Making Explainer Videos That Actually Convert

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An explainer video's job is simple: take a complex idea and make it incredibly easy to understand in a short, memorable way. It’s like having your best salesperson on call 24/7, ready to show potential customers exactly how you solve their problems, building trust and nudging them toward a sale.

Why Explainer Videos Are a Marketing Powerhouse

Let's be honest, attention is the scarcest resource online. An explainer video is one of the best tools we have to capture and hold it. They work because they package up useful information into a format people actually enjoy watching. This is why they’ve become a staple for businesses trying to rise above the digital chatter and make a real connection.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a second. You land on a website and see a massive wall of text describing a new software tool. What do you do? Most of us hit the back button. Now, imagine a short, animated video pops up instead. It quickly lays out a problem you're all too familiar with, introduces a product as the perfect solution, and shows you exactly how it works—all in about 90 seconds. Much better, right?

The Proof Is in the Numbers

This isn’t just a gut feeling; it’s backed by how people actually behave. When it comes to learning about a new product, video is king. A recent Wyzowl survey found that a massive 98% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.

That preference turns directly into business results:

Sales Conversion: An incredible 87% of viewers said a brand's video convinced them to buy a product.

App and Software Adoption: Similarly, 81% bought software or an app after watching a video about it.

Brand Trust: Don't skimp on quality. A separate study revealed that 91% of consumers feel that the quality of a video directly reflects their trust in a brand.

The message here is crystal clear. For explainer videos to work, they need to be professional and easy to follow. That's how you build the confidence needed for a customer to pull out their wallet.

The best explainer videos don't just rattle off a list of features. They describe the customer's pain point so perfectly that the viewer thinks, "Wow, they really get me." When you do that, your solution feels less like a sales pitch and more like a lifeline.

At the end of the day, these videos do more than just explain what your business does. They create an instant connection. They cut through the complexity, make your audience feel understood, and give them a compelling reason to take that next step with you.

Your Pre-Production Game Plan

Every great video I've ever produced started long before anyone yelled "action" or clicked "record." It's tempting to jump straight into production, but rushing the early stages is a surefire way to create a video that just doesn't connect. Think of pre-production as your strategic blueprint. This is where you lay the groundwork for a video that does more than just explain—it actually gets people to act.

It’s like building a house. You wouldn't just show up with a pile of lumber and start hammering. You need a detailed plan. That's what pre-production is for your video: a solid plan that ensures your script, visuals, and message all work in harmony to achieve a specific goal.

Define Your Ideal Viewer and Core Message

First things first: who are you actually talking to? If your answer is "everyone," you don't have an audience. You need to get specific. Are you trying to reach stressed-out startup founders, hyper-creative social media managers, or maybe the HR department at a Fortune 500 company? Each one speaks a different language and has completely different problems to solve. Your tone, style, and the examples you use have to resonate with their world, not just yours.

Once you know who you’re talking to, you have to nail down your core message. What's the one thing you need them to walk away remembering? Don't drown them in a sea of features and benefits. That just creates confusion. You need to distill it all down to a single, powerful idea. Something like, "Our software gives you back 10 hours every single week." That’s clear, tangible, and memorable.

Set Concrete and Measurable Goals

What does a "win" actually look like for this video? Vague goals like "more brand awareness" are impossible to track and don't really push the needle. Instead, you need to set clear, measurable objectives that tie directly to your business.

Here are a few examples of what I mean:

Conversion Goals: Boost free trial sign-ups by 20% or increase demo requests by 15%.

Engagement Goals: Hit a video completion rate of 60% or better.

Support Goals: Reduce support tickets about "Feature X" by 30%.

When you have a specific goal, crafting the right call-to-action (CTA) becomes much easier. Plus, you’ll have a clear benchmark to measure your return on investment down the road.

A well-planned explainer video doesn't just inform; it guides the viewer on a journey. It starts by engaging them, builds trust to boost conversions, and finishes by creating lasting brand recall.

This visual perfectly illustrates the path an effective explainer can take your audience on, from the initial hook all the way to becoming a customer.

The journey is clear: keeping your audience's attention is the key to driving clicks and making sure your brand sticks in their mind long after they've finished watching.

Choose a Style That Fits Your Brand

The visual style of your explainer is a huge part of its personality. You want it to feel like a natural extension of your brand, not something tacked on. Your budget will play a role here, of course, but the style should primarily be driven by your brand identity and your audience's expectations.

Picking the right style is crucial for making your message feel authentic and believable. For example, a fintech company targeting corporate clients might lean into a clean, professional 2D animation. On the other hand, a direct-to-consumer brand selling a quirky new product might find a playful live-action concept more effective.

To help you decide, here’s a quick breakdown of the most common explainer video styles I see clients choose from.

Choosing Your Explainer Video Style

This table offers a practical comparison of popular explainer video styles to help you select the best approach for your brand, message, and budget.

Style	Best For	Pros	Cons
2D Animation	Explaining abstract concepts, software demos, B2B services.	Highly versatile, cost-effective, easily updated.	Can look generic if not well-designed.
Whiteboard	Educational content, step-by-step tutorials, simplifying complex topics.	Engaging, easy to follow, great for storytelling.	Can feel dated if not executed with a modern flair.
Live-Action	Building human connection, showcasing physical products, customer testimonials.	Creates authenticity and trust, high emotional impact.	Higher production costs, less flexible for updates.
Motion Graphics	Data visualization, product feature highlights, fast-paced tech explainers.	Dynamic, professional, great for holding attention.	Can be more expensive and time-consuming than 2D.

Ultimately, there's no single "best" style. The right choice is the one that best serves your story and resonates most deeply with the audience you worked so hard to define. Consider your brand’s personality and what your viewers will find most engaging.

Writing a Script That Connects and Converts

Let's be honest: a slick video with a weak script is just a waste of time and money. The script is the real engine of your explainer video. It's what grabs a passive viewer and turns them into someone who's genuinely interested in what you have to say.

A great script doesn't just rattle off a list of features. It tells a story that makes the viewer think, "Wow, they get me." Every truly effective explainer video I've ever produced follows a simple but powerful narrative structure—a formula that works because it mirrors how we naturally think about problems and solutions.

The Anatomy of a Winning Script

This structure is your secret weapon. It guides your viewer from curiosity to action without ever feeling like a pushy sales pitch. I stick to this framework for almost every explainer video I create.

The Hook (Seconds 1-5): You have literally five seconds to stop the scroll. Kick things off with a sharp, relatable question or a surprising statistic that hits on your audience's biggest pain point.

The Problem (Seconds 6-25): Now, show them you understand their frustration. Describe the problem using the same words they would use. This is where you build empathy and trust.

The Solution (Seconds 26-50): Here's where your product or service enters as the hero of the story. Don't list every feature. Instead, focus on explaining how it solves the specific problem you just laid out.

The Call-to-Action (Seconds 51-60): Don't be vague. Tell them precisely what you want them to do next. "Start Your Free Trial" or "Book a Demo Today" are clear and direct. "Visit our website" is weak and non-committal.

Following this flow creates a story that's easy to follow and incredibly persuasive. It ensures your main point hits home every single time.

Crafting a Conversational Tone

The fastest way to lose a viewer is to write a script that sounds like it was written by a committee. Your video should feel like a helpful conversation, not a corporate lecture.

Here's a simple trick: read every single line out loud. Does it sound like something you'd actually say to another person? If you stumble over a phrase or it feels too stiff, rewrite it until it flows naturally. This is especially critical when you're using an AI avatar from a platform like Dalm; a natural, conversational script is what makes the AI voice sound authentic and convincing.

Pro Tip: Record yourself reading the script on your phone. When you play it back, you’ll instantly hear the awkward phrasing, long sentences, and any jargon that needs to be simplified. It's a quick check that makes a world of difference.

Keeping It Brief and Personal

Viewer attention isn't unlimited—far from it. The trend is shifting away from long, drawn-out videos and toward shorter, punchier content. The standard two-minute explainer is giving way to tight 30 to 60-second formats that get straight to the point.

In fact, industry experts predict that by 2025, brevity and personalization will be the name of the game. This shift means the call-to-action often appears much earlier in the video. You can get more details on these emerging video trends and the use of AI for customization from the folks at Venture Videos.

This forces you to be disciplined. Every word has to count. Your goal is to deliver maximum value in minimum time, keeping your audience engaged right to the very end.

Using AI Avatars to Make Production Painless

What if you could create a polished, studio-quality video without booking a film crew, setting up a single light, or even leaving your desk? This isn't science fiction anymore. It's what happens when you use AI avatars to create your explainer videos.

This approach flips the traditional production workflow on its head. A process that once took weeks of coordination can now be knocked out in an afternoon. Instead of hiring actors or stepping in front of the camera yourself, a hyper-realistic digital presenter delivers your script. This simple shift eliminates the biggest headaches of video production: scheduling conflicts, location scouting, and costly reshoots.

Picking Your Platform and Presenter

Your first real decision is choosing an AI video generation platform. There are several great options out there, but I've found tools like Synthesia are designed to make this whole process incredibly straightforward. Once you're signed up, you get to the fun part: picking your avatar.

You can browse a library of stock avatars or, for a truly on-brand feel, create a custom digital version of yourself or a key person from your company.

Think about who you're trying to reach. A video for C-suite executives probably calls for a presenter in sharp, professional attire. On the other hand, if you're making something for a younger, social-media-savvy audience, a more casual and approachable look might be the way to go. The key is to choose an avatar your viewer will connect with and trust.

Bringing Your Script to Life

With your script finalized and your avatar selected, this is where the magic happens. You simply paste your script into the platform’s text-to-speech engine. In seconds, it generates a natural-sounding voiceover that’s perfectly synced to your avatar's lip movements. You can pick from hundreds of languages and accents, making it easy to localize your message for a global audience.

This is a massive advantage. Catch a typo or want to rephrase a sentence? Just edit the text. No more calling a voice actor back into the studio for an expensive and time-consuming re-recording session.

The real power here is the ability to iterate. You can test different scripts, tones, and calls-to-action almost instantly, letting you fine-tune your video for maximum impact without blowing your budget on endless reshoots.

This new way of producing video is part of a much larger trend. The global explainer video market is projected to hit $10.5 billion by 2025, and marketers are flocking to technologies that offer this kind of efficiency. Real-time rendering, a core part of AI video, has been shown to cut production time by up to 40%. You can dig into more stats about this growth and its effect on video animation budgets on CloudAnimations.com.

Putting It All Together

The final step is to assemble all the pieces inside the platform’s built-in editor. This is where you layer in your visuals, add text overlays, and sync background music to create a professional final cut.

The whole process feels less like complex video editing and more like building a slide presentation. It makes creating high-quality video content accessible to just about anyone.

Smart Promotion for Maximum Video Reach

Alright, you’ve put in the work and created a fantastic explainer video. That's a huge step, but the job isn't quite done. A brilliant video no one ever sees is just a file taking up space on a server. Now it's time to switch gears from creator to promoter.

Getting your video in front of the right audience—on the platforms where they actually hang out—is what separates a successful campaign from a waste of effort. You can't just upload it and cross your fingers. A thoughtful, multi-channel approach is how you'll see a real return on your investment.

Optimize for Discovery Everywhere

First things first: before you share that video anywhere, you need to handle some basic search optimization. Search engines can't "watch" your video to understand its content; they rely on the text you provide to figure out what it's all about.

This is where a little strategy goes a long way:

A Catchy Title: Your title needs to grab attention while including your primary keyword. Skip something generic like "New Product Video." Instead, try "How Our App Solves [Your Customer's Problem] in 60 Seconds."

A Thorough Description: Don't skimp on the description. This is your chance to expand on the problem and your solution. Write a few natural sentences that work in secondary keywords related to your topic.

The Right Tags: On platforms like YouTube, use a mix of broad and specific tags. Put yourself in your customer's shoes: what would they type into a search bar to find a solution like yours?

These simple tweaks are fundamental. They drastically improve the odds of people finding your video right when they need it most, which is how explainer videos start contributing to your bottom line.

Weave the Video Across Your Own Channels

Your own channels—your website, blog, and email list—are your most valuable distribution assets. The audience here is already warmed up to your brand, so don't just bury the video on some forgotten corner of your site. Put it where it will do the most good.

The homepage is a no-brainer. Placing a video "above the fold" can instantly clarify your value proposition for first-time visitors and has been shown to boost conversion rates.

But don't stop there. Think about other high-traffic spots:

Relevant Blog Posts: Does your video solve a problem you've written about? Embed it directly into the post. It adds immense value and gives readers another way to absorb the information.

Email Campaigns: Announce your new video to your email subscribers. Just adding the word "video" to a subject line can seriously bump up your open rates.

Here's a pro tip for email: don't just drop in a link. Use a static image from your video, overlay a big play button icon on it, and link that image to a landing page where the video autoplays. This simple trick can dramatically increase your click-through rates.

By cross-promoting like this, you ensure you get maximum mileage from every video you create. It becomes more than just a one-off piece of content; it becomes a core part of your marketing engine, engaging your audience at every turn.

Answering Your Top Explainer Video Questions

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Even with the best plan laid out, you're bound to run into questions when you start making explainer videos. I see it all the time. Getting straight answers to these common sticking points can make the difference between stalling out and creating something you're proud of.

Let's dive into some of the most frequent questions I hear from founders and marketing teams, along with my no-fluff answers.

How Long Should an Explainer Video Be?

For most cases, the sweet spot for an explainer video is between 60 and 90 seconds. This is just enough time to grab your viewer, frame the problem, present your solution, and wrap up with a clear call-to-action before their attention wanders.

Of course, context is everything. If you're creating a video for social media feeds on Instagram or TikTok, you need to be much faster. Aim for a punchy 30-second version for those platforms. The golden rule is to be ruthless with your editing. Every single second needs to earn its place.

What Is a Realistic Budget for an Explainer Video?

This is the big "it depends" question. If you go the traditional route and hire a full-service agency for a custom animated video, you could be looking at a bill anywhere from 30,000. That price tag reflects the massive amount of human hours from scriptwriters, animators, voice actors, and project managers.

Thankfully, technology has completely changed the game here.

Using an AI video creation platform with stock assets and an AI avatar brings that cost way down. Instead of a huge one-time investment, you're looking at a predictable monthly subscription. This makes professional-quality video a realistic goal for just about any business.

What Key Elements Must My Video Include?

While every video has its own flavor, the ones that consistently get results share a similar structure. To make sure your video actually works, you absolutely need to nail these four things:

A Solid Hook: You have about 3-5 seconds to earn the viewer's attention. Start with a relatable problem, a shocking statistic, or an intriguing question.

The Problem: Clearly define the pain point your audience struggles with. You need to show them you genuinely get it.

Your Solution: This is where you introduce your product or service as the hero of the story—the most direct and effective fix for their problem.

A Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Tell your viewers exactly what to do next. Don't be shy. Use direct commands like "Start Your Free Trial" or "Download the Guide."

Is an AI Voice Really Good Enough for My Video?

Absolutely, yes. The quality of modern text-to-speech technology has taken a quantum leap forward. AI voices are no longer robotic; they sound remarkably human and are more than good enough for professional-grade videos.

The best AI video tools offer a huge library of voices, languages, and accents, so you can easily find one that fits your brand's personality. But the real win is the flexibility. If you need to tweak a line in your script, you just type the change and regenerate the audio instantly. No more booking studio time or paying a voice artist for revisions.

Ready to create stunning explainer videos without the typical costs and production headaches? With Dalm, you can use a hyper-realistic AI avatar to produce professional content in minutes, not weeks. Get started with Dalm today and see just how easy it can be.