Checklist Of An Outstanding Explainer Video: From Script To Implementation

Do you think that the secret of successful explainer videos depends on spectacular special effects, celebrities in the frame, or shooting with a cool camera? One of the main tips for creating an effective explainer video is a strong and well-thought-out script. In this article, we’ll describe the process of developing an outstanding explainer video step by step and provide you with a detailed checklist.

 

 

Why Is It Important To Use High-Quality Explainer Videos? (Comparison and Statistics)

Video has always been a powerful marketing tool, from the very first television commercial in 1941 to today’s YouTube advertising. Professional videos help you show your corporate culture and build a strong brand image.

 

An interesting fact is that 68% of customers choose to watch videos and learn about new products or services. Also, 82% would rather view a live stream than read a social media post. Every marketing manager knows that the customers look not for a product, but for a solution to their problem. 

 

Studies show that you have less than 7 seconds to grab a potential customer’s attention by offering a way to solve their problem. Some say that user engagement depends solely on how personally interested the user is in it. Although, even if that’s true, it’s still worth making shorter videos with an engaging beginning. Why? While attention in traditional storytelling is progressively higher, it works differently in digital media: it starts at a peak and gradually declines. Thus, today we’re going to elaborate on the best way to keep it.

 

Checklist Of An Explainer Video That Hits Its Target

So, if your brand needs to increase awareness online, a video is a great solution for that. Moreover, if you aren’t already posting animated videos on social media, you’re potentially missing out on one of the fastest-growing trends in digital promotion.

 

Business explainer videos are a great option for sharing your brand story and communicating complex ideas in simple terms. Such videos are usually bright, dynamic, and most importantly, effective.

 

Define The Purpose

The most important aspect of the explainer video is to identify the right distribution channel to make the video accessible and impressive to a larger target audience. Video marketing is now the best strategy for B2B companies to increase brand awareness and connect closely with potential customers.

 

Setting goals in advance is the first step to getting the desired results from promotional visuals. An animated explainer video can serve a range of purposes, like building brand awareness, and increasing sales, brand loyalty, or website traffic. Each of these goals requires different types of video content. Consequently, you need to determine the purpose of creating the video. To complete this, ask yourself questions:

• What do you expect the results to be?
• How do you set milestones?
• How will your product help the audience?
• When will it be achieved?
• Which goal has the highest priority?

 

Learn The Target Audience

You need to have a clear idea of the target audience you want to attract by explainer video creation. To perform this step, you have to answer the following questions:

• Who is your target audience, and what are their pain points?
• What type of content do they need to solve their main issues?
• What channel do they prefer to watch your videos on?
• How do they respond to the media you create?

 

By answering these questions, you’ll get a clear vision of your target audience and their needs. Then you’ll be able to come up with great ideas on how to create explainer video content that can attract these people.

 

Find Out The Audience’s Pain Points

The secret of well-known brands’ success is not that they were the first in their niche or offered something unique at all. They understood their audience well and were able to satisfy their needs and solve specific issues.  We gathered a few tips for you, on how to define the pain points of prospective clients.

 

• Interview customers. We recommend organizing questions, so they’re easy to answer (for example, make them less vague or explain terminology). Provide some benefits for completing the forms and writing feedback so that your clients will be more motivated to do it.

 

• Check online reviews for your products and services. Real feedback can help you hear a clear and unbiased opinion about your product, as well as find out what problems customers encounter while using your goods. In addition, you can find complaints and reviews on various forums to discover more about customer attitudes to your brand. 

 

• Find out why people refuse to buy. When identifying pain points, people often make a  “survivor’s mistake” – they analyze the answers of those customers who already bought a product. However, identifying the pain points that caused the product NOT to be purchased seems much more important. Find out at what stage most people refuse to buy, identify the concerns that are causing it, and try to fix them.  

 

Formulate Your Message And Solution

Every company aims to win the attention and love of consumers while applying explainer videos. To accomplish this, you require a strong message and a workable solution. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is there to say to your target audience? 
• What exactly do you want to convey to consumers? 
• What are your company’s strengths and weaknesses?
• What are you particularly good at?
• What does your ideal customer need? 

 

It’s significant to customers that you highlight one main feature, rather than tell about numerous aspects briefly, but somehow. Let’s imagine, you already have the main advertising message. Which problem do you want to cover, and what competitive advantage does your company have?

 

Solving complex issues can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be excruciating. Fortunately, there are many techniques to help you with this. At its core, to decide how to depict the way your product solves customer problems, you need to follow a four-step process. 

• First, you have to identify the issue. 
• Then you discover possible solutions to the concern. 
• After it, you need to evaluate the options and choose the best one out of them. 
• Finally, apply the chosen option. Does it solve the problem? Is it worth trying another way?

 

When applying problem-solving methods, some variation of these four steps will always serve as your foundation. Before you offer a solution to potential customers, try to understand their concerns fully.

 

Is Your Solution Unique?

Perhaps this is the most difficult stage in explainer video creation, especially if your business does not shine with uniqueness. Nevertheless, you need to think about the following:

• What exactly can you offer to your customers?
• How will they benefit from working with you?
• How is your company different from your competitors?
• What can you offer that others cannot?

 

Put yourself in the place of your customer and understand what his problem may be and how your video can solve it together with the offered services. 

 

Add Powerful CTA

The most popular elements of CTAs are buttons, which have inscriptions that explain what will happen after you click on them. The call-to-action should be clear and short, calling for only one step to buy, download, order, etc. We’ve picked out four tips for you, on how to put together a powerful message.

 

• The appeal should differ from the rest of the page content and be highlighted by a bright button, text, link, or banner.
• CTA should be in the visitor’s field of view. Therefore, it is not recommended to place it at the bottom.
• The message should match the stage of the buyer’s journey.

 

Apply The Different Style and Format

Your video should be unique and informative for the audience. We have selected several formats to help you convey the right message and convince the buyers to take the target action, according to your goals.

 

• Demo. This is a brief description of the product or service. In explainer videos, it’s important to strike a balance and not jump to advertising and trying to convince the customer to buy something. The goal is to get attention, not to make an immediate profit. Be too obtrusive, and you will immediately lose a potential customer. 

 

• Branding. This is something in the spirit of brand advertising. In the product explainer video, you tell not about the product and services provided, but about yourself — about the brand and its ideology, what you do for society, your principles, etc. 

 

• Reviews. People trust real users much more. That’s why testimonials have always been an essential part of any marketing campaign. And if you spice it up with an explainer video format, you get an even more powerful tool for promotion. 

 

What’s Your Success And How To Measure It?

Success cannot always be measured in numbers like it often happens in business. Sometimes, it is unclear whether you are moving in the right direction because there are no indicators. But the numerical proof is sometimes not only unnecessary but also limited because you can’t measure everything with numbers. Even money sometimes is not the best unit of measurement, as the success of a video is a properly trained audience that now knows more about the product and wants to buy it. 

 

We found several specific indicators to measure your brand custom explainer video effectiveness. You have succeeded with your video if:

• Your client has gone through so-called “training” and bought your product. It can be concluded that the main point is a properly educated and loyal customer.
• Your explainer video has gone viral, so prospective clients shared it with their followers on social media.
• The viewers watched the engaging video until its end and didn’t quit earlier. 

 

Why Do Brands Have Different Requirements For Explainer Videos?

Each brand has its unique mission and vision. Also, the idea of what they bring to the masses is entirely different. When creating commercials, brands put themselves in the shoes of their customers. Since each company has a different audience, their videos will differ significantly: they will convey non-standard messages, and apply brand color schemes and a matching tone of voice.

 

Each company has its unique brand archetype, so you need to choose special styles of educational videos, as only some of them will look organic and reflect the main essence of the brand. Here are the popular styles and techniques of custom educational videos you can choose from:  

• Whiteboard Video
• Kinetic Typography
• Infographic Video
• Frame-by-Frame Animation
• Shape Animation
• Cut-out Animation

 

The goal of branding is to effectively build companies preference among the target audience, which will provide you with cash flow in the long run.

 

Conclusion

By applying high-quality explainer animations in your marketing, you make a superb investment in your business. After all, breathtaking and comprehensive explainer videos will not only distinguish you from your competitors but also attract new potential customers. Tell your target audience the full story of your company and show you from the heart by applying the best tactics and tips from our article.