Animated video is an engaging instrument that can help you tell your story more comprehensively.
65% of people are visual learners, and 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual.
According to molecular biologist John Medina, vision is our most dominant sense, taking up half of our brain’s resources. And visual information is processed 60,000x faster than text. See for yourself: which of the two images is easier to comprehend?
For those reasons, there has been an inevitable shift towards visual content on social media.
Just last year, the number of video posts per person has increased 94% in the US alone. Currently Facebook averages more than 4 billion video streams every day.
Then there's the picture superiority effect in which pictures and images are more likely to be remembered than words.
Here’s some statistics that will make you want to use more video in your marketing:
- Including video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80%
- After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online
- 1/3 of all online activity is spent watching video
- 50% of executives look for more information after seeing a product/service in a video
- YouTube users watch more than 3 billion hours of video per month, according to YouTube
If video is not part of your content marketing strategy yet, the time to start using it to market your product is now.
Great, but Why Animated Video?
With such a large number of videos all trying to get viewers' attention, it's getting hard for companies to cut through the noise.
Another talking head or a boring explainer video just won’t do the trick. You need engagement, and animated video will help you get it.
Majority of consumers prefer video content to reading. Consumer preference will lead to video explosion in content marketing.
Video will be used more for converting and lead generation. A lot of potential buyers don’t want to talk to salespeople. Bottom of the funnel is where videos and animations can influence sales in later stages.
There will be a lot of experimenting to find out what videos work in different situations. Animation, talking heads, actors, CGI. How to present introductions, hooks, and calls-to-action in a video. But animation has staying power in this mix.
There are several reasons why animation works better than other types of visuals:
Animation Keeps Viewer’s Attention
Internet users have short attention spans and will only spend this much time on a video or an article. Animation evokes emotions that resonate with the viewers. It sparks conversations and makes your audience want to follow the story.
Besides, nowadays people are used to intrusive marketing ads. Often they just see through all the white noise the ads create. Animation, however, is less known to be a marketing instrument. So people are more likely to pay attention to animated video than to traditional ads.
A fine example is Google Doodles. These cute animations just make us want to click on them.
Animation Simplifies Complex Topics
Animated video brings concepts to life that text or live videos can’t. Think about it: you can make your characters talk all you want, fly, or travel in time. With the help of animation, you can show how mechanisms and processes work.
A great example of using animation for explanation is TED-Ed. If you are not signed up to their YouTube channel yet, it’s just about time. It has over 3 million subscribers and is one of the most popular educational channels on YouTube.
Most videos created by the team use animation. It simplifies otherwise difficult topics like how the food you eat affects your brain or the physics of the “hardest move” in ballet.
Check out the essential tips and examples of best practices on how to make a product demo video.
Animation Brings Back Memories
Most of us associate cartoons with good times of our childhood. Animation can make us nostalgic which is one the most powerful emotion. According to studies, nostalgia has the power to filter out all the negative emotions and fight depression.
For more reasons why to use nostalgia in marketing, check out this slidedeck by Search Engine Journal.
Animation is Fun
People love being entertained, even if they talk business or get educated. The more entertaining your video on YouTube, Facebook, and other social media channels, the more people will share it. Animation adds 10 points to the entertainment factor.
Watch this cute Lumberjack Party animated video created by Motion Authors to get inspired. It is sweet, funny, and entertaining. All it takes for a video to go viral and spread across social media like wildfire.
Animation Fits for Just About Anything
Animation works fine for any marketing need: product explainer videos, infographics, and release announcements. Marketers from prominent companies recognize the trend. This explains why out of 50 best explainer videos collected by HubSpot, Video Brewery and Switch Video, only 7 are non-animated.
Animation Is Relatively Cheap to Produce
One of the major advantages of using animation for your social media channels is that it is less expensive than live videos. Video production would involve spending thousands of dollars. Searching for a spokesperson, actors, shooting and cutting the film. Instead, you just need a fraction of this effort to create a perfect animated explainer video.
How Powerful Will Video Marketing Become?
By the end of the year, consumer internet video traffic will be 80% of all internet traffic across the world. Video will dominate the internet. Video will be the primary medium for how internet users will consume information. Check out the future of video infographic.
Here Are Some Animated Video Tools to Get You Started
Animatron: a great free online animation maker. It allows you to create own animations from scratch. It is also possible to use hundreds of pre-animated objects available in the Market. The cool part about the tool is that it uses the cutting-edge HTML5 technology. So animations created in it will play on any device and any browser.
Animoto: a nice tool for creating videos from photos. It offers a lot of templates. All you have to do is choose a style, upload your pictures and text. The program will do the rest. Packages start at US$8/month. There is a free 14-day trial available.
And if you're serious about animation, check out these 15 top HTML5 tools to create advanced animation with.
How to Use Animated Video in Your Social Media Strategy
By now we should have convinced you to use more animation across your social media channels. There are several things you should keep in mind to make your video strategy successful.
Keep Your Videos Short
Especially on Facebook, since these tend to be nearly 10x shorter than YouTube. Tasty by BuzzFeed is a great example of how short videos can do tremendously well on Facebook.
They are short, entertaining, and suck the viewer in from the very first second.
And even though they are not using animation, it would only make sense to learn from their strategy. After all, who doesn’t want to have 30 million followers on Facebook?
Keep the Autoplay in Mind
Videos in the News Feed start playing automatically. As a video creator, you should be able to grab people’s attention from the very first frame. Also, remember that videos in the News Feed play silently. They should attract attention without the sound. In this regard, an animation might work miracles.
Make People Feel Good about Themselves
When creating videos for social media, you should be aware of the fact that people will discover your creations in News Feed next to a photo from a friend or a status update from a family member. If you want to get more shares and likes for your video, make it appeal to the audience. After all, people share stuff that makes them look good in front of other people.
A good example is Facebook's Friend Anniversary videos. They fit perfectly into the context and are all about happiness!
Use Different Types of Videos on Different Media Channels
YouTube is for education, Facebook has a personal touch. Twitter is great for engagement and Snapchat for attention. To get the most from your videos, you want to use different types of videos for different channels. Animation allows you to experiment and see which type works best for your marketing.
Try to Animate Other Types of Content
While video is king, it certainly shouldn’t be the only visual you share on your social media. A study by BuzzSumo reveals that infographic, “Why” posts and lists are also likely to get the most shares.
Why not try and make it an animated “Why” infographic on a trending topic that would include a list? Chances are, it will go viral in days.
To Cut the Long Story Short…
Video is a powerful marketing tool, and animation is a trending video type you don’t want to miss on. Animation might be just the thing your business needs to get viewers, likes, and shares. It appeals to the audience and markets on emotions. It also has dozens of use cases and is easy to create.
Have you tried using animation for business? Share in the comments below!
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Photo Credit: TED-Ed