Marketing Explainer Video 101

---

Are you interested in educating your target audience about what your brand, products or service has to offer? Then let me introduce you to explainer videos! Explainer videos are short educational videos for your consumers about your organization’s brand, products, and/or services. Below you can view an example of an explainer video for my brand ReDrew Innovations.

Why do you need an explainer video?

Explainer videos are meant to bridge the gap between a consumer’s knowledge and your brand’s value. This is why they are a great tool to use in the awareness phase of your Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy. Did you know that it takes 5 to 7 impressions before someone will remember your brand? By integrating your brand elements into an explainer video, your organization will have one more tool to use for raising brand awareness. 

Explainer videos are usually placed on the homepage of a website or on a landing page. Having an explainer video and using either form of distribution will help to increase a brand’s search ranking potential. Videos can help your website to increase the average time user spends on your website as well as the number of backlinks on your website. Both of which will assist Google in increasing your SEO. Better SEO, increases potential consumers of your brand.  

Types of explainer video

Now that you know what an explainer video is and the reason why you need one, let’s dive into the different types of explainer videos. 

Live Action Explainer Videos are non-animated promotional videos explaining your business’s product or service with people telling the story. According to WordStream live-action videos are best to utilize when a business sells a physical product or is people-oriented. As seen by this Dollar Shave Club explainer

Animated Explainer Videos are the most widely used explainer video and are best for brands and products that explain an intangible service.

Motion Graphics Explainer Videos are videos that bring to life graphics with animations, visual effects, and cinematic techniques.

White Board Videos are explainer videos that are hand drawn on a whiteboard and erased. This video format is especially popular due to its low cost.

Screencast Explainer Videos show images and or videos on a device’s screen while a software or application is in use. They are used to demonstrate a service while in action. They are best used to show consumers how to interact with online services or software.

What goes into an explainer video? 

After choosing the best type of explainer video for your brand. The next step in the process is to make an explainer video. That process should first begin with your brand or campaign creative brief, a script, and a call to action. 

Creative Brief 

With your brand creative strategy in hand, you can begin to incorporate your brand elements, problem statement, and value proposition into your explainer video.   

Script 

• Question
• Introduction to Brand/Product/Service 
• Value Proposition
• Evidence
• Testimonial 
• Call to Action

It is well known in the marketing industry that you have seconds to grab a consumer’s attention before they lose interest in a video. This means that the first 10 seconds of your video should be highly engaging. In the ReDrew Innovations explainer video, this is done by asking a question. Specifically by phasing your consumers problem into a question. That also helps to weed out any consumers who are not within your target audience, minimizing the costs of acquisition. 

Next, you introduce your brand, product, or service as the solution to your consumer’s problem. Including your value proposition. A value proposition describes your brand’s unique selling proposition. It is essentially the point of differentiation that makes your product, service, or brand better than your competitors. I recommend using a We help, Do, By doing/providing format for your value proposition. It is also good to provide evidence of the work your brand can do. Or showing how your product or service can make your consumers’ life easier. Then back up your information with a testimonial of your product, service, or brand’s success. Testimonials help to provide credibility and trust to your consumers.

Lastly, you will need a strong call to action. I highly recommend using a personalized call to action for your organization as it will help to increase conversion. For example for a marketing agency instead of using “Learn More” you could try “Get A Free Consultation”. By creating a CTA that provides your consumer with an obvious benefit, they will be more likely to respond to that CTA and convert into a consumer. 

Where to make an explainer video? 

If you would like to make an animation video, I recommend using Canva. The free version of Canva offers many great templates you can use to create and customize an explainer video.  

Powtoon is an animation software that I looked into using to make a motion graphics explainer video. However, it does come with a learning curve. If you have time to teach yourself how to use the software, I would give Powtoon a try. It also comes with a free trial to test out the software first! 

Adobe Express is also widely used by design professionals to create and edit videos. If you have access to this software, it would be great to teach yourself how to use this widely used software

Now that you have the 411 on all things marketing explainer videos, subscribe to ReDrew Innovations to get access to a free library of marketing resources!