Tips For Making Good Animated Explainer Videos
First and foremost when it comes to creating a good animated explainer video you need to choose the right style for your product or service. There are several different types of animated videos that can be used to market your brand or business.
Here are some of the main types of animated explainer videos:
- Screencast – For those looking to market a platform or software a screencast may be a good option. This is a type of animated explainer video where you can show the process of the product while having a live video in video picture of the narrator discussing this process.
- Cartoon animation – If you’re trying to impart information about your product, service or a pain point the customer may be experiencing a cartoon animation (whether it is 2D or 3D) is a fun option. This gives you the ability to visually show what you’re trying to tell and that makes it more engaging.
- Stop motion – A business or brand that is marketing a product via an eCommerce store or through their website may want to show the features and benefits of this product. Stop motion is an old-school form of animation that will allow you to have movement while still being able to create a simple explainer video.
- Whiteboard – Whiteboard animations can actually be a great tool for services that are looking to explain why there are different from their competition or even as training videos. This type of video gradually animates everything on as if being drawn right in front of you which makes it visually engaging and hard to turn away from.
You might have noticed that you tend to remember things more vividly when you see them rather than read them or hear them. It is a proven fact that most people tend to only remember 20% of what they read and 10% of what they hear.
This means that something that combines both of those senses along with a visual aspect will allow the viewer to take in more data and retain it better and faster. So when you’re looking for new marketing ideas video should definitely be in one of the top slots in your content marketing strategy.
Making An Animated Explainer Video
The process of making an animated explainer video is not complicated but can be challenging if you don’t have the right structure. So here are a few quick tips when it comes to the process of making an animated explainer video:
Video Type
Before you do anything else you need to choose the video type that will best suit not only your brand but for your audience. Taking a look at the types of animated explainer videos that are available to you through the agency that you’re using will be the initial step.
Script It Out
Next up you will then have a good guideline for how to craft your script. Typically an explainer video will be between 30 and 90 seconds long which means you’re looking at anywhere between 60 to 200 words when it comes to the script.
You will want to make sure that your value proposition is within the first quarter of the video so that anybody clicking on your video will immediately know what you are talking about. From there you’ll move on to explaining how you’re going to solve that problem.
Voiceover
After the script is written and you are sure that it is on brand and delivers all the information you want to be delivered, it’s then time to record it. Here you will want to interview several voiceover actors to ensure that you find the right actor that fits the tone and voice of your brand.
Produce/Edit
Now that you have the script and the voiceover you can begin working on the animation itself. During this process, you will go through and ensure that the visuals match what is being said.
This will add a little creativity and motion to make your animated explainer video more entertaining and engaging. Once that’s done you can then edit not only the visuals but the sound and finally add in any sound design you’re looking to.
Publish
The final stage is to upload the animated explainer video to whatever platform or location you’re looking to house it. Once it is published then all you have left to do is to engage with your audience and answer any questions that they have in regards to your product or service.
Tips For Making an Engaging Explainer Video
In order to craft an engaging explainer video, there are several things you can do during the process to ensure optimal results. Here are some of the tips that we like to share with businesses that are looking to invest in an animated explainer video:
Identify Customer Pain Points
When thinking about the video that you want to produce first you have to understand your customer’s pain points. Once you have this you can then use that to craft a video script that will provide a solution to your customer base. You want to think of this explainer video as a sales script without being overtly salesy.
You have to understand your audience completely even down to what makes them happy and how your service or product can do that. If you’re unsure then the first step to creating a good animated explainer video would be to do some market research and identify these important facts.
It’s All About the Funnel
If you’re looking for a powerful tool that will influence a decision-making process then a video has to be included in your marketing strategy. The combination of visual and audio will help viewers be able to understand your brand’s voice and what you have to offer.
This means you have to pay attention to where you are using your animated explainer video and your sales funnel process. Though it can be effective at any point in the process most find it better to utilize it in the beginning or at the end.
Friendly Tone
When drafting your script or even during the animation process you want to keep your target audience in mind. This means paying close attention to the tone of the video in its entirety. You want it to be friendly and inviting while still being informative.
The more friendly your video tone is the more likely you will be able to retain the attention of your core audience which in turn will help with your conversion rate.
Choose The Right Agency
Making sure you do your research to find the right animated explainer video agency is also one of the best tips we can give you. You want to choose one that you are comfortable working with and that share similar ideas when it comes to business.
On top of that, you need to look at the portfolio to ensure the available animation styles will work with your brand vision. You also have to keep in mind your budget. This is why choosing the right agency is so important.
If you choose the wrong agency you could wind up going over budget and not ending up with a product that you feel will garner the results you were looking for.
Concise Yet Entertaining
As a business and brand, you have to emphasize how valuable your potential customers time is. Because of this, you will want to make sure that you draft a script that is not too long. This means how concise you can deliver your message and talk about your solutions to your customer’s problem is key.
You want to make sure that during your brief amount of time with your audience that you are able to impart every piece of information that you’re looking to deliver. But just because you’re being very efficient with your words does not mean that it can be dry.
On top of being very streamlined your content has to be entertaining. This means potentially adding in a little humour or simply using animation to keep your audience engaged in what is going on. By doing both of these things you’ll be able to drive the results you’re looking for and create a great animated video explainer video.
Stay On Brand
No matter what piece of content your business is putting out you want to ensure that it stays on brand at all times. This gives your current customers a sense of consistency and shows potential future customers that you have a set message and voice. This will create brand awareness and loyalty.
When you are looking to craft an animated explainer video this translates to ensuring that the fonts that you use on all your other media are incorporated into the animation. It also means sticking with your brand the colour palette and voice for the animated video. Most animated explainer video agencies will ask for a brand guideline during the initial consultation and then build their video around that.
Relevance
Another great tip when it comes to developing an engaging animated explainer video is to ensure that your offer is relevant to the field and to the customer. This means ensuring that the video is not only about what you want but something that interests your audience. Staying relevant when it comes to topic and customer base will allow your business to build better brand awareness as well as loyalty.
Animated Explainer Video Best Practices
So now that we’ve given you a few great tips to help you ensure that you are creating an engaging animated explainer video we thought we would also give some best practices that will take that video to the next level. Here are a few of our best practices that we think you could benefit from using as well:
Customer Focused
You have to remember that you are not making your animated explainer video for you but rather to show your audience what benefits and features your product or service has to offer them. So you also need to craft a call to action that will entice your potential customer to move forward in your sales process.
Grab Their Attention
You have to start your video with something that’s gonna grab the viewers’ attention. That means starting off with a strong visual or statement that is directly related to what your customers need.
Along with this when you are drafting your script you should make sure that you use identifiers that are specifically aimed at your audience. For instance, instead of saying the customer, you would say you. This one on one conversational tone makes it feel like you are talking directly to them and trying to help them as opposed to everyone.
Short & Sweet
Boredom is not your friend! That means you need to make sure that everything as we said before is short and sweet and to the point. For us, one of the biggest best practices is to make sure you focus on only one or two of the main things you want the audience to take away from your presentation so that you can optimize retention. Then once that’s done your CTA should help convert that viewer into a customer.
Draft A Good Script
The video script is the skeleton of the entire animated explainer video. Without a well-paced and written script, your animated video will fall flat. We talked above about what the script should look like when it comes to time and words but more important than that is the actual storytelling.
You want to make sure that the script that you’re writing is clear and simply written so that no matter what experience level your audience is they can understand the product or service you’re offering.
This doesn’t mean not to use industry jargon it just means to streamline it down and try to make concepts as simple to understand as possible. By doing this you will be drafting a good script that will allow the animation team to develop an amazing animated explainer video.
Narration Is Key
Choosing the right voice as we said above can be a make or break situation when it comes to your animated explainer video. Different types of narration will create different emotional effects for the viewer. This means looking at what you’re selling and choosing a voice that matches that.
For instance, if you’re selling a subscription service for meditation then you would want to choose a soft calm voice to narrate the video. On top of this when you choose the voice you should also consider the demographic you’re looking to market to.
All of this plays a part in making sure that the narration of your video hits the mark end produces the results you’re looking for.
Where to Use Animated Explainers
There are many places where you can utilize your animated explainer video to elevate your metrics and build better brand awareness.
- Website/Landing Page – One of the best places that you can post your animated explainer video is your website or landing page. It is always good to have an introduction video smack dab on your home page where customers can get to know what you and your brand are all about. An animated explainer video will make this more entertaining and memorable.
- Social Media Platforms – Using that video or other videos on your social media feeds can help improve engagement and reach. It also allows you to analyze the content quicker than you would on other outlets. With more and more social media platforms putting a focus on video in regards to their algorithms it’s just smart marketing to utilize several different types of animated explainer videos in your social media strategy.
- Crowdfunding Sites – If you’re a startup and you’re looking to gain a little attention on sites used for crowdfunding an animated explainer video discussing the product that you’re selling could be the thing that sets you apart from others. This will make your offer more compelling and engage your potential investors better.
- Seminars and Pitches – No one wants to sit in a seminar or a pitch staring at slide after slide for hours. So to make your presentation stand out utilizing an animated explainer video is a great idea.
Final Thoughts on Animated Explainer Videos
When it comes to choosing the style of explainer video that you are going to employ in your content marketing strategy you have to consider your brand, the product, the services you’re looking to sell, and your audience.
Animated explainer videos are a great tool to have in your arsenal when it comes to building brand awareness and elevating sales. Their use of engaging visuals and informative narration optimizes retention and makes your brand stick out amongst the crowd. So there are a lot of great reasons to invest time and money and to developing amazing animated videos for your business or brand.
No matter if you are crafting these videos yourself or have opted to hire an amazing animated explainer video agency you should have a good foundation of understanding of what best practices you can utilize to ensure your video turns out of the highest quality.
- Screencast explainer videos are a low-budget option that is intended to give the viewer a good look at how your product/service works.
- Animated explainer videos allow you to tell a more in-depth story. This type of explainer video sets your product or service up as the thing that is going to fix whatever problem your customer has. These tend to be more engaging and are perfect for marketing your business to end-users or even startups.
- Next up is whiteboard animation which allows for the content to be created as the viewer watches. This is perfect if you have complicated information you’re looking to build into your advertising and social media plan.
- Lastly, you have the motion graphics explainer video. This video marketing asset uses text as well as 2D animation to impart your message elegantly and engagingly.