What is an explainer video?
Working as a freelance video producer, explainer videos (also known as informational videos or how-to videos) make up at least 70% of my work. The rise of the ‘explainer video’ phenomenon on YouTube led businesses to realise a simple truth: humans don’t like to read manuals and prefer fast and efficient ways to learn how something works.
This is why explainer videos have risen to be the second most popular form of video, with 91% of businesses adopting them as a marketing tool in 2023.
In this article, I’m going to share with you how explainer videos can help you reach your target audience using real-life case studies from my work.
Why instructional video works
We process visuals 60,000 times faster than text and have a larger capacity to retain the information. It’s no surprise then, that 96% of marketers say video marketing has increased user understanding of their product or service.
A former client of mine was optician Dr. Ashkan Elisay. He wanted to create a cheaper and much less bulky alternative to the classic eye-testing machines you’ve probably rested your chin on once or twice before.
To gain investment for his idea, he needed to demonstrate how his product would work. By creating animated explainer videos, he was able to translate his innovative ideas into digestible, easy-to-understand content.
After working with Dr. Eliasy, we produced explainer videos which increased the duration of visits to his site and helped to generate potential investors. Watch one of the videos here:
Address your customer’s pain points
Explainer videos help you to communicate efficiently with your audience and is especially useful when your offering is hard to put into words.
Maybe your unique selling point (USP) is truly amazing, but you just can’t sum it up in an article. Or perhaps you offer excellent internet connection, but your blog posts are needlessly confusing. The answer lies in video content.
Take a look at this animation video created using Vyond for a business that offers reliable internet connection in areas where satellite and cable aren’t viable options. They have a niche offering, making it difficult to communicate their unique selling point. They could have opted to write a long article, explaining the complex process of how the internet signal travels from a local tower to their customer’s receiver. Instead, they decided to create a much easier-to-digest animated explainer video:
Sometimes, your customers may not even know they have a problem. This next video explains how hackers can steal your data using scam websites. In this case, the aim is to help potential corporate clients understand the risks of a data breach and the benefits of web security services:
Videos can help your business generate leads and improve brand awareness, not only by promoting the solutions you offer – but also by bringing attention to the problems you solve.
Why video is an effective communication method
There’s no doubt that video is the top method of communication – in fact with the rise of social media video, it’s an undeniable fact. But have you considered the variety of applications for business?
Amgen – a well-known pharmaceutical company – ran into similar problems when it came to communication between insurance companies, doctors, pharmacies and patients. With so many points of contact, errors in the prescription process were threatening the quality of their service. It was vital that they conveyed a clear and consistent message to highlight errors and ways to avoid them.
The video created for them not only achieved these goals, but also saved staffing hours that would otherwise have been needed to address the issues with multiple customers and stakeholders. Watch the video here:
Whether it’s getting vital information to a consumer, or training staff on new processes, rolling information out through video ensures the message will always remain clear and consistent, resulting in improved experiences and happy customers.
Using explainer videos in your content strategy
Working as a freelancer, I’ve pitched to hundreds of potential clients. At the beginning of my journey, it was all about me, me, me. My work, my skills, my knowledge. Not too far down the line, it dawned on me that the videos I produced were part of a bigger picture – the client’s content strategy.
Moving forward, I knew I had to help clients not only produce aesthetically appealing and informational videos, but also videos that would play a valuable role in their wider content marketing strategy.
“Your customers don’t care about you, your products, or your services. They care about themselves.” – Joe Pulizzi
Much like I came to the conclusion that my work wasn’t about me, I also started to think about how the videos I created weren’t about the client I was creating them for. No. They were about the customer on the other side of the screen.
The truth is, your customers don’t care about you. They don’t care about how amazing you are, or the awards and accolades you have won. They have a scratch that needs itching, and they only care about whether you can itch it. The most cost-effective way to convince them you can? You guessed it – video content you can combine with your traditional content.
Build your brand reputation and increase online reach by providing your customers with valuable content through how-to and educational videos. It’s a win-win!
Explainer videos and educational content can:
- Show your level of expertise in a certain niche.
- Create a connection with your customers.
- Generate new customers through various Calls to Action
- Boost your brand awareness and reputation
4 key benefits of video content creation
Video content improves your SEO
If ‘Content is King’ then YouTube must be the castle. Creating educational videos on YouTube not only increases brand awareness and makes you more discoverable, but also provides the longest consumer attention span of anywhere online. Make the most of this by ensuring your videos are long (around the 8-15 min mark) and engaging enough to watch end-to-end. As YouTube is the second most popular search engine – plus a well-known offspring of top search engine Google – you’ll rank higher on both platforms by including a relevant title, description and tags.
Video is great for repurposing
They say a picture speaks a thousand words – so a video must speak a million! Videos can be repurposed easily, helping you make the most of your content marketing strategy. You can publish them on product pages and use them for your social media marketing strategy, helping to boost your reach to potential customers. A YouTube survey found that over 68% of users watched YouTube videos to help make a purchase decision – a marketing opportunity too good to miss.
Choose a form to suit your purpose
Explainer videos vary in form – they can be created from stock video, or even be shot on your phone and edited. It could be a screencast or animation explainer video. It all depends on your audience; the purpose of your video and what style reflects your brand.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all decision, but here are a few examples to illustrate:
Showing how to use an app, you’d likely use screencast:
Demonstrating how to make bread using your brand of flour, you’d use live video:
A variety of content like video testimonials and animation can be combined for a more engaging experience:
To learn more about different types of explainers on different budgets, read this article here.
Video marketing is the future:
With the smartphone revolution, consumers spend more and more time watching visual content. Following the rise of short videos, more recently made popular by apps such as TikTok, we could begin to see the appearance of micro tutorials and explainers.
In the near future, it’s likely that AI will see video production become more affordable and accessible to non-professionals, as it enables video creators to produce engaging visual content in a shorter space of time.
Now is the best time to jump on the bandwagon. Begin building your brand reputation and become the go-to business for your clients by providing educational and valuable video content they can rely on.
What are you waiting for? Get started on your video strategy today by contacting our team!
Ivan Fedorych – Founder of Trefoil.studio, animator, content creatior.
