Companies use explainer videos to make complicated things simple and memorable. The ones that work aren’t lucky — they’re planned.
Here are the eight components that separate an explainer that performs from one that just exists.
What Is an Explainer Video?
An explainer video demonstrates a company’s product, service, or point of view in a form people will actually watch. Marketing and sales teams use them most.
They typically sit on a homepage or a landing page, and get cut down for social distribution.
1. A Clear Objective
Every explainer needs one defined goal. Promoting a new service, explaining a difficult concept, and demonstrating a product are three different videos.
Naming the objective first is what keeps the content focused. If the video is introducing a product, it should cover the features, the benefit, and the problem being solved — and nothing else.
It also gives you something to measure against afterwards.
2. A Professional Voiceover
The voiceover carries the script and sets the register. It needs to be confident, clearly articulated, and recognisably on brand.
- Match the tone to the brand, and consider how age, gender, and accent will read to your specific audience
- Prioritise clear pronunciation and controlled pace — almost everyone reads a script faster than they should
- Enough warmth to feel human. A flat, technically correct read loses people by the thirty-second mark
3. An Engaging Script
Everything starts with the script. Keep it short, focused, and free of jargon.
The scripts that work are the ones built around the audience’s problem. A reliable structure: establish the problem, present the solution, close with a call to action.
The tone should match the brand throughout — playful, warm, or precise, but consistent.
4. Captions
Captions are essential for anything published online. They can be added as animated text after the video is built and adjusted before release.
They make the video accessible to viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, and they make it work in the contexts where most video is actually watched — muted, on a phone, in public, or at a desk in an open office.
5. A Strong Opening
The first few seconds decide whether anyone sees the rest. An opening needs to earn attention and set the tone.
A pointed question, a surprising statistic, or a recognisable moment of frustration all work. A fitness app explainer opening on the number of people who abandon their health goals gets immediate recognition from exactly the audience it wants.
6. Visual Consistency
Strong visuals are what make the message stick. Quality animation and illustration lift the whole video, but only if they’re supporting the story rather than decorating it.
Colour, type, and logo usage should stay consistent with the brand throughout. A technology product’s explainer should look like it came from the same company as the product.
7. Music and Sound Design
Score and sound effects give the video shape. Music sets the emotional tone; sound effects punctuate key moments.
Both need restraint. Music mixed too loud fights the narration, and constant sound effects become noise. Used sparingly, they make a video feel immersive rather than assembled.
8. A Clear Call to Action
No explainer should end without one. Visit the site, subscribe, start a trial, get in touch — name it explicitly.
A software explainer might close by linking to a free trial. Whatever the ask, it should be prominent, specific, and follow logically from what the video just demonstrated.
Conclusion
A strong explainer video has a defined goal, a script worth listening to, visuals that carry the message, and an ask at the end.
Get those right and you have a video that holds attention and moves people to act. Keep it simple and clear, and it will do the job — introducing a product, explaining a service, or making a complicated thing obvious.
Planning one? Tell us the objective and we’ll build backwards from it.