Marketing explainer videos are becoming very commonplace on the web. You'll find them on business websites, social media and YouTube. They're popular!
That's because when they're created effectively, they can help generate profit! In fact, 83% of businesses that have home page explainer videos believe that they're helpful to the bottom line.
Explainer videos can sell products and bring in clients. Well-known SEO specialist Neil Patel shared that on his site, Crazy Egg, his explainer video was driving in an extra $21,000 a month in new income.
The problem is that if an explainer video is not planned well, it can be a waste of money.
That can be remedied easily! In my experience, the most successful explainer videos with the highest returns on investment are those that have solid planning behind them. I've developed a process that, when followed, can increase the success of these explainer videos.
In this article, I talk about what you need to know to increase the odds that your explainer videos will raise your bottom line.
What are explainer videos?
They're simply videos that explain something, and they are usually one to two minutes long. Explainer videos are widely used by businesses as a marketing tool to explain a service or a product.
Also, they can be used for teaching purposes. For example, we see a lot of this with the medical community where they're used to teach patients about health-related subjects. Medical product companies and medical practices also use explainer videos to market their practices, products and services.
For the purposes of this article, I will focus on creating marketing explainer videos.
7 tips for planning an explainer video to increase profit
Here are some tips for producing these videos in a way that can increase your business's bottom line.
1. Understand who your target market is.
As with any type of commercial or marketing piece, it's essential to be well acquainted with your target market. The explainer video must appeal to them, so you'll need to know them. You'll want to have a sense of their likes and dislikes.
Understanding your market's age/generation can also be helpful. It can impact the approach you'll want to take. While baby boomers might feel comfortable with one type of pitch, millennials might respond better to something altogether different. For more info on this, read this article: "Marketing Videos: 3 Steps to Know Your Target Audience."
2. Choose the right tone for your explainer video.
Once you have a sense of who your target market is, you can decide on the tone of the explainer video. For example, many explainer videos have some element of humor in them. Ask yourself if your target market will respond positively to humor. If so, consider the type of humor. Will they enjoy sarcasm, puns, funny visuals, etc.? Or should this explainer stay serious? Should it be casual or formal? You'll want to decide on how to address your viewers.
We had a medical client who wanted to lighten up their video, since it was covering a very heavy and even disturbing topic. They chose to use animated characters for this purpose. However, they didn't want humor in the video as they felt that their target market would not respond well, given the topic. They felt their video went over well with their viewers.
3. Decide on your key selling points (of your unique selling position).
For marketing videos, you want to show exactly what makes your product or services unique and desirable. Also, you want to show the problems your product or services solve for your target market.
Make yourself a list of the top sell points; from that list, choose your top three or five points. You want to touch on each of these points in your video. Since it's best to keep these videos relatively short, think about how to get your point across succinctly.
I also suggest that you get to these points quickly in the video. I've seen some scripts that take a little too much time before they convey the key selling points. Remember, viewers can turn off a video quickly. They can bounce off the page if they're not getting fed relevant information.
4. Choose your call to action.
What exactly do you want your viewer to do after watching your explainer video? For example, do you want them to call you? Email you? Do you want them to go to a link you've placed below your video? Whatever that is, it's essential that this call to action is written into your script.
5. Write a great script.
You've already done most of the legwork. You can have your production company write the script for you, but you know your company best. You may wish to take what you've done so far and create a rough script. I'd say that this is what happens with the majority of our clients. They write a rough script, and we take the script and alter it for video effectiveness. Our changes might include:
- Adding humor
- Making the language more natural for video
- Changing the order and flow
- Coming up with the visuals
If you don't have the time, desire, or ability to write that rough script, work with a company that can supply a writer. They should be able to research and write the script for you.
6. Choose characters for your video.
You want to choose relatable characters for your explainer video. This might include matching the age of the characters, the clothing and the voices to that of your target market.
If your video has a voiceover narration, you'll want to request an appropriate voice. If your target market is millennials, you'll want to use a voice actor who falls within that age range. Or you may wish to use someone who sounds authoritative.
We had one client who wanted their voiceover to sound just like Morgan Freeman. They felt he engendered trust, and if they could use someone who sounded like him, it might increase the trust of their viewers. Believe it or not, we were able to find someone who sounded just like him. The good news is that there are so many options when it comes to voicing these videos.
7. Choose appealing and helpful visuals to complement your script.
The company you work with should be able to show you a variety of looks. Or you may want something completely unique and original. Keep in mind that this may add to your costs. You'll want to look around at other explainer videos to determine the look you'd like to see.
You may also want specific visuals in your video such as a product, and you may want to show this in use. This can be done with mixed media such as photos or video, or it can be completely animated.
Either way, you'll need to have something to show on the screen for every part of your script. If there are specific things you want to show visually, make sure to work it into the script.