Why an Extra 30 Seconds Could Kill Your Explainer Video Investment

When it comes to your story, short and concise is best. We know this based on the 900 + videos we’ve created for our clients over the past 9 years.

But from time to time, we have clients who push back on this approach because they want to highlight all of the complexities of their product within one video. They then take control of the script and turn it into a long list of features. Frankly, that makes for really boring content.

Early in the buyer journey, your customers aren’t interested in all of your complex features – they simply want to know why your product matters and how it will solve their pain points. Furthermore, a long and wordy message won’t hold the attention of your customers and will leave them confused about your product.

If you’re going to hire a team of specialists to communicate and explain critical topics, products, or services, it makes sense to let them do it in the most succinct and effective way possible.

Let’s take a look at why you need to be concise with your story and how working with specialists is the best way to get the job done.


Concise Messaging Makes you Focus on the Key Benefits of Your Product

People come to us because there’s a certain level of complexity around their product and they need help condensing their message into a short package. This is accomplished by telling the story in a way that connects with your customers’ concerns

. A huge list of features is not helpful for this purpose.

You need to focus on the key benefits of using your product and how it makes a customer’s life easier. When you get too technical, it distracts the customer from the main reason why they should use your product.

 

Concise Messaging Aligns with Your Business Objective for Video

If you’re using video, you likely have an objective or goal you want to achieve with it.

Many times this goal is to boost conversions, build trust, educate your audience, or other strategic objectives. But when the message in your video is long and boring, it won’t support these objectives. When a client wants to increase the length of their message, we often have to push back and remind them of what they’re trying to achieve.

When a video is too long, it’s not tailored to the attention span of the average viewer. Also when your video is wordy and filled with jargon, it will confuse your customers. It’s too far in the weeds on technical information they currently aren’t interested about.

To highlight this point, let’s take a look at an effective script vs one that falls short on engaging the end-user.

 

Example 1: Concisely Describes Relevant Pain Points

Let’s talk about a key concern for your business… your information security and privacy. 

Today, 78% of security breaches are credentials-related and even world-class authentication methods are endangered frequently.

With mobile and IoT device usage rising, backend security isn’t advanced enough to guarantee anyone’s safety.

Your organization’s loss and liability risks cast a shadow over even the best data protection.

How can your organization outwit skilled hackers to stay secure and private without worrying about compliance, legislation or other costs that protective innovation demands?

Introducing (x company), the cyber world’s most sophisticated form of authentication protection.

 

Example 2: Focus on Features Instead of Benefits

Our advanced proprietary service and products are a must-have if you work online or use mobile devices.

We are your go-to SECaas that prevents:

Keyloggers, back door hacking, phishing, account harvesting, cache poisoning, dictionary attacks, MiTM, SQL injection, XSS, DOS, DDOS, and much more.

Our team also has all the credentials you are looking for when it comes to this important matter.

We have helped:

Healthcare organizations, technology companies, non-profits, retail stores, marketing agencies, CPAs, and many other types of businesses stay safe online.

 

As you can see, the first script brings the viewer into a concise story about information security and focuses on the problem the user will solve by using the product. Whereas the second script focuses on the features of the product and uses jargon that will likely lose the attention of the viewer early on in the funnel. 

 

Deciding on the Length of Your Video:

The biggest driver for the length of your video is “what can your audience’s attention span handle”. If they’re close to making a decision, you have more of their interest. If it’s too early, they have no reason to listen to you. 

Here is the length of video we recommend for specific purposes:

  • 30 Seconds: 75 words or less for a social video. Maybe promote 1 feature or talk about 1 benefit or pain point. It has to be one or the other, it can’t be multiple things. 
  • 60 seconds: 150 words for a high-level overview of something new you’re launching or expanding into. At a zoomed-out level, show how you solve X problem.
  • 90 seconds: 230 words. Functionally very similar to a 60-second video. We work our way up to 90 very cautiously because you risk losing your viewer’s engagement. 
  • 120 seconds: 300 words for a Demo or How-To video. People really need to have a reason to stay focused for 2 minutes. Anything beyond 120 seconds, engagement dramatically drops off. We don’t recommend much past this unless you have an audience that’s forced to watch something (ie. training, etc)

 

Working with Specialists Makes Your Message as Effective as Possible

You should understand that we have your best interests in mind. We’re here to meet your business goals and help you accomplish your mission. We’re not an employee on your team, so we don’t have anything at stake except making you happy and creating something that works for your business.

Since we don’t work in your business every day, we don’t suffer from the curse of knowledge inside your business like you do. We also don’t have the interference of all the people you need to keep happy or bosses who need to sign off on things. The fact of the matter is not everyone can be briefed on why we do the things we do. So there’s a constant push and pull coming from people who don’t understand the strategic elements of the process. 

For this reason, it’s helpful to have a fall guy or gal. Let us be this for you. If your team wants to include unnecessary information in your story, tell them “Explainify says we can’t have this in the script.” This allows us to craft the best message possible while quieting the voices that can hinder the process. This doesn’t mean we don’t value feedback, but there are just times where the feedback won’t support the development of an effective message. 

Our highly-skilled subject matter experts understand how to drive conversions in your field and know how to connect with your target audience. That’s our job and our mission – we always want to maximize the investment you’re making.

 

To Recap:

Telling your story in a concise and engaging way is what will allow you to produce results for your business. There’s a tendency to want to explain all of your complex features, but early in the buyer’s journey, your customers aren’t concerned with these details. By lengthening your message to include these features, you will lose your customers’ attention and confuse them about your product.

If you’re going to work with a team of specialists like Explainify, let us use our proven methods to help you achieve your business objectives. There’s no sense in paying a team to do a job unless you let them use their expertise to your advantage. And remember, our only goal is to bring you success through a well-developed story.

If you’d like to know more, feel free to arrange a call with us.