Explainer videos can give brands huge gains—when done well. But what does "done well" actually look like? If you've never worked with an animated video production company before, it can be hard to know what to expect.
So we thought we'd apply our 15 years industry experience to strip away the fluff and give you a clear, grounded view of what professional explainer video production services really offers (and why it matters).
At Outmost, we’ve worked with dozens of brands navigating their first explainer video project—and we’ve seen first-hand where it goes right (and wrong). Understanding these fundamentals is the first step in selecting the right professional explainer video service for your specific needs.
You’re not just hiring a company to make you a video. You’re bringing in a strategic partner—one that needs to understand your business, audience, and brand just as well as being exceptionally good at collaborating.
To give you a leg up so you're in a strong position to evaluate the agency, check out our guide on explainer videos and how to make yours engage.
The best explainer video agencies act as extensions of your team, bringing clarity and structure while elevating your message.
In this blog, we’ll cover the essentials you should expect from professional video and animation production.
Most professional animated video production companies follow a robust explainer video process to ensure clarity, alignment, and creative excellence.
Every agency will follow their own process. We've honed our animation production process over the last decade to do a few things really well: give clarity (to us and clients), align stakeholders, set expectations and most importantly — foster a collaborative process that genuinely gets the best from all involved.
Here's our process in action:
The Discovery call is probably the most crucial of all the stages. It's a structured deep-dive to understand your goals, audience, messaging approach, tone of voice, and creative preferences. The success of a Discovery session hinges on the agency asking the right questions, and you giving clear direction. But don't worry, a good professional explainer video agency will have your back and effortlessly guide you through the process.
This is where clarity meets persuasion. A great script feels light and effortless—but behind it is a structured narrative that aligns perfectly with your brand voice and user intent. Essentially we follow a process we call RPCA to maximise engagement: Relate, Promise, Credibility, Action. We dive into the mechanitics in our post on how to write a persuasive explainer video script.
A good agency won't jump straight into visuals. Instead, they'll break down the script line-by-line into a written storyboard and pair it with style frame options that establish the visual tone. This is a crucial step to ensure both the agency and client are aligned on the approach. We'll often also include visual notes even at the script stage so give you a sense of how the VO will align with the visual approach.
Think of the visual storyboard like a flipbook. Although not quite a frame-by-frame visual walkthrough, it should be detailed enough to give you a very good sense of how the animation will play out. Essentially, it should leave nothing to guesswork. We want to make sure our clients are crystal clear on what will be said and seen — that way there's no surprises for either of us.
Once visuals are locked-in, animation production begins. Of course, this isn't done in silo. Your creative director at the agency will be discussing with their team internally the best approaches to sound design, pacing, feel and flow. Our visual storyboards are detailed enough to give you a very good sense of how the motion will play out, without being unweildly or confusing.
Throughout the process, the agency will be collaborating closely with you. At each stage, you'll feedback, amends will be made, and final sign-off achieved. Generally speaking, by the time you get sight of the animation it should be bang on the money, with very little amends (if any).
At Outmost, we use software called Filestage which is exceptionally well suited for client collaboration. All stages of the creative are uploaded, and our clients then comment back directly onto the script, storyboard or animation. This ensures we're crystal clear on your feedback.
At this stage, the agency will also produce any additional formats agreed on (e.g. 1:1, 9:16, looping shorts for social).
When you work with an explainer video production partner, you’re not just paying for animation. You’re paying for:
You’re buying peace of mind and creative excellence. This is why it's so important to choose a video partner you feel confident working with.
A strong explainer video production partner helps you sidestep the most common pitfalls:
Here's also a detailed look at the explainer video mistakes to avoid.
We're humbly very proud that at the final stage of production when we present the animation, we often have no requests for amends. This is because we're worked closely with our clients throughout each previous creative stage and ironed out any issues. So when the final result lands, it's exactly as expected and there's cheers all round.
It's also helpful to have a top-level notion of how to assess an explainer video company. Here are the headlines for how well a partner might support you:
Once the video is complete and you are (hopefully) delighted with the outcome, it's worth considering how to maximise your investment. Make sure it reaches your audience with these tactics:
A great explainer video is born from being clear on what you need to say, then saying it in a way that makes people lean in. If you choose the right partner, the process won't just feel professional—it'll feel effortless (and very enjoyable). And that's a sign you've chosen the right partner.
If you're not sure where to start or what suits your brand best? We’re always happy to chat—no strings attached.
Explainer video production services might be just the ticket for you.
Or if you're at the point of exploring explainer video production services, you might want to grab our explainer video guide, which includes pricing examples.
