Why I think storytelling is (usually) unnecessary in explainer videos

People love stories. They keep newspapers in business, they make dinner parties memorable and they give you another thing to press when you check social media. For the most part, they are a welcome distraction to the potential tedium of being human. Now much of the marketing game is won, simply by grabbing and holding someone’s attention. And nothing holds attention like a good story. So naturally, marketers have been finding ways to spin a fine narrative into their messaging for decades. When done correctly, storytelling can pump all those glorious metrics to the moon and back. But there’s a time and a place for it. And – contrary to what some may believe – storytelling is usually the wrong tree to bark up when it comes to explainer videos. Here’s why.

You don’t have time

I don’t believe explainer videos need to have a time limit. That said, most good videos work well in two minutes or less. Plus, if the video’s animated, every minute will cost you. Consider that and then consider how long it will take you to craft a decent story. Remember, in those two minutes your story needs to hook a viewer’s attention, explain why it’s better than the competition, offer some social proof, challenge objections and offer a call to action. Can you squeeze a narrative around that? Can you present a protagonist and weave in an engaging beginning, middle, end AND STILL sell your product? The wannabe Don Drapers reading this are saying “sure, challenge accepted.” And no doubt there are plenty of exceptions to this rule. But this post is addressing best practices. And as a best practice, cramming a narrative into an explainer video will feel rushed and lead to reason number two.

The story is far too likely to suck

Despite the point above, there are “stories” in explainer videos left right and center. We’ve all seen them. “This is bob, bob uses [x] to [perform y], that all changed when he switched to [our amazing product]. Here’s the kind of thing I mean.

Now some people call this storytelling. I don’t. I call it making an explainer video with people in it. Even if you do manage to channel your inner Don Draper, will your creation be any good? More importantly, will it hit the main goal of your explainer video? That goal being persuading your potential customers to move along the funnel and engage with the rest of your brand. When you’re trying to persuade somebody to do something, the logical move is to actually persuade them, not tell them a story. Especially when that potential story is shoehorned in around a marketing message.

Plus, it’s more important to sell

Typically, explainer videos aren’t Super Bowl commercials. They’re not supposed to be cinematic extravaganzas. And you’re not going to be chatting about them down the pub for years to come. Yes, they can go in a variety of media spaces. Yes, they can be memorable. But on the whole, they’re designed to elicit a direct response. They’re designed to move you down the online sales funnel. And they’re there to persuade you to act, read on, or even buy NOW. You’ve got around two minutes to persuade. And the best way to do this is with a message that directly addresses an audience’s problem. If you can describe their problem better than they can, they’re much more likely to listen. Much more than with a charming story about bob. If you can give them clear reasons why their objections to buying from you are invalid, a story about bob will seem irrelevant. If you can show social proof from credible sources that your product produces the results your audience want, the fictional results bob gets are a waste of attention. Your target audience has come to you in the hope that you can fix their problem. So explicitly telling them how you can fix their problem, better than the competition, is infinitely more powerful than saying how that might work for some fictional character. At this stage in the sales funnel, there are far more important messages to communicate.

Plus, you can tell stories elsewhere

You may be forgiven for thinking that I’ve got a bone to pick with storytelling in marketing. Far from it. Stories rock. But not in the explainer video. Your explainer video is your brand’s ultimate opening gambit. It’s the focal point in your digital shop window. It’s so that your audience will want to walk into your shop and look around. Once they’re in your shop (reading through your page, on your email list, etc.) then you can use other strategies. Strategies like storytelling. But only once they’re interested in your offer will they want to hear your stories.

Exceptions

This post is titled as such with good reason. There will be exceptions to all of the above. There will be works of copywriting genius out there which tick every known sales and persuasion box, whilst simultaneously crafting an engaging tale. If you think you’ve found one, please send it my way. I like things that surprise me and prove me wrong. Some of you may be screaming “but I saw a video the other day that used storytelling effectively! It had empathetic characters and an engaging narrative!” Maybe you did. But I’ll hazard a guess that it wasn’t a story. It didn’t spin a tale. It merely eluded to one using emotive devices. To show you what I mean consider the following. Some say this is the shortest story ever told.

I would disagree. It performs a similar function to a story but it isn’t the story. It only eludes to one. As mentioned, feel free to shout if you disagree. If you want all the power of a good story without the fluff and diversion from your sales message, use a character or a scenario that creates empathy – as the Harmon Brothers have so expertly done. But don’t try and get people to sit around your marketing campfire. Because usually it will miss the mark and distract from the sales message of your product.

At Bullseye Motion we don't mess around with such things. We focus on videos that sell your product. So if this sounds like your kind of thing, get in contact here.