You’ve probably heard of explainer videos before, but you might wonder how they could help you generate more leads. After all, aren’t you supposed to create them so that people get to know more about your business and brand? Well, yes and no! Yes, you should put your brand into the spotlight by creating an explainer video describing what it does and why it matters. But that’s not the only reason you need to have an explainer video on your website or in your sales funnel.

What are Explainer Videos?

An explainer video (also called an animated video) is a short, entertaining and informative marketing video that helps you educate your website visitors and convert them into customers. They are typically 1-3 minutes long. Think of it as an elevator pitch on steroids. If a picture is worth a thousand words, an explainer video is worth ten thousand words! Having one for your business can help you get more leads and ultimately more sales.

There are Two Main Types of Explainer Videos

Product and Brand Video Explainer videos are one of today’s most popular marketing strategies. Explainer videos help explain your product or service in a fun and entertaining way, allowing you to stand out from competitors and drive more traffic to your website. Because of their popularity, there is a lot of misconceptions about explainer videos, but we’re here to set the record straight: Animated video explainer is not just for big companies or startups with an abundance of resources.

What Makes a Great Explainer Video

Have you ever watched an animated video and thought to yourself, Why did they create something so funny, engaging and well-made? They did it because explainer videos do more than entertain — they convince viewers to take action. If your business relies on customers making a purchase or taking some sort of positive action on your behalf, then explainer videos are for you.

Who Can Benefit From Explainer Videos

There’s no question about it—animated videos are becoming more and more popular among businesses. In fact, explainer videos, in particular, have become one of today’s most effective marketing tools. But who exactly can benefit from animated video marketing? To start with, it’s a great choice for anyone looking to tell their story on their terms.

Getting Started with Explainer Videos

If you’re not familiar with animated explainer videos, they’re basically short (usually 1–2 minutes long) video that explains what your business or service is all about. They help convey information in an easy-to-digest manner, and a well-done video can really help boost your conversion rates by increasing your click-through rate (CTR) and overall brand awareness.

Here are some tips for creating your first animated explainer video:

1. Keep it simple: It may seem tempting to cram as much information as possible into your video—but resist! Instead of trying to create a 10-minute infomercial, try boiling down what makes your company unique into just one minute. The more concise you are, the easier it will be to keep viewers engaged throughout your entire video. 

2. Be consistent: Once you’ve figured out how to explain your product in one minute, use that same script for every other video on your site. Consistency helps visitors learn what to expect when they visit your site, which increases their likelihood of making a purchase from you. 

3. Tell them why: One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is assuming everyone already knows why their product or service exists; after all, if people don’t know why something exists, then why would they buy it? But customers aren’t always aware of everything you offer, so it’s up to you to tell them exactly why your product or service is worth their time and money. 

4. Use real customer testimonials: Don’t just read off generic quotes from satisfied customers—show actual footage of those customers talking about how great your company is! This way, potential buyers can relate to your existing clients and see how happy they are with your products/services. 

5. Make it shareable: A good explainer video should do more than simply inform people about what you do—it should also inspire them to spread word of mouth about your company. This means incorporating social media sharing buttons into your video so users can easily show their friends what you have to offer without having to navigate away from your page. 

How to generate leads with videos

As you know, people are visual creatures and are likely to respond better to images rather than plain text. Using animated explainer videos for your business can be a great way to get more leads. An explainer video is a short, informative video that captures your audience’s attention and gives them a sneak peek of what your business has to offer. With so many benefits, there’s no reason not to invest in one for your business. Here’s how they work: A business owner creates an explainer video to show off his or her company and its products/services. The video will typically be about two minutes long, but it could also be shorter or longer depending on your preferences. Once created, you can post it on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as send it out via email. This type of marketing tool is particularly effective because customers today have extremely short attention spans. If your message doesn’t catch their eye immediately, they won’t stick around to see if anything else grabs their interest.

There are five sure-fire ways to boost your lead-gen efforts with video:

• Choose the right video type
• Add video to your landing page
• Include a CTA in your video
• Gate your video content
• Add video to your emails

Let’s explore each of these to see how you can make the most of them.

1. Choose the right video type

Ultimately, you need to determine what kind of video will be most effective for lead generation. If your target market is B2B (business-to-business) and technical, an animated explainer video can help you connect with your audience more effectively. But if your customers are more familiar with a specific type of videos, such as tutorials or infographics, that’s probably a better choice. Explainer videos can be useful when companies are trying to introduce new products or services to their customers.

2. Add Video to Your Landing Page.

When it comes to b2b lead generation, you need to look at your options and identify which will help you find more leads, generate more sales and boost profits. For many businesses, investing in animated videos seems like a big risk but is actually an extremely wise investment if you use them correctly on your landing page. Adding a simple video to your landing page can increase conversions by over 120%. The reason for such a dramatic jump? It’s all about how people respond to visual stimuli versus written content. Studies have shown that 90% of information transmitted to our brain is visual, so when you add a short animated explainer video that explains your product or service, visitors are far more likely to convert into customers than those who just read text-based content.

3. Include a CTA in Your Video

Don’t forget to include a call-to-action (CTA) in your video to direct your audience. Use CTAs to provide a compelling reason for viewers to continue their journey down your marketing funnel. For example, if you are inviting them to watch another video on YouTube, ask them to subscribe and share it with their friends! If they want to learn more about your product or service, ask them to visit your website or give you a call. If they want more information about how they can work with you, ask them to set up an appointment with you directly.

4. Gate Your Video Content

Video content is a valuable asset to businesses that rely on online traffic, but it can be a challenge to share. Many companies like to gate their videos, requiring viewers to enter their name and email address in order to access certain videos. This gives you access to lead data for future follow-up campaigns. However, it’s important to make sure your video isn’t too long or complex; otherwise, people will give up before entering any information. A good rule of thumb is no more than 60 seconds of video per question asked. If you have more than one piece of information being requested (i.e., name and email), consider breaking it up into multiple videos so that each individual section isn’t too long or complicated.

5. Add Video to Yor Emails

With more and more people ditching email in favor of social media and messaging apps, it’s become increasingly important to stand out from your competition. A survey by Conversant found that 52% of consumers prefer seeing a video in their email over all other types of content. Adding videos to your emails can increase open rates by 98%, click-through rates by 51% and conversions by 117%. The best part?

Conclusion

Video marketing is a powerful tool in a company’s b2b lead generation arsenal. Adding a video to your website or even your emails has been proven to boost clickthrough rates, and explainer videos also allow you to quickly generate leads by demonstrating who you are, what you do and how it can help your target audience. A quick search will bring up many different types of videos that are able to accomplish these tasks, so it’s worth investigating before making a decision.