Over the past few years, video marketing has grown to become the go-to channel to engage customers online. And that type of content, explainer videos, stand out for their markedly high-rate of success.
It might be because they appeal to the basic human impulse to learn and understand things. It might be because they make critically relevant information readily accessible to your customers. Or it might be because, if done right, they give us marketers a channel to engage in powerful advertisement techniques in subtle yet effective ways.
Regardless, the fact of the matter is that explainer videos tend to stand out in the marketing arena. And there are good reasons for it.
In this piece, I want us to talk a bit about those reasons, getting into the crucial benefits explainer videos bring to the table as we start planning our digital marketing approaches of 2019.
They Make It Really Easy for Clients to Identify with Your Message
An important reason behind explainer videos growing to be such a digital marketing powerhouse lies in effective characterization.
That is, their ability to make viewers feel like the message has been tailored entirely for them.
Researching your audience thoroughly, then becomes a crucial part of making explainers that work. Having a clear understanding of age ranges, genders, and even things like the level of education or profession of your ideal customer can be invaluable. As it will all (or at least should) inform a key aspect of your video’s narrative.
When you have a clear understanding about who you are addressing with your content, you get to use storytelling elements around it. And that goes a long way in helping your viewers feel that you are talking to them directly. That you understand them.
How? Simple, you accomplish this by customizing your video’s protagonist and voice-over talent to reflect all those qualities.
Embed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n7PksCnNH8
If your product or service is primarily geared toward middle-aged CEOs, then make “Steve, the experienced CEO” your explainer video’s protagonist. If on the other hand, you want to attract a younger, generation Z type of audience, by all means, use “Kim, the spunky 17-year-old student” as your main character.
This practice gives your audience a strong anchor point to your content right from the get-go. And gets them into a more receptive mindset for your message.
Intelligent (and effective) Branding Through Clever Asset Utilization
I’d argue that one of the stronger features of explainer videos – and consequently, one of its stronger benefits – is that you get to take advantage of a clever digital marketing strategy in subtle ways. Making it that much more effective.
One such strategy is branding.
While other types of videos rely – or even require – overt branding to be effective, explainer videos call for a less obvious approach.
Explainer videos are content-driven, which means that your primary focus should be to create quality scripts and animations able to get your message across clearly, concisely, and in an exciting way.
Which kinda forces you to be attentive and to seize every other opportunity to engage in outright marketing tactics with this type of content.
A great way to achieve this is by reinforcing brand identity and awareness using essential branding elements (like the company’s logo colors, or a significant tagline) to strengthen visual and storytelling elements.
Take this video as an example. Notice how we used the company’s colors to bring out their solutions, and how visual and audio cues helped reinforce the message as well as the branding.
Embed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfFOtuehRN4
Harnessing Storytelling as a Conversion Mechanism
Good storytelling is intrinsic to good marketing.
Anyone can say that their product or service is fantastic, but without the right story anchoring the audience and serving as a through-line, that message will either get lost or become generic enough that it won’t be effective.
A good story, even at its most basic, takes what would otherwise be bland advertising and elevates it into something that can engage, entertain, illustrate, and entice your target audience.
It makes the viewer become a part of the content. Get involved. Instead of just being a passive spectator. And explainer videos work as an excellent medium to inject storytelling into your digital marketing.
You accomplish this by crafting captivating scripts, capable not only of delivering the information you want to get across but of also of taking your audience by the hand on a journey.
There is a myriad of ways to achieve it. But the most straightforward one would probably be to take a page from one of the most accomplished and explored mediums for storytelling – Movies – and stick to the simple-yet-effective three-act format.
At the beginning of your video/script focus on the “What”, the problem you are setting up to solve. Then, move onto the “How” in the middle, meaning how your product or service addresses and solves that problem. Lastly, close with the “Why”, focusing on why your product’s the better alternative to choose.
Creating a script that follows this structure, combined with the right protagonist for your message will bring the full force of storytelling to bear on your marketing strategy.
Having Entertainment Take the Brunt of the Work
To cap it all off, let’s touch on an important but difficult to pinpoint quality that can set your explainer videos – and its related marketing push – apart from the crowd: entertainment factor.
Explainer videos aren’t supposed to be a boring academic lesson. They are there to provide information, yes, but not at the cost of entertainment. At least not if you want them to be successful.
Now, trying to pursue this quality can seem daunting. And quickly devolve into a fool’s errand if you are not paying attention. To avoid us falling into that trap here, I’ll focus on giving a quick and oversimplified view on how you can go about it. Mostly to provide you with an idea of where to begin.
Entertainment can be fickle, varying wildly from person to person. There are, however, a handful of general attributes that most often than not are closely tied to it.
Relatability, approachability, investment, and perceived value are all common aspects known to affect the relative entertainment that a piece of content can deliver.
Clearly, trying to appeal and cater to any combination of those will help your content be regarded as such by your audience. The thing is, how do you do this?
That’s probably something that only you can answer appropriately.
Understanding what your audience considers relatable, what level of complexity they can manage, what they find personally appealing, and what they value usually comes from understanding them. You need to know what they are looking for and what makes them tick.
As you can see, explainer videos are an ideal medium to try and accomplish a number of essential marketing goals. As well as reaping the equally desirable benefits because of them.
The secret, if there’s any, is to have a clear notion of what these goals are, and make sure you are working toward them with the help of a skilled video company that can bring that vision to life.
Do keep in mind that the benefits we talked about can efficiently serve as a blueprint, or guidelines, for the goals you can aim for with your explainer videos.
Milestones that’ll enhance the overall effectiveness of your content incrementally.
Bio Victor Blasco:
Victor Blasco’s an audiovisual designer, video marketing expert, and founder/CEO of the explainer video company Yum Yum Videos. Besides running the business, he’s a lifelong student of Chinese philosophy and a passionate geek for all things sci-fi.
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