Explainer videos are an essential accompaniment to new products and services. Without them, your customers may have a hard time grasping your product's value or struggle to understand how they might use it in the first place.
With that in mind, let's take a look at a few tips for making the perfect explainer video, including best practices for scripts, visuals, background music, and voiceover work.
Focus on the Script First
A well-written and well-structured script is the key to a successful explainer video. It doesn't matter how skilled your voiceover artist might be or how amazing your visuals are; if you have a lacklustre script, it's going to be an uphill battle to win your target audience over.
The best script starts with your audience’s pain points at the beginning of your video to quickly grab their attention. Most consumers will decide within 8 seconds whether to continue watching the entire video or not, so make an impact!
Next, introduce your product or service as the solution before briefly describing how it works – remember to keep it simple here. Finally, tell your viewers what to do next, known as a Call to Action (CTA). You could have the best video in the world, but if you don't tell your viewers what they need to do next, they will be far less likely to become customers.
This loose structure will help you with your brainstorming and get your script on the right track.
Keep the Visuals Simple
It used accepted wisdom that the more complex the visuals were, the more impressed potential customers might be. However, today the opposite is true. The focus of your visuals should be simplicity.
It's why so many companies opt for animated explainer videos these days. It's about explaining how your product or service enhances your potential customers' lives in the most direct and easy-to-understand way possible. The visuals need to avoid distracting or detracting from the overall message. So if you do opt for animation, make sure to keep it simple.
Background Music
The background music should roughly follow the same best practices as your visuals. The goal is to avoid detracting from the overall message, so you should avoid tracks that are loud or "in your face" (sorry heavy metal fans!).
If your audience struggles to hear your professional voiceover artist over the top of your background music, the entire video could lose its potency. Thus, aim for softer music that reflects the overall mood for the video.
It's often a good idea to play sad music while the problems are being laid out in the early part of the video before switching to more upbeat music while describing your solution, as it helps to associate your product with positive feelings and emotions.
Add a Professional Voiceover
While the visuals will help in some way to explain your product or service, a lot will rest on the shoulders of your voiceover artist. And yes, you should use a professional, even if your budget is tight.
Not only do they boast the polish and delivery skills to deliver your message in a clear and easy-to-understand manner, but they crucially offer professional-level audio quality that is an absolute must for a company or organisation of any size. Poor audio can kill even the best explainer videos, so it's always worth the investment.
Ideally, no matter the tone of voice or branding you want your voiceover artist to reflect, it's important that they address the audience in a straightforward manner (as if they were talking directly to them as a person) to foster a connection and make it feel more personal.
Speak to an Experienced Voiceover Artist Today Regarding Your Explainer Video
Your explainer video is only as good as your voiceover artist, and that's why you should consider using my professional video voiceover services. I've already delivered my voiceover services on hundreds of explainer videos, and you can peruse samples of my video voiceover work here.
I am a British female voiceover artist with a vocal age of 25-55, a range of vocal styles, and flexibility regarding your requirements. All work is recorded in a professional studio environment.
To book me for video narration work, you can head over to my online shop. Alternatively, you can book a discovery call to learn more about my services and discuss your project in more detail.
I look forward to working with you soon! :-)
Nicky Griffiths