The Evolution of the Explainer Video  

Creativa

September 18, 2014

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If you’re brand new to the term, you may be wondering what an explainer video is exactly. The rudimentary version of the explainer video is quite simple. It’s used as a tool to explain a service, a new product concept, or the nitty gritty of how a product or service can be used.
But since its humble beginnings, the explainer video has come quite a long way. Find out how explainer videos originally helped businesses, how they evolved into something more and finally, how you can implement it as part of your own marketing strategy.

Instructing Your Customers

Explainer videos started off as nothing more than a tool to instruct customers. It worked extremely well for companies that used them for:

1. Less Customer Service Calls – Explainer videos are so effectively at conceptualising difficult topics that customers won’t need to call your company to clarify your service offer.
2. Reducing One on One Tutorials – Many customers often get confused about how to use a product, particularly if we’re talking about anything that’s techie or involves the web. Explainer videos littered around the customer portal means that your developers can focus on developing, rather than spending precious time tutoring customers over the phone or on in person.
3. In-House Training – This is a benefit that isn’t as obvious as the two aforementioned. When someone joins your company completely fresh, they will often just have a general idea of what you’re all about. And like customers, they’re going to need training from the ground up. Explainer videos can be used again and again, making training quicker while also reducing the need for personal handholding.

And these are just three of the clear and noticeable benefits offered by explainer videos. But companies soon realised that these were just barely scratching the surface of what’s possible.

More Than Just an Explanation Tool?

Originally, explainer videos were just that. They were used to, well, explain stuff.  But the crude iteration of yesteryear has been supplanted by a more refined version. Explainer videos are now used as legitimate replacements of your traditional advertisement.
Businesses from starts-ups to household names use this type of video to increase brand awareness and grab leads. The reason they work so well is that they are not obviously ‘salesey’. Customers are willing to sit and watch the videos from beginning to end because they don’t feel as if a product or service is being shoved in their faces.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Using explainer videos are incredibly effective, there’s no doubt about that. And the numbers are there to back that statement up. Crazy Egg, which offers a website heat map tracker, put an explainer video on its home page and generated an additional $21,000 in revenue.
 
 
DropBox, the file backup juggernaut, did something similar and saw a 10% jump in conversions overnight. And these are just two examples – the web is littered with companies that saw both traffic and sales skyrocket after putting an explainer video to good use.

How Your Business Can Use Explainer Videos

If you think you need a blockbuster budget to get your own explainer video, or if you think your business is too ‘simple’ to benefit, think again. We’ve worked with a wide variety of companies, from digital start-ups to local businesses, and they’ve all found benefit in explainer videos. Check out our Explainer Video playlist for just a few examples of work we have done:

The trick is in using the video to work for your business, not the other way around. Don’t have an explainer video for the sake of it, but have a well-rooted plan behind its use. Whether you want to use it as a training module for your staff, an introduction to a new service within your company, or as the backbone of your marketing campaign, we’ll tweak your explainer video to work accordingly.