How to Create a Product Explainer Video that Communicates Value

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If you’ve launched a new product in the market and are looking for an interesting way to promote it, an explainer video could be the solution.

Explainer videos are short clips that introduce and explain your product or service to the audience. They help convey meaningful information quickly and are a great way to engage potential customers and get them in your marketing funnel.

You can share this video on YouTube, your website, social media, or even in your newsletter. It holds massive potential to educate and convert prospects into customers.

In this article, we’ll give you tips on creating a product explainer video that communicates value and positions your product appropriately.

How to create an effective product explainer video

Explainer videos are an extremely effective marketing tool that help familiarize the audience with your product. Moreover, they can make a significant difference when it comes to the number of conversions.

Let’s see how you can begin creating one.

1. Create a storyboard

A storyboard storyboard is a visual representation of how your video will unfold. It’s a space where you can share your vision and communicate how you want your video to look and feel.

It helps your production team understand your ideas better, reducing the chances of miscommunication and unnecessary production costs.

To make your storyboard, start by brainstorming the message and goal of your video.

Think about questions like:

• Who is your target audience?
• What are their pain points?
• How does your product solve the problem?
• What style will your explainer video be?
• Will it be a live-action or an animated or whiteboard video?

Doing market research will also help you understand what kind of videos your competitors are creating, and how your audience is interacting with them.

After you’ve considered these details, start creating illustrations and images with their correct sequence. You can make your storyboard using online tools or even sketch it by hand.

2. Write a killer script

Keeping the visual aspect aside, a video script is the most crucial element of an explainer video and also the most demanding. It determines not only the length but also the effectiveness of your video.

Most explainer videos scripts follow the format of:

1. Presenting the audience’s problem
2. Introducing your product as the solution
3. Explaining how the product will benefit them
4. Ending with a call to action

But instead of simply relaying this information, communicate to your audience by writing a convincing story, as Jostle has done.

A story like this will hook the audience and make them watch till they take the desired action at the end of the video.

image source: youtube

While drafting your script, keep these points in mind:

• Start strong—you can engage your audience by addressing their pain points right away.
• Create a convincing story keeping in mind your audience’s needs.
• Speak your audience’s language and use short sentences. Don’t use technical terms they won’t understand.
• Take inspiration from your blog to mold, and repurpose it in your video.
• Share information in an easy-to-understand manner.
• Address your viewers directly by using “you” or “your.”
• Use words that reflect the tone and voice of your brand. Most explainer videos opt for a conversational tone.
• Keep it short and straightforward. It should ideally be no more than 150 words, which equals one minute.

3. Keep the visuals simple yet impactful

Choose visuals—either digital or hand-drawn that support your script. They’ll attract the audience and will help build and maintain interest in your video.

However, you don’t necessarily need fancy visuals to get their attention. Explainer videos with simple visuals can also be effective. The key is to ensure that the visuals depict the story properly and convey the intended message.

This video by Headspace is an excellent example of the same. They’ve used simple visuals that accurately depict every part of the text. The color scheme is also visually pleasing and further attracts viewers. Music, sound effects, or audio elements in an explainer video is just as important as visuals. Music video adds more colors to explainer videos. It can turn a monotonous video to a more interesting and attractive series of moving pictures.

image source: youtube

4. Focus on product benefits and usage results

Your explainer video should throw light on the benefits of your product rather than its features. Customers are more curious to know how your product will benefit them instead of the various features you offer.

So, tap into their emotions, understand their pain points, and show them how your product will meet their needs and make their lives easier. This will also help them retain information and remember your product.

Moreover, when customers have no previous knowledge of your product, the best way to keep them engaged is to tell them about its benefits.

This video by Mint is an excellent example of how you can showcase your product’s benefits. They begin by touching upon a significant pain point—managing finances—and then give viewers a glimpse of how their product can help simplify the users’ lives.

image source: youtube

5. Keep the video brief and straightforward

Your product explainer video is only meant to be an overview, so keep it short and crisp. It should ideally be 60-90 seconds, that's a perfect length of explainer video.

The longer your video is, the less likely people are to watch it.

Here’s how you can make the video brief but effective:

• Don’t take time building up to the main point. Keep the video straightforward.
• Convey the most crucial information in the first 30 seconds. Attention span drops considerably at this time and keeps falling after that.
• Focus on only one or two key messages. The more information you give, the more difficult it will be for the audiences to retain it.

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Here’s a simple breakdown for your explainer video:

1. Address the problem (up to 20 seconds)
2. Present the solution or value proposition (5-10 seconds)
3. Explain your product’s benefits (25-30 seconds)
4. Call-to-Action (10 seconds)

In this video, Unroll. Me explains a common problem, proposes its application as the solution, and shows its benefits, all within 30 seconds.

image source: vimeo

Conclusion

Explainer videos are an excellent way to educate the audience about your product and market it to boost sales. Once you’re done editing the video, you can also create a distribution strategy to share it across platforms for better reach and traffic, or add video captions to improve engagement on social media

Ideally, you should create an explainer video for every product, eventually maintaining a video library so it helps the audience understand your products better before making a purchase,

People are attracted to visuals, and with a video having a compelling narration, you can take them on a journey they’ll be unlikely to forget.

Follow these tips to make a great product explainer video that attracts, informs, engages, and converts viewers.

Author Bio

Adela Belin is an independent content strategist and marketer with a love for the written word. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.