Today’s consumers are bombarded with a near-constant stream of product information competing for their attention. Cutting through the noise and effectively providing a prospective customer with the information they really want is now more of a challenge than ever for marketers.
This challenge can easily become an opportunity for marketers who integrate animated videos into their content marketing mix. In fact, according to recent statistics, consumers now watch over one billion hours of video content on YouTube each day. And that doesn’t even include the video content they’re watching on social media or corporate websites.
Consumers, on the whole, enjoy learning about new products, services and brands through video content. And one of the most effective ways to capture a prospect’s attention quickly is by incorporating animated video into your content marketing strategy. Below, we’ll explain at a very high level why animated videos are extremely effective at communicating complex information and, ultimately, help motivate people to connect more with your brand.
Animated Content Is Engaging
Chances are you watched and enjoyed cartoons as a child. For many of us, viewing animation as an adult tends to foster a sense of nostalgia as we recollect early childhood memories and feelings of excitement and wonder. We’re not saying that animated corporate videos are going to get everyone excited, but they do have the power to evoke the natural stimulation a cartoon may generate.
Animated video content also eliminates the risk of a viewer having any preconceived perceptions that may be triggered subconsciously by an element that may exist in a live video. These strong emotions resonate with consumers and are hugely impactful. Digital marketers can leverage this appealing medium to help instantly grab a viewer’s attention and entice them to continue engaging with your brand. Best of all, marketers that craft animated videos are only limited by their own imagination.
With animated content, anything is possible because you can instantly transport audiences to any environment you wish and introduce them to a wide range of original characters to help deliver your brand’s message or value proposition. Below is an example of an animated explainer video we produced for Ingram Micro to help them launch their new IoT Marketplace. This is a good example to help illustrate the type of creativity that corporate animation can deliver.
Employing this level of creative freedom allows marketers, regardless of industry, to deliver messages that would typically be cost-prohibitive for most businesses if they were to produce similar content using live video. This is especially true for video production that requires the creation of custom sets, custom music and hired talent. Below is a perfect example an animated explainer video that would most likely be cost-prohibitive if we would have produced it as a live action video.
Imagine if we had produced a video to introduce the Contractor WorkZone app using live actors and sets. While it would have been fun, the costs for the set and actors alone would probably be double the cost of the entire animated explainer video. The other benefit to using animation is that certain elements can easily be updated to keep your content fresh and up to date. The last thing you want to do is make your audience think they’re watching an old video.
Animation Can Reduce Bounce Rates and Increase Session Rates
In addition to the informational and educational value an animated explainer can provide viewers, websites that have easily accessible animated video content tend to experience higher session rates and reduced bounce rates. What this means is that the people that land on your website or campaign landing page are more likely to stay on it for a longer period of time. This is most likely because they’re watching your video.
Below is the animated explainer video we produced for our own brand, Telideo Productions, that we host on our homepage. We of course use this video in other marketing channels however its main intentional purpose was to be used on our homepage. In our case, we’re not explaining what video production is or what we’re capable of but more so what differentiates us from other video production companies in Denver. Most viewers can get an idea of our work just by looking at our samples but we wanted them to know why were different.
We’ve noticed that since we’ve put this video on our homepage our session rates have increased and for the most part have maintained those increases over time. And with our video hosting software, Wistia, we’re able to tell how long viewers are watching on an individual user base. In addition, for the version we’ve embedded on YouTube, like all of the samples in this blog post, we’re also able to understand our viewer rates for organic and paid video search campaigns.
Wondering how we have nearly have 50,000 views? We’ll thanks to Google’s TrueView video advertisement platform, getting in front of your target audience on YouTube has never been easier. And we can help you with that. It’s an excellent way to qualify and send the type of visitors to your website you want, the ones that will spend a lot of time on it.
Your website’s bounce and session rates are two very important factors that search engines take into consideration when ranking your site in search results. So, in addition to helping your site’s visitors engage with your brand better, using animated video can also help contribute to your site’s overall SEO.
Animation Makes Complex Topics Easily Understandable
Beyond engagement and information retention, animated explainer videos also help your target audience quickly grasp complex concepts. With animation, you can easily illustrate how things work. This is extremely beneficial when you’re selling something that doesn’t actually have a physical presence, such as software, or a solution that is just simply complicated.
Below is an example of an animated explainer we produced that takes an extremely complex topic and simplifies it. We produced this video to help our client better explain to brand owners and retail manufacturers how its solution can be used to print and encode RFID hang tags.
While implementing an RFID tagging and encoding operation isn’t exactly easy and requires deep expertise, this video helps explain at a very high level how it’s done. Videos like this are perfect for explaining complex solutions to senior leadership members and non-technical stakeholders.
In fact, according to Harris Eisenberg, the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90% of information sent to the brain is entirely visual. This rapid visual processing of data, when presented in bite-sized, clear and concise animated videos, can help users more easily understand complex topics. This construct is especially beneficial for businesses in tech-driven industries with complex products and services.
Before You Get Started With Animation
We highly recommend that anyone that’s new to video production and working with an animation company have a general understanding of the animation production process. Below is a visual map of the entire process that we’ve designed to help you better visualize the different stages that are involved and how they are interdependent on each other.
Understanding this process will help you better understand what it takes to actually have an animated explainer video made and to expect when working with a professional animation company. Understanding the importance of each step will help you avoid costly mistakes that tend to arise when a step is overlooked.
If you would like to learn more about what an animated explainer can do for your business or brand, reach out to us or give us a call at 720-245-8277.