traffic to your website or another specific page you want. This way, you’re generating new leads! 

However, make sure the viewer knows exactly what you want them to do. Do you want them to visit your site? Download an ebook? Or Give you a call? 

Memorize these ingredients by heart because they are key to your secret recipe! Watch your explainer video and decide if all of these features are there in it. If there are, then you’ve done an excellent job and got yourself a fantastic explainer video that converts!

Points to keep in mind while creating an explainer video

Before jumping straight to the creating part, you need to plan your explainer video first. 

Ask yourselves the following question before defining the outline of your explainer video: 

1. What do you want to achieve with the explainer video?

Is your plan to create brand awareness? Or do you want to get more leads? Maybe you’ve introduced a new product and want to let your customers know about that. For each of the use cases, you will need a unique explainer video to hit the mark with your audience.

2. Who is your target audience?

Depending on your product or service, decide which niche you want to target. If you have a clear idea about who you’re speaking to, your message can come off as more persuasive.

3. What are the pain points of your audience?

After deciding on your target audience, you can use the knowledge to generate pain points that would affect them. Pain points are critical in your explainer video; without them, your viewers won’t relate to the video. Hence they won’t care and move on to the next product!

4. What video style will you be choosing?

There are a couple of factors when it comes to deciding this. They are- the size of your target audience, type of audience, and type of message you’re trying to convey.

Check out this article for detailed information on this. 

So you read about the features that should be there in an explainer video, and you’ve planned your video too. But how do you go about implementing these? What steps should you follow that you know that you’re going in the right direction rather than wandering aimlessly?

Read on to find out.

The Key Points

1. What’s the problem?

In the planning phase, you must have figured out the pain points of your audience, correct? However, you cannot focus on all the pain points in a simple 1-minute explainer video, especially if the points differ. That would just be too messy. 

So, choose a couple of related pain points that you know your viewers will respond to the most, and create the most common problem around it. This will evoke emotions in your audience and hook them to your video. Make it so that they remember your video! 

Congratulations, you’ve engaged your viewer, now how to keep up with that engagement level? 

2. The solution

After making your audience aware of the problem, it’s now time to show them your solution! You’ve created a problem, not tell them what’s the best way to solve it, i.e., your solution! 

Because your viewer is the most impacted right now, offering them a solution that is unique to others will most likely urge them to at least give your product/service a chance. If you include a CTA here, the chances are that many people are going to sign up because you’ve just impressed them with your solution! 

Before you go about animating it, though, research what your competitors offer, then make it double. Offer your viewers a feature that they haven’t seen yet. 

But don’t worry if it’s impossible to come up with something new. Remember, the presentation is everything! Present your solution in such a way that your audience finds it hard to ignore. 

3. How it works

This is an extension of the previous step. After you’ve presented your solution, go into a little detail about how your product/service works. This can include a quick demo (no longer than 10 seconds), snippets of your product/service so the viewers can get familiar with it, also highlight what makes it stand out from other products in the market. 

Also, show how the features will be benefiting the customers. 

4. The Takeaway

Your conclusion is the last chance you get as the final nail in the coffin in securing a lead, so make it count! Revisit the problem and solution to convince them once more to invest in you. 

Don’t forget to include a CTA at the end! It’s imperative. If your video ends without it, your audience will be lost as to what the next step will be. 

Direct them to do whatever you desire by reflecting it in your CTA. It could be a sign-up form, preorder of your product, or downloading an ebook! This way, you’re directing the traffic to the targeted page, hence fulfilling the purpose of your explainer video! 

If you follow this outline, then you’re automatically telling a story, which is exactly what explainer videos are all about! And remember, it’s all in the presentation, and explainer videos are experts in that, so use it to your advantage. 

You can make a simple thing the most interesting thing that your audience has ever seen- all through the power of presentation and storytelling!

5 Benefits of Explainer Videos

1. Increase Conversion 

By adding an explainer video on your landing page, you’re increasing conversion rates by 80%! This is because the video actually keeps you on the website for longer, and incites enough interest to keep them scrolling and knowing about your company and services! 

Not having a landing page video on your homepage could make it look dry and unappealing, hence driving away customers who don’t have the patience to look through your web copy.

It seems like customers also love explainer videos, as 64% of them buy the product advertised in it!

Did you know that CrazyEgg was able to increase conversion rates by 64% after they embed an explainer video on their homepage? CrazyEgg already generates enough leads, so think about how huge the number would be…

2. Better Google Results 

Isn’t it every blog’s and company’s goal to rank #1 on Google? Explainer videos can help you do that! We already know that explainer videos are highly engaging, so why not use that engagement to keep the users on your website for longer? 

Having a video on your landing page means that users stay on your website for longer, that in turn means lower bounce rates, and guess what? Google uses this metric as an indicator that your website is relevant and efficient! Hence, you slowly rise up the ranks.

If that didn’t convince you, then this will: Having an explainer video on your page can increase your chances of ranking on Google’s first page by 50%!

3. Perfect Pitch

Explainer videos are your business’s representative… more or less. While crafting your video, keep this in mind. Imagine yourself on the receiving end of your video. 

Do you feel like the video tells you about the business, problem, and solution? Do you feel convinced about the product? If you do, then there’s your perfect pitch. 

97% of marketers agree that video has increased user understanding of their product.

Explainer videos deliver your message concisely and clearly while keeping the viewers entertained! Moreover, they’re available anytime, anywhere! What else do you call a perfect pitch?

4. Share Count 

Videos go viral for many reasons. Maybe they have a powerful message, or they tickle the funny bone, or they offer something so unique and mesmerizing that people can’t help but share it.

Explainer videos can do all of these things.

When Dollar Shave Club released its explainer video, they had no idea it would go viral and boost the company’s worth to $1Bn! 

83% of consumers said they would share a branded video if it was good. It makes sense because we all share things that are interesting, right?

When people start sharing your explainer video, it means it has started self-promoting. Make your explainer video interesting enough that it can do that.

5. ROI 

All of the above benefits contribute to one thing: Return on Investment. It’s why you created the explainer videos in the first place. Nobody will spend thousands of dollars for no reason on explainer videos, correct? 

Explainer videos are a marketing tactic, and every marketing tactic needs to prove it’s worth by its ROI. 

78% of marketers say that explainer videos give them a good ROI.

When Dropbox came out with their explainer video, they accumulated $50M in revenue in just 30 days! Even CrazyEgg. Even CrazyEgg bags $21,000 extra revenue every month through their explainer videos!

Conclusion 

Explainer videos have a lot to offer, as you can tell. 99% of businesses who use explainer videos said they would continue to do so because of its benefits. However, do keep in mind that even though explainer videos are a marketing tactic, they need marketing themselves, so it reaches the maximum amount of potential new customers.  

Once your explainer videos is live, track its analytics so you can measure its performance. Use Heatmaps to get insights about which part of the explainer video is getting skipped or replayed. 

This will help you figure out how to make your explainer videos better for the future and which parts interest the viewers the most so you can capitalize on it. Maybe add a CTA there?

Go make a killer explainer video!