Side Hustle: Video Production & Content Creation: Video Production: Explainer Videos & Infograph Biz

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Rising Star
BGOL Patreon Investor
Questions you should ask before hiring a video production company.


5 different types of video productions:

Educational Videos
  • Remote Online Classroom Instruction
  • Webinar Informational Videos
  • Online Courses with Video Lessons (MooC)
  • How-To Training Videos
  • Student ‘Show and Tell’ Videos
  • Video Lesson Series
  • Animated Explainer Video
  • Explainer Videos
Promotional Videos
  • Advertising Videos
  • Comparison Videos
  • Testimonial Videos
  • Presentation Videos
  • Explainer Videos
  • Human Resources Videos
  • Unboxing Videos
  • Product Review Videos
  • Product Demonstration Videos
  • Keynote Slideshow Presentation Videos
  • Real Estate Tour Videos
  • Event Videos
  • Giveaway Videos
  • Talking-head Videos
  • Corporate Videos
  • Announcement Videos
  • Destination Videos
Informational Videos
Television Newscasts

  • Interview Question & Answer Videos
  • Streaming Video Online News Websites
  • Socially-Shared News Snippets (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
  • Public Service Announcements (PSAs)
  • Documentary Films (and Videos)
  • Poetic documentaries
  • Observational documentaries
  • Reflexive documentaries
  • Performative documentaries
  • Expository documentaries
  • Participatory documentaries
Entertainment Videos
  • Music Videos
  • Instagram Reels
  • Facebook
  • Pintrest
  • Snapchat
  • TikToks
  • Episodic-Drama Shows
  • YouTube and YouTube Shorts
  • Streaming Services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc)
  • Travel Videos
  • Automotive Enthusiast Videos
  • Movies (Hollywood, etc)
  • Comedy Shows
  • YouTube Channel Stars
  • Reality Shows
  • Solid Media (DVD and Blu-Ray)
How long have they been working in the industry?
What kind of videos do I make?

What particular client do "I" prefer working with?
How fast were they able to deliver their projects?
After the video is done, what do they do next?
Do you require a concept, script, and storyboard?

Who will handle the project schedule
How many days of recording are required?
How many days of editing are required?
Is there special animation or graphics required?
Is music required for your project?
Is voice-over required for this project?

Do you need stock footage or photos?


12 Types of Video
What Video Style Will Best Appeal to My Audience?

Mix Media

They are exactly what they sound like – videos that utilise more than one form of media. This could be an animated video with some stock photography thrown in, or a live action video with some screencasts in the mix (for example). utilise animation to explain concepts and ideas, and showcase real screenshots of your software to help manage customer expectations. The possibilities are endless here.

live streams
It’s basically the process of streaming live to your audience via a social networking platform like YouTube and Facebook You’ll want to create a rough plan of what you’re going to talk about first. Live streaming is a great way to share exciting announcements with your audience and it’s also an awesome way to interact with people too. Many live stream platforms have a live comments thread so viewers can send in their questions and observations, and you can answer them in real time.

Live-Action Explainer Videos
Live-action is a recording of still or moving objects in real life. In other words: anything that doesn’t make use of animation.
Note that live-action explainer videos, for the most part, are more expensive than animation and also more difficult to change when editing. For that reason, I recommend it to companies who are adverting a real-world location or experience. Like hotels, for example.

Interactive Videos
put your viewers in control of their own viewing experience. Instead of just hitting play and watching a video passively, viewers are invited to interact! They can make decisions, answer questions, and even make purchases directly from your video.

Video Graphics
a video that visualizes data, facts, and figures in a dynamic and interesting way. They’re usually sans voiceover, instead using kinetic text and a catchy soundtrack to tell the story. Video graphics blend facts and figures with interesting graphics and animation to create an engaging and memorable experience for viewers.
73% of people prefer to learn by watching a short video (as opposed to only 11% who would rather read text), video graphics are kind of a no-brainer if you have data to share.

Screencast Explainer Videos
Screencast explainer videos are a simple digital recording of a computer screen that shows how to use a program, website or software. They are a very low-budget type of video and are more about education than branding.
If you are looking for a video marketing clip for your landing page, YouTube, etc., I wouldn’t recommend this style. one of the most cost-effective video types to make.

Whiteboard Explainer Videos
This animation style engages the viewer by showing the illustrator’s hand physically drawing the story onto a white background. Besides screencasts, it is usually the cheapest animated explainer option.
Because whiteboard animations are so engaging, we recommend using them for explaining complex information in a straightforward way.

Cartoon Explainer Videos
Character animated explainer videos are perhaps the most popular style. These stories usually follow a protagonist (your target audience) who is facing a problem that only your product can solve. With lots of emotion and personality, they are an effective way of humanizing your brand.
Cartoon videos are usually funny and are great for building trust. For that reason, I would recommend it for small businesses and start-ups.

3D Explainer Videos
Adding an extra dimension with 3D animation can really bring your animated explainer videos to life and impress your audience. Generally, however, this style is one of the most expensive – especially if changes are needed.
For that reason, I would only recommend 3D animation for businesses with a substantial budget.

Motion Graphics Explainer Videos
Motion graphics is an engaging and elegant animation style that creates the illusion of motion or rotation in order to portray abstract and complex messages. It can also be effectively combined with 3D or cartoon animation to help you stand out from the crowd. On its own, motion graphics is more suited to serious businesses such as those in the financial industry.

Stop Motion or Claymation Explainer Videos
This handcrafted animation style involves taking a picture every time an object moves – that’s roughly 2,500 photos for a 90-second clip! Having one of the longest animated video production times, it’s no wonder digital animation is now more popular. However, if your brand could benefit from an old-fashioned or alternative style, this could be the option for you.



What are Explainer Videos?
Explainer videos are short online marketing videos that, with the help of a narrator, succinctly explain anything relating to your product or service.

How Can I Benefit from an Explainer Video?
Explainer videos are an engaging way of communicating with your audience in a personal way. And, believe it or not, according to Animaker, 88% of online businesses already own one! So you’re reducing your potential impact if you happen to one of those that still don’t.

The benefits of creating an explainer video include:
  • They are brief and target a specific audience for a specific purpose – being direct is crucial for audience engagement
  • Videos are shared on social media more than any other content. Being easy to link to means people don’t have to go out of their way to put them on a website or platforms such as YouTube and LinkedIn
  • Having a video on your website landing page can, according to one study by Eyeview Digital, increase conversion rates by as much as 80%
You will find that many explainer videos are animated. This is because animation comes with some additional benefits above live-action. They include:
  • The simple, narrative-driven animation in explainer videos can clarify even the most complex topics while still holding your viewers’ attention
  • With animation, you have unlimited scope to get as creative and as crazy as you want. Whereas with live-action, you’re confined to whatever your actors can do
  • Funny or adorable animation can really humanize your brand and build up trust with the viewer
  • It’s more affordable than creating live-action videos with actors
How Long Should an Explainer Video be?
Explainer videos for your website should ideally be between 1.5 and 2 minutes long.
Here’s what we learned:
  • People don’t start to lose attention until after the 2-minute mark. So, only if your product or service is complex and absolutely requires a more thorough explaining should you make your video longer than this
  • There isn’t much of a drop off in engagement between the 6- and 12-minute marks. So, if you’re worried your video is too long at 6 - 7 minutes, dont!
  • After 12 minutes, you are starting to lose your audience again. At this point, you should definitely be asking yourself if the additional information is really worth the additional time and money required to produce it
Watch Time
Understandably, platforms want you to publish video that keep people on their site as long as possible. And, because of this, longer videos tend to be rewarded. Here’s how watch time works:
Say, on average, your YouTube viewers watch 25% of your 8-minute video. This clip you will gain you 2-minutes of watch time.
On the other hand, they watch 75% of your 2-minute video. Here you will have 90 seconds of watch time.
So, as you can see, although the latter is much more engaging, it will be less rewarded than the former by YouTube. To combat this, you should, of course, always make your videos as engaging as possible, but also make them long, 3 to 5 minutes.
http://ctt.ec/wT7oA
The Animated Explainer Video Production Process:
  1. The Script
  2. The Storyboard
  3. Illustrations
  4. Voice Over
  5. Animation
  6. Music and Sound Effects
  7. Publish
SET YOUR VIDEO MISSION
It’s impossible to know what sort of video will be right for you if you don’t first define success by outlining what you want it to achieve.
A perfect example would be something like: Grow my sales conversion rate by generating greater brand trust with my audience.
Only then are you ready to move on to the methods that will help you achieve it.

The Script
How well your message is communicated depends entirely on how good your script is. In fact, the entire success of your explainer video depends on the script! Because it’s so important, many clients tend to want to write it themselves.
We would always suggest leaving it up to a professional scriptwriter outside of your business. They will have a fresh perspective on your company and, because of that, are in a better position to explain it in a way that anyone can follow.
Using the information collected in the previous stages, a good scriptwriter will be able to build a compelling narrative in the tone of your brand. One that your customers can relate to and that answers all of their survey and review concerns.
It should:
  • State what you do and get to the point in the nose of the video, i.e. the first 2%
  • Speak directly to your audience in a voice and style that they can relate to
  • Include the key messages that your research suggested would best achieve the desired KPIs
  • If the subject allows, use humour and location changes to hold the viewer’s attention in the long body of the video, i.e. the middle 96%
  • Show a problem and prove how your product or service can solve it, rather than stating how
  • Exhibit your unique features and benefits
  • Let people know where and how they can purchase (call to action)
  • Show your worth through companies you’ve previously done business with
  • Keep people watching at the tail end of your video, i.e. the final 2%, by using phrases like ‘in summary’ or ‘to wrap things up’ or recapping.
Features vs Benefits
Online, one piece of advice you’re likely to see come up time and again is to focus on the benefits in your script and not the features. But this is not always the case.
The reason this advice is so prevalent is the very same reason why English teachers tell their young students that they can’t start a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘because’. Because it’s just all too easy to only do that. It’s merely a device to prevent people from writing an amateurish or one-sided scripts.
The reality is in most cases, if you only state the benefits of your features and not the features themselves, people just aren’t going to believe you. It will sound like you’re just making empty claims.

Initial Sketches and Storyboard
begin visualising the script and drawing multiple sketches for each sentence. Chose the strongest concepts and, alongside the script, arranged in the order they will appear on-screen. This is called the storyboard.

It sounds simple, but creating a quality storyboard requires a lot of different skills and knowledge. Things like storytelling, camera angles, ellipse time and composition all have to be taken into consideration. And, in the end, it will allow you to pre-visualise the video in order to find and deal with problems before the video production process even begins, saving you time and money in the long run.
Make sure to spend time reviewing the storyboard with your team before signing it off.

The Voiceover
The voiceover is the voice of an off-screen narrator who reads the script over your video.
When choosing a voiceover artist, make sure to select someone with a voice that will portray the attitude of your brand and resonate with your audience
Knowing your key demographic is also useful here. If most of your customers are women in their twenties, it’s advisable to use the voice of a woman in her twenties.

Colour
An effective way to build cohesion between your animated video and your brand is to cleverly place your brand colour within those graphic elements. Remember that an explainer video is a marketing tool like any other, so having your color present at important moments is a good way of keeping the story linked to your brand in the eyes of the viewer.

Believe it or not, color can also have a big effect on your conversion rates. Psychologically speaking, certain colors appeal more to certain demographics. So, what’s your business all about? Using warm colors, for example, will give it a more fun and approachable look, while cool colours will deliver an elegant and sophisticated style.

When people of color see themselves in the videos that speak specifically to them & their issue, they will subscribe, follow, comment, like, & share the videos; especially women & children.

The Characters
The characters in your video must fully represent your brand persona. Knowing the personality, age range and even physical appearance of your average customer will go a long way to the design of the characters. Are they old or young, black or white, male or female, attracted by cute or rugged things?
A good agency will design a few character options for you to choose from.

Sound Effects and Music
Sound effects and music are often used to enhance the overall perception of the video. People want to be transported, and these are a simple yet effective way of achieving it.
If your video is set on a beach, for example, have waves lapping, seagulls squawking and children laughing in the background to bring the environment to life.

Publish / Post
Publish it where your research suggested it would have the greatest impact. If you add it to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc., make sure it’s appropriately optimised for each platform in order to track its views and relevant data with their built-in analytics tools.

Explainer Video Thumbnails
A thumbnail can be a snapshot image from your video or a bespoke image that visitors or browsers see before pressing play. Essentially they act just like a book cover. And yes, people will judge your video based on them. So always test different versions of your thumbnail to see what works for you.
That said, here are the conclusions:
  • Use bright but non-offensive colours to help your videos stand out in the right way.
  • Include 4 words of text or less that give the video some context. And make sure the font colour contrast against the background to aid readability.
  • Incorporate a human face showing some kind of emotion and making eye contact with the camera.
PLANNING YOUR VIDEO PROMOTION
At this stage, some important things to consider for promoting the video are:
  • What social media sites and video platforms to publish on and how to optimize for each
  • How to design your webpage to encourage as much video plays as possible
Social Media Platforms
Here is a breakdown of the most important guidelines to follow when publishing on 4 of the most popular platforms. Following them will leverage their algorithms in your favour, making your videos as visible as possible. And, if you click on the platform name, if relevant, it will take you to their video ad specs.
Facebook
If your video could benefit from being published on Facebook, here’s how best to add it to their site:
  • Ask questions underneath your video that encourage interaction. The more interaction you can generate, the more it will be rewarded by Facebook.
  • Avoid being lazy and simply sharing your video on Facebook from another platform (like YouTube). They are not likely to do well as Facebook wants users to upload Facebook videos. By uploading a video on each platform individually, it is proven that you can get up to 50 times more views.
  • As most Facebook videos are watched on mute, make sure you include subtitles to help boost engagement. The more engagement, the more they will reward you.
YouTube
YouTube is best if you’re looking for a large, wide-ranging audience for your explainer. Here’s how best to add it to their platform:
  • Here it’s important to keep viewers watching for as long as possible because YouTube actually rewards watch time over view count. So, fascinating, dynamic, humorous, or shocking content is a must.
  • Put detailed descriptions under your video with links to your site and, in it, encourage people to comment.
  • Check out a little trick called The Sequel Technique here.
LinkedIn
If your video is more suited to a corporate, business audience, promoting it on LinkedIn might be best. Here’s how:
  • For maximum visibility, post your video between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on work days. But always test to see what time works for you – don’t forget to go by the time where most of your audience is, not where you are.
  • Just like Facebook, most people will watch your LinkedIn video silent, so always incorporate subtitles.
  • And, just like YouTube, detailed video descriptions and contextual titles are rewarded by LinkedIn.
  • For more information on the best LinkedIn video promotion techniques, you can also check out our detailed guide here.
Vimeo
Vimeo is all about high-quality videos aimed at a creative, artistic audience. Sound right for your explainer? Here’s what you need to know:
  • Tag your video with simple keywords to help people find it. If it’s all about your new music lessons app, for example, tag as many relevant words as possible: ‘music’, ‘guitar’, ‘piano’, ‘chords’, etc.
  • Vimeo is all about good design, so customise your Vimeo channel page to compliment your brand. If your theme, colours, and modules are all cohesive, it will reinforce your video’s message and build brand familiarity.
  • More than YouTube, you will need to find your audience on Vimeo. To do this, contribute your video to relevant groups or build your own groups around its topic. These are communities and conversations around videos and specific things people like.

Tools for Making Videos
Want to do it yourself? Here are the 5 best video software tools currently on the market:
1. Vyond
Not the cheapest option, but probably the best if you want a final product that is as close to a professional video as possible. Free trial available.

2. VideoScribe
This option is for whiteboard animation specifically. It comes with royalty free images and music and allows you to create whiteboard videos for business without any prior technical understanding. Free trial available.

3. Wideo
Wideo allows you to create professional-looking 2D animated explainer videos easily with built-in templates. The basic package begins at $19 a month.

4. Powtoon
Powtoon is an video software tool that makes it easy to make animated videos with their user-friendly drag and drop tool. Also comes with great templates and a free trial.

5. Animaker
DIY animation software Animaker is perfect for producing creative cartoon explainer videos in a short time and with little to no experience. They also have one of the largest illustration, character, and graphic libraries available.

6. RawShorts
This is also a whiteboard-specific software tool. It is perfect for making creative whiteboard animations with sleek, professional-quality transitions. Also comes with a free trial.

7.Canva

8.Doodly

9.Toonly


animated-infographic-3.png


InfoGIFS
Technically, animated infographics are GIFS. But the GIFS most people are familiar with are those standalone little loops you see all over the Internet. Those little gems get shared for a reason. They’re simple, entertaining, and eye-catching.

They’re also pretty easy to make. You can make GIFS by animating single elements from infographics, or extracting smaller panels from your animated infographics. (Again, this is why we’re big fans of modular design.) Look at all the assets in your infographic, including illustrations and data visualization. If you can make it move, you can get even more attention.

Best of all, these make great microcontent for social and can be used to tease a larger piece of content.
 
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Rising Star
BGOL Patreon Investor
1. Visme.co

Visme is a super cool infographic maker that allows you to create interactive presentations, infographics, ad banners, animations, customer layouts, and more. It has an extensive library full of templates, shapes, icons, and objects to choose from.

It is a highly-recommended app by Coursework Spot, a service that offers academic research. If you’re not up for a bunch of changes, edits, additions, or subtractions, you may simply edit the text and hit publish. You can also directly insert data values to change the charts and graphs.

Another plus point is that it’s “specially priced” for teachers and students. Which means it is affordable for all of us online entrepreneurs as well. Their premium plan is only $16 a month.

But before you even pay a cent, Visme lets you take it for a test drive with their free account alternative.

Get your free account now.

2. Easel.ly

This infographic creator will help you put together a stunning image in just a few clicks.

First, you get to pick a template from a long list of cards, then a search bar and drop down menu on the side will allow you to filter the template results. For instance, you could search for a template that deals with geography (maps) or templates with a timeline format.

Once you’ve selected your template, you can add in more shapes, backgrounds, charts, objects and of course text to personalize the template and let it tell a story in your own way.

The basic version of this tool is offered for no cost, so you can start making free infographics in no time!

3. Visualize.me

Visualize.me focuses on letting users create “infographic resumes”. However, the template designs are not limited to that purpose alone.

Once you’ve signed in with your LinkedIn or email account, you can select from a range of beautiful themes, language maps, timelines, bubble charts, tree maps, pictograms, and other formats.

4. PiktoChart

Infographic maker like this one could kick graphic designers out of business before we know it, since PiktoChart markets itself as the tool that let’s “non designers create beautiful infographics in as little as 10 minutes.”

This may be a shocker – or maybe even a bit offensive – but it is true. Piktochart has over 400 fully customizable themes with retina-ready images, objects, graphs, and colors you can edit and adjust according to your preference.

It makes creating infographics a pleasurable experience.

5. Canva

One of the most uniquely and brilliantly designed websites, Canva aims to train both designers and non-designers to come up with cool and creative stuff.

Canva is an infographic maker that will start out with a brief tutorial to acquaint you with their program. Once you’re through with that, you can move on to creating your project whether it be a presentation, Facebook cover photo, business card, ad, poster, banner, or a retina-ready infographic.

6. Infogr.am

Infogram is all about making charts and infographics “the easy way”. So far over 2 million infographics have been created with this infographic maker and some have even been used by prestigious organizations including Euronews, University of Cambridge, and the Huffington Post.

Whether you are blogger, educationalist, brand ambassador, or an organization, you can make charts/infographics in three easy steps: pick a template, visualize the data, and publish.

7. Venngage

Venngage has everything you need to create free infographics and publish them on the spot. You can choose from hundreds of professional templates.

Infographics is not all you can make; reports, posters, promotions, and social media posts can also be created using Venngage, allowing you to tell your story “visually” with the help of charts, maps, icons, and visuals.

8. InVideo

You might be wondering… “What does a video tool have to do with infographics?”

Well, you don’t need to rely on static content to display and represent your data. In fact, moving graphics and video content are proven to be far more engaging that static infographics.

InVideo is a unique video creation and editing tool that empowers anyone to create a professional looking video in a matter of minutes. With their library of video templates, music, customization, and easy-to-use interface, you’ll have your first data-backed video ready for publication in no time.

9. iCharts

iCharts is not your everyday infographic maker. It is a cloud-based visual analytics platform that allows users to create quick and easy visualizations for complex business information, data sets, or extensive research work. You can access and update your data in real time whenever you like since it is cloud native.

10. Geo Commons

Perhaps, you’re more interested in presenting maps instead of timelines. Geo Commons is perfect for geography-based infographics that must include a map of your choice.

Create feature-rich maps and share what you know!

11. Google Charts

Why not simply use Google charts? This is probably an infographic maker you are already familiar with and definitely one that requires little training or experience to learn.

Google Charts is a free solution with all kinds of charts, maps, bars, and statistical goodies to choose from. Google’s gallery is rich with variety.

12. InfoActive

Infoactive is a simple and flexible platform that allows you to create interactive infographics and other “data driven” stories. InfoActive lets you connect your data to the application and let automation do the rest for you.

13. Photo Infographic Gen Lite

If your infographic is based on the number, ways, or timing you take your photos, you can use this Android application to sum it up for you.

This is a very specific program with a very specific purpose, but if you’re a photographer looking forward to fulfilling that purpose, it will suit your needs.

14. Get About

Another infographic maker designed to cater to a specific purpose, Get About lets you create infographics that determine your social media activity.

For instance, Get About will let you track your Twitter terms, hashtags, and mentions. Also you can monitor your social activity with infographics that chart out how you connect and share with your network.

15. Creately

Creately is not only a diagramming tool, but also a tool that works for teams requiring real time collaboration. Creately will let you create and style smart shapes, diagrams, connectors, and more to gather information in one compact space.

Another interesting infographic maker choice for you to consider.

16. PhotoStats

This is an iPhone application dedicated to generating infographics on how, when and where you take photos. Similar to Photographic Gen Lite for Android, the application will reveal your photography habits in just a few clicks, and if you like, make it available to your friends.

17. Charts Bin

Charts Bin is a free online solution that allows you to create interactive maps. After a sign-up, create a map of your choice by inserting values or zooming in. If you like you can copy and paste the HTML code to your blog without having to go through a bunch of tricky steps to display it on your website.

18. Gliffy

Gliffy will transform your ideas into shapes by providing you with a variety of flow charts, UML diagrams, wireframes, network diagrams, org charts, and sitemaps.

Create digital visualizations by dragging and dropping shapes/lines/objects from the library and transforming words into graphs.

19. Wordle

Sometimes word clouds are all you need to explain a concept in just a few words. Wordle will let you create unique and interactive word clouds in a variety of fonts, layouts, color schemes and more.

20. Smile Widgets

Smile Widgets is an extremely simple website that allows users to create “free, open source data visualizations and web widgets”. The software will let you create exhibits, timelines, time-plots, and runways of your choice.
 
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