07 Jul Make your explainer videos stand out.
Animated explainer videos are the current buzz for any marketing campaign, but without the right copy, it’s just cool pictures with no direction, that won’t yield the results you want. These videos capture the brand essence and highlight significant points the brand or product has to offer in a simple and understandable yet powerful manner. The following steps, though not set in stone, will help you with writing copy for explainer videos;
1.Write a creative brief
The creative brief encapsulates your vision and goals for the project, which will determine the direction in which you go.
Answer the following questions in your creative brief:
- What problem are you solving with your product/brand?
- What is your goal for the project/campaign?
- How are you solving this problem?
- How is your solution different/better than alternative solutions?
- What are the key elements of your brand or product
- What do you want people to do after watching your video?
Your answers to these questions will help you form an outline of the copy for your explainer video.
2.Target audience
Identifying your target audience
Defining your target audience early on will guide the tone of your copy, which will, in turn, help you generate a strong connection with them via the video.
Before you start with your copy, answer these questions;
- What do they look like?
- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- How do they dress?
- Where do they work?
- What lingo (language) do they use?
With this information, you’ll be able to carve out the exact person you’re talking to and to ascertain how to talk to them in a way that is relatable to them, it’ll also help you with the storyboard for characters later when you start putting the video together.
3. Three-Act Structure
Utilizing the three-act structure template will help you package your video into sections. Having a structured approach will make your video more coherent, and memorable.
Act 1: The What
Act 1 is all about outlining the reason for the video, this is where you show what the problem is.
This step is very important, and ideally should grab the audience’s attention within 15 seconds, these 15 seconds will determine whether or not they’ll continue watching.
Act 2: The How
The “How” demonstrates how the product or brand solves the problem mentioned in Act 1. The copy here should be an expansion on The What, highlight the brand or product’s USP (unique selling proposition), and give the audience a reason to believe in your brand/product.
Act 3: The Why
In the final Act, the copy should explain to the audience why they should pick you over the other existing alternatives/competitors.
The first two Acts are more of a story about your brand/product, whereas Act 3 is where the “sales pitch” comes in; this is the part where you persuade them to believe that your product/brand is better than the others, thus influencing them to choose you.
Always remember to have your call-to-action at the very end, the call-to-action prompts your audience to take steps towards becoming your customer.
4.Consider The Whole
While the focus here is the copy, you need to consider the video as a whole; this includes the music as well as the visuals that’ll go with it, to ensure that everything works in unison. Every element of the video needs to make sense together, it doesn’t help to have a video with beautiful images, and good music but the copy doesn’t make sense in the context of the video, or vice versa.
5.Stay Focused
it’s easy to get carried away when writing copy, that’s why it is so important to keep the objective of the explainer video in the back of your mind. Ensure that the bulk of the copy explains the brand/product’s benefits, or how it works; whatever the purpose of the video is, ensure that it doesn’t get lost along the way.
6.Technicalities
The length of the copy, and ultimately that of the video is an important part of the process. You don’t want to make the video too long and risk losing your audience halfway through, but you don’t want to make it too short either and not get enough information in.
People are more likely to respond to communication that evokes an emotional response in them, ensure that your copy doesn’t only harp on about benefits, and what makes you different. Include elements that’ll make your explainer video memorable, elements such as storytelling that’ll evoke emotion from your audience.
In short, your script has to make sense in the context of the video; it needs to work in unison with the other elements of the video. Moreover writing copy for explainer videos needs to be short and to the point.