There’s a lot of chatter out there about the ideal length for explainer videos.

Which inevitably leads to a conversation about attention spans.

Which usually turns into someone yelling like an old man about how kids these days can’t focus on anything.

Let’s skip all that, and get to the heart of it.

How long is too long? How short is too short?

The truth is that each video is different, and each length has it’s own advantages.

Short videos 15 to 30 seconds long are ideal for advertising on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. In fact, many online advertising platforms will limit you to 15 or 30 second maximums.

In a video this short, you’ll only have time to get the viewer interested, so it’s important to lead them to a place with more information. Like a landing page or website homepage, with an explainer video front and center.

Explainer videos are typically 60 seconds to two minutes in length.

How long your video ends being up depends on how complicated your product or service is, and how much explanation is required.

If you have a product or service that requires a lot of explanation, you might consider a 3, 4, or even 5 minute video.

But videos of this length should be saved for later in your sales process, when people have already been hooked in by your advertisements or short explainers, and are more likely to stick around.

Crowdfunding videos are an exception. People on sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo will often only look at a video before deciding whether to back a campaign, so these videos are often around five minutes long.

Longer videos can also be used when pitching to investors…if they’re going to be giving you a lot of money, they usually have a little more time to spend making a decision.

Videos longer than five minutes have a lot of uses also. Like software tutorials. Training videos for employees or contractors. Safety orientations. And down-funnel sales and webinars.

At Promoshin, we’ve made thousands of videos in all sorts of length.

Need help deciding how long your video should be? Give us a call!

Early in the creative process for any video, you’re going to come to a crucial crossroads.

Animation or Live action? On the surface it seems like a tough decision.

On one hand, your favorite movies are live action…

On the other hand, you did really love Finding Nemo.

What’s a decision-maker to do?

We’re going to pull back the veil to show you that the choice is a lot easier than it seems.

Depending on who makes your video, a typical animated video can cost anywhere from 1 to 25 thousand dollars to produce, and takes about 3 to 6 weeks.

With live action, those numbers start closer to 5, thousand, and the upper limit is out of sight.

They also take much longer to create.

Why the big difference?

For starters, here is a list of people that are involved in a quality animated video production.

And here are the people who are involved in a live action project.

That’s a lot of mouths to feed.

And that’s only part of the reason live action can get so expensive.

There’s also a logistical can of worms that someone has to deal with.

And if something didn’t come out right the first time, or something about your business changes…

Updates or revisions become just as costly as the initial pass. And you can forget about updating your video months down the line.

With animation, the logistics are simple, revisions are a breeze, and they age like a fine English Stichelton That is, very nicely.

Plus, animation can be much better for communicating abstract ideas, with fewer restrictions than a live action shoot.

So if you’d rather be limited by your imagination than your budget, The choice is clear.

And if you value quality, transparency, speed and affordability, then Promoshin is the best choice for your animation needs.

Here’s a fact: There are people online that will create a video for you for less than $1,000.

Sometimes, they’ll do it for as little as $100. Sounds like a great deal, right?

Here’s another fact: Those cheap videos will actually cost you more than videos from a reputable production company. How? Let’s break it down.

First of all, finding a freelancer isn’t as easy as it sounds. You have to play the role of hiring manager, sorting through animators, interviewing them, reviewing their work, and deciding if their portfolios are legitimate.

The cheap guys are typically working on their own, and are located offshore.

Language barriers, delays, and time differences all make communication difficult.

And there’s no guarantee that your money is safe, or that they’ll remain available long enough to finish your project.

But let’s say you get a good one, and actually move forward into production.

At a full service company, it takes a team of people to create a video. Script writers, project managers, creative directors, illustrators, animators, voiceover artists, sound engineers.

Freelancers only fit one of these roles. So guess who ends up doing the rest of the work? That’s right. You do.

Or you have to hire additional people to do those tasks for you. And, since freelancers are typically just animators who might not understand your concept, that means the creative side of things is left entirely up to you.

How much is an hour of your time worth? How much are a hundred hours of your time worth?

But let’s say you get an honest freelancer, you put in the extra time to get through production, and what do you end up with?

Usually a low quality production, with shoddy writing, animation errors, and stock graphics that are found all over the internet.

Putting a great video on your site can do wonders for your reputation. Putting a crappy video on your site does…the opposite.

Okay, let’s pretend that by some miracle you find a freelancer who communicates well, you work hard to ensure a great product, and you end up with a video you actually like.

Then you get sued for copyright infringement. That’s right. Freelancers are known to borrow copyrighted materials to make their work easier.

And guess who’s on the hook for their laziness? That’s right.

There are other legal questions, too. Like, can a freelancer be relied on to keep your project confidential?

Okay, for the sake of argument, let’s say your freelancer is a good communicator, finishes your project, and keeps it all above board.

Are they going to be able to help you implement and market your video?

And what happens when you need inevitably need a change to your video in two months? Will they still be around?

Hiring an offshore freelancer might seem like a great deal, but the real costs go far beyond the price tag.

Or you can choose a company with a long reputation for quality, a team of seasoned professionals to get the job done, and a satisfaction guarantee.

A company like Promoshin.com. Give us a call for your next video project.

Writing great explainer videos takes skills of a master, the courage of a thousand lions, and generally requires you to be very good-looking.

Yeah, he made me say it.

Let’s put that aside for a minute. Writing an explainer video that keeps the people engaged and converts viewers isn’t rocket science. But it does help to know a few things before you jump in.

First you have to know the baseline knowledge of your audience. Understanding what they already know will help you save time and cut straight to the interesting stuff.

Let’s say you’re selling financial software. If your video is targeting CPAs, you don’t need to explain to them the difference between Form 8903 and Form 6251. But if you’re selling to everyday customers, you most definitely do.

Once you’ve established a baseline knowledge, your job is to tell a good story within that framework. Walk the viewer through a day in the life of someone who uses your product or service. Or talk directly to the view and tell them what they’re missing.

It’s important to remember that with video, especially animated video, neither the script nor the animation exist on their own. That’s why most explainer videos look like this. One doesn’t make sense without the other. They support each other. Thanks brah, I know you’re always there for me.

When it comes to length, a lot of people would try to tell you that they’ve studied behavioral science or scientific behavior or something and determined the exact length the proper explainer video should be. I say baloney. There’s only one rule when it comes to explainer video length: take as long as you need to. Don’t take longer than you have to.

Lastly, you have to add some flavor. Jokes, wordplay, rhymes, maybe a pun. Make it fun. That’s it, it’s done.

Oh wait, I forgot the most important thing: The call to action. If you want an explainer video with an engaging, high-performance script, call Promoshin today.

YouTube isn’t just a great place to waste 6 hours watching videos of baby sloths, it’s also a great place to market your videos.

Did you know that after Google, YouTube is the second most searched website? When you’ve got a great video, you need to show up on those search engine results to increase your exposure. But unless you know what you’re doing, you could risk being buried on page 352.

Unfortunately, getting your video to show up near the top of the search results is a bit complicated. Fortunately, a good marketing company can make it easy.

Here are the top three factors that determine where your video ranks on YouTube:

1. Keywords. Keywords are the DNA of any search algorithm. In a YouTube video, keywords appear here, here, here, and here. When you enter a search item, YouTube returns videos with relevant keywords. The trick is to choose keywords with the most searches and least competition.

You also have the option of adding closed captions to your video. This is highly recommended as these provide another opportunity to insert keywords.

2. Links. YouTube partially determines how popular your video is based on how many other sites link back to that page. The more places your video appears, the higher it will rank. This requires posting your video on your own site, as well as on blogs, news sites, press releases, forums, social media, and anywhere else you could think of.

3. Video quality. A high definition video will rank higher than a standard definition video. YouTube will also look at user-generated rankings like how many likes and dislikes your video has and determining which videos to rank first. And of course, videos with more views will be ranked higher.

Increasing your search rankings means the next time your target audience goes to YouTube to watch sloth videos, they just might end up buying your product instead.

For help making and marketing your next video, give Promoshin a call.

You know that the right way to make a video is with a full-service production company.

But what does full-service mean? When you’re new to the process, animated video production can seem like a black box.

Money goes in, something happens, and a few weeks later, out pops a fresh baked video.

You probably have a lot of questions, like “Why does it cost so much?”, “Why does it take so long?” and “Why is that turkey wearing a sombrero?”

To get your answers, we’ll need to look inside the black box. Oops, not that black box. This one.

First, the creative director talks to you on the phone, researches your business, your competitors, and your industry, and creates a plan for your video.

Then a professional script writer needs to turn your information into an effective, witty, and charming video script.

This is the most important stage, because a bad script equals a bad video, so they’ll probably go through several drafts before they’re ready to share.

There’s a project manager, who is available by phone or email anytime, and works with all their clients throughout the process to ensure expectations are met, and makes sure you know where your video is at.

When the script is established, another person has to transform the text into a storyboard, so you get a grasp on the visuals.

A talented artist uses their imagination to come up with scenes that communicate your message in a fun, easy-to-understand way.

Once that’s finished, the real hard work begins. A team of dedicated, detail-oriented people grind away, meticulously illustrating every element of every frame of every scene in the video.

And, once they’re done, the animation team needs to make the illustrations come to life by adding movement.

Oh, and a professional voice actor has to record the script, in a recording studio with the best equipment, and it usually requires multiple takes.

After, a video editor has to put it all together. And a sound engineer needs to add in the perfect music and unique sound effects.

The whole time, the creative director and project manager are available to talk about progress and feedback.

You can make as many revisions as you need throughout the process, so any one of these stages might need to be repeated a few times to get it just right.

So by the time we’re done…this many people have spent hundreds of man-hours working on it.

And you get a beautiful hand-crafted video masterpiece.

So why is that turkey wearing a sombrero?

Turkey: “Because they don’t have Thanksgiving in Mexico.”

Promoshin, the best choice for animated video production. Guaranteed.