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Explainer Videos – What They Are and Why Your Business Needs One.

I’m going to make a guess that the term ‘Explainer Video’ (I know, it’s a weird name – bear with me here) isn’t a regular feature in your day to day conversations, and yet you probably do encounter Explainer Videos on a daily basis. They are the 30-90 second clips that are on company websites, that teach customers something about the business – be it the team culture, a product or a system (the video above is an Explainer Video that we made for Kiwiherb). They are straight-forward, punchy and easy to understand, but the most important thing to know about Explainer Videos is – they work. Here’s three reasons why:

  1. Us humans are pretty hard to engage – in the year 2000, the average attention span was around 12 seconds[1] and today, it has dropped to a mere 8 seconds. Sadly, that means that we are out-focused by our forgetful friend, the common Goldfish, who has an attention span of 9 seconds. So what does this mean for your business? It means that if you want to get a message across, you need to do it quickly, in a way that will hopefully engage your audience enough to stick around for more than 8 seconds. The likelihood of a customer reading through a full page of text about your product is slim-to-none, however a 30-90 second animation is engaging, entertaining and memorable, and studies have proven time and time again that we are much more likely to stick around for a video than we are for text[2].
  2. Business is now more social than ever – and I don’t mean ‘Monday 3pm drinks’ kind of social (I see you, advertising industry), I mean social media. It’s so important to get customers talking about your business, and studies have shown that people are more likely to like, share and comment on video than they are on text articles. Not only that but video can be easily adapted to suit a range of social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, so your reach goes a lot further than just the people who visit your website.
  3. Explainer Videos convert sales – in a huge way. 85% of people are more likely to buy a product once they have watched an explainer video about it[3]. This is for a number of reasons, the main two of which are product understanding and trust. Firstly, because the customer was actually engaged enough to sit still and watch your video for 30-90 seconds, they understand the product much more than they would from skimming over a text article. Secondly, with an explainer video your company can insert a little bit of personality and relatability, making your brand more transparent and trust-worthy to the customer.

Regardless of all of the statistics and jargon, and despite the fact that the term ‘Explainer Video’ is a bit weird, I think dynamic video content is a powerful development for both businesses and customers. Consumers get the chance to take a step away from their strenuous afternoons of reading prices and product desciptions in online shopping catalogues, and businesses are able to deliver their message clearly, develop closer customer relationships and convert sales. With the help of tools like this, websites are fast-becoming something that customers experience, rather than simply read – and I can’t wait to see where they go next.

– Bridget.

 

[1] http://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/

[2] http://www.mycustomer.com/news/online-videos-evoke-more-consumer-engagement-words

[3] http://www.videobrewery.com/blog/10-reasons-why-your-business-needs-an-explainer-video

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