Explainer videos are a great way to get content out to your target audience. The trend started with the big brands we're all aware of but a lot of smaller companies and small startup are beginning to enter the market.
Even if you don't think your product might benefit from an explainer video, someone online might have a problem that can be solved by your product or service, or your video may help them see their problem in a different light. Sometimes, a quick explainer video is all someone needs to understand how your product can solve their problem.
Putting together an explainer video can provide an extremely valuable asset for your company. The basics of an explainer video include deciding what you want to say, adding a voiceover and putting together some graphics that explain your product or service. The best explainer videos are 30-90 seconds, which translates into a script of around 200 words.
A great way to understand the format is to check out the best explainer videos out there. Here are five of our favorites!
1. Gigtown
Gigtown is a music technology platform designed to connect musicians, venues and fans. The site makes it easy to find exactly the talent you're looking for whether it's a band for your wedding, or a show happening down the street. It's a great platform for keeping in touch with and supporting local artists!
The video offers a great explanation of their app and is well structured, features cute animation and describes exactly why it's a useful application for both bands, talent bookers and fans!
2. Pinterest
Pinterest allows users to share images about their interests by creating “boards” which are a collection of related images of interest to the user. It's a great platform for compiling ideas, sharing collections or selling items that have a visual appeal.
Pinterest's explainer video is short and concise. They even let you know how long it is up front on the title page “Pinterest – Everything You Need To Know in 90 Seconds.” It's a fun touch that draws you in! It explains a bit about the history of scrap booking and how pinterest is “scrapbooking” for the internet age that allows you to collect and share images easily. Well done!
3. File Expert
If you use an Android phone, File Expert is a great file manager phone app. Their explainer video tells their story really well!
The video offers some great tips for how to use their app and how it works to organize information on your Android device. Explains that files can be easily shared, sorted and categorized based on their function or locations. It's clear and concise and makes their product easy to understand.
4. Olark: Customer Service Tool
Olark is a package for enabling live customer service chat on ecommerce websites. It can tell you who is on your site, what they are engaging with on the site and what is in their shopping cart in real time.
This is one of the best explainer videos in terms of really outlining the product and walks the viewer through all of the ways it is useful. At the end of the video they turn it into a lead driver by including a special offer to try their product for free.
5. Next Glass
This one is just for fun! If you love craft beer and fine wine, Next Glass is an app that help you to find new brands to try. You rate wines and beers that you have had before, the app builds a “flavor profile” and then offers suggestions of other craft beers and wines that you might enjoy.
While the explainer video focuses on wine (the new release adds craft beer to the database), it does an excellent job of explaining the science behind the application. They basically outline hot the take “DNA” samples of wine to create their profiles. It eliminates the need for adjectives to describe vintages and focuses on choosing wine based on its genetic properties. Does a really nice job of explaining how the app works in 102 seconds!
The best explainer videos are short, concise and to the point. All of the videos above do an excellent job of explaining their product and making it easy to understand why it's a great choice for the user. If you're considering creating an explainer video for you product or service, these can serve as inspiration and great examples of best practices to help make your explainer video a part of your marketing strategy!
Rob Steffens
I am the Director of Marketing here at Bluleadz. I'm a huge baseball fan (Go Yankees!). I love spending time with friends and getting some exercise on the Racquetball court.