Video is the most popular way for marketers to communicate their campaigns. And one of the most powerful methods to tell your story is to create a corporate explainer video. It could be in the form of an animated explainer video, or through filming. We live in a world where it’s difficult to hold someone’s attention for more than 90 seconds on social media. So how do you tell your story in such a short timeframe?
Corporate explainer videos are different to other forms of marketing – their main objective isn’t to promote a particular product or go viral. Their main purpose is to show the world what you do so potential customers and clients feel comfortable doing business with you.
It’s a style of video used by many successful startups and corporations. But how do you explain the essentials of your business in under 90 seconds? To start the process we’ve put together a few of the essential pieces of information that you’ll need to make a concise corporate explainer video.
Writing a Corporate Explainer Video
Firstly, even in the visual format of video, the writing is the most important step. What makes it so important? It’s where you visualise your video and where you will distill your ideas down into what is most important to your story. Poorly written videos will drag on and try to cover too much. Everything else (visuals, music, titles) is there to serve the story you want to tell.
The script should answer questions about who you are, what you do and why you will be the best choice for potential customers.
So before sitting down and brainstorming your script think about some questions that potential customers would want to know about you. You should start by boiling down your business into 2-3 sentences.
Who is your audience?
What problems does your company solve?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you have the raw material for your script. Bear in mind that an average person reads at around 200 words per minute, so to keep your script under 90 seconds, there should only be around 300 words of spoken text, preferably less. You can write it out for a presenter, or if your business lends itself to a more visual approach, then you can bring in a voiceover.
Selecting a Voiceover
If you choose to go with a voiceover, you should consider what your target audience is before selecting. If you are in say, a legal firm or in finance, you will want your voiceover to have authority and gravitas. If you are marketing to a younger audience, your voiceover might be more upbeat and energetic with a younger sounding voice. You can also recruit from within if you have a confident speaker within your organisation. Some companies will use their CEO or higher-ups to give their company a more open, relatable feel.
Visualise It
As video is a visual medium, your scripting and planning needs to pair up your script with the appropriate visuals. As you look through your script, try and pair up the topics you’ve covered with related visuals.
You can format the script into two columns of “Visuals and Audio” to make this simpler. If your voiceover mentions your headquarters, you’re going to need an establishing shot of your building or the office layout. If your script directly refers to particular products, you’re going to need some great looking shots of each of them.
Set the Tone with Tunes
Now that your foundation has been established with the script and visuals and you have your footage shot, you should now begin the process of selecting appropriate music. There are plenty of stock music sites like AudioJungle that will have thousands of options to choose from at reasonable prices (You should avoid using copyrighted music in your videos as this can get you into trouble). Most will offer a keyword search, so you can type in things like upbeat corporate, or ambient jazz and find something that matches the tone of the video. You only need 90 seconds worth, so don’t be afraid to cut out a small section that you like.
So there you have it, if you follow these simple tips you are ready to share your video with the world, which we go into more detail about here.
If you’re looking to create a corporate explainer video that tells your brand’s story in under 90 seconds, get in touch with Dream Engine today.
Ryan Spanger is the founder and managing director of Dream Engine, a Melbourne video production company established in 2002. Over the past two decades, he’s produced hundreds of videos for businesses, government departments, universities and healthcare organisations across Australia. Ryan specialises in helping organisations explain complex ideas through clear, engaging video content, with particular experience in corporate communications, training and education.
