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How to Create Compelling B2B Explainer Videos? – A Step-by-Step Guide!

Explainer videos are short, visual videos that explain how a product, service, or concept works. They have become an essential marketing tool for businesses to educate prospects and generate leads. In the B2B space, explainer videos can be particularly effective at breaking down complex solutions and technologies for non-technical buyers.

Done well, a B2B explainer video (b2b explainer videos) should leave the viewer with a solid understanding of your value proposition and the next steps to take. However, crafting one that truly engages and informs a business audience requires careful planning and execution. This guide will outline the key steps to developing compelling B2B explainer videos, from conceptualization to distribution.

The goals of a strong B2B explainer video include:

Educate target personas on your solution and how it solves their specific challenges. B2B buyers want to understand your offerings at a granular level before engaging further.

  • Promoting your core messaging and value propositions in a memorable, visual way. A video allows you to showcase benefits that text alone cannot convey clearly.
  • Driving qualified leads and sales opportunities. Viewers who connect with your message on a video are more likely to inquire about the next steps, like a product demo or pricing information.
  • Supporting other marketing and sales enablement efforts. Videos reinforce branding and positioning across channels like your website, events, and sales collateral.
  • By following a step-by-step process with these goals in mind, you can craft impactful explainer videos for your B2B prospects. Let’s begin with the all-important planning stage.

Planning

The foundation for any successful video starts with planning. At this stage, you’ll define goals, audiences, and key messaging in detail.

  • Define Your Target Personas

Who specifically are you trying to reach? Highlight one to three buyer personas with their titles, pain points, and goals. Get granular on the challenges keeping them up at night and how your solution could help. Personas bring your messaging to life.

  • Determine Your Key Messaging

Identify two to three high-level value propositions or differentiators to focus on. These will form the core of your video’s narrative. Some examples may be increased productivity, reduced costs, or mitigated risks. Make these easy for prospects to understand concisely.

  • Outline Your Storyboard

Map out a simple beginning-middle-end storyline that follows a logical flow. Sketch out what visuals and text you need per section to explain key points without confusing the audience. Leave space for adjusting based on scripts and assets. Proper planning saves major headaches later on.

With clear direction set at this early stage, your video is off to a great start. Up next developing an engaging script that brings your planning to life.

Scriptwriting

Now it’s time to put proverbial pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, to craft an attention-grabbing script.

  • Write a Clear Structure

Follow a basic outline of an attention-grabbing intro, 2-3 supportive body paragraphs, and a compelling conclusion. Use compelling language your personas can relate to.

  • Focus on Benefits Over Features

While explaining your offering, focus the narrative on discussing what your viewers ‘get’ rather than technical specs. Explain benefits like increased output or reduced downtime that address their motivating pain points.

  • Keep It Concise

For effective learning, keep the script under 3 minutes if possible. Tight scripts with well-paced dialogue tend to hold attention best. Do not sacrifice clarity for brevity, however.

  • Test and Refine

Read the script out loud, time it, and get feedback from colleagues. Iterate based on their perspective until it flows naturally and punches the right motivational buttons. A sharp, benefit-driven script sets the video up for success.

Mark Wilson

Mark is a Senior Content Marketer with 7+ years of experience in growing B2B, B2C, e-commerce, SaaS, & Digital Design Brands. He’s a polished writer, SEO geek, optimist at heart & good at playing table tennis.

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Storyboarding

At this point, you’ve laid the verbal groundwork – now visualize that script. Sketching out storyboards brings planning fully to life.

  • Visualize Your Script Flow

Break down the script by section and write brief descriptions of planned visuals, graphics, or animation for each part. Consider pacing, length of shots, and scene transitions.

  • Consider Visual Techniques

Will you use a mix of whiteboarding, stock footage, and character illustrations? How can you employ things like highlighting, zooming, and annotating to explain complex ideas clearly? Variety engages viewers.

  • Integrate Planned Assets

Note where supporting visual elements like diagrams, charts, or mockups fit naturally. Having a solid plan at this stage saves hassle later when selecting final assets.

Storyboards provide a blueprint to guide every aspect of production. With planning in full swing, it’s time to source and develop supporting media.

Assets & Content

To bring your scripted storyboard vision to life, you’ll need compelling visual and audio assets. Developing this in-house or sourcing externally requires strategic consideration.

  • Create or Find Illustrative Graphics

Find or develop diagrams, charts, process flows, or screenshots that plainly illustrate ideas. High-quality, on-brand visuals heighten professionalism.

  • Source Relevant Stock Footage

Footage showing real work scenarios can resonate, but make sure it seamlessly supports your narrative tone and style. Consider licensing costs.

  • Storyboard Asset Integration

Return to storyboards and specify where exactly graphics and footage plug into your edited timeline. This guides production.

  • Professional Voice Work Matters

While internal talent may try a first pass, professional voice-over talent can elevate polished, emotive delivery. Consider outsourcing this for impact.

Top-quality supporting elements are the backbone of any effective video. With planning and your script in tow, it’s time for full production.

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    Production

    Now, the real magic begins – translating your well-developed vision into a finished video. At this stage, technical and aesthetic considerations take center stage.

    • Visual Techniques That Fit

    Use animation, whiteboarding, footage – whatever complements your narrative flow. Practice any manual skills like illustration to ensure polished execution.

    • Careful Editing is Key

    Spend ample time editing clips together precisely, adding lower thirds, and refining audio balancing. Clean transitions smooth the learning process.

    • Closing Call to Action

    End with a simple prompt for the next steps, whether it’s a demo, free trial, or asset download. Leave viewers wanting more interaction.

    • Test and Iterate Internally

    Run your draft video by team members. Apply any needed polish before wider distribution testing. Producing a technically solid video lays the crucial groundwork.

    Increasing Reachability

    All that effort warrants amplifying your video’s impact through strategic distribution. With analytics, optimization is ongoing.

    • Share Across Digital Channels

    Promote your website and relevant social profiles using descriptive captions and hashtags. Analyze performance metrics closely.

    • Consider Paid Promotion

    A/B test boosted posts or targeted Facebook ads to expand your reach within personas. Track conversions carefully.

    • Monitor Engagement Metrics

    Views, completion rates, shares, and comments provide insight to refine future efforts. Pay attention to watch time, especially.

    The distribution phase feeds perpetual refinement, ensuring videos become marketing cornerstones. Let’s recap best practices.

    Distribution

    All that effort warrants amplifying your video’s impact through strategic distribution. With analytics, optimization is ongoing.

    • Share Across Digital Channels

    Promote your website and relevant social profiles using descriptive captions and hashtags. Analyze performance metrics closely.

    • Consider Paid Promotion

    A/B test boosted posts or targeted Facebook ads to expand your reach within personas. Track conversions carefully.

    • Monitor Engagement Metrics

    Views, completion rates, shares, and comments provide insight to refine future efforts. Pay attention to watch time, especially. The distribution phase feeds perpetual refinement, ensuring videos become marketing cornerstones. Let’s recap best practices.

    Why B2B Explainer Videos?

    B2B explainer videos are ideal for businesses because they effectively distill complex concepts into easily digestible and engaging visual content, enhancing understanding and retention. These videos can succinctly communicate a company’s value proposition, streamline onboarding processes, and boost conversion rates by addressing pain points and demonstrating solutions with clarity.

    Additionally, they are versatile tools that can be used across various platforms, increasing reach and engagement with potential clients and stakeholders. By leveraging storytelling and visual aids, B2B explainer videos can significantly improve a company’s marketing and communication strategies, ultimately driving business growth and fostering stronger client relationships.

    Providing animation services to clients in
    multiple cities across USA & Canada

    Appealing to Diverse & Younger Demographics

    With each passing year, millennials and Gen Z comprise a growing segment of consumers worldwide. As such, effectively marketing to younger audiences is increasingly important for businesses hoping to thrive now and into the future. One compelling strategy is developing a vibrant visual identity centered around a cartoon logo. Not only does this align with the subjective preferences of digital natives, but it can also help foster lasting loyalty among these emerging customer demographics. Specifically, a cartoon logo offers the following key appeals to younger audiences:

    • Younger audiences prefer vivid, playful visuals over sterile designs. A cartoon logo engages them on an emotional, subjective level through humor and movement.
    • Digital natives connect more intuitively with representations that feel personalized rather than literal. Cartoons satisfy their appetite for subjective experiences over objective facts.
    • By incorporating cartoons, a brand portrays itself as trendy, adaptive to changing tastes, and understanding of viral online culture.
    • The simplicity of cartoons allows them to translate well across diverse digital platforms prominently used by millennials and Gen Z.
    • Cartoons activate pleasure centers in the brain associated with childhood enjoyment and discovery. This inspires positive emotions that facilitate attraction and loyalty to the brand.
    • As these generations increasingly influence consumer spending, prioritizing their subjective visual preferences through a cartoon identity will be key to business success.
    • A livelier cartoon visual positions brands to welcome and engage imaginative younger minds for decades as tastes inevitably transition

    Thoughtfully creating compelling B2B explainer videos demands planning, producing, and optimizing them to clearly define goals and personas, maintain a scripting outline’s cohesion through distribution, discover visual languages and tactics’ authentic resonation through iteration, and test performance’s long-term refinement insights – for when done properly, videos profoundly educate prospects and meaningfully move deals, warranting ongoing refinement continuously strengthen impact.

    Methodically applying best practices from outline to testing positions one well to bolster marketing through video’s potency, whether developing an initial asset or refining an existing one, allowing experts to be data-driven and insightfully guide the process.

    FAQs:

    1. Should I go with 2D or 3D animated explainer videos?

    Both 2D and 3D explainer videos (2D animated Explainer Videos, 3D Animated Explainer Videos) can be effective, but 2D is generally cheaper and faster to produce. 3D animation may be worth it if you need photorealistic renders or realistic motion graphics. Consider your budget and timeline.

    2. What types of animation services do you offer?

    We offer a range of video animation services (3D Animation Services, 2D Animation Services, Video Animation Services, Logo Animation Services) to bring explainer video concepts to life. This includes whiteboard animations, 2D/3D character animations, motion graphics, and multimedia presentations. Our team helps determine the best solution based on goals, content, and budget.

    3. How long does it typically take to produce an explainer video?

    Production timeframes can vary significantly based on scope, but here are some general guidelines: Simple 2D animated videos may take 4-6 weeks, while more complex 3D animations could take 8-12 weeks. Plan 2-4 weeks for scripting/storyboarding and 1-2 weeks for editing/polishing. Distributing and optimizing is ongoing. Allow ample time for feedback rounds.

    4. What is the average cost for an explainer video?

    Budgets start around $5,000-10,000 for basic 2D animated videos and $20,000-50,000 for elaborate 3D stories. Factors like length, animation complexity, licensing footage/music, and production specifics impact pricing. Consider your goal.

    5. How can animation help increase video engagement?

    Carefully created explainer video animation has been shown to increase viewer attention and retention. Techniques like highlighting, zooming, and annotations help illustrate complex topics in a visually engaging, dynamic way. Animation also allows the flexibility to personify concepts through characters that viewers find more relatable and memorable.

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