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If you are wondering, “What is an animated explainer video?”, this article will explain, and expand on the value they can deliver when done effectively. Animated videos are powerful marketing and sales tools. When you create explainer videos, they engage your audience and potential customers quicker and with greater impact than dozens of website landing pages.
Animated explainer video production can make a big impact on your business. However, making a few mistakes could greatly reduce the outcome, audience engagement, and ROI.
When you create an explainer video it’s a growth-based investment. The video production process takes your ideas, story, and message, and crafts this into a visual story. You need a bang for your buck. How do you achieve these aims with an animated explainer video? Make sure to avoid these top 5 mistakes in video marketing.
What is an explainer video?
Instead of live-action, involving actors or team members, an animated video uses 3D/2D graphics and other visuals to tell the story. Voice overs are usually used to convey the message. Company branding can be used throughout. And the whole story is told using animated graphics. Music naturally plays an important role in an animated video too.
Think of a Discovery or Spotify short animation, but usually between 60 to 90-seconds, and created to tell the story of a company, brand, products or services.
Why do businesses need animated explainer videos?
Animated explainer videos are created to tell stories, at the right level for your target audience. Craft and shape a company’s message. Ultimately, to make it easier for an audience to either understand or buy a particular product or service. Or range of services.
Some sectors rely on these more than others as sales, marketing and promotional tools. In particular, software companies (SaaS), big data/AI, cloud-based providers, IT/web development, games and game studios, and the crypto/blockchain-based sector.
There are a wide range of potential types of explainer videos, depending on your sector, product, or service. Business processes improve when marketing has a valuable asset such as an explainer video to really sell the company and value proposition.
Businesses in particular where the product or service is intangible are more likely to find animated explainer videos useful. Potential customers need to be able to see themselves in a video. Relate to the animated characters and the message. Achieve an understanding that they need the product(s) or services being explained in the video.
In other cases, such as game brands, animated videos are used to launch new games, or in-game features. Any products that are created using animation and CGI find that animation videos are extremely useful to generate hype and pull in new customers. Let’s take a look at the 5 most common mistakes made when creating animated videos.
5 animated explainer video mistakes to avoid
When commissioning an animated explainer video, one of the most significant animation mistakes you can make is the video being too long. Time is a critical factor, and making it too long is a common mistake. You aren’t just competing with other companies in your sector. You are competing with the whole Internet for a tiny bit of potential customers’ attention as part of a larger marketing campaign.
#1: Making the video too long
Only a small percentage of your potential audience is going to watch a video longer than 30 seconds. But that might not be enough time to get your message across. Whereas, two minutes (120 seconds) probably would, but that’s too long.
You need just enough time to convey your message and relevant points, using animation and a voice over, without wasting time on too many words or too much detail. Time is everything. Waste no words. Which means the best way to avoid animated explainer video mistakes is to make it 90 seconds long, no longer. Shorter might not do the job, but longer won’t achieve the results you want.
In 90 seconds, a voice over actor speaking at a normal speed can say 240 words. Combine that with a 2D or 3D motion graphic, and calls-to-action, and you’ve got a powerful animated video that will make an impact.
#2: A poor story, too boring
Every video starts with words. A script. A script needs a story, and it’s got to be a good one! Even some of Hollywood’s legendary award-winning, box office smashing producers have made films that have flopped. Why does this happen?
It’s rarely because of a lack of money, resources, or talent.
At the core of every movie is the story. And if the story is poor, then even the best directors, producers, and actors can’t make a great movie out of it.
So when creating a project with an animated explainer video company, the best way to avoid any kind of mistakes is to focus on the story. When having an animated video created, brands that provide creative guidelines perform better. Have everything worked out before production starts. Let’s apply this to a software company.
When thinking about the story and script, start with the basics. A lead character (the user) and a villain (the pain points your customers have). What problems does our hero encounter?
How do you (the hero) save our lead character — someone your audience/customers should relate to — solve those problems, and defeat the villain?
That’s at the heart of keeping an animated video interesting and avoiding numerous mistakes.
#3: Overly sophisticated
Alongside the script, storyboard and animatic, which are usually script-driven, are one of the most important parts of creating an animated video. And one of the main animation mistakes companies make is creating a script and visuals too complex for a regular viewer.
It’s definitely a hard task to convert difficult concepts to a visual image so that it becomes easy to digest and understand for a common viewer. However, it is important to pay extra attention to this stage and find a visual metaphor that both conveys a consistent and clear message to the audience and has an appealing look.
Without a strong script, and good concept artists/storyboardist video won’t succeed. You could have amazing animation and graphics, but the story and, therefore, the script, storyboard, and animatic must drive that forward.
#4: Failing to make it interesting, fun, engaging
Now to the animated graphics. They’ve got to be eye-catching, fun, and engaging.
Especially if you are trying to sell a product people might consider boring. Such as accountancy software. Or accounting services.
Setting the scene and driving the story forward using animated graphics involves creating a visual landscape and characters familiar to your target audience. Even though they are animated, your audience needs to relate to them. Recognize their pain points and problems. Seeing you as the solution to those problems, the answer to their prayers.
#5: Forgetting a call-to-action (CTA)
One final animated explainer video common mistake is to forget to include a call-to-action (CTA).
An animated video is meant to motivate an audience. Encourage them to do something. Such as “Buy Now”, or “Call us Today.”
Getting a return on investment (ROI) for a superb explainer video means including a CTA at the end of the video. Make it easy for people to take that next step. Such as getting in contact. Remember, on the landing pages and platforms (such as your company website) customers are viewing this on, there needs to be links.
Ensure the action you want customers to take is one-click away. Especially if this is on a mobile device. Make every link, including phone numbers, clickable. Calls-to-action should always, by default, be actionable.
And there we go, those are the five animated explainer video mistakes every company needs to avoid. If you want an ROI from this investment and to convert customers who’ve seen the video, then it should be short, sweet, informative, engaging, fun, and include a call-to-action (CTA).
Key Takeaways: 5 Video Animation Mistakes to Avoid
- Making the video too long
- A poor story, too boring
- Too sophisticated
- Failing to make it interesting, fun, engaging
- Forgetting a call-to-action (CTA)
Want a compelling explainer video that gets results? Contact Walla Walla Studio, a leading video production company, today to get started. Our animated explainer videos make an impact, engage with customers, and increase conversion rates.
