The “explainer video” or “video explanation” has become a go-to method for companies and organizations to reach their audiences. Here are a five key reasons why explainer videos are so effective and why you should consider making one:

1. Explainer videos increase conversion
It’s true that making an explainer video can be a fairly significant investment. But the returns are worth it. I was in a meeting with a client just the other day who said, “If this video helps people understand what we are and why they need us, it’ll be worth every penny.”

The numbers don’t lie, either. Our clients have reported a doubling of their conversion rate after deploying our videos. In plain English, that means that twice as many people are making a choice — to download an app, to purchase a product, or to learn more about something — after viewing one of our videos.

And don’t just take my word for it. Over at Transvideo Studios, their clients report a 15-75 percent bump.

2. Your audience needs it
The world is a complicated place. Technology is transforming people’s lives, but it’s also leading to a lot of confusion and anxiety. People are constantly bombarded with pitches for websites, services, gizmos, and health products. Explainer videos help companies and organizations rise above all that noise by helping everyday people feel empowered to make informed decisions. In fact, the explainer video is so well established that many people now expect to see one on a website.

3. Explainer videos aren’t a pitch or an ad
I love Common Craft founder Lee LeFever’s summary of what a good explainer video does that advertising often doesn’t accomplish. He says that explainer videos answer the question “why should I care?”

Where advertising is designed to sell and persuade, explainer videos put that power in the hands of the consumer. They invite people to understand and then decide for themselves. Simple explanation builds trust, which isn’t always the outcome with advertising or a slick marketing pitch.

Be sure to read Lee’s full blog post on the importance and value of video explanations.

4. Explainer videos speak for you everywhere
The beauty of video is that it can work across multiple channels. A fabulous explainer video can and should reside on your homepage, but it can also be used in social media and email campaigns. Many of our videos have been used at trade shows and conventions, and as part of investor pitches.

Also, it can often be hard to get journalists and bloggers to write about your product. Explainer videos make their lives easier because they can simply embed your video in their article. An explainer video is far more likely to end up in news coverage about you than an ad.

5. Explainer videos humanize your brand
This is the part that we’re most passionate about here at Planet Nutshell. We feel strongly that explainer videos should express your brand in a way that makes it more relatable, more heartfelt, and more fun. Explainer videos can show a bit of whimsy and reach out to people, letting them know that you care enough to help them understand.

During the summertime, the residents of Planet Nutshell take some time off to recharge their spirits.

But there’s lots more explaining to do, so we’re back at it.

While we were away, Google launched a new version of Google Wallet with our Nutshell displayed front and center in the app.

As part of the launch, we produced a shorter, 40-second version of our original Google Wallet Nutshell.

Google tested this video with hundreds of viewers to help them, and us, develop the best way to explain the basic functions of Google Wallet. Needless to say, we were pleased as punch to be a part of their rigorous and very customer-focused testing process.

If you’re reading this post, you probably already understand the power of Web video to delight people, to move them to action, to make a choice, to click that “I’ll take it!” button.

Of course, some Web videos are better at doing all this stuff than others. But how do you evaluate that effectiveness? In a nutshell, how do you determine that you’re getting the best performance possible out of your investment in video?

One option: You could convene a panel of coworkers, friends, and perhaps customers, who could weigh in with their opinions. You’ll likely get responses like this:

“This video really leverages our core competencies.”

“The script needs the word ‘leverage’ in it”

“More cowbell!”

“Love the colors!”

“It needs more eye candy. Can we get more 3D in there?”

Okay, that’s not super helpful.

So, you go looking for something more objective. You look at how many people have watched the video. YouTube will tell you this. Here are some things you might say as a result:

“We got a million views! This video is awesome!”

“We only got 200 views. This video sucks!”

But hang on. That’s not the full picture. Maybe you have really great social media reach, or maybe the video is planted on a high-traffic homepage. Sure, you got a million views but how many people were fully engaged? How many watched the whole thing? How many got bored? Maybe you’ve completely bored a million people. That’s not good. If they’re not making it to the point where they say, “Aha! I want this!” what’s the point?

On the flipside, maybe that video that only got 200 views is actually engaging people and moving them to action, but it’s buried on your site, without a decent push from your marketing team.

So how can you sort out this mess? When it comes to video deployment and performance, how can you figure out what rocks and what’s schlock?

The answer is analytics. But to get truly powerful and useful analytics, you have to look beyond the comparatively basic analytics provided by YouTube.

I’ve talked about Wistia before. In addition to their powerful video customization features, they’re still a leader in Web video analytics. I’m a fan of their video heat maps. With them, you can see precisely where in your videos folks are getting bored and quitting; where they’re rewinding, possibly out of confusion or heightened interest in a topic; and where they’re skipping around, hoping your video will get to the point. Wistia also aggregates all this information into easy-to-read charts that tell you which videos are maintaining engagement the best.

Learn more about Wistia’s Web video analytics.

Meanwhile, Vidyard gives you a dandy little chart that compiles a lot of great analytics data. You get daily, weekly, or monthly stats on the average attention span of your audience. If they’re leaving 20 seconds into a 2-minute video, maybe you should tidy things up, or start over with a video that captures attention better. Vidyard also lets you watch results in real-time. I love to launch a video and watch the numbers roll in to see how the initial response is going.

Learn more about Vidyard’s Web video analytics.

I’ve learned to love video analytics. There’s no better way to see objectively how videos are performing. Producers of Web video need their feet held to the fire of data. It helps people like me make better videos.

Bordeaux, France-based Mobiles Republic approached us with a mission to explain their flagship app, News Republic.

They presented us with a unique challenge: Make an “aspirational” Nutshell. Show how News Republic can become a part of daily life, and help people see themselves using the product. That got us thinking about telling a story about a central character.

And so, Dan was born:

From there, we worked closely with the News Republic team to develop the script, storyboard, and animation phases. Here’s Rich Reiter, Mobiles Republic director of marketing and acquisition, explaining that process:

Thank you, and all at Planet Nutshell for a job very well done on producing a video for our app News Republic. And when I say “all”, I especially want to note how your collaborative approach to working with us made this into a true team effort.

The process and the result were true to your word: you asked good questions and listened, and helped us to clarify our message; then chose a style and story that matched our product, kept us on-point through the process, and handed us a fantastic video that did exactly what you said it would: it tells our story ‘in a nutshell’.

You guided us through it with a deft hand, while still giving me a strong voice in the production. I really am pleased with the end result, and would gladly work with Planet Nutshell again on future projects.

Creating a great explanatory or demo video is just the beginning. And of course, that’s what we do over here at Planet Nutshell. But how will you host your Nutshell?

For us, it boils down to two solutions. Yes there are others out there, but we feel like these hosts offer the best combination of value, performance, and commitment to customers.

Unlike YouTube and other free hosting services, your video will never have ads or those annoying “related videos” popups when the video completes. Also, both offer the ability to brand and customize your video player. This is important because you may not want people to see your video host’s logo, and you may wish to integrate your video player’s look and feel with the design of your Web site.

Vimeo Pro – $200/yr

Vimeo has emerged as a fantastic way to host videos (Full disclaimer: We use Vimeo to host our portfolio).

Here are some of the highlights of their Pro-level service (features are taken from their overview page):

• 50GB of video storage
• Up to 250k plays of each of your videos
• High Definition (1080p) video
• Advanced Statistics
• Unlimited embedding (this is important if you want viewers to be able to share and spread your video).
• Super-customizable and brandable video player
• HTML5 support with the Vimeo Universal Player
• Full mobile, tablet and connected TV compatibility

Vidyard – Starts at $408/yr

Vidyard is coming on strong as a key competitor to Wistia. I’m really impressed by the rich feature set they offer. Here are some of the top features:

• A/B split testing of separate video thumbnail (aka splash screen) images
• Publish any content you upload to Vidyard to your YouTube channel along with tags and meta-data (cool!). And you can see all the stats on your YouTube video in the Vidyard dashboard.
• Robust Syndication: Publish a video once and push it out to all kinds of places; Facebook, Twitter and more.
• Postroll Call-to-Action: Place a contact form, a buy button, a landing page, and more at the end of your video.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with Vidyard. Be sure to check out all the features.

Wistia – Starts at $276/yr

Many of Planet Nutshell’s clients use Wistia. While Vimeo began as a video hosting solution that was mainly focused on artists and small producers sharing their work, Wistia has always been a commercial video host, competing with the likes of Brightcove. As such, they’ve developed some powerful tools to promote and track the performance of videos.

Wistia offers some interesting email marketing hooks that let you link videos to your email campaigns. Plus, they offer SEO tools that help you improve discovery. If those features are important to you, Wistia deserves a look.

Wistia’s heatmap tool is also very interesting. With it, you can see, in realtime, where and when your video is providing the best engagement. You’ll see when viewers are actually watching and when they’re leaving for more engaging pastures.

Note that Wistia’s pricing is based on bandwidth. We recommend starting with the lowest tier and seeing if that meets your needs.

Get the full scoop on Wistia’s features here.

Have we missed anything here? Feel free to express your opinions in the comments.