Making a good whiteboard video is like baking bread; the ingredients are deceptively simple. Too much of one thing or too little of another can turn that longed-for loaf into a disappointing doorstop. The whiteboard video recipe is a just as complex.

Creating an effective explainer video, especially in the engaging realm of whiteboard animations, requires careful planning and execution. To ensure your project hits the mark, here are 10 crucial mistakes to avoid when crafting a whiteboard video. 

1 - Don’t forget to set goals

First things first, it’s essential to think about the goals you want to achieve with your whiteboard video before rushing into production. Not fully considering key questions like what you want to achieve with your whiteboard video and where will it be used are like starting an eight hour train journey and realising you’ve forgotten your headphones. Once production has started it may be too late to make important changes, or will at the very least add to the cost.

2 - Ignoring Target Audience: Forgetting the Viewer's Perspective

Tailor your whiteboard video to resonate with your target audience. Understanding their preferences, pain points, and interests is essential. Ignoring your audience's perspective may lead to a disconnect, rendering your explainer animation less effective. 

3 - Overcomplicated script: information overload

While it's essential to convey your message comprehensively, avoid the pitfall of an overly complex script. Break down complex ideas into digestible chunks, maintaining a balance between depth and simplicity. A convoluted script can alienate viewers rather than engage them. 

4 - Remember what makes whiteboard videos work

Like Liam Neeson in the film Taken, whiteboard videos have a very particular set of skills. These make them fantastic at making your message engaging and memorable, but you need to include their key ingredients to ensure that when you create a whiteboard video, it has everything it needs to supercharge your story. These key ingredients are:

Good storytelling - storytelling is the special seasoning that turns your message or research from complex or dry into memorable and engaging. Without it, the communication enhancing power of whiteboard videos is not being fully used.

The hand - more than a classic symbol from the early days of whiteboard animation, the hand guides a viewer’s attention and helps establish the learning mindset in a viewer which makes them more receptive to what you’re explaining.

The white background - this also helps establish the learning mindset, taking people back to their school days. But more than this, it makes the illustrations, animation and on-screen text clear and easy to take on board. There is a little room here however - we have previously used the classic chalk board as a background in an animation for the BBC and Professor Stephen Hawking. Background colours that don’t make it hard to understand your video and fit things such as branding can work but should be used with care.

5 - Be bespoke, don’t use a template

A huge strength and part of the joy of creating whiteboard videos is that you have creative freedom to bring whatever you can imagine to the screen. Being bespoke like this allows you to tailor your whiteboard video to your organisation, your story and your audience - it’s a powerful way of harnessing the power of whiteboard videos. It also means you avoid using templates. Not only do templates limit your ability to tell your story in the way it needs to be told, but when you use templates and stock characters you run the risk of creating whiteboard videos that will look similar to those that other companies have made.

6 - Disregarding branding: the forgotten identity

Your explainer video is an extension of your brand. Ensure that your branding elements, including logos and color schemes, are seamlessly integrated. Neglecting branding can lead to a missed opportunity to reinforce brand identity. 

7 - Poor quality animation: skimping on production values

Invest in high-quality animation. Cutting corners on production values can diminish the professional appeal of your explainer video. Smooth transitions, visually appealing graphics, and fluid animations contribute to a positive viewer experience. 

8 - Illustration - be original

Your story is unique, so your illustrations should be too. Afterall, making a whiteboard video and not making use of the almost unlimited creative potential it offers is like buying a Ferrari and only using it for the sound system. At a practical level, creating original illustrations is the best way to tell your story. You can create scenes, characters and metaphors which capture your story and the points within it perfectly.

9 - Pay attention to the animation

Animation is like coffee, it adds energy and brings things to life but it’s also the foundation for so much more. In a nutshell (or should that be coffee cup?) this is why animation needs to be a key focus as you plan and produce your whiteboard video. Animation activates many of the incredible properties that make whiteboard videos so great at telling your story and sharing your message.

By joining ideas together and bringing people so smoothly through the video, you prime people to take on board your call to action and any next steps linked to the video and unlock the full power of your whiteboard video.

10 - It’s all about the promotion

It’s a special day when you get your finished whiteboard video, shiny and new. A lot of hard work has come together, and crystalised your story into words, illustrations, a voiceover and animation. It deserves to be seen and your story deserves to be heard, so don’t forget about promotion. Even the most perfect whiteboard video needs a helping hand to find its audience, so it’s important to plan.

We hope this list gives you some useful whiteboard video creation tips and allows you to avoid making any of these whiteboard video mistakes before you even begin! We work with clients from initial ideas to finished whiteboard videos, helping people supercharge and share their stories and we’d love to help you. Contact us today if we can supercharge your message into a whiteboard video.