The pandemic sped up a change already in motion, driving people to shop online more than ever. We search for information and make decisions about products and services we want to buy before purchasing. Whether your business is B2B or B2C, explainer videos are excellent choices of engaging content that help inform, entertain and (hopefully) convert customers to your business. The more time visitors spend on your website, the more likely they will form a connection to you.
What are Explainer Videos?
Explainer videos are quick, simple, and to the point. They explain what you do, who you are, why you do it, and how; they explain what your product (or service) does and how it changes the game. These easily digestible bytes of essential information typically run anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes and are ideal for building trust. Explainer videos are perfect for increasing your brand awareness and, more importantly, keeping visitors on your website. There’s a reason just about every successful Kickstarter campaign has one – they work.
Even Forbes made an entire list of reasons why you should use an explainer!
Explainers are Versatile
You can use them to tell the world about your project, add a human element to your website and even build a click funnel to make sure your visitors convert into sales. It doesn’t matter what your business does or which industry you’re in, explainer videos have become integral to the modern-day success story, and they’re your best bet at taking a website to the next level.
The Five Types of Explainers to Load on Your Website
Many types of explainers will boost engagement on your website. Here are five of them:
- The Need for Your Product or Service – why you do what you do and why it’s essential to the people who could hire you or buy from you but also how it solves problems and makes the world a better place.
- The Product, Service, or Features You Offer – more product details, case studies on how it worked for clients, unique elements that delight or change the world somehow.
- The Story Behind Your Company or Brand – how you got started or grew and where you are, and where you are going.
- The History of the Industry You Impact – timelines or stories about what came before you, where you came in and how you are part of (your industry’s) future.
- The Good Your Project Brings – this could be case stories, good news events, involvement in the community or charities, or other ways you’ve made a positive impact.
With explainer videos, you effectively get to tell the internet, in no uncertain terms, what your company is doing to help the community or how you protect the environment; they offer you the chance to specify how you lead the industry you give back to.
Explainers Take On Time
Whether you’re putting content, products, or services out on the web, no matter what it is, timing is critical, and first impressions matter. People have short attention spans and an even shorter inclination to do the legwork for you – that’s why you need to catch their attention with a short-form video before they even have a chance to explore your website.
The moment a potential customer’s eyes hit the screen, they need to have a reason to stay, and it has to be done in a way that costs them as little effort as possible.
The average user typically spends less than 15 seconds on a given website they haven’t visited before – that’s it – so you’ll need to impress them in that first 15 seconds, or they likely won’t stick around. Let alone convert. The question then becomes: how do you get them to care enough to make it past the bounce-bubble?
Getting Them Hooked in the First Five Seconds
As daunting as it sounds, the first five seconds are the most crucial, and they can make or break the potential conversion. Five seconds – that’s all it takes for people to make up their minds about whether or not even the prospect of your content is worth the next few minutes of their time. So how do you maximize that tiny little window and get your prospective customers to stay long enough to get hooked into your website?
By dazzling them with quick and insightful content, you can influence their decision. A hook, a question, a startling fact, and these capture people’s attention. The “persona” style story is very popular in explainers. You can center the story around someone representing a typical customer that the viewer strongly identifies with, then present a solution to their problem with your product or service.
People have short attention spans and an even shorter inclination to do the legwork for you – that’s why you need to catch their attention with a short-form video before they even have a chance to explore your website. The moment a potential customer’s eyes hit the screen, they need a reason to stay, and preferably in a way that costs them as little effort as possible.
The content needs to matter. It needs to wow them, reflect your brand, show your humanity, maybe infotain a little. All toward the goal of getting them to linger for at least a minute. Studies have shown that with each additional minute a user spends on your website, your chances of converting that visit into a transaction are higher. One of the best ways to do this is by having an explainer video right on your landing page. Or any other high-traffic page on your site.
We All Love Explainer Videos
I love voicing explainer videos, and businesses love using them – it also doesn’t hurt that they account for nearly 20% of my voiceover work. The best part about these little guys is that they’re affordable and uber-effective. Whether created as whiteboards, 2D animation, videos, motion graphics, or any of the many explainer production styles, happily, the world can’t seem to get enough of them.