A step by step guide to writing a good explainer video. Part 1

I felt compelled to write this because time and again, I see explainer videos that are missing a trick. I’m not talking about the animation here. If we’re only going off the visual execution, then a “good” explainer is pretty subjective. But I’m not. The main trick most explainers are missing is their lack of sales tactics. And this is all governed by the script. A good explainer sells in the simplest, most explicit manner possible. It knows its audience and combines both copy and visuals to craft something your audience finds impossible to ignore. And the first step in doing this is…

1)   Research

If I had just $2000 to spend on making an explainer video, I would spend as much as half of that on research. Granted, this may well have already been carried out. So if you’ve already got good voice of customer data and know the audience’s pain points inside out, then great. Feel free to move on to step 3. But I must stress the “good” bit when I mention good data. Have you gone over 100+ reviews and found the common complaints and approvals? Or have you just got some kind of a vibe from the amazon or app store comments thus far? Have you put out a survey? Have you conducted at least six one on one customer interviews and uncovered golden insights and messages you could never have written yourself? Have you seen what your audience is saying on social? Have you noted what your competitor’s messaging is and what their audience is saying about them too? Now I’m not saying that if you don’t do these things you’re dooming your video to a fate of ineffective mediocrity. But what I am saying is that you need to build a very clear picture of what your audience really cares about. You need cold hard evidence of what they like and dislike about your product and your competition. And you need to be able to explain their problems better than they can themselves. You basically need to become your audience. Like a method actor researching a role. And to do this, carrying out some, or all of the above is the only solution.

2)   Look at the research and draw up your messages and insights

From the research phase, you should glean a number of important pieces of information. They may vary a little from product to product, but by and large, you will want your research to answer questions such as the following.

·     What pain does your product alleviate?

·     What are your customers’ fears and frustrations?

·     What do they hope to get from your product? And if you’re going really deep, what do they really hope to get from life as a whole?

·     What is a short, one-paragraph character bio of your ideal customer avatar?

·     What in particular is it about your product that your client finds truly amazing compared to the competition?

·     What are the mean reasons for not buying the product?

·     What are the top 3-5 benefits your product delivers?

·     What bad thing might/will happen if they don’t buy your product?

·     What positive life change has your product created for them?

·     What words and phrases of theirs can be used in the final copy of the videos’ voice over? This can be key; talking and sounding like your target customer is usually a sales home run.

Sometimes finding these answers doesn’t take too long. Sometimes it does. I find the key to getting answers quickly is all in the organizing of one’s data. Most copywriters I know, fair well with google forms and sheets. And then for real efficiency, many say programs like Aurelius Lab are magical. No, I’m not an affiliate, I’ve just heard great things.

3)   Write your first draft

Armed with your insights and messages, it’s time to whip them into an entertaining script. As a general rule, I’d try and keep it under two minutes. Because a) your audience is less likely to get bored and ignore the all-important CTA at the end. And b) if you’re animating, the shorter it is the cheaper it’ll be to produce. That said, if you’re confident you’ve got something seriously killer and hard to ignore, time may not matter. The customers that will buy should be just as happy to watch five minutes as they will two. This is better addressed in a separate post (coming soon), but as an overview, use this basic structure for your videos.

· Hook: the loud, memorable, thumb-stopping, eye-catching and quite often weird technique used to hook the viewer’s attention in the first three seconds. This is best done visually as we process images far quicker than reading words or sound.

· Problem: state the problem your customers have.

· Solution: now state that your product solves it, how it solves it and how it does it better than the competition. This is the explaining part that ultimately gives explainers their name.

· Social Proof: testimonials, awards, reviews and basically anything else proving that real people have used and liked your product.

· Overcome objections: everything you’ve said in your video up until now will most likely have a sceptical prospect saying “so what?” Or “O.k. but…” Here is where you can layout your counter-arguments to the main reasons why someone wouldn’t buy.

·     CTA: The bit where you ask for something. This may be the sale. It may be an email address. It may be a trial sign up. Either way, it’s the bit where you explicitly ask your audience to actually do what you’ve been persuading them about for the last few minutes.

Working with that structure, if there’s one tip I’d offer that’s key to a good script, it’s to write visually. As in don’t just write a bunch of words and messages. This isn’t a sales letter. Write pictures. Yes, this may not come naturally to many of you. After all, it’s copy-writing and not an art class. But like most challenges, there’s a muscle you can build if you want to get better. So if you’re having trouble writing visually try this technique.

Firstly, write out what you want to say. Treat the explainer video like writing a letter. Next, break it down into bits. There’s no sure-fire definition of what a ‘bit’ is here but if you look at your script, you should see sections that go together messaging wise; chunks of one to a handful of sentences that are all pointing towards the same message. Then, take each bit and write around it. Keep the overall message the same, but play around with how you say it.

For example, if your hook starts off something like;

“does managing multiple social media accounts make you want to scream?”

Then write out a few other ways of expressing that. Using similes, metaphors and analogies is a good way to go. So you might come out with

“Does managing multiple social media accounts feel as painful has eating wasps?”

“Sometimes, managing multiple social media accounts can feel like you’re spinning plates”

“Managing social media accounts is like surviving a zombie apocalypse. You’ve got problems from every angle and your mummy isn’t here to help.”

Play around with the wording and write as many as you feel like until you’ve got a good way of visually depicting things. Yeah, this could be time-consuming. But perfectly doable in the space of a day. And, as I said, it’s a muscle you can build.

With all your messages adequately visualized you should be able to string them into a nice cohesive script. Use V.O and text where necessary but remember, if you can say it with images, it’s usually a lot more powerful.

Luurvly. That’s the end of part one. Join me in part two as we cover finishing your script and visualizing it for production.

Also, if you need any help in the meantime, feel free to shout at Bullseye Motion for – amongst other things - all your scriptwriting needs.