We all know that animated explainer video is a mainstay in advertising, but now it’s taking over the internet.
Animated characters are enchanting and relatable; that’s why it has a magical appeal to an audience of all ages. Also, the captivating storyline evokes your emotion and strum your heartstrings. That’s why you love it, don’t you?
As 65% of us are visual learners— and 90 percent of the information transmitted to the brain is visual, they understand the information better through animated videos. Take a look at the picture below:
This is why it makes a lot of sense if we say that animated videos are more engaging and easy to fall in love with.
Since the audience loves animated videos, most companies take the chance to put it at the forefront of their marketing strategy.
Animation and marketing now go hand in hand. Even giant companies like Facebook and Google integrate animated explainer videos to their entire marketing strategy.
Unsurprisingly, every business jumps on the bandwagon— and you definitely should too. Never let your brand fall behind the curve!
This article will get you more in deep with everything you need to consider to create an engaging animated explainer video.
Let’s dive into it, shall we?
What Is an Animated Explainer Video?
As the name suggests, it is an animated 90-seconds-or-less video to explain a product in a concise, and captivating way.
The style of animation that is used varies:
- 2D animation
- Motion graphics animation
- Whiteboard animation
- 3D animation
- Kinetic typography animation
- And the list goes on…
An animated explainer video addresses a problem directly to the audience so that you can relate to it quickly.
After it captured your attention in the first few seconds with engaging animation, it introduces you to the product as the solution and ends with a strong call-to-action.
Clever, isn’t it?
Here’s one of the animated explainer videos that Google used to introduce their new project:
As you may notice, explaining a complex concept like Google Project Sunroof becomes a lot simpler using animated explainer videos.
Why Animated Explainer Videos Work So Well?
There were already a bunch of articles written about the benefits of animated explainer videos. But we’re going to make it simple for you. We believe that the main reason why animated explainer video works well to reach the audience is that it’s easy to digest.
A minute-long animated explainer video works more than 1.8 million words to stun potential customers. If you can understand better by watching and hearing —and you can get entertained as a bonus, why bother reading the users manual?
The combination of a fine-tuned script, captivating animation, and riveting storyline makes the information about a brand more compelling so you can understand it better. It can encourage you to commit to buying and become a loyal customer. That’s what you call “engaging.”
No wonder that at least 95% of the potential customers prefer to watch an explainer video to learn more about a brand or service they’re interested in buying.
Details You Should Consider in Creating an Explainer Video
Trying too hard to impress your audience with an animated explainer video can be a fruitless marketing effort for you. The overproduced animated explainer video might turn cheesy and bland instead.
Or maybe your animated explainer video is underproduced, and it doesn’t captivate your potential customers enough.
Any other way it will fail your marketing.
An engaging explainer video can be a powerful, inexpensive tool to reach your customers and build your brand awareness.
Now, the question is, how you make an explainer video so “engaging”?
We highlighted some essential points that you might want to pay attention more in creating an engaging explainer video.
1. Define Your Niche
It’s classic, yet some marketers still unaware of this. Define your niche is an excellent start to kickass your marketing plan in general. It’s important to know who you are marketing to.
One of the best parts of animated explainer videos is that everyone can enjoy it.
Even if some of them don’t need your product at that time, they can still enjoy your animated explainer video and most likely to remember it.
But, it won’t hurt to know your potential customers’ interest before you create an animated explainer video.
And then, you can easily determine how much energy you want to allocate to your animated explainer video and how much dollars you should be spent on it.
2. Pick The Appropriate Animation Style
Another best part about animated explainer videos is that they can create particular environments that real-live can’t.
The endless imagination in animated explainer videos helps you to create or reproduce scenes that can’t be filmed with a real-live camera crew.
But, you know what? There’s an appropriate thing for everything.
Let’s say that you don’t usually eat pizza for breakfast, and unlikely to drink a refreshing tequila to quench your thirst, do you? It works just the same for animated explainer videos.
You need to wisely pick the proper style of your explainer video so that it appeals more to your potential customers.
For example, if you want to deliver a piece of straightforward information yet still want to impress your customers, you can go for motion graphics or 2D. Or, if you’re going to reinforce and underline a specific passage, then kinetic typography animation can hook your potential customers from the get-go.
3. It’s All About the Script
Before the endearing animated characters come to life, there’s a crucial process to write a solid script so you can catch your potential customers’ attention in just the first few minutes.
This is why we believe that the script is the backbone of an animated explainer video.
Animated explainer videos help you to captivate your potential customers, but even a 10-minutes animated explainer video is most likely to drain them and shun them away.
Keep the story short. Put your message in the first 10 seconds. And speak directly to the audience so they can easily relate to your video.
Since it has to be short, an animated explainer video needs to be as packed with entertainment and information as it can be. It has to be balanced.
Too much information can be boring, but on the other hand, too much entertainment can distract your audience from your goal and call-to-action.
That’s why you need to go straightforward with a fine-tuned script.
Always try to convey your brand with the classic what (the problem), how (the solution), and why (call-to-action) structure.
4. The Power of Voice-over and Sound Effect
Once you have got the solid script, you now need to find the perfect voice to deliver your brand information across your potential customers.
Professionals usually record the voice-over in their studio, but you can still give them directions to get an ideal voice-over for your animated explainer video.
There are so many aspects you should consider in choosing a voice-over for your animated explainer video.
The most important one you should know is that you need to find the right tone for your animated explainer video.
Do you want your video to sound formal? Or more relaxed? A different tone will give a different feeling and emotion to your video.
If the company that you’re currently in has a very rigid culture, you’d better go with polished and clearly-pronounce voice-over.
However, if you’re in a more casual environment, you can have a more natural and easy-going way of talking.
To get more insight, take a look at this animated explainer with an easy-going voice-over:
If you want to go for a voice-over free animated explainer videos, you need to pick the sound effects wisely.
An animated explainer video from Facebook might be the best example for this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClksDN9Y3fo&feature=youtu.be
The wisely-picked sounds effects or short soundbites make your videos much more lively and relate to your potential customers. It evokes all types of emotions and brings the vibe and pace of your video.
5. Take a Stab at Humor
One way to create a memorable animated explainer video is to be gut-busting. The potential customers that laugh are more likely to remember your message and buy into it. That’s why you need to add a slice of humor to your animated explainer video.
If you can add bite-sized humor in the get-go, your potential customers are most likely to watch your animated explainer video all the way through. But there aren’t too many companies that can pull it off without giving a cringe to their audience.
To take a shot at less cringe-worthy humor, you can create a comical character in your video. You can also add hyperbole or metaphor sentences to your storyline to make your animated explainer video organically funnier to watch.
6. Get Ready for the Launch!
Great. You just made an engaging animated explainer video. Now, what’s left is to spread them all over the internet so that anyone can see it.
There are lots of video hosting to post your engaging animated explainer video. But, we know that YouTube, Vidyard, Wistia, Vimeo, and Brightcove will never disappoint you.
Don’t forget to integrate it on your website as well; it can skyrocket your website traffic!
Takeaway
An animated explainer video isn’t all about increasing your brand awareness but also connecting with your potential customers so that they can stick around for a long time. The toughest part is to create them right. That’s why there are several parts you need to pay attention to create an engaging one.
If you think that it’s too much to take in, the easiest way is asking for a professional video company to help you create an engaging animated explainer video. They’ll know what they should do to boost your brand’s online visibility.
So, are you interested in stepping up your advertising game using an animated explainer video? Let us know in the comments section below!
