When a business owner starts thinking about using video for marketing purposes, the first instinct is to try “live-action” video. But hiring a cast of real actors to spread the message quickly becomes expensive. Instead, the affordable solution is to use whiteboard videos or hand drawn videos. Are you wondering how animation videos increase conversions for your business? In this article, we’ll show you how to leverage business animation for maximum profits.
Business animation versus live-action
Live-action video production is expensive. Beyond the cost of finding and hiring the right actors and production team, live action is always more complicated than business animation.
How animation videos increase conversions for your business is because live actors can’t match the creativity and flexibility of talented artists wielding powerful digital tools.
That’s how we create the perfect character for each marketing character.
Beyond simply drawing funny characters, by using the magic of business animation we can make each element in every video show viewers exactly what you want it to convey. That’s why whiteboard animation and explainer videos are so popular now.
You can’t sell what they can’t see
It’s no secret that the trend toward animated video had its early roots during the development of simple avatars and cartoon characters. As we can see from the popularity of Google Doodles, video animation is everywhere today.
Business animation lets you take viewers deep inside products and processes that would otherwise be invisible. Advanced whiteboard video technology became available around 2006, and it was first used for medical education.
But how did animated videos become so popular for mainstream business marketing?
Animated videos are far more effective than human narrators for teaching complex topics and showing microscopic processes. They’re the ideal marketing tool for selling products and services because they hold viewers’ attention better than written words or other static content.
Using video animation has grown into a competitive necessity for most businesses.
How animation videos increase sales for any type of business
Animation video has the power to explain complex topics more quickly than written text or static images. Research has shown that marketing content that combines audio and visual input can dramatically increase sales.
It’s because combined audio and visual input together increases human memory retention by 50% or more. Scientific studies have shown that information is retained better when people receive both audio and visual stimulation at the same time.
When people hear information through audio alone, they only remember around 10% of what they’ve learned. Yet when audio and visual content are delivered together, listeners can retain at least half of the information received.
That’s just one example of how animation videos increase conversions for your business.
Play on buyers’ emotions
Research also suggests that sales are triggered by emotional responses. Longtime salespeople know that buyers need to be led through the marketing process by triggering the appropriate emotions at each stage of the funnel.
So, the same way that a blockbuster movie plays on audience emotions, a well-crafted animation video can likewise grip your viewers and drive them into action – by buying your products and services.
Animated video explainer experts use the power of business animation to hold viewers’ attention, deliver information about products or services, and then trigger an emotional response to close the sale. That’s the marketing power of business animation videos.
A good whiteboard video can explain anything
A hand drawn video or whiteboard animation video can explain any concept, no matter how complex it may seem. There’s nothing simpler than a whiteboard.
Whiteboard animation videos catch attention and explain things in a fun, entertaining way.
Remember that the first step for prospective buyers is to understand your products or services. When you’re working with a team of animated video explainer experts, it’s easy to distill even highly-technical concepts into instantly-recognizable understandings.
Animated explainer videos save time & money
We all know that animated videos have the power to attract, inform, and entertain. Animated video content is also evergreen, which means its marketing power stays stronger longer than “live-action” video.
Is your video marketing content built with live talent? If so, it’s not “evergreen”
Keep in mind that by next year their clothing fashions and even their slang might appear outdated to them. Shoppers don’t pay attention anymore.
That’s the problem with using “live-action” videos for marketing.
On the other hand, the cartoon characters that you see in whiteboard videos and hand drawn videos are fresh and timeless. Instead of turning off viewers with live actors, you can engage and entertain them with animated video characters.
Here’s another powerful benefit of using animated videos – Sensitivity. Especially when explaining sensitive topics, it’s far more difficult for an animated character to offend anyone in the audience because of age, race, gender, or nationality.
When you work with a team of animated explainer video experts, you can sell a product or service, and reach any marketing goal. Most important, you’ll save time and money by making evergreen marketing content that reaches more people, and doesn’t become stale in time.
Animated videos drive user engagement & boost click-through rates
Whatever your business, the biggest marketing challenge is to convince visitors to buy your products or services. The first step is to catch their attention.
How animation videos increase conversions for your business is based on the marketing effectiveness of combined audio plus video, as well as the versatility of using animated characters instead of live actors. Both of these factors increase sales.
Versatility
Another benefit of using animation video for marketing is their versatility. Whiteboard videos and other forms of business animation perform very well across all types of marketing channels.
They display well on big-screen televisions as well as mobile devices. They also bring good marketing results when embedded or linked on websites, or on social media.
Another unique advantage of animated explainer videos is their magical ability to bridge the gap between serious and fun topics.
Business animation improves your SEO and search rankings
Search engines love animation videos. Today the best way to move upward in search results is to put whiteboard videos on your site.
The Google search engine sniffs out animated video content like a hungry dog, and it rewards sites that feature popular video content. Depending on your business niche, animated video marketing can help your site rocket to the top of search page results.
If you’re wondering why animation video is such a powerful attraction for search engines, the answer is simple – “Time on page.” It’s the SEO metric that counts the amount of time that visitors spend with a page open in the browser.
For SEO purposes, the time-on-page metric tells search engines that visitors to a site are well-engaged. They’re being informed and entertained well enough so that they don’t leave that page.
Scientific studies have confirmed what marketers already learned long ago –
- The longer a visitor remains in a commercial location, whether online or bricks and mortar, the more probable they are to buy something there
- The longer a confirmed buyer remains on-site, the larger their purchase is likely to be
How to sell more using animation videos
Now that we’ve outlined the science behind how animation videos increase conversions for your business, let’s look at some specific examples of how to use explainer videos to sell more.
Choose the right length
Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Although video marketing content out-performs both written words and audio content separately, you still need to tailor a video’s length to its specific purpose.
It must be short enough to hold viewers’ attention, yet long enough to be effective in marketing your products. For example, our team of animated explainer video experts typically creates videos that are only one or two minutes long.
Length may also be dictated by which stage of the sales cycle a marketing video is intended to reach. For example, sometimes our animated explainer video team creates content to be viewed by a client’s bottom of the funnel (BOFU) prospects or for their existing customers.
Beyond simple animated whiteboard videos and hand drawn videos, our team also creates plenty of longer content. That includes case studies, investor presentations, tutorials, full product demos, and more.
For those projects, our team creates videos content with longer run-times to fit specific purposes.
Generally, one or two minutes is enough time to present products and show them in action. Of course, how they’re presented is the key to selling more.
Explainer video format
Format is a critical element, but it’s often overlooked by inexperienced video marketers who rely on traditional (read outdated and ineffective) “live-action” methods. Here’s the winning format –
- Introduce a “hero”
- Present the hero’s problem and highlight his or her pain
- Show how your product or service can solve the hero’s problem and ease their pain
- Call viewers into action (CTA) to buy your product or service to solve their similar problems
A successful winning explainer video is hero-centered instead of product-centered. This winning format is far different from “old-school” video marketing formats.
It’s more successful because it grips viewers’ attention using an animated star to represent your typical customer. In contrast, human heroes for live-action videos are far more expensive to create, as big-screen movie lovers already know.
SEO for videos improves SEO on your website
As mentioned earlier, animation videos can help you sell more by improving your site’s search engine page rankings. Video content is an important criterion used by Google search engines when deciding where to rank your page.
If your web pages give exceptional value to visitors, they’ll be ranked at the top of the page, where buyers usually click first.
Since video content can boost your site’s SEO score, it’s important to learn how to optimize it for the best results.
✔ Choose the right keywords for your video’s title and meta description
✔ Select a good thumbnail to grab attention
✔ Show your web address together with other contact information at the end of each video
Animated explainer videos sell more than words or pictures can
In conclusion, how animation videos increase conversions for your business seems obvious: They hold attention better than words or graphics alone, and they help viewers remember more information.
Most importantly, animated explainer videos help prospective buyers form emotional bonds with your brand, and therefore buy your products and services.
Want to learn more about the magic of whiteboard animation videos?
