How to Make a Killer Explainer Video7 min read

how to create an explainer video

Businesses and marketers alike are fast realizing the power of explainer videos in retaining the attention and focus of both prospective and current customers. Increasing your customer‘s attention means a higher conversion rate.

If you’re in the 53% who has been depending on blogs and conventional marketing you’re surely on your way to losing a big chunk of your market share. At worst, you can just to prepare to close shop and do something else. Why? Simply because explainer videos are out-performing blogs; these videos are much resonating better with the respective target audiences across the globe.

Don’t believe us? Video Marketing statistics in 2019.

Now enterprises and their online marketers are not just competing at the product and content level rather they are now competing on a new front – how good their respective explainer videos are.

In case you are new to this concept, an explainer video is a brief but highly informative, fun-filled and engaging video that explains your company, a service, a product or a concept related to your brand. Ignoring the quality of your explainer video is akin to surrendering your business to competition. A killer video that attracts and holds the attention of its audience long enough for the audience to get the message and make a decision is one of the most powerful marketing tools today.

So a critical question now is how do you make a killer explainer video?

Let’s look at what you need, as well as what you should be careful with as you make this all-important video.

camera equipment to record an explainer video

How to Make a Killer Explainer Video

To achieve this objective you have to follow step-by-step summarized below.

Step 1: Write a Killer script

This script is actually the heart of the video. No matter how good your video is it can’t succeed as it should if it has a weak explainer video script. Such a script will only sabotage your video and make it boring or even confusing to the audience. To write a killer explainer script is not rocket science, neither is it a walk in the park. What are the do’s here?

Keep the explainer script short

Yes, you must keep the explainer script short. Put your message across in the first 30 seconds. Why? People don’t have all the time to sit back and watch as you give a lengthy tutorial. That, as we noted earlier is one of the major problems with blogs. People just don’t have that much time to go through the blog with a tooth-comb. If the video takes too long these people will simply lose interest and move on to the next exciting activity.

Step 2: Choose an animation style

One great thing about animations is their versatility. With animations, no idea is too far-fetched. As long as you can articulate your idea you can easily have it animated. And by the way, another great thing about animations is that they are usually easier and less expensive to produce than real-life videos.

There’re several animation styles you can select from depending on the level of complexity and the message you want to pass across. Whiteboard, screencast, 2D animation, 3D animation, typography, motion graphics, stop motion are popular choices for explainer videos.

Animation Vs. Whiteboard Videos: When to Use Which?

When choosing the right animation style for your explainer video consider the following factors:

  •   The industry standards
  •   The complexity of your topic
  •   What your key message is

Step 3: Record your voice over

Next we record a voice over using our killer explainer video script. An important part of making your video deliver your message and connect with your audience.

Imagine a marketing clip for a women’s beauty product done using a deep, aggressive man’s voice. It’s hard to gain trust with your viewers if it doesn’t seem natural or “fit”.  Here’s our guide on how to choose the right voice over for your video.

microphone to record voice over

Speak directly to the audience

Any time you think of an explainer video clip you certainly have a specific target audience in mind. So avoid generalizations since this will lead to ambiguity and confusion among the viewers. To get this right why not carry out a survey or do some research to find out what your specific audience is really yearning for.

Find the right tone

Just like in everyday conversation the tone of voice used in explainer video matters a lot. Remember your brand has its own consistent voice which should reflect in the killer video you are producing. This tone depends on a number of critical variables. These include:

Your Brand

The killer video you want to produce must reflect your brand’s personality. 89% of B2B marketers say brand awareness is the most important goal, followed by sales and lead generation. So how do you want your brand to be perceived? For instance, you might want it to be perceived as playful, warm, friendly, formal, scientific, etc.  What you need to do here is to determine the attributes you associate your brand with and find a tone that reflects just that.

Your audience

Like we mentioned earlier, your voice over speaks directly to your target audience. Of course, audiences are as diverse as are the products and services available in the market. Understanding the nature and demographic characteristics of your audience is crucial if you have to come up with the right tone of voice.

Use humor wisely

True, a killer explainer video has to be funny and witty. This not only helps draw people’s attention to the video but also makes the message more memorable to the audience. But remember, you’ve not joined the entertainment industry. So be cautious not to lose your message in the humor. Who wants customers to remember the humor but forget what it was all about?

On the same note, humor is relative. What might be humorous to a certain online audience might be offensive and even disgusting to another. The laundry detergent advertisement by a Chinese firm in 2016 is a classic example of the kind of damage misplaced humor can have on your brand and reputation across the globe.

So be careful and use humor very, very wisely.

Benefits, not Features

Many of the explainer videos making rounds on the internet miss this otherwise important point. They give their audience a repertoire of features of whatever product or service they are marketing. This is simply the wrong approach. Why? Granted, your product has great features but is the viewer really interested in knowing the complete list of these features? Not really.

What resonates with the audience is how they are going to benefit from these features. Why say your vacuum cleaner has a 20 feet hose pipe and is equipped with HEPA filters? That’s a lot of gibberish to the audience. Instead, why not just tell them your vacuum cleaner saves them time and energy since they can use it to vacuum-clean up to 20 feet away without having to move the cleaner?

Tell a story

People love stories. That’s why it’s far much easier to remember a good story than a good statistics repeated over and over again. A good story works wonders when it comes to making things easier for the listener to understand and relate with. Your killer explainer video should tell your company and (or) brand story in an easy, fun and relatable manner.

Don’t forget that there are two aspects that go into making a great script: the story itself and how you actually tell the story. The story has to be clear and directly related to the objective of the video. It should catch the attention of the viewer and answer questions that you know the audience is seeking answers to. In short, the story has to be valid and reliable and most importantly it has to add value to the viewer by addressing their concerns.

Remember that you have utmost 90 seconds to pass the entire killer message through this video. So you need to be highly creative to blend the story with the rest of this short audio-visual aid.

With these brief but insightful tips on how to make a killer explainer video, you are now on the right track to beat your competitors hands down. Yes, now you can easily get a higher number of people paying attention to your compelling online message. This way you‘ll increase you online market share and reap the accruing benefits.

If you would like to speak to an explainer video expert for more information then feel free to contact us.

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