Here’s What You Should Know About Explainer Video Landing Pages
If you want to make the audience you’re marketing to take a specific action, be that submitting an email address, booking a sales call, watching your webinar, etc. then a landing page is usually the most effective way of doing this.
Just so we’re clear, a landing page is a webpage created to achieve one specific goal by getting your audience to take one specific action. And there are two schools of thought on the exact definition of a landing page. Some (namely Unbounce) say they have to be standalone, inaccessible via a web search, campaign-specific pages that have zero navigation options, just a CTA. Others are a little looser with the definition and say that regular website pages with internal linking can count if their goal is to achieve a particular outcome.
Landing pages have also been referred to as lead capture pages, destination pages, and if they’re bottom of funnel, sales pages. As you might have guessed, explainer video landing pages are landing pages with an explainer video on them. And they can be highly effective.
A video on a landing page can boost conversions by 86%
The video will typically be placed in the hero section of an explainer video landing page. There’s plenty of evidence that this is the best place for them. But they can also be effective lower down. Namely in scenarios where your video is outlining a certain point that isn’t mentioned until further on in the page.
A good landing page is one that converts, so with that in mind, let’s discuss…
Why use explainer video landing pages?
Short answer: people want videos and are becoming more and more allergic to reading. They’re now the preferred medium online. When we do read, we skim. We want to quickly ingest information so that we can make decisions and take action. It’s this mentality and the need for rapid answers that underpins much of the success behind explainer video landing pages. Here are a few qualities that support this.
Clearer more efficient communication
Video is the perfect tool for this. We process sound and visuals much quicker than we do text. Video can combine all three into a focused experience that injects crystal clear marketing messages straight to the brain. This speed and efficiency boosts conversions by delivering a message before the prospect has had any time to get bored or distracted.
Lower bounce rate
Some prospects will wrongly ignore a landing page thinking that it’s not for them. With our tragically short attention spans, it’s an easy mistake for them to make. But when these prospects get a rapid overview of a brand’s sales pitch via an explainer video, they should be much more likely to engage with your page. And the more they engage with the rest of what’s on your landing page, the more likely they’ll be to convert.
Increased dwell time
Even if you overcome the hurdle of viewers bouncing, there’s still the challenge of getting them to engage with everything on your page. Without an explainer video, there’s less indication of what to expect from the rest of the landing page. But when you include an explainer video in the hero section, your audience gets a peek at what’s to come. This helps call out the most intriguing elements of your landing page and product. The intriguing elements that prospects will hopefully spend more time investigating now that the video has informed them.
It makes you stand out and be more memorable
Not all your competition will be using explainer video landing pages. So even if visitors do bounce, the video may make them more likely to remember your brand and return to your website later should they change their minds.
Better quality leads
If your landing page is for say, signing people up to an email list or booking a sales call, the page is just as much about eliminating unsuitable prospects as it is about generating clicks. The clarity and efficiency of communication that explainer videos provide mean that more prospects will clearly understand what you’re offering them. The clearer they understand your product, the better they’ll be at self-determining their suitability for it.
You can receive an SEO boost
If you’ve decided to make your landing page googlable and want it to rank, then the experience your users have on your page will be a factor. As we’ve discussed above, explainer videos can seriously improve the user experience. Also, if you incorporate keywords into your video’s transcript Google will pick up on these and consider them when ranking your page. Explainer videos for SEO purposes are a great thing to consider and a recent post of ours tackles that in full.
The explainer video can still be used elsewhere
Firstly, let’s be clear, the messaging of your landing page explainer video needs to be written for its respective page first and foremost. If your explainer video is telling people to not press the YouTube skip button or it’s welcoming people to an in person trade show, then it will be out of place on a landing page. If on the other hand, you have an explainer video that works just as well in various contexts, say landing page + YouTube ads + in an email, then feel free to cross publish!
Here are a few examples of landing page explainer videos
Crazy Egg
In the first 11 words this video gives viewers a mini elevator pitch. It then continues by addressing a problem and explaining why Crazy Egg has a unique solution. It even challenges objections and questions that prospects might have by stating that it doesn’t take long to get started (30 seconds) and giving a rundown of Crazy Egg’s tracking capabilities. Then it finishes things by offering a 30-day free trial. Basically, it does what all good sales should: it makes you feel daft for even considering saying no. The addition of the video drove an additional $21,000 a month. Nice.
Dropbox
Before they ran this explainer video Dropbox was spending $244-$399 to acquire a customer. Since the product was only $99 this was pretty unsustainable. So they adopted a viral referral program and used this video to convert visitors on their site. It was a great success; running on their homepage for several years, clocking around 30,000 views per day, helping them to acquire ten million customers and drive $25 million in revenue. This video’s magic comes from its ability to address, dramatize and empathize with a common data storage problem that users have. It then goes on to present Dropbox as the solution by dramatizing a scenario where it comes in handy.
Rypple
This video proves that you don’t need fancy animation to get results. Rypple tested three versions of its landing page. One had the above explainer video, one had static imagery + text, another had a testimonial video from Facebook. The explainer video version was the clear winner by driving an extra 20% conversion. This video spends more than half of the running time outlining the problem and agitating it. Clearly, it’s a common issue that prospects are feeling. It then gets viewers to dream big and really desire the product by spending the final third selling how great life could be if they bought.
How to create a great explainer video landing page
Remember the landing page basics
A strong engaging headline, compelling CTA, and coherent body copy with equally engaging subheadings are the building blocks of any good landing page. No explainer video will help if these elements aren’t present. You also need to remember to make your landing page effective and coherent without the need to watch the explainer video. Writing good landing page copy and designing it effectively is an art in itself but to get started, make sure you keep those elements front of mind.
Your video and your landing page are one
Don’t write the script for your explainer video in a vacuum. You need to consider what messaging will be consumed immediately before and immediately after viewers watch. In many cases, if your video is in the hero section, readers will read your headline and hero section copy, watch the video and hopefully read on. Keep the journey they take front of mind and make sure you research and craft your explainer video script as if it’s another section of your landing page.
Keep the goal of your landing page front of mind
In as few words as possible, write down what you want your landing page to make people do. Do you want people to give you their email? Sign up for a free trial? Maybe you want them to buy now. Focusing on the goal will help you put the right copy in the right places. It’ll also help you put the higher priority messaging in the explainer video. E.g. if you want people to sign up for a free trial, mentioning it’s free should be a good reason for them to carry on reading.
Focus your video around one single message
Remember the Crazy Egg video from before? What worked so well was how it started with a single message summing up what Crazy Egg offered.
“The heat map tool that shows why your visitors aren't converting”
It then went on to spend the rest of the video addressing this problem and backing up the claim being made. Writing out the message of your video in one sentence will help you focus your video, make it easier to understand, and ensure that more viewers engage with the rest of your page.
Make the video obvious
You don’t want to give viewers any excuse to ignore your video. As mentioned, putting video in the hero section is a safe bet for this very reason. If you opt for placement elsewhere make sure you make both the video and its play button as obvious as possible.
Wireframe your page
Similarly, you need to make every element on your landing page as clear and easy to interact with as possible. Obvious subheadings, a clear CTA button, adequate breathing space around each element, short paragraphs, etc. will all make your page easy to read and easily clickable.
The hook is everything
By hook I mean both the explainer video’s intro hook and the headline copy. If you don’t get people interested with your headline they won’t continue reading your landing page. If you don’t make the first few seconds of your explainer video interesting, many viewers won’t watch until the end. Sure, you need to have a good ending too, but if your beginning is bad then prospects will ignore any CTA button.
A good video thumbnail will help too
In many ways this is part of the video’s intro hook. After the landing page headline, it will typically be what persuades people to watch the video. Making it clear and unignorable with some simple and enticing copy should do the trick.
Cut to the chase
Spend as little time as possible communicating what’s important. After you’ve hooked your audience there’ll be plenty of other important information to communicate. Everything should be communicated as succinctly as possible. Trim the fat wherever you can.
Remember, the video is an intro
Poorly executed landing page explainer videos might go too deep into product specifics. Or they might mention only mildly important details that are covered later on the landing page. There’s a balance you need to strike between teasing viewers with top-level information and giving them a complete rundown of every vaguely relevant detail. This is going to take a lot of care during the writing stage. Just make sure that when creating your explainer video landing page you put the messages needed to generate interest in the video. Then keep specifics in the landing page copy.
Typically, things like your value proposition, the problem your product solves, a brief overview of how the product works, etc. should go in the explainer video. Then things like detailed comparisons with other products, terms and conditions, product specifications, etc. should go in the landing page copy. Naturally, if there are good reasons to break these rules feel free to. For example, there might be a very important feature your audience will get excited about when placed in the explainer video.
Demonstrating credibility is usually a good idea
Without social proof like customer testimonials, case studies, or awards, every claim you make on your explainer video landing page will be empty. This doesn’t necessarily have to be done within your explainer video but it can certainly be effective.
Keeping the video short is a safe bet
According to Vidyard’s video benchmarks report the shorter a business video is the better. The report suggests that anything over two minutes is unwise. Keeping things short will certainly make your video easier to finish. You should always put your most important information at the start. You should always end the video before it gets boring. BUT, I think there can be plenty of good exceptions to the two-minute rule.
If you a) keep your information hyper-relevant and b) keep your video entertaining. Then feel free to go beyond two minutes if needed. Anything these guys make is a testament to that. If you’re keen to know more about optimum explainer video length, then this blog should be pretty helpful.
Consider your page’s SEO
If your explainer video landing page is a standalone piece, inaccessible via Google, then feel free to ignore this. If however, you’re playing the SEO game, then things like including keywords both in the page and the video will be wise, as will submitting a video transcript and XML sitemap.
Every video needs a clear CTA
CTAs aren’t just for your landing page! At the end of your video, you should give people idiot-proof instructions about what to do next. In many cases, this might just be “scroll down” or “click below”. But depending on your landing page you might want to ask for something else. Either way, make sure you leave no guesswork over what prospects should do after watching your landing page explainer video.
Leave space for subtitles
Much of your audience will be watching your landing page explainer video with the sound off. If your video looks good enough, many of them will turn the sound on. But you don’t want to rely on this. So if you can, create a subtitled version for mobile users.
Always test
Everything I’ve outlined here is a best practice. All kinds of landing page and explainer video techniques have been known to work, so if you can, make sure you test and optimize everything. Headline copy, CTA button copy, video CTAs, video intro hooks, perhaps even different layouts. Make sure you test just one thing at a time so that you know what’s responsible for the results.
Pssst… you don’t have to just use an explainer video!
Whilst explainer videos are certainly very effective, there are all sorts of video types that can be used on both landing pages or anywhere else in your funnel. Video testimonials and video case studies can be effective further down the page for when you want to substantiate claims. Maybe your landing page is super simple and you’re just using it to announce a special offer. In that case, a quick video outlining the offer could be a more appropriate call for the hero section. Or if you’re promoting an app, then an in-depth screencast showing the app’s functionality might be appropriate.
Explainer video landing page watch outs
Sometimes a headline is all you need
The headline will always be the first thing your prospects experience when they land on your page. If that’s persuading and self-explanatory enough, then a video could end up being a distraction from your landing page’s goal. If you’re selling a product that doesn’t need much explanation or your message is particularly simple – “50% off for 24 hours!” – then a video could stifle your results.
Be careful not to compromise page load speed
Videos are more effort for your website to visualize and nothing causes visitors to bounce like a page that takes its time. Your explainer video landing page needs to load as quickly as any other page. So make sure you do a speed test and if necessary, optimize by choosing the right video hosting platform.
Be careful with autoplay
Autoplaying videos is usually a no-no. People don’t like audio coming out of nowhere and moving pictures they didn’t ask to see. Sometimes people will come to your landing page from a source that’s already playing the video – a prime example being a YouTube pre-roll ad. In this case, auto-play will be fine since they’ve essentially already opted into seeing a playing video. But in other instances, avoid autoplay.
Final thoughts
As mentioned, not every landing page needs an explainer video. But all landing pages certainly need to be clear, attention-grabbing, and persuasive. And when executed properly an explainer video can be all of these. Whether you’re curious to see what an explainer video landing page could achieve or you just need a video for your product, Bullseye Motion is here to give your product the ultimate sales pitch.
Click below to book a meeting with me, Bullseye’s creative director and start talking about how your business can achieve success with an explainer video.
P.S. all comments and feedback on this blog are appreciated! If there’s any way you think it could be improved, then feel free to shout and I’ll see if I can work them into a redraft. xx
