What is an explainer video?
An explainer video is a short video that explains one idea, product or process in simple terms, usually in one to three minutes. Teams use explainers in marketing, training and internal communications when a topic is easier to show than to describe in writing.
Example
An HR team is rolling out a new expense policy. The written policy is eight pages long, but most employees only need to know what they can claim, how to submit a receipt and when they get paid back. The internal comms team writes a 300-word script and turns it into a two-minute explainer video that follows one sample expense claim from start to finish.
The video goes out in the announcement email and sits at the top of the policy page on the intranet. The full policy stays available for anyone who needs the detail, but most people watch the video first and only open the document for unusual cases.
How it works
An explainer video takes one topic and walks the viewer from “what is this?” to “what do I do?” in a few minutes. Most explainers follow a simple structure.
The structure
- Hook or problem: a sentence or two that names the viewer’s question, or the problem the topic solves.
- Explanation: how the product, process or idea works, shown step by step with visuals that match the narration.
- Next step: what the viewer should do now, such as try the tool, read the policy or start the course.
The script
The script comes first and drives everything else. Explainer scripts are written for the ear: short sentences, everyday words and one point per scene. Many teams draft with an AI script writer and then edit for accuracy and tone. A rough guide is 130 to 150 words of narration per minute, so a two-minute explainer needs about 300 words.
The visuals
Visuals are planned scene by scene, often in a storyboard, so each line of narration has something on screen that supports it: a diagram, a product screen, a presenter or a short piece of text. On-screen text should label or repeat the narration rather than compete with it.
Types of explainer video
- Animated: motion graphics, illustrations or whiteboard drawings. Good for abstract ideas, such as how data moves between systems.
- Presenter-led: a person or AI presenter speaks to the viewer, often with graphics beside them. Good for policy changes and messages from leaders.
- Screencast: a narrated recording of software on screen. Good for showing how a tool or feature works.
- Live action: filmed with real people, places and equipment. Good for physical tasks and workplace settings, but the hardest to update when something changes.
The right style depends on the topic and on how often it will change. A topic that changes every few months is easier to keep current in a style that does not need a reshoot, such as animation, a screencast or an AI presenter.
Where explainers are used
Explainer videos are best known from product marketing, but the same format works inside a company:
- Training: short explainers introduce a concept before a longer course or a practical session, and they work well as microlearning.
- Internal communications: policy changes, reorganizations, benefits enrollment and new tools.
- Onboarding: short videos for employee onboarding on how the company is organized, how to request access and who to ask for what.
- Customer education: how a feature works or how to complete a common task.
Common mistakes
- Covering several topics in one video. Each topic should get its own explainer.
- Opening with company background instead of the viewer’s question or problem.
- Reusing text written for a document word for word. Sentences that read well on a page often sound stiff out loud.
- Filling the screen with text that competes with the narration.
- Leaving out the next step, so viewers understand the idea but do not know what to do with it.
Why it matters for L&D teams
- Faster understanding. A two-minute explainer gives people who only need the core idea a quicker route than a long document.
- Reusable building blocks. One explainer can open a course, sit on an intranet page and go out in an email.
- Easier to keep current. A short, single-topic video is quicker to update than a long recording when one detail changes.
- Consistent message. Everyone gets the same explanation instead of a different version from each manager.
How Colossyan helps
With script to video in Colossyan, you paste an explainer script or upload it as a .txt or .docx file, and the AI agent splits it into scenes, each citing the script line it came from. You edit, reorder or regenerate individual scenes before anything renders, then render with an AI avatar, voiceover and your brand kit. When the process or product changes, you regenerate the affected scene instead of re-recording the whole explainer.
See script to video in Colossyan
