Explainer videos that tell your audience
what you offer in 2 minutes or less.

An explainer video shows viewers how a company’s products and services improve their lives by solving specific problems.

Many companies use explainer videos to explain their product or service in a memorable way that resonates with the target audience. One of the first explainer videos was created in 2007 by Common Craft that showed how to use the then-new social media platform Twitter. The video used plain language and presented clear graphics to illustrate how users interact on Twitter. This explainer video soon garnered more than 10 million views and gave Twitter an enormous boost in brand awareness as well as new users.

Done effectively, an explainer video gives potential customers a clear understanding of the company’s offer and spurs in them a desire to take the next step.

Explainer videos are often used at the top of the funnel campaign, when prospective clients and customers are still in the consideration phase of their decision-making process. These videos can also be embedded in an online advertisement, such as within a Facebook posting, if the goal is ultimately to drive traffic to a website. The homepage and sales/landing pages are also common locations for placing an Explainer Video. The video content is positioned near the top of the homepage or sales/landing page where it can command attention.

These short videos are also effective at sales meetings, embedded at the top of an email funnel sequence and when played in a loop at trade shows, conferences and conventions.

Explainer videos help your potential customers understand what your product or service is all about, and accomplish this in the shortest amount of time possible. The goals are to raise brand awareness and convert viewers into paying customers.

A good explainer video typically covers five components:

1. A problem facing the customer.
2. The solution offered by your company.
3. Benefits of your solution.
4. How your solution works, which shows customers that it can, indeed, solve the problem.
5. A call to action.

The Return on Investment (ROI) of an explainer video begins with a clear understanding of your own goals and objectives. Clicks on the video link alone are not a measure of success. Instead, you want to measure how long viewers engage with the video, whether they click through to a sales page, or an order form, for example, to take the next step. You want to know whether the click-through results in a conversion where the prospect becomes a paying customer.

Successful marketing with an explainer video requires a strategy after the video is on the website. And, strategy requires data to analyze and measure the success of your efforts.

You can use Google Analytics to measure visitor time-on-site. Once the Google Analytics code is embedded on your website, you’ll be able to track visitors and their activity in a variety of ways, including how long they stay on each page.

An easy way to determine the success of an explainer video in terms of views is to track visitor time on-site before and after the video has been embedded in your website. Conversions can be measured in the same way — both before and after the explainer video is embedded.

Popular video hosting platforms, such as YouTube, Wistia, and Vimeo, offer advanced video analytics to make it easy to understand how videos are performing. If viewers are tuning out before reaching the call to action (CTA), you’ll want to make some adjustments. Moving the CTA further ahead in the video or editing for length are quick solutions.

There are 5 distinct stages of explainer video production:

Digital Media Collab can help with all stages, OR we can partner with you in the phases you need help with.

Discovery – As your video production company, we need to understand the project. We’ll meet to discuss your vision, goals, and your budget, and any other consideration you might have for the project.

Pre-Production – During this planning phase, we’ll begin work on the script for your explainer video project unless you have an in-house writer handling that task. Location scouting, hiring acting talent an AV Script and animatic, style frames are some of the key aspects of pre-production. A/V Scripts outline each shot in the video and how they all fit together. Think of these storyboards as a blueprint or plan for creating your video.

Production – At this stage, we are capturing, 3D modeling, and designing all the assets for each scene in your project. This includes capturing video (live production), designing storyboards, getting voiceovers, choosing music video and audio to be used in the final explainer video.

Post Production – Editing, animating, sound mixing, are some of the steps involved in post-production as your project approaches completion. There will be opportunities to review the work in progress and make revisions as necessary.

Delivery – At this final stage, we provide a digital file of the explainer video to you. We will also, at your request, upload the video to popular viewing platforms where the target audience can find and enjoy your explainer video. Additional services can include tracking and reporting on the success of your project, editing long and short versions, adding different logos to the beginning and end, as well as other needs you may require.

Video production work involves concept design with extensive client input and approval to ensure project success. Production can involve animation, live-action, or some combination of the two that fulfills the client’s vision. These style choices and the complexity of the project are key factors in determining cost. Productions may range from $12,000 to $20,000 or more on the high end, depending on how elaborate the client wants an Explainer Video to be. If your video production company is handling all five stages of the production process, the cost will be greater.

At Digital Media Collab, we often work with companies that have in-house designers and writers. If you have these members on your team, you may want to have them prepare your script and storyboards, which serve as a visual guide to creating your explainer video.
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Estimates are often figured as a “price per finished minute,” which is based on many considerations.

Cost factors include:

• Complexity of design
• Complexity of animation
• 2D vs 3D
• Number of live production shoots
• Number of locations
• Camera, lighting, and equipment requirements
• Hiring professional actors
• Wardrobe and makeup
• Licensing music
• Voice over talent
• Number of versions required
• Number of rounds of revisions required