Whiteboard video marketing uses a simple idea: a story told through drawings and words that appear on a white background, one line at a time, usually with a voiceover. A whiteboard explainer video looks as if someone is sketching the message as you watch, which suits topics that benefit from being explained step by step.
Businesses use whiteboard videos to explain a service, walk through a process or introduce an idea that’s hard to show with photos. The hand-drawn look can feel personal and familiar to viewers.
Viewers decide quickly whether a video is worth their time, so the message needs to be engaging, uncomplicated and focused.
A whiteboard approach can help with that: each drawing adds one idea, so viewers are never asked to take in too much at once.
Below, we look at what explainer videos do, how whiteboard videos help and how to plan one. For a closer look at the animation style itself, see our article on whiteboard animation videos.
What Explainer Videos Do
Explainer videos introduce a company, tell its story, and show what it has to offer to consumers in just a few minutes.
They show potential customers:
- A new service or product
- A message about the company and its values
- How a product or service works
- How a product or service can benefit them
A clear explainer can answer common questions before a customer has to ask them, which leaves more time for the conversation that leads to a decision.
A good explainer video:
- Establishes the mood with music, speech, and animation
- Tells a short story about a company and its product
- Identifies problems and presents your company’s solutions
- Presents a call to action so potential customers know what to do next
Our explainer video production service covers each of these, from the first script to the finished animation.
How Whiteboard Video Marketing Helps
Whiteboard explainer videos tend to be short and clear. Because they are built from simple illustrations, there’s little room for clutter or unnecessary information.
With only a series of hand-drawn whiteboard animations, potential customers can learn a lot about your products, services, and company personality as a whole.
Simple to Plan and Update
A whiteboard video is built from a script, a set of drawings and a voiceover, which keeps planning straightforward. Because every scene is drawn digitally, a line of text or a single drawing can often be changed later if a product or process changes.
How-to Topics Are Easy to Follow
Whiteboard animation suits how-to content, such as setting up a product, completing a form or following a process. Drawing each step in order lets viewers follow along at the pace of the voiceover. For training and instructional topics, our educational video production service uses the same step-by-step approach.
Minimal Time Commitment Required
An explainer video can cover significant and relevant information in a very short time span. Everyone is busy these days, from the mom at home to the top executive of a company. These videos tell busy people what they wanted to know without all the fluff or wordy text.
Why Whiteboard Videos Work for Many Audiences
There are several reasons whiteboard videos can be useful to potential customers, and there is some research behind them. In a 2022 randomised online experiment published in the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 299 participants learned social science topics in one of four formats, and the group that watched whiteboard animations answered significantly more questions than the groups that watched an on-stage lecture or narrated slides. That study was about learning rather than advertising, but explaining something clearly is a large part of marketing too.
They’re Simple By Necessity
Whiteboard explainer videos don’t rely on detailed graphics. They look like someone sketching simple pictures and writing brief explanations with a marker.
There isn’t much room for complexity.
This is a good thing for those seeking fast, clear answers to questions about difficult topics. Those who put the explainer video together must find a way to distill information and simplify it enough to present in sketch form.
They’re Familiar to Most Viewers
Most of us have experience with explanations being given on a whiteboard. You’ve seen it in the office, at school, and in community meetings. You’ve probably even used one for presentations.
There are no new distractions or additional presentation methods to process when someone watches a whiteboard explainer video.
Familiarity with the whiteboard allows for more focus on the message instead of the overall presentation.
They Generate Anticipation
Watching a whiteboard explainer video is a bit like playing Pictionary. Viewers wonder what will be drawn next, and each new drawing adds a small reveal that gives them a reason to keep watching.
These explainer videos are also a fun way to learn almost anything. While some topics can be intimidating and can lose an audience quickly, whiteboard drawings can pare information down in a way that’s enjoyable.
They’re On-the-Move Appropriate
Many potential viewers are using mobile devices. They’re on the move, at work, at a restaurant, on public transportation, or in other public places.
Whiteboard videos can work well in these situations.
They’re usually high-contrast, with dark lines on a white background, which helps them stay readable on a small screen.
Because key words are written on screen, viewers who watch with the sound off can often follow the main points. Add captions as well, so the full voiceover is available to everyone.
They Combine Words and Pictures
Whiteboard videos present an idea in two ways at once: a picture and the spoken or written word. Remember viewers who can’t see the screen, too. The W3C’s guidance on description of visual information says description covers the visual information needed to understand the content, including text displayed in the video, and that weaving it into the main speaker’s script is usually best for most training videos. In a whiteboard video, that can be as simple as having the narrator read the key words as they’re drawn.
Clear Understanding Supports a Decision
Potential customers are more comfortable acting when they understand what you’re offering.
When your video provides brief explanations that tell viewers what your message is and why it matters to them, they feel better equipped to make a decision.
End with one clear call to action, written on the board and said in the voiceover, so viewers know what to do next.
Give the Video a Home on Your Website
Put the video on the page where it’s most useful, such as the service or product page it explains, with a short written summary nearby. That helps visitors who prefer to read, and it gives search engines text that describes the video. Our article on explainer videos and SEO has more on this.
They’re Easy to Share and Spread Quickly
A short, clear whiteboard video is easy to share. You can post it on social media, add it to emails and newsletters, and play it in presentations. If people find it useful or entertaining, some may pass it on to colleagues.
That flexibility is one of the practical strengths of whiteboard video marketing: one short video can serve your website, your emails and your sales meetings.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is whiteboard video marketing?
It’s the use of whiteboard-style animated videos, where drawings and words appear on a white background with a voiceover, to explain a product, service or idea to potential customers. The videos are often used on websites, in sales presentations, in email and on social media.
What topics suit a whiteboard video?
Topics that can be explained in steps or with simple pictures: how a service works, a process, a policy or a comparison. Topics that depend on showing a physical product in detail, or that need a strong mood, may suit full-colour character animation better.
Is whiteboard animation the same as an explainer video?
Whiteboard animation is one style of explainer video. Others include 2D character animation and motion graphics. The planning is the same: a clear goal, an audience, a script and a call to action.
Do whiteboard videos need captions?
It’s good practice. On-screen words cover the key points, but captions give viewers the full voiceover when they watch without sound, and they help people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Get Started on Your Whiteboard Video
Whiteboard video marketing works best when the message is clear, the drawings are simple and each video has one job, whether that’s explaining a service, a process or an idea.
A whiteboard explainer video can streamline the process in a way that is personal, familiar, and entertaining.
We’re a Toronto-area animation studio, and we create whiteboard-style and character-animated videos for businesses and organizations. Our corporate video production service covers training and internal videos, too.
Call us at 1-888-590-5796 or request a consultation to talk about whiteboard video marketing for your business.
