In today’s digital-first, video-centric world, explainer videos offer the perfect way to showcase your company’s product or service. The goal of an explainer video is to help consumers feel well-educated on your product or service and ready to do business with you.
While video is a highly popular type of content among consumers, there are a few specific things to keep in mind to produce an effective explainer video that achieves its intended purpose. Below, 15 members of Forbes Agency Council offer their top tips for creating a great explainer video in 2022.
Forbes Agency Council members share their tops tips to help brands create great explainer videos.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Tell A Story
If you just rattle off facts with no rhyme or reason, the intended viewer will get bored quickly or simply not absorb the information. It is an art to teach using examples, whether hypothetical or anecdotal, and that is the key to capturing the attention and affection of the instant-gratification internet scrollers. – Victoria Kennedy, Victorious PR
2. Provide A Way To Evaluate The Value Of Your Solution
Explain the problem, describe the solution and provide a means to evaluate the value of that solution. You may even wish to provide an incentive when you do. A great explainer video is well-branded and works long-term—beyond product updates and versions. Don’t lock yourself down with screenshots that will change with the next release! – Douglas Karr, Highbridge
3. Frame A Use-Case Scenario As ‘Before’ And ‘After’
Use a “before” and “after” use-case scenario that highlights a measurable metric your product or service will improve. It will help your audience quantify the value added, increasing the likelihood they’ll engage further to understand the feasibility and cost. – Patrick Haddad, Oopgo, Inc.
MORE FOR YOU
4. Create Powerful, Entertaining Visuals
Powerful visuals can create a memorable video that stands out from others. They help explain the process easily and serve as effective mnemonic tools for viewers. It’s also important to entertain the viewer to grab their attention; fully animated visuals are fun and engaging, and they’re more likely to encourage viewers to watch your video in its entirety (and hopefully share it with others!). – Tom Hileman, Hileman Group
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
5. Don’t Get Too Ambitious
The explainer video is an attempt at simplifying the message using a simplified medium. Don’t get too ambitious trying to deliver a series of themes and messages around a process, product or service just because you believe the medium is so simple to follow. In other words, don’t overburden the “explainer.” – Dean Trevelino, Trevelino/Keller
6. Answer Your Audience’s Questions
Make sure it answers your audience’s questions. This applies to whatever content you are putting out online. Your explainer video has to be relevant and easy to follow, and it also needs to solve a particular problem. If you are talking about product details that have nothing to do with your customer’s problems, no one is going to watch it. – Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
7. Know What You Need To Explain
This may sound super obvious, but really clearly know what you need to explain. Some brands fall into the trap of explaining how something works without focusing on how it can help the end customer. In those cases, I may get a good overview of your product or service, but no sense of why I should care. – Katy Thorbahn, Shiny
8. Use A Storyboard
A storyboard built with clarity and simplicity will contribute to the effectiveness of your motion graphic. Capturing the attention of the user is solely dependent on that storyline, so it needs to be interesting or clever. Even the most complex things can be simplified, and the most complicated things clarified. So clarification and simplification are what you need to focus on for intelligibility. – Goran Paun, ArtVersion
9. Build A Memorable Human Connection
The most important aspect of any video is human connection. People do not want to be sold to; they want to feel. So rather than describe or “explain” a product or service, ask yourself, “What do we want our audience to feel?” or, “How does this benefit the audience?” Memorable content evokes strong emotions. If we do our jobs right, it will compel people to act on those emotions. – Russ Williams, Archer Malmo
10. Write A Clear Script
As the founder of an agency that has produced dozens of exceptional explainer videos for technology companies around the world, my number one tip is to have a clear, short and easy-to-understand underlying script. The narrative holds everything together like glue. You can have the most exceptional sound or image quality, but if the base storyline is not right, then you’ll struggle to engage your prospects. – Azadeh Williams, AZK Media
11. Have The Right Talent
Explainer videos need to have a talent who can be engaging and to the point. The right talent should have the voice, appearance and/or charisma to keep the viewer engaged throughout the video. A lengthier product or service video can still work if the person taking them through the video is engaging enough. – Marilyn Cowley, PREM – PR & Social
12. Get Into It Quickly
Too much context at the beginning, and you’ll lose your audience. Too much on the host at the start, too much on the story behind it at the start, too much of anything other than getting into the product—even if it’s just a quick overview before more context—can lose your viewer. They are there to get into details, so make sure you’re answering what they’re there for first. – Mark Skroch, BCV Social
13. Make The Logo Visible In The First Three Seconds
A great explainer video has easy-to-read captions, answers all sales-related objections and is no longer than three minutes. It also features a highly branded intro and outro—make sure the logo is visible in the first three seconds and that the product or service is mentioned in the first six. – Vix Reitano, Agency 6B
14. Use Real-World Examples
Try unboxing videos that show how a real person would use the product. Often, videos are highly curated and overly produced, which makes them seem unrealistic to consumers. Providing guardrails for an unboxing video (meaning “please touch on these points”) is important, but if a consumer can see themselves actually “using” the products or can relate to the services, then it’s more compelling. – Dawn Sinkule, Digital Dawn
15. Focus On The Benefits, Not The Features
Much like with any piece of content intended to resonate with the target audience, focus on benefits clients can reap, not the features you boast. Besides benefits, personalization is a way for leads to get to know the people who’ll take care of their business. Our early company explainer video presented the team in their out-of-office settings, as we wanted to emphasize that there’s more to life than work. – Dejan Popovic, PopArt Studio
Go to Source
Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
