How Explainer Videos Improve Conversion Rates

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Your website visitors need convincing before they pull our their credit card for your product or service. First off, they need to understand what exactly your offering is, and whether this meets their needs. They also need to know whether the product provides value for their investment. And lastly, they need to know that they will be perceived as trustworthy by their target market.

But studies show that the average visitor spends less than 15 seconds on a web page. That creates a challenge in creating an impression on the customer, let alone convincing them to make a purchase. This is exactly why explainer videos are so important. Unlike plain text, videos are highly engaging and can help educate a visitor about what you do and what they stand to gain from your product or service. Fifteen seconds may not be enough time for a visitor to read and understand what your offering is, but it is more than enough time for them to click on the ‘play’ button of your explainer video.

So how exactly do you improve customer conversion with explainer videos?

The 4 Components Of An Explainer Video

Explainer videos replace walls of text to effectively educate the website visitor about your product. This can be done by making sure that every explainer video contains these four specific components:

-Addresses the pain-point(s) faced by the customer
-Outlines concisely how this problem is solved
-Lays out the solution in more detail
-Provides the next step, i.e. the Call-To-Action (CTA)

Addressing the the issue(s) that your customers face today sets the tone for the rest of the video. You would then follow this up by introducing your product and spelling out exactly how this is solved, in an easy-to-understand manner, and then discussing your product’s specific features that help fix the customer’s pain-points. It’s also important to position yourself unique to your competitors, for example on cost, features, customers, etc. Finally, end the video with a call to action – this could be anything from asking the viewer to sign up for a free trial to scheduling an demo to downloading a free ebook. A good example is what you see on the homepage of contract management software ContractWorks. It gives you a good idea of how to cover all these different components of an explainer video within a limited time-frame. The video itself is just over a minute long. Also, it features a clickable Call-To-Action (CTA) button for a free trial within the video as well as on the page.

Identifying The Right Video Length

It may be tempting to put every piece of information about your company in the video (every product feature, your mission, the price, etc.), but this is counterproductive. It has been observed that even when your video is under 60 seconds, only 59% of the viewers watch it completely. This figure drops to 49% when the video length is between 1-2 minutes. Your website visitors are in a hurry. So capture the most important details in your video and always try to keep it as short and succinct as possible.

Prepare For ‘What Next’

So you have got a fantastic video on your homepage explaining your product. What do you want the viewer to do after they are done with watching the video? Do you want them to sign up for a free trial? Do you want them to call you for an demo? Whatever you choose, make sure they can take that next step easily; for example, if the call-to-action is to call for more info, prominently display the phone number to call. This way, if your viewer is convinced about your product and wants to take action, they do not have to fumble around to get through to the next step.

Shawn Arora
Shawn Arora is the founder of LaunchSpark Video, a Toronto-based explainer video agency with a focus on ROI. LaunchSpark works with SaaS / tech vendors to distill complex messaging into clear and concise insights that increase conversion rates.

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