Feel intimidated by the notion of creating an explainer video? There’s no need to be — they just represent another excellent way to get your content out to your target audience. Besides the really big brands that we are all familiar with, a lot of lesser-known companies and even small startups are using them.
Even if you believe your product isn’t “cool” enough to become a cute, cuddly explainer video, someone out there who has a problem that can be solved by what you have to offer would likely see it in a much different light. Sometimes a quick, easy, explanation is just what someone needs to help clearly understand how your product solves a problem.
Compiling an explainer video isn’t much more complicated than putting together a slide deck in a Powerpoint presentation. You decide what to say and find some relevant graphics to jazz things up. The only differences this time are that you’ll be recording a voiceover from a written script instead of presenting it live and you’ll need to be concise and truly explain how something is done. The biggest difference is the final step of putting all the pieces together into an easy-to-access, video file format.
Explainer videos should be 30-90 seconds in length which translates into a written script of around 200 words or less in most cases. To get a good feel for crafting yours, just examine the work of others. You’re bound to find something that resonates with you as a good example for brainstorming your own.
Here are 20 fabulous explainer videos. I’ve included the length of the video, when it was published and the types of product being highlighted so you can easily find something similar to your needs to serve as an example. You should have no trouble getting inspired to make an explainer video part of your marketing strategy.
1) Gigtown: A mobile application that helps people find, follow and book musicians.
2) Wizzki: A platform for managing the hiring process.
3) Gradeleap: A schoolwork management system for parents, students, and teachers.
4) Mailbox: A fun, quick preview of an email management application.
5) Pinterest: A nice touch is that they explain right up front how long the video will last.
6) ScaleArc iDB: An SQL traffic management engine is explained in this cute animation.
7) Alden Systems: A software application for joint use asset management, primarily used for managing utility poles.
8) Student Hut: A tool for college students to review and discuss any college class before deciding on their course of study.
9) FileExpert: An application for managing files on Android phones, tablets, personal computers, and cloud storage servers.
10) Removemyjunk.us: Furniture moving, junk removal, and clean up service.
11) Olark: Customer service tool. This one does a very good job of explaining what they offer and includes a special offer at the end.
12) SatPhoneCity: This satellite phone services company good job of giving a quick overview of just what they do and how they offer value.
13) Adoddle PM: This brief explainer video highlights the risk associated with mistakes that might result from poor planning and communication, and offers a corporate collaboration tool.
14) Bubbl.us: This video shows you how a product can help you create mind maps and work out ideas to make a plan to put them in action.
15) Tonx: Nice video that tells a story about why every coffee lover needs their freshly roasted coffee mail order service.
16) PG&E: A solar billing service. This video is short and concise.
17) Verico: A mortgage insurance provider explains how their product works and provides value.
18) NextGlass: Nice video that explains how a craft beer and wine discovery application works.
19) Amazon Echo: Great example of how an explainer video is just the thing when your product is somewhat revolutionary. This one is long as explainer videos go, but illustrates how show and tell might be the best route for explaining how a product works.
20) CashOut: This one falls more in the lines of a demo and does a good job of illustrating the value of “easy” to the small business owner much more quickly than written content. A unique point about it is it uses no voiceover.
Want to learn how to make your own explainer video? Download our guide on creating a compelling explainer video about Inbound Marketing!
