Types of explainer video
- 2D animation: flat drawings that move. Good for ideas that are hard to film, such as how money flows.
- Motion graphics: text, icons and shapes that move. Good for numbers and steps.
- Live action: real people and places. Good when trust and faces matter.
- Whiteboard: a hand draws the idea as a voice explains.
- Software or app walkthrough: a screen recording with a voice that shows how to use a tool.
What a good explainer answers
A viewer wants a few clear answers. What problem does this solve? How does it work? Why should I trust it? What do I do next? The script decides whether the video works. Pictures, music and voice come after the script.
Keep to one main idea. A video that tries to say five things says none of them well. Write it in plain words, the way a good salesperson would speak.
How it works for an Indian business
Explainers help startups launching something new, companies that sell to other businesses, and finance brands with schemes that need a second look. India has many languages, so a voice-over in Hindi or another regional language can reach buyers a single English version would miss. Add captions, because many people watch with the sound off.
Put the video where the question arises. That may be the top of a landing page, a product page, a WhatsApp message or a sales deck. Do not hide it on a page nobody visits.
A made-up example
Say a software company has a page that gets 2,000 visits a month. This is a made-up example. 60 people enquire, which is a conversion rate of 3%. The company adds an explainer video at the top of the page. In the next month the page again gets 2,000 visits, and 80 enquire. That is 4%.
One month is not proof, because other things may have changed. The company checks it again the next month and also reads how many people watched to the end. Read about conversion rate for how to count it.
Common mistakes
- Starting with a style you like, not with the buyer's questions.
- Trying to cover every feature.
- A script full of jargon.
- No clear next step at the end.
- No captions and no regional-language version where buyers need one.
- Making a long video for a page where people give you a few seconds.
An explainer is different from a TV ad. Read about the TVC (television commercial) for that. Many explainers start from a storyboard, a set of sketches that shows the video scene by scene.
Related terms
- Storyboard: sketches that plan a video scene by scene.
- TVC (television commercial): a film made to run as an ad on television.
- 3D walkthrough: a computer-made tour of a space that does not exist yet.
To plan a script and a film, see our explainer videos work.
