How to produce explainer videos that hook your audience
Video content can serve many different business purposes. It can help boost brand awareness, sell a specific product or service, or provide targeted information about the company in question. Explainer videos (the good ones, that is) do all that and more.
Essentially, explainer videos explain a concept in a cool and compelling way that clearly explains ‘what’s what’ — as well as aiming to engage the viewer along the way. This encourages the viewer to find out more and follow through on the call to action. And if you’re in any doubt as to their impact, a whopping 95% of people watch explainer videos to learn more about a product or service.
The thing about explainer videos is that not all are created equal. It’s not particularly hard to produce a bad one but it takes real video agency chops to pull together something good, let alone great. If you are in the market for high quality, on brand and creative explainer videos, then you need to consider the following five points.
1. Keep it short and simple
Boil down your message to its bare bones. If you can’t say what needs to be said in to 60–90 seconds then your video is already too long — and if it’s too long, you can bet your bottom dollar viewers are going to hit snooze or click out. Quality video production sticks to the point and breaks down even the most complex concepts into bite-sized, memorable moments.
2. Work from a good script
There are those who make the mistake of assuming that a short video can be produced off the cuff with a loose script. This couldn’t be further from the truth. To succinctly deliver a compelling message requires a carefully crafted script. Avoid using jargon and trying to sound overly impressive. Keep it real and keep your target audience in mind at all times.
3. Speak to your audience’s pain
As impressive as your business undoubtedly is, your video is not a platform to list your products and services and company history. You need to address your audience’s problem — the one your offer can solve — upfront and show real insights into how this issue frustrates the viewer’s life in some meaningful way.
4. Present your solution
Now that you’ve shown you understand your audience, you need to present your offer as a way to solve their problem. Always, always, always come back to your viewer — the video is really all about them, and how you can be of service.
A quick, clear and easy call to action (CTA) is critical. If the viewer has no direction after watching your video, then you’ll lose them to a competitor. Make sure your audience knows exactly what to do at the end of your video — click on a link for more information, call a number, send an email? And make it easy for them to do it.
Those are some of the non-negotiable basics to producing explainer videos that will get your business noticed for all the right reasons. If you don’t want to manage all the logistics on your own, it might be time to approach a video production agency that aims to deliver impactful video that will genuinely engage your viewers.
At TopLine Comms, we’re a pretty top-notch explainer video company because we know how to tell a story that offers the viewer real value — and we are constantly refining our technical expertise in line with new developments and trends. All the while, keeping your objective in mind.
We’re ready.
For more information on how to produce stand out explainer videos, contact our head of production, Jamie.
Originally published at toplinefilm.com on February 13, 2019.
