Updated: Aug 19, 2021
The use of video is one of the best ways to engage your audience and deliver information. Video marketing offers a unique opportunity to increase brand awareness, product knowledge and customer engagement and should be central to your digital marketing strategy.
One way to take advantage of this video marketing on a budget is by creating animated videos for your website or blog. This post will provide you with tips for how to create and animated explainer video that you can insert in proposals, serve online as a YouTube video, or on your website.
We've been commissioned to create an animated explainer videos for a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company to explain the features and benefits of their software to potential customers.
Listening to our client, they had message requirements for their SaaS explainer, for example:
The client wants to use animation instead of showing the actual software in use to prevent competitors from gaining an advantage.
The software itself is a massive platform with a host of useful features, which needed to be summarised into clear, easy-to-understand language.
There are a lot of benefits for customers signing up, which needed explaining to potential customers to drive the sales process.
4 steps to prepare for an SaaS explainer video
First, we needed to understand the software, so that we could explain it to others. We worked with the customer to understand the capabilities and draw out the key messages that were important to get across. Of critical importance was the call to action for the end of the video explainer, so customers would move through the next stage of the sales funnel.
Then, we researched the client's competitors to understand which features could be emphasised as having high-value or a unique benefit that will serve as a competitive advantage.
We also needed to have some idea about how customers would use this platform, so we carried out qualitative research on what customers were saying about the product to get insight into what they think are the best features.
We wrote and gained approval on a script with relevant sector-specific keywords to demonstrate our client's knowledge in their area of expertise for their target audience.
All these elements are important to create an impactful, relevant video and are a great example of the type of research that goes into creating explainer videos.
Scripting and storyboarding
Each script section was assigned to a particular storyboard to ensure that the animation matched up with what we needed to be said. We then arranged our storyboard in order of priority and flow, and created a corresponding animated concept for each one, for example funnels, charts, graphs, and happy customers.
Using the client's brand guidelines, and in cooperation with their marketing director, we agreed a style for the video that best fits the client's brand. It's important to use the company's style guide for colours, logos fonts and tone of voice - but it's also important to use the appropriate language when explaining a product or service to a particular audience to demonstrate credibility and an understanding of how the product or service is going to solve for the end-user.
When considering an animation package, we looked for software that could make completely branded video explainers, without watermark, and had a full range of animation styles, icons, video clips, and royalty-free music. The animation software should deliver fully branded animated videos that are of the highest quality without requiring a professional animator. You can share your completed video as a link or file with the client for final sign-off.
If you are looking for advice when selecting an animation software package, please give us a call on 07513 472371 - we've road-tested them all and are happy to chat through with you!
Making it special for our client
The final stage was animating all the storyboards we created into a two minute long animated SaaS explainer video with every scene featuring animated text, background music and effects. The result is a bright, engaging animated explainer video with persuasive copywriting and relevant keywords throughout.
As a special treat for the client, we created simple intro and outro animated video scenes that can be edited and made custom for each end-user. By adding the intro and outro to each video animation before it's sent out, it creates a unique end-user experience and creates a deeper user relationship with very little client effort.
Our client loved watching the video, and is using this SaaS explainer to reach their target audience two ways: First, in their company's proposals and secondly as a product feature video highlighted in their monthly sector newsletter.
To repurpose the video, this customer could also use it in LinkedIn advertising, or feature it on their website product and services pages as a video explainer.
If you are interested in video production, whether it's animation, video production or even drone footage - please get in touch. Email us at firstname.lastname@example.org
- we'd love to chat through your project.