Explainer Video for Business: Everything You Need to Know
It is already an established fact that videos are now an extremely beneficial aspect of the marketing strategy of any business. There are a number of different types of videos you can produce for your marketing and outreach campaigns, and the explainer video is on the top of that list, as one of the most effective types.
In this article, we’ll take a brief look into everything you need to know about explainer videos: what are explainer videos, what types of explainer videos are there, tips on how to create a perfect explainer video, etc. Stay with us!
Table of Contents
What is an explainer video?
Why does your business need an explainer video?
Explainer video styles (Best explainer video for your needs)
How to create a perfect explainer video?
In-house production or outsourcing?
How much does it cost to produce an explainer video?
What is an explainer video?
An explainer video is usually an animated short marketing video to explain a business idea in the simplest and most engaging form. It can be a very effective way to communicate a company's value proposition to potential customers. The video usually starts by painting a general pain point scenario and proceeds to introduce your offer (product or service) as the best solution.
Basically, an explainer video tells your prospective clients what you do, who you are, and why you think they should do business with you. Interestingly, it can be at any stage of your sales funnel –social media pages, landing pages, or homepages.
Why does your business need an explainer video?
There are several benefits your business can derive from investing in explainer videos. Let's take a look at a few.
Brand awareness
Your explainer video, as basic as it might look, plays a crucial role in putting your brand out there. A perfect explainer video for brand awareness should breathe who you are by having a unique tone, feel, visual effects, and everything that represents your brand.
Informative
Now people know about you. Next is to tell them what you do and how you can help them. Invest in a simple animated video to educate and inform your audience about your plans, tell a story, how to use your service or product, new updates, or even teach new skills.
Advertise a product or service
An explainer video can serve as a demo video. This is because people can relate more to video content than written content when describing a product or service. And it also helps understand how valuable the product or service is.
Explainer video types (Best explainer video for your needs)
There are two main types of explainer videos: Animated and Live-action. Despite the fact that these two types have different styles and different approaches, no one is really better than the other. The actual difference lies in their production process, price, and how things are presented.
Animated explainer videos are the best when explaining abstract processes as it breaks them down into relatable information. And that's why brands in real estate, fintech, and health tech tend to go for this type because of how abstract their industries are to the general public. Also, animated explainer videos can be especially effective in teaching your current and prospective clients how to use your service or platform.
On the other hand, if you are trying to connect with your audience by targeting their emotions, then live-action videos are your best bet. It uses actors and conversation that may be in the form of skits to pass across information in the most relatable way. Another way that live-action explainer videos can be effective, is when you are introducing a product to the market, and are showcasing how it works, with the help of an actor.
When making a decision on which to choose, consider the following points:
Brand identity
Target market
Pricing
Resources available
How to create a perfect explainer video?
Over the years, explainer videos have become incredibly popular. Most modern businesses use at least one video in their marketing mix. For this reason, standing out in the sea of product and service videos online has become more difficult and requires more creativity. This means that the content you need to produce should be both compelling and eye-pleasing.
To create a perfect explainer video, you need to follow the following steps.
Research the topic
This is not negotiable as it's essential to do thorough research. Doing research will ensure your content is relevant to your target audience. It would be better if you are an authority or have a vast knowledge of the topic you are working on.
Choose the most suitable type and style of an explainer video
There are various types of explainer videos, and the choice is dependent on the purpose of the video, be it you trying to sell or just explaining a service or product. Between animation and live-action there are many styles you can choose from; 2D, 3D, hand-drawn, commercial, corporate, and the different types of video you can create include; educational, sales, informative, etc.
Write a script
You must be involved in the process of script writing from the very beginning. Firstly write the first draft of the script yourself or prepare a detailed outline of your vision before you send it to copywriting, as no one understands your brand or your audience's pain points like you do. Another important tip: let your team proofread the script. You never know who’s going to come up with the next genius idea that will uplift your brand to legendary status.
Have a draft on a storyboard
Having a draft on a storyboard is similar to test-running the script before creating the explainer video. Here, you can change some details that could cause delays during production. Nowadays, a storyboard can also be a rough animatic video or an edit of stock footage for reference.
Video creation
There are many elements you need to gather in order to create your explainer video. Visual items like brand logos, images, infographics, etc. need to be collected, and afterward, you’ll need music and other effects to accompany the information and action in the video. Once you have put everything on a timeline and prepared a rough edit, you can now proceed to fine-tune and finalize the video. To get the best quality out of this process, hire talented professionals like us!
Test your video with an audience
To see how effective your production is, or find and correct any mistakes you might have missed, always have a test screening of your video with a familiar audience before publishing it. Your audience could be your colleagues, family members, close friends, or even a focus group. After showing them the video, seek their opinion on what they think about it and how it can be improved. Take notes of their observations, and make changes accordingly.
Publish video
When all is set, and you are confident that you have a hit in your hands, it is time to share it with the world and show them that you mean business! These days, publishing a video mostly means uploading and sharing it online. You could put it on your landing page or homepage, or on social media, or on video hosting sites like Youtube and Vimeo, which you can embed on your website.
Pro tip: Social media companies like to promote content uploaded to their own platforms, so instead of sharing your Vimeo link to Linkedin and Facebook, just upload the same video on each platform separately and let them do your marketing for you!
In-house production or outsourcing?
By now, you must know that a lot goes into explainer video production –time, money, creativity, etc. It literally takes a village, and you might want to use in-house production which may seem cost-effective but it could become difficult if not managed properly. If you want to produce in-house high-quality videos that are effective, then you need to hire pros in your company, and pros don’t come cheap. Also, you’ll need a team of pros to pull this off, don’t expect one person to take on all the work and get it all right. You might hire a pro to train your personnel to do the work right, it will take time to build a star team, but it will pay off in the long run.
If you need to produce and market a high-quality video right now, the best viable option is outsourcing the production to video production professionals like us.
At Strawberry Heights, we employ and value the collaborative approach, so we always start off with a consultation to understand your goals and brainstorm to discover possible ways to achieve them. Once the best solution is identified and agreed upon, our creative team will get to work and produce great results at a great value. Outsourcing your production might seem a little costlier at first, no doubt, but in the end, it’s all worth it.
How much does it cost to produce an explainer video?
The price for a custom high-quality explainer video ranges from $3000 – $30,000, roughly speaking. However, you might be able to get low-quality videos for as low as $500 to $2500 from freelancers or online video creators. At Strawberry Heights, we’re more focused on the value you get from the perfect, high-quality explainer video that engages your audience and leaves a lasting impression; from the voiceover to style to video length, everything is well researched and creatively decided.
Conclusion
In conclusion, an explainer video created perfectly will go a long way in broadcasting your business beyond your imagination. It helps build a solid online presence, attracts leads, and connects you with your target market. Conversely, a poorly crafted explainer video will be a waste of resources and might even harm the audience’s perception of your brand.
So, if you need help creating your explainer video, let’s have a chat!