Explainer Videos
Explainer Videos are a great way to market your business. They are short digital marketing videos that briefly explain your business or one of your products or services. But the key to success here is that they are quick and easy to understand.
However, even more important is that these quick clips can be used on websites, landing pages, social media, and more. In fact, studies by Facebook, Google, and others show that excellent ones can create a sudden increase in traffic. So what that means is a lot more opportunities!
3 Types of Explainer Videos
- Animated (2D & 3D): Animation is growing in popularity and is the preferred format for intangibles such as software and some types of services. Some services involve no physical products or results, making it extremely hard to use live-action. But not entirely impossible to do. However, animation allows for a more creative approach and can be easily updated for future adjustments.
- Live-Action: These videos involve real people, places, and objects. Some great examples would be Squatty Potty and Dr. Squatch: All-Natural Man Soap videos. This type is usually the best option for companies selling physical products or offering professional services. Putting a human face to your business, products, and services creates an emotional connection with your audience. However, this means you are also stuck within the confines of the real world – unless you are Squatty Potty and you have a magical pooping unicorn working for you.
- Whiteboard: Whiteboard videos are hand-drawn on a whiteboard or chalkboard where animation and text are created then erased. They are easy to create and have a lower production cost, making them the preferred choice for many small businesses.
3 of our recent examples
Here are just a few of the most recent ones we have created. But there are even more coming. For example, we are creating Explainer Videos for each of our Digital Marketing Services.
#1 Digital Marketing Services (Animated 2D)
With our title, “Digital Marketing Services by C. E. Snyder Marketing LLC,” you know exactly what we do. We follow through with the video giving many examples of what we do for small businesses. However, it is still fairly broad in scope without getting into technical jargon.
But this video is a great example for building brand awareness and speaks directly to our audience. For instance, the video is aimed at 40-50 somethings with businesses, but not the time to learn how to market on their own. Also, it emphasizes saving time, money and headaches from trying to figure it all out.
Learn more about our Digital Marketing Services.
#2 Detailed 2 Perfection LLC (Live-Action)
Detailed 2 Perfection LLC’s video is a live-action video, with only a brief 3D animation at the very end. It uses a successful blend of music, voice-over, and assorted action scenes. So successful that they got some leads just from the small test audience that it was shown to.
But the key ingredient here is a well-written script and professional voice-over. The background music is another often missed opportunity. It’s energetic, fast-paced, and emotional that matches the tempo of the video and voice-over. And just one sound effect was used at the very end.
#3 Automation Animation (Whiteboard)
Another great example of our own services and also demonstrates the use of Whiteboard animation. Additionally, you will notice that we did not use a voice-over for this particular video. So we went for incredibly simplistic while addressing the pain point and offering a sensible solution.
However, the main point here again is that we are targeting small business owners. So we mainly show this to people that just don’t have the time, tools, or expertise to create these videos for their business. Plus, people love these kinds of videos for their simplicity.
Learn more about our Digital Marketing Automation.
What goes into an Explainer Video?
So here we are going to take you through the same steps we take to make these great videos. But know now that there is a lot of work to do and it takes focus. However, we can share with you that it is well worth it!
Step #1: Write the script
This is the most important step of them all when creating a great explainer video. You can have all sorts of cool visual effects and a celebrity voice-over, but if the script is junk, your video will suck.
So the most critical part of this step is knowing your audience, addressing a problem they have, offer a solution, and tell them how to get it. When you do this part right, when you have clarity, the selling gets a whole lot easier!
Step #2: Choose your background music wisely
Even the most serious, live-action video need some sort of background music. But the mood and the tempo of the music needs to match your message so you are sending a clear message. For example, all of our advertising videos and even our 1 Minute Marketing Tips videos all use background music.
Step #3: The voice-over
Voice acting can be difficult to nail without any practice or training. So you’ll need to consider the services of a professional. For example, we paid Charlie to do the professional voice-over for Detailed 2 Perfection LLC’s video above and she did an amazing job.
Also, Charles (no relation to Charlie) does most of our in-house voice-overs. However, he also has training as a professional speaker too. Yet that’s not to say you cannot do your own, but it can make the difference in your finished product.
Step #4: Production
This can be fairly easy and straight forward or it can be rather complex. So it all depends on your skills, tools, and expertise. Or you may want to hand this part over to someone that knows a thing or two about video editing.
But this is the final step where everything comes together. Once you have your masterpiece done, you will of course need to render it too. So ideally you render it as an MP4 or similar and it should be at least 720P at 30 FPS.
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