Animated video for technology companies is absolutely booming right now. These short explainer videos are an easy way to convey what is often a pretty complex or new service in an easily digestible form so that anyone can understand the offering.
We work on technology explainer videos almost weekly, and we can see why they’re popular.
We’ve recently worked on many animated videos for Fintech, software, Apps, AI and automation, SaS, education, and medical technology. As a professional video production company, we’re sharing a little insight into common pitfalls that we often encounter to help give you a head start when thinking about an animated video for your tech company and making it the best it can be.
Here are some ideas to consider that will help your brand video stand out against the noise and ensure that you communicate effectively and clearly to your target audience.
1 Benefits not Features
The script is the primary driver of any video, including animation. Simply listing your software or technology features in the script won’t help; viewers won’t be sure how that feature helps them. Generally, features aren’t why people buy; it’s what they the technology or services will for them.
Think about why they’re coming to you, what is their problem? Why have they landed on your site? Does it save them time? Does it save cost? What does it free up people to do? How does this technology make their life easier? What is it like working with you as a company? This kind of content is what the explainer video script needs to tell. Tell a story and excite them with your problem-solving capabilities.
Listing the features doesn’t belong in a technology explainer video. They’re for people who are more invested and who want to drill down into the details later—as a secondary selling tool, preferably with a captive audience or when you’re showcasing a demo in a meeting.
2 Keep the Language less formal
The language used is down to scripting again. When we see draft ideas for an explainer video script, or we’re given lengthy promotional materials to use, the language is often overly complex, with long sentences and rather formal in tone. This is really common, but mostly unsuitable for scripting. It’s a starting point.
This formal and longer approach works well for written materials, but since video is generally heard out loud, it comes across entirely differently and isn’t as well-received. Think of the video a bit more like a conversation or at least as spoken word. We always recommend that clients read their script out loud – if you can read it easily, then that’s a good start. If you stumble or hear it sounds repetitious – edit away!
If you have a complex product offering, don’t use business jargon language and lengthy sentences; you need to explain it quickly and clearly. Formal language also tends to use more words, and we recommend shorter the better with almost any video.
This doesn’t mean dumbing down, but being concise, avoiding passive language, and avoiding too much repetition.
As technology is always changing and growing, you probably find the business quite exciting and revolutionary to work in (I hope!). So, if we can convey that excitement in the video, the audience will feel it, too and be excited to start that journey with you.
You can be creative with language, funny, use visual metaphors, and keep the language more casual. It is the spoken word, after all. If the audience is only half watching /listening (which is often the case!), it’ll be more relatable to them and quicker to digest.
Video by Digital Finch
3 Avoid screenshots
You can be creative with the visuals and save the software screens for an online demo. The purpose of a general brand or product explainer video is to get them to enquire or want to learn more.
A demo is a separate video (or presentation) where buyers are already interested in learning more. For an introductory video like an animated explainer, where they see it on your website or social media and maybe don’t know much more about you, they just need to know it’ll work for them.
Sometimes, we create a simplified UI mockup when designing animated videos if the technology has a particularly great aspect—something showstopping or simple and effective to use. So we’d redesign it a little to remove any unnecessary details and just show the ease of use.
Monday.com put animated screenshots to good use, as they’ve invested heavily in a fantastic UI, but this often isn’t the case as the simpler the front end, the more complex the backend is.
In that case, for a short segment or 2 we often redraw the software, simplify the screen where needed, and then animate a short sequence, showing it in a shortened and easy-to-understand way.
However, a UI mockup is often not needed. As I’ve just mentioned, you’re more interested in describing the benefits and how it affects their company and lives than how it works.
In terms of visuals, trust the explainer video agency you’ve hired to develop compelling bespoke visuals that match the story. Hopefully, their portfolio and expertise have shown you you can trust them, so let them do the hard work or art direction.
The priority to get them to keep watching longer is all in the first few seconds, long title screens are out. Hook them straight away on exciting visuals and sound.
The visual look can vary greatly and depend on how you want the audience to feel.You can go quite conceptual and futuristic or very heartwarming and relatable if you want. The visuals needn’t be all ‘techy’ and corporate, and they needn’t be yet another icon-led video in shades of blue (We see this so much!). A studio should have a wide portfolio and a full methodology in place, starting with a brief art direction that allows you to see designs and concepts as the project progresses so you can make sure they are in line with your vision and brand.
Video by Ordinary Folk
4 Keep it short
Try explaining your technology offering in 2 minutes or under. 90 seconds is often a great sweet spot for an explainer video. Or even under that if you can do it. It’s key that viewers reach the end and follow your CTA to the next action, mostly likely enquiring or wanting to find out more information.
If you want multiple versions, a longer video can be cut down for social media sharing.
Then, the engaged audience on your website or a meeting gets an entire piece, and someone browsing or scrolling will get just the snippet they need to click through and find out more.
If you want a shorter social media or paid advert version, consider creating a separate version condensed to 15-30 seconds max. This will make it very dynamic and captivating and get to the point quickly. Generally, we recommend not trying to use the long-form one (2 mins plus).
Making the video more concise will also often bring the cost down (due to shorter length) and means the audience will be more likely to reach the end.
Video by Digital Finch
5 Add a human touch with characters
Using character animation in a marketing video can give it a unique boost and make it stand out. Visually showing a user reaping the rewards humanises the video and can create empathy – people can kind of put themselves in the character’s shoes, even if the design isn’t totally realistic. Generating emotion will help the viewer already feel like you know their pain points and want to help them, and can help them. It can also help with storytelling, for example showing a customer and their customer journey.
When selling or thinking about tech, it’s easy to think of highly conceptual/corporate visuals, but the people who are buying and who will benefit are people, after all. So, including people can help the video become more relatable.
One thing to note is that characters should move fairly fluidly; lower-cost video may include static or barely moving characters, and this ruins the illusion. A bespoke drawn character that moves in a human way will be more visually impactful and memorable.
Video by Lunamik Studio
Summary
Here are just 5 of the most important considerations a tech company should make when creating an animated explainer video. We’ve highlighted common pitfalls and tips, including the importance of focusing on benefits rather than features, keeping the language more informal and using creative language, avoiding screenshots and focusing on cool visuals, and keeping the video short to improve viewer engagement and reduce costs. Lastly, trusting the expertise of the video production studio you’ve hired to create the video is also essential.
So there are just some quick ideas to think about. If you’re looking for a marketing or explainer video for your technology company, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
