Explainer videos can be a huge revenue earner, but only if done well. The obvious question is what separates an ordinary explainer video from a great one? Literally speaking there’s no real 100% hit-the-nail-on-the-head-formula, but there are a few rough guidelines that can be helpful. Here goes.
Where’s that brief?
Shooting in the dark and off the hip is all very good in the Spaghetti Westerns but it helps no one in a business scenario. Think about what you want to say about your product? To whom?And how you want to say it.(Funny, sober, emotional… you get the idea.) Write all of this down. Then think about the objective of the video. (All videos may not be selling.) Put this down as well. Once you’ve cast all this in stone, find an explainer video company and talk to them.
Find the idea.
Once you’ve found a good and affordable video production company, send them the brief. Then get into a blue sky ideation session with their creative team. (This is probably the most fun part of the whole shebang.) Reject nothing initially. At the end, fix on one idea that works best for you. And based on the idea decide what kind of execution you’re looking at. (White-board, 2-D, 3-D… there are many forms of animation you can choose from.)
Get to the point. And fast.
Explainer videos average about 90-120 seconds for a reason: a consumer decides whether or not to stick with an explainer video in the first eight seconds. The best explainer videos make the most of that time by grabbing the viewer’s attention quickly and getting to the point. Even if the viewer doesn’t know exactly what the product does yet, they will at least have an idea of what they’re watching after the first ten seconds.
Catch the eye
Minimalism is in. That’s because consumers don’t have time to sift through complicated material to figure out what you’re trying to say. So please don’t try to create a block buster box-office hit.
But that’s not to say, do a boring film. Like we’ve told you above, there are many formats of animation for business videos. Great eye-catching visuals backed by a short & sweet voiceover should do the trick. The idea is to keep it simple. Not fancy. But not dull either. Explainer videos are ideal web content because they are short and easy to share, and a good way to drive traffic to a site.
In addition to being short, the best explainer videos are easy to follow. The easiest way to make a video easy to follow is to keep the visuals from overwhelming the overall point the video is trying to make.
Hit the ear.
As the name says, an explainer video is meant to, er… um… explain. That being the case, it is extremely essential that the audio is crisp and clear. The narrator’s voice should be clear and easy to understand, not gimmicky, and they shouldn’t speak too quickly.
Note: “The gratis endowment of an equine should, under no circumstances, have to undergo a dental examination” must be substituted with, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. In other words, use easy and simple language.
Besides this use sound effects to emphasize important points and some sort of music to fill up gaps. Even a simple soothing tone can just hold a video together.
K.I.S.S. is the best format for an explainer video.
The point of a product explainer video is that it not only explains the product, it pre-disposers the viewer to buy the product. The explainer video should demonstrate effectively what the product is and how it works so that the viewer can then make the critical decision: to buy, or not to buy?
After a viewer watches the explainer video, can they then turn around and explain what they just saw? If the answer is yes, then the video is a success, they will use the product and most importantly they can encourage other people they know to do the same.
And that is why the “Keep It Simple; Stupid” (K.I.S.S.) rule is great for explainer videos.
If you’d like us at Ripple Animation to help you create explainer videos, email us at v@ripplemedia.co.