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| Image courtesy of Tamara Bauer, Dreamstime.com |
Welcoming your visitors to your calm and inspiring website as they come in from the bustling mayhem that is the internet can make an invaluable first impression.
You could liken it to inviting someone in from a ram-packed day for a hot cup of tea and some soothing music.
It may not be quite the same, but it's the same idea: to make our visitors relax.
Too often, businesses try to put across as much information as they can in an explainer video, thinking something in there will surely attract customers. But this can be detrimental, and actually push them away.
Also, no one likes to be pushed to make a decision.
For many products, it is best to provide potential customers with the minimal information necessary at first, while captivating them with an inspiring thought.
The idea of an explainer video is to tell the consumer what you offer and how you are better than competitors, but this needn't be complex. In fact, it's an attractive video that will initially make you stand out from those competitors.
Having been captivated, the visitor will then navigate across to other pages on your site to learn more, without becoming overwhelmed with too much information at once.
Visitors to a website who view video stay on a website for two minutes longer than those who don't view video, according to ComScore figures (for more statistics on explainer videos, click here).
That suggests that after viewing the video, they will also look at other information on the page, so it needn't all be in the video.
Most products and services are quite simple, and that deeper information can wait.
Explaining a complex concept with animation
If you need to detail a more complicated concept that you offer, this can be simplified with the use of various mediums in video – i.e. imagery, music, voiceover, special effects.
The use of visual aids in video means less words are needed, making the whole experience less overwhelming for your visitor.
A great way of putting a concept across in a light and easily comprehensible way is with animation.
For a start, people tend to associate cartoons with fun; but there's no reason your video can't be more dramatic or profound.
You might choose 3D motion graphics as your medium, or perhaps a 2D whiteboard animation; either can draw a viewer in and take them on an enjoyable journey.
Whiteboard animation is a particularly popular technique for taking a viewer through the intricacies of a somewhat complicated product or concept, while making it fun.
The viewer can be hand-guided one step at a time, whilst enjoying the imaginative and abstract elements of the experience.
Simple can of course still be original.
And animation is a wonderful way of achieving this simplicity.
Minimalism is very trendy in the fast paced world we live in, and you will notice that effortless notion throughout animated designs in marketing.
The Hitler versus Chaplin advert was developed for Hut Weber by Serviceplan, Munich and Hamburg. Although simple, the animation is very clever and memorable.
To show how simple animation can immediately draw a viewer in, we can take a look at the Hitler versus Chaplin advert from Bonn hat retailer, Hut Weber. Put a bowler hat on Hitler's head and he's transformed in to Charlie Chaplin. Brilliant, and memorable!Apply a similar concept to video and at the same time you can tell your audience about your brand or product.
An engaging way to do this is to construct a compelling short story about your product or service.
Animation allows a lot of freedom, so an element of fantasy can really grab viewers' attention.
Appealing to the viewer's visceral emotions is also an effective tactic.
Whether happiness, excitement or sadness, intense feelings of any kind will engage and instigate curiosity in your story.
It is these inspiring and emotion-rendering videos that are more likely to get shared across other websites and social networks, resulting in links and potentially more conversions.
Video length
Eight seconds is the average attention span of a viewer, according to statistics from The Associated Press in 2012.
In those first critical seconds they will decide whether they are interested and want to continue watching.
YouTube research shows that the average viewer's attention span is 63 seconds, so that suggests that when interested, a viewer will in fact stay for significantly longer.
This indicates that the maximum video length should be a little over a minute, and the first few seconds should immediately engage the viewer.
That means keeping it unpretentious and waiting until later to introduce your brand.
Typically, a video of 60 seconds has 160 words in it, but according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research, a minute of video has the value of 1.8 million words.
So by being more modest in your lengthy verbal explanation, you needn't lose that valuable exchange of information.
Of course the perfect length and information load in an explainer video will vary depending on your product, your target audience and your marketing strategy.
These are things to consider carefully in the planning stage so that you optimize the potential of your explainer video.
We wish you all the best in creating your explainer video!
Author Bio
Dr Manroop Takhar is originator of Qudos Animations, a animation studio that focuses on producing engaging explainer animations for a variety of purposes and businesses. Click here to find out what we offer and to learn more about how an animated explainer video can potentially benefit your business.
A/c to Dr.James Mcquivey the video Should not be more then a minute but its words should be attractive and worthy enough to catch the audience attention.
Animated explainer videos company