A Guide to the Explainer Video Process

Explainer videos are a powerful tool for businesses, providing an engaging and informative medium to convey complex information. The process of partnering with a video company to create an explainer video that’s true to your brand takes time, but the process is highly rewarding — for your business and marketing efforts!

An explainer video can be used across digital channels as a one-of-a-kind asset, delivering immense value again and again. If your business is looking to invest in an explainer video, let’s take a detailed look at the process.

Understanding the Concept of Explainer Videos

An explainer video, as the term suggests, is a short animated or live-action video used for explaining a specific concept, product, or service in an easily digestible format.

Explainer videos work by simplifying complex ideas into easily understandable concepts in a visually engaging manner. Businesses often use them to educate their target audience about their product, missions, or complex business processes. As compared to just reading text, an animated or live-action explainer video can prove to be more effective thanks to its engaging visuals and narration, retaining the viewer’s attention for longer stretches.

CTA: Want to Know More? Explore In-Depth What Explainer Videos Are on Our Blog

The Importance of Explainer Videos in Business and Education

The shift toward the digital landscape has dramatically increased the importance of video content in business and education. Here’s why explainer videos are so invaluable:

• Enhanced Learning: Explainer videos are a proven way to educate audiences in an exciting, engaging manner. Animated explainer videos take advantage of the visual and auditory senses of learners, making difficult topics easier to understand and remember.
• Improved Conversion Rates: Data shows that explainer videos and video marketing help improve sales and increase website traffic. When consumers better understand your products and services, they feel empowered to further explore your brand and all you have to offer.
• Elevated Online Presence: Explainer videos can be easily shared across social media platforms and can significantly enhance your online visibility, driving more traffic to your landing page or website.

Different Types of Explainer Videos

Although all explainer videos are intended to explain a concept, product, or service, the approach varies based on the type. Genres of explainer videos can differ not just based on the animation process but also the content, tone, and purpose. Here, we explore some common types:

• 2D Videos: These videos use two-dimensional graphics, characters, and animations to explain a product, service, or concept. A 2D explainer video from Digital Brew features hand-crafted visuals, concise narration, and sometimes background music to communicate your message in a way that resonates with your customers.
• 3D Videos: 3D explainer videos are a great way to model products and services that demand in-depth explanation. Whether you need 3D modeling or custom texturing, these videos feature your products in a way that’s not possible with 2D animation or live-action. For example, a manufacturing company rolling out a new product model would highly benefit from a 3D video that demonstrates its product in action from different angles.
• Live-Action Explainer Videos: These videos feature real people and are often used to build trust or “humanize” a brand. Your company may invest in a live-action video to feature your staff celebrating a business milestone or to interview happy clients sharing success stories.
• Social Media Videos: A social media explainer video can be 2D, 3D, or live-action. The key for these videos is that they’re designed with platform constraints, audience preferences, and your company’s social media strategy in mind. Oftentimes, an explainer video for social media is shorter than, say, a landing page video, as it’s meant to fit a platform like Instagram or Facebook.

Want to see these different explainer video examples in action? Check out Digital Brew’s impressive portfolio here, or explore a specific industry by discovering what SaaS explainer videos are.

Steps Involved in the Explainer Video Process

Alright — so you’ve decided an explainer video is just what your company needs. What’s the process from here? When you partner with Digital Brew, we take you through tried-and-true steps that are flexible to your business and incorporate best practices to ensure we exceed expectations.

Here’s a look at our explainer video process:

Creative Brief

First, we gather all the information we need to write your script and put it into a creative brief. This includes details about your brand, services and products, and the direction for your video. Here, we’ll set the tone for your video, whether you want it to lean on humor or stick to a formal voice. Armed with this information, we can write the script.

The creative brief is a collaborative process where we go back and forth with your team to gather feedback and refine the script. We expect you to make plenty of changes to keep our team on track before we take the next step.

Mood Boards and Style Frames

With the script and direction in mind, we’ll send you a mood board, which is a collection of images with different art styles. Pick the ones you like, and we’ll use this feedback to create custom artwork. Then, we create style frames, which involves our illustrators creating three or four video frames with your custom artwork. This shows you what your art will look like and how it’ll be used in your video. As with step one, you’ll have the opportunity to give us feedback so we can perfect the art style exactly as you want it.

Voiceover

With the explainer video script ready, it’s time to consider voiceover. We’ll work with you to decide how you want the voice to sound, and we’ll look into voiceover artists who can deliver what you’re looking for. Or, if you’re more open, we’ll find a range of artists to capture your tone and the script, and you can pick the best fit.

Then, we’ll schedule a recording session with you, the artist, and our team. You can direct the artist in real-time as they read through your video narration as many times as needed to get the sound right.

Storyboard and Animation

With artwork and style frames ready to go, we’ll storyboard your video from beginning to end. This gives you a total overview of how your finished video will look, minus animation. Again, you’ll have the chance to give feedback.

Finally, it’s time for animation! At this point, you should have a clear idea of how your final video will turn out. However, you’ll still be able to make changes at this stage (within limitations). At this point, you can sit back and let our experts finish the explainer video production until we deliver a final product that’s true to your brand. Our goal is for your explainer video to serve as an invaluable asset for your marketing that delivers incredible ROI.

Freshly Brewed Explainer Videos

If this process sounds like something you’re ready to invest in, look to Digital Brew.

At Digital Brew, we are passionate about creating captivating and effective explainer videos that achieve our client’s goals — wherever they are in their marketing journey. As an Emmy award-winning video production company, our talented in-house team brings decades of experience across 2D and 3D animation, motion graphics, and live action.

We don’t just focus on making beautiful videos; we ensure our videos drive results for your brand. And thanks to our video conversion kits, you have the tools you need to get the most out of your video investment.

Whether your tech company is looking to roll out a new app in a user-friendly way or your healthcare business needs to communicate a new service line to patients, we’ve got the skills to deliver one-of-a-kind explainer videos. Let us help you tell your story.

Contact us today to start brewing your explainer video.

Frequently Asked Questions