What is an Animated Explainer Video?
Animated explainer videos.
We bet you have seen one.
Big industries around the world are spending a considerable portion of their marketing budget on video production companies, and animated explainer videos are becoming the world's newest and sweetest darling.
From famous brands like Nintendo and Nike to beauty products like L'Oreal Paris and Dove, from giant tech industries like Samsung and Apple to conglomerate icons like IKEA, animated explainer videos are taking over the world.
And for a good reason.
Statistics show that animated video explainers fuel growth and have an impressive Return on Investment (ROI). More specifically:
1. People who view an explainer video are six times more likely to make a purchase.
2. Visitors spend an average of two more minutes on a site with an explainer video compared to other sites with no such videos.
3. More than half of consumers report feeling more confident buying a product after viewing an explainer video.
4. More than half of consumers say they would watch a video before reading a text on a site.
Granted, animated explainer videos are indeed all that jazz. But before diving into the specifics of an animated explainer video, we should take a bird's eye view of explainer videos in general.
So, what are explainer videos exactly, and what do they do?
What is an Explainer Video?
Explainer videos are typically used for marketing and sales purposes with the intent to promote an industry's services or products.
Apart from helping consumers understand how a product works or what a service does, explainer videos are also used to tell a brand's story and to help a brand connect with its audience.
Stellar explainer videos tip the scales in favor of making a purchase by presenting information in a clear, easy-to-understand, and digest manner.
Explainer videos are extremely effective because they combine visual and auditory stimuli to make them more memorable. Typically accompanied by a well-written script, read as a voiceover, explainer videos are successful in grabbing and holding your audience's attention.
Video production companies will use several media techniques and high-tech software to produce compelling explainer videos.
Explainer videos typically fall under one of the following categories:
1. Live-action explainer videos
2. Live explainer video streams on social media
3. Animated explainer videos
4. Whiteboard explainer videos
What Are the Different Types of Explainer Videos - Demystifying the Video Production Process
Live Action Explainer Videos
A live action explainer video is a non-animated video using real people to explain your brand product or service. These videos are usually the preferred explainer video when promoting a people-oriented service such as an insurance company, a medical practice, or a law firm.
People are drawn to other people, and when it comes to trusting their health and future in the hands of other people, they are more at ease doing so when they view explainer videos with real-life flesh-and-blood humans.
Explainer Video Live Streams on Social Media
Explainer video live streams on social media follow the same principles as live action explainer videos but without the ability to edit.
Since they are live streams, these videos can be a hit or miss. However, having a raw footage with mistakes and all the imperfections and glitches humanizes your brand and allows your audience to further connect with you.
After all, if you have nothing to hide, and you are willing to bear it all, so to speak, without editing and scripted guidelines, then you are automatically seen as authentic, genuine, and, most of all, honest.
And when it comes to connecting with your audience, honesty is key.
Animated Explainer Videos
This is the most sought-after type of explainer video production. This video production process includes the use of animation, music, and voiceover to explain services and products. Ideal for intangible tech products and complex concepts like software, an animated explainer video will successfully increase your turnover.
Whiteboard Explainer Videos
A whiteboard explainer video is considerably cheaper to make than an animation video, and it combines live-action with hand-drawn animations on a whiteboard. The format of this video makes it one of the most affordable and most straightforward explainer videos to create.
What are Different Types of Animated Explainer Videos?
There are different types of explainer videos, and each serves a different purpose depending on the type of industry it was created for. Typically, animated explainers fall under one of the following categories:
1. Brand Videos
2. Product Videos
3. Process Explainers
4. Tutorials
5. Company Vision
Brand Videos
Brand Videos are the optimal selection among animated explainer videos if you want to introduce your brand to the pool of potential buyers.
Brand videos will clearly and efficiently explain to your ideal buyer what your brand is all about. It will give insights into your business and help your viewers comprehend what your brand does and how your brand can be of value to them.
Brand videos are exceptional in bringing your brand to the forefront of prospective buyers' attention since they are easily shareable on social media.
Create a killer animated explainer video to promote your brand, and bam! People become aware of your brand and start talking about it.
Product Videos
You know the old saying, a picture is a thousand words, right? Add to that a picture that animates, and you can quickly and seamlessly explain your product or services to your customers in a streamlined manner.
Instead of creating lengthy content to explain products and services that have a level of complexity in them, animated product videos will do the work in a more straightforward manner.
Why choose the complicated way when an animated video will do the work?
Research shows that before reading a product's manual, users will search online for a related video. Imagine how much traction your business will attract if you have said videos readily available for your customers on your site.
Explaining Processes
Explaining processes can be challenging. However, short animated or live video explainers that define what you do can go a long way towards clarity and understanding.
The basic principle is this: If you want to explain a complex process, then show it.
People learn best by watching and imitating rather than reading. Visual content is far superior to text when it comes to describing complicated concepts in a streamlined manner seamlessly.
Tutorials
When you want to teach your audience something, it is best to do so through animated explainer videos. These instructional videos will help your buyers better understand your brand, products, and services.
If your prospects are looking for a quick answer to a specific question, or if they want to learn how to perform a task, tutorial explainer videos are where they will first go to.
Sure, you can break down the How To tutorial in steps and use complete and very detailed text to help your readers learn. Written manuals help. But visual ones are far superior.
Should you choose to use a tutorial explainer video instead of a written manual, you will have loyal followers for your brand and have won points in the user-friendly department.
Company Vision
There is no better way to connect with your audience than to show them what your company is about.
An animated explainer video will help you communicate your brand's vision, mission, and values. Sharing your brand's story and showing its human face is a potent way to reach out to your ideal buyer and help them build brand loyalty.
If you want to showcase your vision as unique and valuable, then an explainer video will help you achieve your goals far quicker than other traditional marketing methods will.
Explainer Video Production - Why are Animated Explainer Videos the most Popular?
More and more businesses are turning towards animation explainer videos over any other type of explainer video to increase their leads. Given that there are so many other explainer video options available, why is animation rapidly gaining ground and becoming increasingly popular?
Animation Works for all Types of Products or Services
Sometimes your product may be challenging to explain, hard to present, and downright tricky to sell through other types of explainer videos.
With animation, however, you can easily explain complicated products and processes.
As opposed to real-life videos, pretty much any type of complex information can be visualized with the help of animation.
This is because humans are visual creatures; they like to see in order to understand. In addition, several psychological studies have replicated findings of the superiority of visual stimuli over auditory ones.
So, rather than having a real-life video of someone explaining your services or products, using an animated video will show your potential clients exactly who you are, what you do, and why your product will add value to their lives.
Consequently, your chances of converting exponentially increase once your audience fully grasps what you are trying to sell or say.
Animation Characters are Eye-Catching
Lively animated characters used in animated explainer videos are eye-catching and will certainly grab your audience's attention.
In an era where the human attention span is similar to that of a goldfish, eight seconds, give or take, animation characters will hook your viewers long enough to watch and listen to what it is that you have to say and show.
Animation can Evoke Strong Emotions
Staying true to the mantra "People will forget what you say, but they will never forget how you make them feel," animation is a bulletproof method to make your viewers feel and not only see.
If you want your audience to remember you, make sure you stir up some emotions in them. Help them connect with you, and show them that you not only understand them but that you have something valuable to offer to them.
Animation is More Than Just Scripts
In an animated explainer video, your characters can explain a whole concept without saying a single word.
Why is that important? Well, think of it this way. If your clients come from diverse multilingual backgrounds, scripted videos would mean making the same video multiple times in different languages. This translates to increased costs and smaller ROI.
With animated videos, however, big conglomerate industries can explain their products to clients across the globe using just one animation video. Moreover, ridding your animated videos from scripts and voiceover narration instantly makes your video applicable to a broader audience.
One video for all.
Does it get any better than that?
Animation is not Directly Associated with Marketing
People are becoming increasingly weary and skeptical of ads trying to sell them something. Anything that screams "buy me" will have people second-guessing your intentions.
However, explainer videos made with animation are seen as less of a marketing tool and more of a communication alley between your brand and your consumers. Animation explainer videos, unlike any other marketing materials, are more fun, enjoyable, and easier to watch and digest.
In an era when consumers are constantly bombarded with loud marketing ads, animated explainer videos become the light at the end of the tunnel, where you can just sit back and relax and watch something interesting for a few minutes.
As a result, an animated explainer video is often the preferred format for explaining services or products.
With Animation, Sky is the Limit
When it comes to animation, the sky is the limit. In your animated explainer videos, anything can happen. Your animation characters can do whatever you want them to do and go wherever you want them to go. They can fly, go to the moon, and travel back or forth in time.
So why limit your imagination using real-life actors and videos when animation can take you anywhere?
When the sky is the limit, your animated explainer video instantly becomes popular, unique, memorable, and impressionable. And, by extension, your products or services become unforgettable too.
Where can Animated Explainer Videos be Used?
The beauty of animated explainer videos is that they are so versatile they can literally be used just about anywhere across your marketing campaigns.
Explainer videos that use animation can be added to a landing page, the homepage of your website, a prominent product page, social media, email newsletters, and so on. Explainer videos can be used for commercial TV ads or paid social media ads, or as organic search results in SERPs.
Using animated video explainers is a powerful tool in the arsenal of your marketing strategy. It can increase brand awareness, promote brand loyalty, help you connect with your audience, and share your brand's vision and mission statement.
Animated explainer videos are so compelling that several sites boast conversion rates as high as 150% after adding an explainer video on the webpage.
In addition, video explainers on landing pages are five times more likely to lead your viewer back to your webpage. Moreover, animated videos successfully guide your audience to follow through with your Calls To Action (CTAs).
Animated Explainer Videos in a Nutshell
Animated explainer videos are the newest darling in the world of marketing. They are versatile, efficient, eye-catching, and downright memorable.
The psychology behind this huge success is simple: humans are visual creatures with a short attention span. Therefore, if you want to grab your audience's attention, you need to use visual stimuli straightforwardly combined with auditory cues.
With riveting animation, interesting characters, engaging music, attention-grabbing voiceovers, and compelling scripts, video production companies have revolutionized how brands and businesses interact with their buyers.
Animated explainer videos keep everything short, simple, and sweet.
From brand videos, tutorials, and product videos, you can use animated explainer videos for pretty much every single one of your brand's needs.
Explainer videos can be used on your landing page, main business website, social media account, email newsletters, etc.
Animated video explainers have made the task of reaching out to your buyers a seamless and streamlined process.
Do you want to connect with your audience?
An animated explainer video will do the trick.
Do you want to promote your brand's vision and create your story?
Again, animated explainer videos are your bulletproof method.
Do you want to market and increase your leads without appearing to be too loud, pushy, or sales-y?
Yes. The answer is, of course, animated explainer videos.
This type of marketing tool is so potent that it guarantees to increase your yields and conversion rates, skyrocketing your profits.
It is no wonder, therefore, that this type of marketing tool has become so potent that businesses rush to hop on board the animation video wagon.
Harness the power of animated explainer videos and reap the rewards.
As simple as that.