What Is an Explainer Video, and Why Are They So Popular?

There are many marketing tools that have been growing strong in the last few years. Some of them are actually useful, and some others are only popular.

Few of them get the whole combo: In this group, you’ll find explainer videos, which are popular and super effective! But what exactly is an animated explainer video?

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Explainer videos are short, animated videos that explain a business idea in less than 90 seconds. They’re interesting and straightforward –with the help of a clear message and attractive visuals, these types of videos quickly grab the audience’s attention.

An explainer piece is an informative and educational video: it communicates what your company offers, how it’ll help your customers with their specific problems, and why the product or service your company offers is the best alternative!

And it does all of that in just a few seconds.

How To Recognize an Explainer Video

Now you know the basics of an explainer video, but let’s learn its main characteristics!

First, let’s look at this video to get us in the explainer mood:

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That video works as a great example of the characteristics of an animated sales video. You can see it’s short, simple, and straightforward; it’s completely customized to meet the audience’s needs… But let’s break it down.

• Explainer videos are short: Just like in this example, a good explainer video must deliver a business idea in just a few seconds –specifically, in 90 seconds or less.
• They’re simple: They communicate a message in a simple and concise way
• They use animated characters: With the use of animated characters, explainer videos have a good dose of humor and personality.
• Meet the audience’s needs: With explainer videos, the most important thing is to focus on the audience and their problems so they can feel that you’re directing your message to them and feel identified with your company.
• They generate brand recognition: By representing your company in every second of the video, using your brand colors and overall spirit.

All of these characteristics together are what make an explainer video stand out from the rest.

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Ok, but why are they so popular?

With all of these characteristics, it’s easy to guess why explainer videos are so popular: They deliver the best sales pitch every time.

But their popularity doesn’t stop there: 95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service –that’s almost everyone!

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They’re popular because they work. Animated explainer videos boost online visibility, build brand awareness, and improve conversions and sales… They do so much that it will be best if we break it down point by point. Let’s start with those:

• They will boost your online visibility!

Having an animated video embedded on your website encourages your audience to stay longer. Heck, videos are so fun to watch that your audience will play every single one they find!

And you’ll make the most of it: Search engines like Google measure the time that your audience spends on your website. More time = More interesting to people, and they’ll reward this by ranking your website higher in the searches.

• Explainer videos build brand awareness

A great animated marketing video is completely customized to fit your brand’s communications: It uses your brand’s colors to build brand awareness because they’ll help your viewers identify that you are the one behind the sales video.

• They improve conversions and sales

Explainer videos boost conversions by 20% on average, especially if you embed your video above the fold on your homepage.

But also…

• Your viewers will take action

It’s easy to make your viewers take action in any direction you want. Sales videos are so captivating that just by adding a call to action to your video, you can help them subscribe to your newsletter, fill out a form, download specific material, etc.

• Increase shareability

People love to share fun, interesting information with their peers. And videos are the most shared kind of content on the internet!

• Get the most out of visual and verbal learning

When you combine visual and verbal learning, you create a highly effective combo that increases the communicational power of your content. This is why videos are so useful, and explainer videos merge all of that with charming visuals and a clear message, which have a strong effect on the human brain.

• Adapt to the mobile logic

In the past few years, there has been a huge rise in mobile video views, and it’s expected to grow even more very soon. Through their phones, your audience is connected 24/7, and they’re eager to consume information all the time. Videos adapt to mobile screens a lot better than text, and it’s the preferred medium for most users.

Every one of these reasons explains why animated sales videos are so popular and will get more and more popular in the future. Let’s look at another example to see how everything falls into place:

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But enough about theory, let’s get into practice!

How can you use explainer videos to get the most out of them? No, let’s improve that question: where can you use them?

Where to use explainer videos: The Buyer’s Journey

So, the question is not how to use explainer videos, it’s where they fit the best in your buyer’s journey. If you can recall correctly, the buyer’s journey is every step your prospect goes through before they make a purchase.

But let’s refresh this first:

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As you can see, video content (in general) is extremely important in every step of the buyer’s journey –and explainer videos are no exception.

In fact, explainer videos work great for the middle stage of the journey, the consideration stage, the one in which your prospect is collecting information about the different vendors that are capable of meeting their needs.

This means that when you introduce an animated sales video to your audience in this stage, you’re using them as a way to nurture your leads and educate them about what your brand can do for them.

By doing this, you’ll be considered one of the best alternatives in the market, and they’ll surely remember you when they make the purchase decision at the final stage.

“I’m sold. Can I get an explainer video now?”

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Well, yes, you can! Explainer videos work great for every company, but there’s a catch. If you want your video to be highly effective, there is one thing you must make sure of:

Your explainer video has to be 100% customized.

No excuses. It cannot be made out of video snippets from other videos. It can’t be generic. It can’t use any color or any character or have a script that could belong to any other brand.

No.

It has to be 100% recognizable as part of your brand. It needs to communicate your brand’s spirit every second and be completely aligned with your marketing goals and your audience’s needs.

Not exaggerating here, really. A custom video will make you stand out from the competition and will get you the best ROI – if your explainer video is specifically aimed at your target audience, they’ll be hypnotized by it and spend more time watching it.

On the other hand, if your video is not targeted to your audience, they won’t feel identified with the message, and they won’t even look at it. So, your video won’t work.

So, if you want to generate identification and trust (and definitely more sales!), your video must be fully customized.

We are so aware of this that at Yum Yum Videos we only produce high-quality custom videos for our clients. Our animated explainer videos are the best because we create videos that are aimed at the specific needs of every client. This is how we do it:

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If you need any help with developing your explainer video, don’t hesitate to talk to us! We’ll be happy to help you create the best explainer video for your brand.

Summary

Now, you know what an explainer video is and what their characteristics are. You also understand that a custom video is a thousand times more powerful than one that’s not aligned with your marketing goals because:

• Custom videos help you stand out from your competition: You’ll get a special place in your audience’s heart and their timelines! The web is full of videos, and the only way you’ll stand out is by customizing yours.
• They generate identification towards the story you’re telling: A story that’s specifically crafted for your target audience, so it’ll be speaking directly to them.
• They get the best ROI: An eye-catching video increases your website’s visibility, which translates into more visitors –and more sales. In fact, videos have the highest ROI!

So, are you ready to get all of these perks by creating the greatest explainer video of all time? Yes, of course you are. So, the next step is to download this free slide we’ve got for you about “How to make an animated explainer video step-by-step”! Happy learning!