It’s all over the web: explainer videos are the perfect complement for any marketing strategy, especially if you deal with products or services that are somewhat involved or complex.
These short pieces can engage your audience while conveying your value proposition and have proven useful to convert leads. Not bad for a 90-second piece, right?
But, as is the case with anything that provides excellent results, making an explainer video — sorry, making an effective explainer video — takes time, effort, and care. And above all, it takes implementing many tried-and-true strategies.
That’s why we are here today!
In this piece, we go over some of the strategies that the best explainer video companies use to create pieces that captivate leads and ultimately turn them into customers.
Let’s jump right in!
Spice Up Your Script with Storytelling
Everything sounds better with a little dose of storytelling. School lessons, business presentations, and yes, explainer videos too!
To genuinely pique viewers’ interest in your product or services, you need to shape your value proposition into a compelling and relatable story. This can make your explanation more understandable and turn your video into a piece that can resonate with viewers.
This story should be centered around a problem your audience may have, more specifically, the pain-point your product or service is meant to solve. Let’s see how you should structure your script around it:
- Start by stating what the character’s problem is — which should also be your audience's pain-point (mind-blowing, right?).
- Explain how your product or service helps to solve that problem.
- Tell viewers why they should choose your solution over others. At this point, the character seems finally happy — all thanks to you!
Take a look at this example and see how this structure was applied here to great effect.
Base Your Main Character on Your Target Audience
It’s no news that your content should be targeted to your specific audience. But with explainer videos, this goes even further.
Not only should your video convey your value proposition through a story that can resonate with viewers, but also, its story should involve a character that mirrors your target audience.
Yes. You want your protagonist to embody many of the aspects that set your ideal customer apart — their age, gender, economic level, and interests, among others. The idea is to take a close look at your buyer persona and base your main character around it.
The reason is simple: people engage the most with stories that they can relate to. You have probably experienced this too, or do you not feel inclined towards books and movies that hit close to home?
Implement Your Brands’ Color Palette
In marketing terms, what use is any piece of content if viewers can’t remember which company it came from?
Ideally, people should be able to recognize your brand as soon as your video starts playing. Or, if it's the first time they hear about it, your explainer should enable them to start getting familiar with your brand's identity.
Now, as you can guess, video production companies tweak many aspects to transmit a brand’s particular style. For example, the script's tone, the music, the characterization of your target audience, and, equally important, the video’s aesthetic.
With that in mind, you should take special care of incorporating your distinctive colors into the piece. Pick the palette that prevails in your logo, website, social media content, newsletter, and more, and apply it to most visual elements on your story.
The easiest — and probably the most cost-effective — way to do so is by producing an animated custom video, as it would enable every element on the screen to be branded accordingly.
It’s also possible to create a fully branded live-action piece, but do keep in mind that that may turn out to be a more costly endeavor, depending on your branding’s needs.
Strive to Entertain (but don’t try too hard)
Did you know people tend to remember experiences most vividly when they are enjoyable? In that sense, it's no surprise that funny videos are more likely to stick in their minds.
Maybe more importantly, viewers are more likely to watch those types of videos entirely, instead of leaving halfway through.
So, don’t shy away from making your video as entertaining as it can get by adding captivating music, a cheerful tone (if it suits your brand’s style), and a little bit of humor.
Be careful when handling humor, though. Making someone laugh is much harder than it seems — just think of how nervous stand-up artists tend to get when the room doesn't fill with laughter. Often, it's better to aim just for a pleasant explainer video script filled with charming little moments than one with ambitious jokes that risk making your viewers cringe.
(Subtly) Prompt Users into Action
Just conveying your value proposition may not be enough to convince some viewers to do business with your brand. They may need an extra nudge to finally take the next step.
Try mentioning specific words about your product that may call their attention - such as "Organic” or “Limited edition" — or displaying Call To Actions like "Visit our website,” “Request a quote,” or “Get started.”
As easy as this piece of advice may sound, it can be quite tricky to master it correctly.
You see, these cues should be both direct and subtle. Direct, as you should speak straight to your viewers, but subtle, because they shouldn’t be too overt or “in their faces." Otherwise, you can pull the viewer's attention from the content in a negative way, and they may label your brand as too insistent or salesy.
To Wrap Up
An explainer video has the potential of engaging and converting people who are just taking a peek at your brand into valuable customers. But to truly unleash this potential, you need to pay attention to the details.
By putting the previous tips into action, your audience will identify with the piece and be more likely to remember your brand and its distinctive style.
All of this while also enjoying your content!
So, what are you waiting for? Roll up your sleeves and start creating an explainer video that drives results!
