If you’re looking to drive higher conversion rates, engage your audience, or simply start building your brand, then an explainer video is just the trick. To stand out from your competition, however, you need to take it a step further. That’s why you need to consider investing in an animated explainer video or two.
Below, we’ll discuss exactly what the benefits of explainer videos and animation are, and offer some tips on how to make sure your video campaign is a success.
What is an Explainer Video?
An explainer video is exactly what it sounds like. You’re creating a video to explain something to your audience. Usually, you want to talk about one of your products or services, and how it can benefit them. You can, however, use explainer videos to give out any vital information, like a company introduction. The most important thing is that you keep your explainer videos short, sweet, and full of interesting information.
There are lots of benefits to using explainer videos. They’re one of the most effective ways to drive conversions, making them ideal to stick on product or landing pages. Explainer videos are engaging and memorable, perfect for sharing information your audience needs to know. They’re also quite impactful. If you’re trying to introduce a new product or highlight a more complex service, explainer videos are a great option.
Now that we know exactly what explainer videos are and why they’re important, we’ll take a look at why it makes sense to create an animated explainer video.
Why Does Animation Work So Well?
When you think of corporate videos, animation doesn’t usually jump to mind. After all, why would you bother creating a cartoon when you can simply shoot some of your workers? Creating an animated explainer video might be a bit unconventional, but it’s very likely to be the best choice for your business.
Here are some of the benefits animation has over other video styles:
- Good for your budget. Unlike live-action videos, you don’t need to worry about actors, props, or locations. The cost of creating an animated video is surprisingly low, too. In the end, you’ll save a lot of time and money by using animation.
- Doesn’t restrict you. Not having to pay for actors, locations, or props is a good thing, and it means you aren’t held back creatively. Your video can shoot on a tropical island, a snowy mountain, or even on the moon. If you can imagine it, you can film it.
- Make you look good. Shooting a low-quality explainer video is an easy way to make your brand look bad. Animated explainer videos, on the other hands, instantly stand out. It highlights your company and makes you look modern. You’ll develop an aura of expertise, no matter how developed your brand is.
Of course, you’ll only enjoy the benefits of animated explainer videos if they’re high quality. To help you out, here are five tips to make sure your videos are great:
An animated video lets you get as creative as you want, take advantage!
Tip #1: Tell a Story
You want to captivate your audience, and that means telling them a complete story. Your video needs to have a hook at the beginning, hearty information to chew on in the middle, and a clear call-to-action at the end. Think of your video’s script as a traditional three-act play and you’ll be well on your way to telling a story and getting your message across.
Tip #2: Get Creative
One thing is true about everybody on the Internet – they’re looking to be entertained. Go out of your way to add a little something extra to your video. Whether it’s a bit of personality, some humor, or just a twist ending, you need to give your audience a bit of entertainment. One of the biggest advantages of animation is that you aren’t held back, so not getting creative is a wasted opportunity.
Tip #3: Don’t Go Overboard
It’s natural to want to stuff your video with as much juicy content and information as possible, but you don’t want to give your audience too much of a good thing. If your video is too long, many people will stop watching in the middle or never even give it a chance in the first place. If there’s too much information, they’ll never be able to process it all.
Ideally, your video will be exactly long enough to provide your most important information. As a general rule of thumb, though, you want to keep it as short as possible. Under one minute is ideal, although anything under two minutes is generally acceptable. If you have content longer than that, you’ll want to consider splitting it up into more than one video, or using shorter videos to drive traffic to your longer ones.
Tip #4: Nobody Cares About Features
People don’t watch an explainer video to see technical specifications. They want to know how you can solve their problems. Figure out exactly who your audience is, and talk about the benefits that you’re offering them. Everything else can wait.
Don’t bore your audience with features, excite them with benefits!
Tip #5: Repurpose Your Videos
One of the biggest problems that a typical explainer video faces is how quickly it becomes obsolete. A single change in your product or services can render your whole video as useless. Creating some new footage and splicing it in seamlessly is impossible.
With animated videos, it’s a bit different. You can edit and tweak them much easier, allowing you to update old videos instead of constantly creating new ones. Make sure your audience always has the best information at their fingertips by constantly updating and repurposing your existing explainer videos.
With these handy tips at your disposal, you shouldn’t have any problems creating terrific video content. If you want some extra help, however, make sure to reach out to us here at Blue Wave Marketing. We have decades of experience helping our client’s engage with their audience in new and exciting ways, like animated explainer videos.
