If you’re looking to explain your product or service in two minutes or less, animated explainer videos are the way to go. Explainer videos are great because they take complex information and compress them down into an easy to understand format that still gets your message across.

But before you start making your explainer video you need a script. Without the solid foundation of a great script your explainer video will fail in getting your message across to your audience.

So, how do you write an awesome script?

In this article I will break down the formula of explainer video scripts and explain how you can write effective scripts for your next video project.

Start Your Explainer Video By Identifying The Problem

When writing the script for your explainer video you first need to ask yourself, “What are the problems that my product/service aims to solve for my audience?”

Once you’ve nailed down the main problems, focus on carefully explaining the problem in detail. This is to really highlight the issue your audience has and emphasize the vacuum that you are looking to fill with your solution.

Whilst you want to articulate the problems in detail you don’t want to spend to long here. Most people tend to click off of a video within the first 30 seconds. Ideally you want to move to the next phase (the solution) within the first 30 seconds. Bear in mind that between 125 and 150 words is equal to about 1 minute of speaking.

If you spend too much time getting to the point people will click off of your explainer video and possibly move onto the competition.

Introduce Your Solution

Once you’ve clearly identified and highlighted the problem, you need to transition to your solution. Ask yourself, “How does my product/service solve the problem?” 

Highlight the benefits and key features of your offering. Write how they tackle the specific challenges you highlighted in the problems sections. Write about how your solution works bearing in mind that the animation will be able to demonstrate how it works as well. 

Do touch on the key features of your offering but focus more on the overall benefit your solution provides. You don’t want to weigh your audience down with too much technical jargon that they may not understand.

For example, if you’re creating an explainer video about an air purifier, instead talking about the efficiency of the motor, focus on saying things like, “Our air purifiers clean your home, leaving it clear of allergens and harmful bacteria.”

Remember that animated explainer videos are supposed to draw your audience in to find out more information and encourage them to take action. You don’t need to include every single feature and benefit in your explainer video. You can list all the technical features on your website.

Remember that you don’t want the length of the video to be longer than 2 minutes. The longer the video the more viewers will drop off.

Close WIth The Call To Action

Now that you’ve clearly identified the problem and explained how you solve it, it’s time to invite your viewers to take action.

Within the explainer video script, clearly state what you want your viewers to do. That could be to purchase your product, download your app or get in touch with you. If you’re explainer video did a good job explaining how you can help them, your viewers will be interested in next steps, so make it clear.

Conclusion

The script is the most important part of the animated explainer video process. Don’t rush it and take your time. Visuals are important but they are really supposed to compliment a clear and solid message.

Watch good explainer videos to see this formula in action and learn more. Most good explainer scripts follow what I’ve covered in this article.

Once you’ve written the script, read it out loud to test how friendly and conversational it feels. This will also help you to see if it generally makes sense and flows well. If the script feels too dull and boring, work on it a bit more.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found this article useful. If you have any questions about scripts or animated explainer videos in general, feel free to shoot me an email.