Guest author Andrew Angus is the founder and CEO of Switch Video, a North American company that produces simple explanatory videos that help clients clearly explain what they do and engage with their prospects. Angus, a well respected leader in the explainer video industry, spearheads the movement to integrate brain science and web metrics into the production of animated explainer videos.

Explainer videos have been known to propel startups forward in terms of media attention, mass interest, conversion rates, revenue, etc. Just consider the story of Dropbox. Dropbox spent $50,000 to have an explainer video produced, which is not a small chunk of change for a startup. The result was 5 million new customers and over $24M in revenue. Talk about ROI!

Your startup, like Dropbox, needs an explainer video. Not just because of the recent hype, but because it’s part of a tried and true startup marketing formula as well. But don’t just take our word for it. Here are the top five reasons (from a long list) your startup needs to create an explainer video.

1. Increase website conversion rates.

Conversions, conversions, conversions - that’s what interests early stage startups. Which visitors are converting to paying customers? What calls to action are inspiring the most conversions? Startups want to know that their marketing dollars are directly tied to conversions and new business.

Explainer videos have been proven to increase conversion rates. In fact, Rypple’s explainer video increased conversions by 20%. They saw lower customer acquisition costs as well. Why? Well, a recent study found that people are 85% more likely to buy a product if they see an explainer video first.

2. Increase product understanding.

The idea of an explainer video is to, of course, explain your brand or product. Potential customers want to know more about you and what you can do for them before they jump to that contact form or checkout page. Research shows, however, that those customers aren’t interested in reading about your startup. Forrester Research found that a single minute of video is worth 1.8 million words!

Plus, the increased amount of potential customers sticking around thanks to your explainer video will remember more about your brand or product. Research shows that people remember 68% of what they learn in a video. However, people will only remember 10% of what they read on a website.

3. Garner mass interest.

Video has widespread appeal that simply can’t be beat. 53.5% of the entire population will watch online video in 2012. A whopping 70.8% of Internet users will watch video in 2012. Overall, that’s a 7.1% increase from 2011. Needless to say, those are some persuasive statistics.

The world loves video! If your explainer video is inspiring or funny, the world will take notice. Just ask Vooza, the startup building its reputation (and signup list) on a funny niche video. The Huffington Post called it “the most hilarious tech startup spoof EVER”. Tim Ferriss, PandoDaily, The Next Web, BetaBeat, 37Signals, Dennis Crowley and more are buzzing about the video.

4. Improve website SEO.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Discounting the SEO power of video is a huge mistake for any startup. A strategic title, a keyword-focused description and relevant tags is all it takes to start harnessing the power of video SEO. For best results, try adding a transcript to your video or building links back to your website in the description. The little things add up!

38% of Google universal searches include video. And when it comes to search results, a focal heatmap revealed that the human eye focuses on video thumbnails before the top results (paid or organic). Let’s not forget that a website with a video on it is 50x more likely to be ranked on the first page of Google.

5. Inspire brand evangelists.

As a form of social media, video is a great way to inspire brand evangelists. People are more than willing to share great videos they find online, which goes hand-in-hand with garnering mass interest. 66% of the population will watch an onsite video more than once and 46% will share the video on Facebook. Another 40% will email links! If your video is expertly scripted and designed, you can easily inspire at least one brand evangelist (who will, in turn, inspire ten more).

Despite its proven results, video is usually one of the last mediums a startup turns to. The best time to start using video was yesterday, but the second best time is today! Get ahead of the competition with a descriptive video like Dropbox or get global attention with a funny video like Vooza. The specifics are up to you and your startup, but there’s simply no way around it: you need an explainer video! 

 

If you feel up to the challenge, Switch Video is offering a FREE COURSE to all C100 members. Simply click this link and sign up!