Animated Explainer Video

calendar Aug. 19, 2024
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Lilit Vardanyan

Head of Digital & Projects

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Summary. Animated explainer videos are crucial for , modern marketing strategies and also other areas. They can easily explain complex ideas....more

Table Of Contents

Uncovering Solutions: The Power of Animated Explainer Videos

An animated explainer video is a modern communication method. What is more critical about it is that it’s an effective method. Its effectiveness makes it one of the leading video marketing methods. We’ll discover the main reasons for their popularity. 

The rise of the internet since the early 2000s has brought fame to video content. Video-sharing platforms such as YouTube (launched in 2005) have given video a more significant role. The popularity of videos was rising with the growth of social media platforms.

One of the most famous explainer videos was made in 2007 by the company Common Craft. The stop-motion animation video was titled "RSS in Plain English." The video was explaining RSS feeds. Its effectiveness was evident. It was another push to raise the popularity of explainer videos. 

In the 2010s, famous companies such as Twitter and Dropbox started to use animated videos to explain their services. This helped the need for this format to fly higher.

 

What are Animated Explainer Videos?

What are the most important things to help you drive sales? One of them is a good understanding of your product. We all know that good understanding comes with good explanations. Statistics show that long instructions for use don’t perform well today. People lack time. It’s becoming challenging to grab attention. An animated explainer video comes to help in this challenge.

In other words, it’s what people need. With a custom animated explainer video explanations will hit the target. A good mixture of texts, motions, and sounds can’t be unnoticed. Explainer animation gives visualized explanations. It’s just a way to shorten long descriptions of a product. It shows that the best promotion is a good explanation.

So, animated explainer videos are short video content. It can be visualized in different ways. However, animation and its sub-areas are making a more influential impact. It’s less likely that someone would read long instructions with small font․ But when the text is playing on the display with the help of motion graphics, it’s hard to skip.

A good script, well-chosen information,  and trendy visualization will explain best. And how can we raise the impact? We must add professional voiceover and audio effects to our video for this. In the end, everyone will be informed by a short video.
 

Benefits

What are the benefits of animated explainer videos? Animated explainer videos can bring various benefits. First, they are good at enhancing brand storytelling and increasing viewer engagement. But that’s not all. They also have benefits like

  • Simplification of complex ideas: they turn complex topics into funny animations. 
  • Multi-versatility: videos can explain any topic with any style. They can also be used across various platforms.
  • Improved SEO: video content generally enhances a website's search engine ranking.

Actually, the list of the benefits is much longer. They also have benefits such as customizability, shareability, consistency in messaging, global reach, etc. But sometimes they can bring other benefits too.

The secret of their benefits is the duration. They explain the topic in the shortest amount of time. This brings more views, and other benefits come after it.

Enhancing Brand Storytelling

Brand storytelling is one of the crucial parts of making a connection between a brand and its clients. How explainer animation can enhance brand storytelling? First and foremost, it offers limitless places to be creative.  With animation, a brand's story comes to life. It also helps to show a brand's identity. It’s because the animated format allows the use of brand colors, logos, and other details related to a brand. 

Brand storytelling is a strong communication tool. Also, it builds trust in a brand. Animated explainer videos offer more flexible storytelling. It can combine a brand's story and the solutions it brings. As we know, it’s an excellent tool for simplifying complex topics. With this ability, stories become easier to understand.

Imagine you own a brand. And you want it to be famous. One of the types of explainer videos can help you. With a corporate explainer video, you can tell and show everything. It will introduce your brand, its story, and its values. What else can make a strong emotional connection?

A brand becomes successful due to its uniqueness. A brand’s uniqueness stands behind its story and the changes and solutions it brings. Video content is the highlight of all the uniqueness. Explainer animation presents a brand's identity with an exciting story arc and characters. This method creates a brand’s personality and connects it with an audience with the same values. It connects emotionally.

Increasing viewer engagement

An animated explainer is an engaging strategy. What’s the secret of it? The secret is an animated explainer video itself! But let’s be more exact: the secret is the combination of its components. Every detail is essential. It will capture the viewer's attention in different ways. But the main thing is eye-catching visuals and audio effects. And its shortness, of course.

A custom animated explainer video brings a lot of views. And it’s a cost-effective tool for creating personalized content. For example, you can have a product that solves a global issue. With an animated product explainer video, you can find people who have problems. And a good explanation of your product will be the best way to offer it.

Let’s move to another case. Concentration is more important when it comes to education. Here, educational animation videos can change the picture with the same components. Visualization makes the topics talk. And it’s easier to remember what you see and listen to.  It’s becoming an essential part of modern education processes.

In marketing, explainer videos bring sales by giving information about a product. But audio and visual effects are not enough. To reach its target, an explainer video needs a good script. The most important part is the first sentence. People will watch it till the end and share it with others if it says something. 
 

How They Work

Despite its short duration, explainer animation has a long journey to become your beneficial tool. As we already know, a successful animated explainer has

  • Eye-catching visuals,
  • Impactful voice and audio effects,
  • A good script.

Everything starts with brainstorming. In this stage, the primary detail will come alive - the idea. After, you should choose the ideal length of your video. But the shorter - the better.

Steps in Creation to Succeed

Let’s discover the steps in the creation of an animated explainer video. Each step is crucial for creating an effective explainer animation.

Discovery and Scriptwriting

During the discovery stage, you should discover an explainer animation's goals. After finding the target audience, you should choose the right video length. Also, you have a choice between animation styles. To visualize your ideas, you can use whiteboard animation, motion graphics, 2D or 3D animation, etc. The collection of your ideas and your goals moves you to the stage of scriptwriting. Additional research is needed to make sure that the information is correct. In the end, your messages turn into an engaging script.

Storyboard and Creation

It's time to think about visualization when everything is complete in the script. The storyboard allows you to see the sketches of an upcoming video. Storyboarding gives visual planning and shows the progression of a video.

Voiceover and Sound Design

Voice and audio effects are also important. Professional voice artists will have an additional impact on your video. Background music and audio effects make a video more noticeable․

Animation

In this stage, you see the movements of your ideas. Illustrations are coming alive. The animation should align with the voiceover, audio effects, and music.

Post Production

This stage is for editing and the final view of the video. When the creators are sure that the video has no defects, it’s ready to travel through digital platforms.

We can discover an example that covers all these steps of creation. Let's look at one of the successful projects of the Prodigi Agency.  The 2D animation was made for a software company. It explains all the smart solutions they have. It mixes infographics, characters, audio, and visual effects. Also, the explainer video was customized to highlight the brand's identity. The results of the video were satisfying. Learn more about the project here. 
 

Best Practices

How to get the most out of explainer videos? High-quality visuals might be half of the work․ To meet their goals they need some practice.

First, you need to make clear goals. Explainer animation can explain a product, educate an audience, or promote a service. Also, you need to decide who your target audience is. And the content should be customized to the needs of the audience.

One crucial thing to make a video effective is the optimal length. The length of these videos should be no longer than 90 seconds. And it should be optimized for different digital platforms.

Tips for scriptwriting and design 

Scriptwriting tips

A good video comes from a good script. To write a good script, you need to understand your audience. For example, you can find a problem in your audience. And make your video introduce a problem and suggest a solution. Understanding your audience will help you find your video's best tone. You will find the most suitable tone to reach your target audience.

The starting seconds of the video are the most crucial part. Your video should have an engaging opening. The best practice is to start with a hook or with a fact. Afterwards, you can introduce a problem and suggest a solution for your product or service. The video should highlight the benefits of your product or service. And remember to keep it simple. Short sentences will provide simplicity.

Use storytelling methods. The script's structure should have a clear beginning, middle, and end. The best way to finish the script is a strong call to action. It can be advice to your audience on what to do next.

Design tips

Another essential part of an explainer animation is visual style. It should match your brand’s identity. Your video's colors, fonts, and other elements should suit your brand’s identity.

The design of your characters should reflect your target audience. Also, the animation should clearly convey emotions and actions. For this, it should be expressive. When it’s time to choose the colors, color psychology will help you. If you care about the readability of the texts, then you need to contrast the text and background in high color. In simple terms, your design should be simple and clean. Simplicity is the key to an effective explainer video.

The sound design also matters. You can use background music. It should be suitable to the tone and mood of your video. It’s one of the main things that brings attention.

Distribution Strategies

When your explainer video is complete, it’s time to use it! Experience shows that they are spreading fast. They need good distribution strategies to meet their goals. The main strategies are

  • website integration,
  • email marketing,
  • social media platforms,
  • paid advertising,
  • SEO optimization.

Social Media Platforms and Website Integration

Animation explainers on social media platforms and websites bring engagement and conversion rates. But how to make it happen? You need to follow some guidelines to get all the benefits of explainer videos.

When you post an explainer on social media platforms, you should understand the needs of each platform. It will help you to choose the right platform for your video.

  • Facebook: Facebook is the best choice for posting longer explainer videos. It helps to get a wider audience.
  • Instagram: Instagram will be an effective platform for shorter explainer animations. Also, you can use stories to recruit it.
  • X: Perfect platform for an impactful video. Keep it shorter to hit the right target, and don’t forget about engaging tweets.
  • LinkedIn: LinkedIn loves professional content. It’s an excellent platform for sharing B2B content.
  • TikTok: It’s probably the most video-friendly social media platform. An excellent place to show creativity with short and catchy explainer videos.

It’s important to optimize video content for the platform. And there’s one more secret adjustment. It’s the subtitles and captions. They will help you to engage the viewers who watch videos without voice.

Website integration has its tips. Here, the explainer video should be optimized for the section of the website.

  • Homepage: Here, you can place explainer videos introducing your products or services.
  • Landing pages: In this part, you can put explainer videos that show key benefits and are good for improving conversion rates. 
  • Product pages: The best choice for product demonstration videos highlighting the product’s benefits.

It’s important to remember about technical considerations. For example, you should ensure video files won’t slow down your website. The design also matters. You should choose the type that is comfortable with various devices and screen sizes. And one more thing - SEO. You will improve search engine rankings by using proper metadata, like titles and descriptions.

Conclusion

Animated explainer videos' success is their effectiveness! This subfield of video marketing can be used in any area, from education to healthcare. Now, it’s a way to stay modern. Its roles are countless. It’s a good communication method, a customer care solution, or a bright entry to the marketplace.

Sometimes, it is hard to stay creative. When you look around, it feels like everything is already created. Everything is already done, and there’s nothing else to do. However, animation and video content prove that creativity has no borders. Using it is like approving the challenge of staying creative.

The results are talking by themselves. When you visualize your messages and ideas, they come alive. What else can creativity be? 
 

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