Animated Explainer Videos – Why Does Your Business or Brand Need Them?
Before we even get into talking about animation we wanted to talk a little about why video is such an important tool when it comes to marketing your products or services. To do this we’re going to take a little tour into the human brain.
You might have noticed that you tend to remember things more vividly when you see them rather than read them or hear them. It is a proven fact that most people tend to only remember 20% of what they read and 10% of what they hear.
This means that something that combines both of those senses along with a visual aspect will allow the viewer to take in more data and retain it better and faster. So when you’re looking for new marketing ideas video should definitely be in one of the top slots in your content marketing strategy.
What’s So Great About Animation?
That’s all well and good but why not go for a live-action explainer video with some talking head relaying all the information and cleverly crafted transitions between footage.
This is a viable option after all it still uses video, but animation allows for you to relay your information while entertaining and eliciting emotions from the viewers in a whole different way.
Not only that but there are several other reasons which we will go into further in just a few moments that make opting for an animated explainer video ideal for almost any business or brand.
Explainer Videos – What Are They?
There are many different types of explainer videos but in the end, they all do the same thing. The intention of an explainer video is to communicate a value proposition to your potential customers.
This can be a product or a service that is advertised in a way that gives the viewer all the pertinent information while eliciting an emotional response that will eventually help generate sales.
When looking at this option there are three main categories that your video can actually fall under. The first one of course is an emotional video. This is where you’re animated explainer video uses visuals and a script that elicits emotion from the viewer.
You also have the traditional explainer which is clear and concise and lays out a concept or service that you were looking to promote to your potential client base.
Then there is a promotional video which is simply you selling a product or service. All three of these types of animated explainer videos can be utilized individually or together to create captivating content for marketing your brand or business.
How To Choose the Style of Explainer Video?
When it comes to choosing the style of explainer video that you are going to employ in your content marketing strategy you have to consider your brand, the product, the services you’re looking to sell, and your audience.
There are multiple types of explainer videos and some work better for certain industries than others. Here are some of the different types that you have to choose from:
- Screencast explainer videos are a low-budget option that is intended to give the viewer a good look at how your product/service works.
- Animated explainer videos allow you to tell a more in-depth story. This type of explainer video sets your product or service up as the thing that is going to fix whatever problem your customer has. These tend to be more engaging and are perfect for marketing your business to end-users or even startups.
- Next up is whiteboard animation which allows for the content to be created as the viewer watches. This is perfect if you have complicated information you’re looking to build into your advertising and social media plan.
- Lastly, you have the motion graphics explainer video. This video marketing asset uses text as well as 2D animation to impart your message elegantly and engagingly.
Why Use Animation? Reasons To Invest in An Animated Explainer Video
The truth is if you’re looking to optimize your online presence and drive traffic to your website an animated explainer video is both versatile and powerful. In fact, there are a lot of reasons why your business could benefit from using an animated explainer video.
Here are a few of the top reasons we think it’s a good investment to find an animated explainer video agency to help you craft the perfect explainer video for you and your company:
Your Imaginations the Limit
When choosing an animated explainer video there’s no more having to abide by the laws of nature. Because it is animated the video itself can relay your message and information in any way your brand sees fit.
No matter how intricate the concept is you’re trying to impart to your customer animation can do this. That means you can dream as big as you want because, in the end, the animator will be able to deliver your vision very easily.
This also means that you can show rather than tell which will allow your animator the ability to stick within the confines of the shorter video format of an animated explainer video and still get all the information out there to your customers.
With so little time (average animated explainer video runs typically 60 seconds) having the ability to create visual animations to relay even more information will make your content more engaging and memorable.
Easy To Deliver Context
Sometimes when dealing with static images it is hard to get the context of a brand’s identity or message across. But with animation anything is possible!
So you can utilize the motion in the graphics to allow you to deliver a more clear vision no matter how challenging you think it is. Ensuring that you can deliver your content so that your viewers understand will help drive traffic to your website and to improve your conversion rate.
Tone Is Easy
Animated explainer videos make getting the right tone so much easier. When using live-action video the actors may impede the process of delivering your message in your brand’s voice or the tone intended for the video.
When working with animation all of the risks of an actor not being able to explain properly the message you’re trying to get across is taken out of the equation. With animated characters and motion graphics, you can utilize a broader spectrum of tones and emotions. This means that it will be a lot easier to cover uncomfortable or difficult subjects.
Abstract Ideas, No Problem!
If your business is trying to deliver an idea or concept that is abstract then using an animated explainer video is one of the best ways to ensure that that message gets relayed properly. This is ideal for companies that are trying to capture big ideas that are not easily explained with a simple film camera.
Products or services that require you to relay global statistics or discuss the inner workings of intricate technology can be hard to film with a live-action camera. With animation though you can develop an explainer video that can get into the minutest of detail of what you’re trying to market to your core audience.
Simple Video Production
When you’re trying to produce a live-action video there are a lot of intricate parts. You have to ensure you have the space, the crew, as well as the budget to fund the project. Everything has to work perfectly in conjunction otherwise the video may take longer than necessary or not even get made at all.
When dealing with an animated explainer video several of these issues get pushed to the side. When it comes down to it the animated explainer agency that you go with will be in charge of all the animation as well as the audio and sometimes the script. This means that everything is done by a small handful of people.
The video production workflow is also much easier and so are the revisions of the project. Because it is animation if characters need to be removed or props need to be added or even backgrounds need to be switched it can be done with a simple click of a mouse as opposed to having to completely reshoot like you would with a live-action video.
What Are Some of the Benefits of an Explainer Video?
Why are explainer videos popular? This type of marketing is so popular because there are tons of benefits that not only the brand and company can take advantage of but also for the end viewer. Besides the reasons that we talked about above here are some of the other reasons that investing in an animated explainer video is crucial for your business:
Cost-Effective
With any business, budget is always the main concern. If you’re looking to create an explainer video and look at the costs of a live-action video production versus an animated explainer video you will quickly see that’s one of the biggest benefits is how cost-effective this type of video is.
You can either find yourself a monthly subscription where you can create the videos yourself or even hire an experienced animated explainer agency. Both of these will still be more cost-effective than dealing with the video production costs of a live-action explainer video.
Easy to Scale
As your business or brand grows you will have to create more and more content that is engaging and relatable. If you bank your content strategies on live-action video then not only will this become exceedingly expensive, but you will have to devote more time than you may have available.
Not only the physical and financial requirements but the time requirements will become excessively hard to manage as your business begins to scale up. With an animated explainer video, your company will be able to have a plethora of videos at your disposal in no time.
It will simply take the time to write the script, storyboard, and then create the actual visual animation.
Because the process has fewer people involved as well as equipment the time it takes to turn around these projects is almost cut in half. This makes using animated explainer videos for your marketing purposes so much easier to scale than any other type of video content.
Improve Visual Content
When it comes to visual content there is a lot of different options not just live video but also infographics. These are static graphics that relay statistics and are very text-heavy. Though this is not a horrible use of graphics it can become very cluttered and therefore hard for your customers or clients to ingest.
This is because the graphic is not emotional and so the viewer tends to quickly skim through the information missing a ton of the content and important data necessary to give them an idea of what you’re trying to help them with.
When using an animated video explainer you get to relay all the same data and information but in a more engaging way. You then can steer them through your content the way you want them to take it in. This allows you to highlight specifics pieces of information and control the pace of the viewer as they go through your content.
All About Psychology
Humans have been communicating with drawings for as long as they could form cohesive thoughts. Throughout the centuries this form of communication has gradually expanded to include many different forms.
Because of our psychological connection with images when used in conjunction with an engaging script and the perfect audio an animated explainer video actually produces better retention of the information being disseminated.
The perfect combination of these three aspects elicits strong emotions and these emotions can be used to create a stronger marketing content strategy. So why not use the human brain to help you help your customer solve whatever problem it is you’re looking to solve.
Updating Them Is Easy
As more and more companies and brands enter into the digital creative field it will only continue to grow. Already over the past few years, it is drastically expanded the marketing capacity of many businesses but like with everything else you have to be able to continually update this content.
Of course, you can strive to create evergreen content (content that is always accurate and informative) which should be part of your video marketing strategy but there will always be niche and trending topics that may pertain to your product or service. Utilizing animated explainer videos allows you to have a ton more flexibility when it comes to updating that content.
You can revisit old content and easily change out text and animations which in the end will give you a completely new video with more up-to-date information. This will not only save you money but time and allow you to continue to help your customers very effectively.
Build A Connection
Because video is becoming such a major marketing tool there have been plenty of studies into how effective it is in actually getting people to take the next step and click through to your website. Most viewers have said that a video is oftentimes the key ingredient to help them finalize their decision to purchase a product or service.
This is because an animated explainer video allows you to connect better with your customers and therefore helps you build credibility and earn their trust. So it goes to say that the more videos that you produce whether you do it by yourself or with an animated video explainer agency you will deepen your relationship with your customer base.
Final Thoughts
No matter what industry or customer base you’re looking to market to using an animated explainer video will help you reach more people. These videos are engaging yet informative. Simply put video is the marketing tool of the future.
An animated explainer video is the most entertaining and simplest way to get the information about your product or services in front of the people you are looking to help. So as you can see there are many reasons why investing in an animated explainer video will help boost your business’s reach.