Just try to imagine the following figure – 100 million startups are created every year.
Each of the newly created companies is fighting for the attention of investors and customers in every possible way. If you are the lone warrior on this battlefield, here we’ll tell you about a great tool that helped Dropbox, Ahrefs, Slack to attract investment, develop world-famous products and make their brands globally recognizable.
This tool is a startup explainer video, so let us explain to you how will it work for your benefit.
5 Business Goals You’ll Achieve at Once With a Startup Explainer Video
85% of startups use videos at one of the stages of business development. This is a high enough indicator to think that there is something about it. And customers reciprocate – paradoxically coinciding 85% of users want to see even more branded video content.
To win customers, you need to attract them, quickly explain who you are, what problem you are solving, and what value you can offer. A startup explainer video solves this problem but is not limited to it. Here’s what else you can get with this marketing tool.
1. Explain the Essence of Your Idea
A start-up almost always means the novelty and uniqueness of an idea or a new approach to solving an old problem. Of course, this idea seems understandable to you – because you came up with it. But this does not mean that everything will also be obvious to your customers and investors. Explaining the essence with video can be a good solution for everyone.
2. Reach the Target Audience
Users love video content. The share of consumed video content from mobile is growing at 100% every year. At the moment, video is the easiest way to attract attention to your idea, company, product or service.
3. Attract Investments
You will be surprised but even serious investors would love to watch the video (after carefully reading your business plan). In this case, the video is neither a magic pill, nor an unconditional guarantee, but it still increases your chances of being noticed.
What is more, it is always easier to extract the core idea from a short and entertaining video than from a long and boring business plan. By the way, you are not limited to Kickstarter (or other crowdfunding platforms) – it is quite possible to reach investors with the video even in social media, and then launch a retargeting campaign.
4. Show Your Benefits Visually
The phrase “instead of a thousand words” has already become hackneyed in the world of video production, but this is still true. An explanatory video for a startup can show your benefits visually, concentrating on every aspect of your product or service. And since our brain is visual in nature, it gives a better level of perception.
5. Increase Your Brand Recognition
Not all videos become viral, but high-quality video as an element of a marketing strategy always improves your recognition through likes, downloads, sharing, and comments.
What Types of Startup Explainer Video You Can Create
As the name implies, a startup explanatory video aims to clarify something. Here are a few types of videos that can explain different things and can be useful tools for your marketing strategy.
- A demo video is the most popular one. More than half of startups create it and do it right – as 69% of users consider demo videos to be the best assistants when making a purchase decision.
- The how-to video will be useful to explain how to use your product. This is a must-have video for tech products and software, but startups from other industries can also benefit from it by creating something at the intersection between explanatory and e-learning videos.
- In-app explainer videos can serve as demos or how-tos, plus help you to get in touch with your target audience. This is one of the favorite approaches of game developers and mobile app startups – they create such short clips and advertise their companies inside applications.
- Kickstarter video is a great tool to attract investments. Of course, you can publish your project on Kickstarter (or any other crowdfunding platform) even if you don’t have a video, but the principles of video marketing work everywhere and always. The video attracts attention and engages both ordinary users and serious investors.
And since most startups are in dire need of funding, let’s see how an explanatory video can help in this case.
Main Pillars of Good Startup Explainer Video to Attract Investments
A startup explainer video is like an elevator pitch – you have very limited time to explain the concept to your potential investors and make them interested. An explanatory video is a universal tool that is always with you – including the situation if you really meet your business angel in the elevator. Here is what should be explained in the video to make it appealing.
- The personality of the founder and the team
- Market overview
- The clear problem and the clear way to solve it
- The definition of value for customers
Development forecasts - Business planning elements
All of these elements require careful thought. And in a perfect picture of the world, a startup needs help from a professional video production studio.
How to Make a Startup Video That Will Hit the Target?
Most startups create a video in a makeshift way – just by shooting it on a smartphone. However, a successful explanatory video that will help you in achieving your goal is something more. Here’s what you need to do to make an effective video and to pay off the cost of its creation.
1. Write a compelling script.
Typically, the script should move from problem to solution, and in the case of an explanatory video, also explain how your idea works, why it works and what value it has.
2. Keep it short and simple.
Even if your product or service is technically complex, the task of an explainer video is to quickly show the essence of the idea using simple words.
3. Choose the right approach.
For example, you do not need 3d technologies if it is quite possible to explain your idea in the whiteboard style.
4. Keep the focus on benefits and emotions.
This is a purely marketing hook – your explanatory video should explain the features of your product but through the prism of benefits for the client or investor.
5. Decide on a perfect length.
On average, 60 to 90 seconds are enough to say the most important thing but not to bore the viewer. However, here we have described how to choose the ideal video length that will match your business needs.
6. Make sure to have a high-quality voice over
Poor voice over can screw up the impression of even the most interesting video
7. Ask a professional video production studio to help you.
As you can see, not everything is so simple. Creating an explanatory video for a startup requires time, effort, and most importantly, experience.
The following examples will prove this.
Great Examples Of Startup Explainer Videos
Text Me Up
This is a great example of a good approach to the benefits of the application, a simple explanation of the idea, plus the creators have clearly shown that using their solution does not require any special skills (the video heroes are animals).
Varpet
This video focuses very well on the user’s problem. It shows in detail how the average person tries to find a way out of the situation and perfectly explains how this problem can be solved using the application.
Near Lock
This rial life video not only clearly explains how the iPhone app works. It also shows very typical and recognizable characters, in each of which the target audience can see its reflection.
Digit
This is the case when the simplest graphics are complemented by an excellent and simple explanation of the main functions of the application. And in fact, nothing else is needed.
Conclusion
A startup explainer video always makes sense. Moreover, a professionally created video can help achieve several goals at the same time – from attracting the first investment to increasing the awareness of your brand.
