3 Simple Ways To Choose The Best Explainer Video Style

This week, I got one customer that said he don’t have enough budget to pay for our service though he really wanted to work with us.

I never consider that Breadnbeyond is charging too much to produce an animated explainer video for our clients. If you know how much we charge for our service, I’m pretty sure you would laugh if you heard someone mentioned that we are expensive.

However, it blew my mind that we are not affordable enough for some startups. I mean, I love working with startups, and I always like to help them see what they can get from an explainer video, how they can use it to get more leads and convert more leads to the client.

I want to see more of them working with us at Breadnbeyond and produce great stuff.

So, after thinking for a while, I think that though it’s not possible for us to help everyone, I can create a short guide on how it can be done.

Let’s start with what kind of video can be created with a limited budget.

1. Mug Shot

People turned to animated explainer videos because they are less expensive to produce when compared to a live-action video.

However, if you don’t have enough budget to commission a decent studio to create an animated explainer video, it is possible for you to step back and produce a live-action video.

PROS:

If you are an outgoing kind of person and you are not scared of the camera, this might be something that you can try to do. All Kickstarter projects require a video to be done, and this kind of video is one of the common solutions found on Kickstarter projects.

CONS:

If you are a naturally shy person and don’t know how to act naturally in front of a camera, skip it. There are other options that you can try.

2. Cutout Paper

This style of animation is popular when Common Craft created an explainer video to explain what Twitter does. Not everyone understands what Twitter is on that day, and this kind of animation is exactly what they needed.

Though the animation itself is easy and is not expensive to produce, at least you should have a good flat table with decent lighting.

PROS:

The use of prop makes it easy to understand any hard-to-explain concept. You don’t need crazy drawing skills to create the props.

CONS:

With many explainer videos on the rise, this kind of animation doesn’t look really professional. Dropbox used it, and there are more than 2 million views on most of their videos to validate if this video is really helpful.

3. Out of the Box Idea

Sometimes, you get a spark of creativity combined with a stroke of genius. You get the idea that you can execute, and it doesn’t take much to produce as well.

That, my friend, is a dream comes true. One thing that you should avoid is procrastination, so once you have the idea, start working on it immediately.

This video is a trailer for Tiny Wings 2, the sequel to one of the most popular iOS games ever made. It doesn’t cost much to produce, but the creator is literally taking the tiny part out of the music box.

PROS:

Looks great. Original idea.

CONS:

It’s not easy to have a genuinely creative idea.

If you have more time to spend working on the video, try to explore these three solutions. I’ll have a look if I can find other inexpensive methods to create an explainer video, and in the meantime, join our newsletter.

Now, the rest is up to you. You can always create an explainer video and fit it with your style and budget.

Author

Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).

Twitter: @breadnbeyond

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: Andre Oentoro