by Jace Vernon | Sep 10, 2019 | Animated Whiteboard Videos, Whiteboard animation, Whiteboard Video
Creating a whiteboard animation video for your business is a great idea. But don’t make the decision without putting in some thought first. It’s certainly a good idea to cover all your bases before putting your marketing dollars to work. But since you’ve haven’t given yourself the green light yet, let’s go over something important. You need to know what to consider before creating a whiteboard animation video.
Remember that there are a lot of companies out there that create whiteboard animation videos. The style and quality of work differ from one company to another. And as popular and effective as these videos are, a lot can go wrong in certain circumstances. This won’t happen to you, though, because we’re going to give you the information you need before moving forward.
Here’s what to consider before creating a whiteboard animation video.
Is a Whiteboard Animation Video Right For My Business?
There is almost no circumstance where the implementation of a whiteboard video wouldn’t help. They translate extremely well to virtually every kind of business. But we suppose it would be disingenuous to say with certainty that they’re perfect for every situation. The type of service or product you’re promoting, your long-term marketing goals, and your message should influence your decision.
But there are some circumstances where whiteboard animation videos really are a perfect choice. For example:
When You’re Explaining Something Technical or Complicated
If the message you want to deliver involves a complex system or innovative idea, whiteboard animation videos are ideal. Research has shown that retention increases almost 20% when information is delivered this way. When education is the goal, the whiteboard style excels. This kind of animation can unravel concepts in a fun and engaging way.
When You Have A Lot To Say
Whiteboard animation videos are great at presenting lengthy information in an appealing way. The best examples are whiteboard videos that animate speeches. You’ve likely seen some of these. The brain retains visual information better than auditory. So when animated explanations are paired with the audio of a speech, the speech is no longer, well, boring! It becomes exciting and twice as interesting when you see the speaker’s words come to life in a creative way.
When You Need A Corporate Training or B2B Video
Whiteboard videos are very popular in the corporate space for a reason. It doesn’t matter if the artwork style that matches your business is cartoony or realistic. With precise copywriting and good artwork, your B2B or training video will pique the viewer’s interest and keep their attention. Compared to other options, whiteboard animation should be strongly considered for corporate purposes.
Mistakes Companies Make When Creating A Whiteboard Animation Video
Not every whiteboard animation is created perfectly. Knowledge, experience, and asking the right questions are important to the success of your video. Some common mistakes in whiteboard animation videos are:
To Show The Hand Or Not To Show The Hand
Make sure you decide if showing the drawing hand is what you want. Most of the time, clients prefer to show the hand. It can bring a sense of realism and gives the video added character. But, sometimes showing the hand doesn’t mesh with the aesthetic. Communicate with your creative director to make this decision.
No White Background
We’ve seen whiteboard animation that presented content with a fully-colored background. In our opinion, this a mistake. It lessens the effect that this kind of animation can have. When the viewer sees the artwork manifesting on a white background, it becomes familiar. In a very real way, the white background makes the video more relatable. Only use color for background purposes to help emphasize certain points.
Be very cautious when thinking about doing a full-color background in whiteboard animation videos. It’s almost never a good idea.
No interconnected artwork
One of the calling cards of whiteboard animation is the seamless style of interconnected imagery. One thing always leads to the next with many images literally connected to each other. Some videos choose not to do this at all, resulting in a less-effective final product. We’re not saying the ink should literally connect everything throughout the entire video. But make sure that you break from connected imagery sparingly. Too much isolated imagery can hinder continuity.
Creating A Whiteboard Animation Video Using Multiple Artwork Styles
This adds confusion to the video that just isn’t necessary. Choose an art style and stick with it for the whole video.
Low-Quality Animation
Be sure that the whiteboard animation company you’re using has talented, experienced artists working for them. Bad artwork defeats the whole purpose of putting your marketing dollars toward a project like this. Look at artwork samples and previous videos the company has made to make sure it’s what you’re looking for.
What To Consider Before Creating a Whiteboard Animation Video – Conclusion
When choosing a whiteboard animation company, makes sure they’re actually a whiteboard animation company. Meaning, don’t go with a company that runs a different kind of business but offers whiteboard animation on the side. Hire professionals. Even if it costs a bit more, it will be worth it. When done right, commissioning a video like this can have far-reaching, positive effects. Do your best to stay informed and steer clear of easily-avoidable mistakes.
Contact Ydraw for the best customer experience and the best whiteboard animation videos in the industry!
by Jace Vernon | Aug 19, 2019 | Explainer Video, video, Video Content, Video Marketing, video online marketing, Whiteboard Video
Explainer videos are short, concise videos designed to explain an idea or system using animation. Through artwork, any concept can be presented in an engaging way and then easily understood. Political processes, scientific methodology, innovative business models, and everything in between can be brought to life through a well-made explainer video.
Hundreds of thousands of companies have commissioned them over the last decade to help deliver messages in an appealing way. Have you put marketing dollars toward an explainer video? If not, you should. Here are three reasons why.
Video is King
There are business owners out there who think the one effective thing they’re supposed to do to engage with their audience is upload a written blog to their site every so often. This is certainly better than doing nothing. But the fact is that video is THE most consumed type of content. Did you know YouTube gets more visitors in a day than Facebook? Today, video is king. It’s what people prefer. And if all you’re doing is creating written content and nothing else, you’re not doing what’s most effective.
When potential customers are visiting your site for the first time, there needs to be a quick video on your landing page explaining precisely what you want them to know. A 2015 Google poll showed that over half of internet users feel more comfortable with websites that have instructional video content. This is because video content helps to legitimize your company, in addition to effectively delivering your message. By the way, the same study showed that the probability of someone buying on online product goes way up if they watch a video about it first.
Nothing is More Effective
Explainer videos are fantastic at catching attention quickly and retaining it. A Forbes study last year concluding that 4 seconds is all you have to engage someone before they click away. This is why well over half of all sharing on social media is video. Why do explainer videos catch attention so well? Because animation is less predictable and more appealing than live footage which makes it more intriguing from the get-go.
Animated explainer videos also have an incredible charm about them. Using visual thinking and metaphors, topics come to life effortlessly in a fun and engaging way. People love them. Plain and simple.
ROI
But the real reason why you need an explainer video is because of the tremendous ROI. Companies who don’t employ video marketing grow more than 50% slower than those that do. A recent study from Adobe polled a large number of marketing professionals. Over half of them said that video has the best ROI compared to any other type of content they roll out.
Why You Need An Explainer Video – Conclusion
There’s no reason why an explainer video wouldn’t help what you’re trying to accomplish. Especially if what you’re doing involves complicated process or new ideas. If that describes you, contact us and let’s talk.
We’ll Leave You With This
In the early days of Dropbox, their first huge boost came from an explainer video. Within a year of posting it, their revenue increased by over $50 million. Their user count increased by over 10 million. All directly traced to their decision to create and publish an animated explainer video. Sit on that for a while.
by Jace Vernon | Aug 13, 2019 | Marketing, Video Marketing, Whiteboard Video
If you’re spending your marketing dollars on video content, good job. When done right, video content achieves incredible ROI. But just having Ydraw create an awesome video for you and then setting it free on the internet would be unwise. You need to track what it’s doing. Is your video actually working for you? You need to know how to measure the sales impact of your videos. Here’s how.
Conversion Rate
First of all, you need to track the conversation rate. How many people are taking the action you want them to after watching your video? If the percentage is lower than you expected, you’ll need to do some research. Maybe your call-to-action isn’t as compelling as it needs to be. Perhaps your target audience isn’t being found because you’re not using the right platform. These are only two of the who-knows-how-many reasons for your video’s performance. Dig in and get the data.
On the flip side, if the conversation rate from your video is good or better than good, find out why. Do research on what’s causing it to work so well so you can replicate those things in other areas of your marketing – including future videos.
Engagement Rates
Next, you need to measure engagement rates. Use analytics and software to get your answers. What percentage of viewers are watching the whole thing compared to how many are clicking away before it’s over? Is there’s a particular moment in the video that has the highest clickthrough rate? How many likes, shares, and subscribes is the video producing? Depending on your video host, there are many more metrics you can measure that are very helpful.
If your engagement rate is low, then you’ve got some figuring out to do. Video comment sections can be a helpful way to learn what people think about it. If there’s a pattern in the negative feedback, that should allow you to pinpoint some of the issues. Don’t be afraid to engage with customers directly and ask questions, whether via email or right there in the comments.
And, just like we mentioned above, if your engagement rate is awesome, do similar research to make sure that you understand what’s working. You’ll want to implement these practices in future marketing efforts.
Vanity Metrics
Do your best not to be fooled by vanity metrics. What are vanity metrics? These are things like the number of comments, likes, and views a video is getting. The reason we say not to be fooled by them is because even though those things generate excitement for you, a lot of times they don’t correlate to increased sales.
However, we’re not saying that more views is always disconnected from sales. You’ll have way more conversion opportunities the more views you get. You may just need to a little optimizing. Revisit how the video is placed on the page, the video’s size, and its thumbnail image. It’s common to do a lot of experimenting with these types of things to find out what generates the best results.
How to Measure the Sales Impact of Your Videos – Conclusion
Don’t make the mistake of failing to monitor the impact of your marketing dollars. You’re wise to spend them on video content. But just because video content has a historically high ROI doesn’t mean you don’t need to monitor it. Now that you know how to measure the sales impact of your videos, get in the habit of viewing the analytics. Don’t try and let the video do all the work. Lead and guide it to generate the most sales possible.
by Jace Vernon | Jul 17, 2019 | Animated Whiteboard Videos, Animation Video, Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Video Marketing, Whiteboard animation
Animated videos work wonders for social media marketing.
How? First off, remember what the 5 goals of social media marketing are: (1) increase brand awareness, (2) enhance public relations, (3) build a community of advocates, (4) research and development, and (5) driving sales and leads.
Animated videos address each one of these goals perfectly.
How Do They Increase Brand Awareness?
An engaging animated video with your brand’s colors and logo woven throughout sticks in people’s brains. The video delivers an extra-potent dose of memorability where your brand is concerned. It’s much easier to remember a particular brand if it’s associated with fun visuals as opposed to a stand-alone logo on a landing page or an article full of text.
Using animated videos also sets you apart from the ocean of business Facebook pages that are constantly posting uninteresting company photos and updates. If you’ve got a compelling animated video that autoplays on someone’s feed, chances are they’re gonna watch it. This will make your brand more interesting than your competitors.
How Do Animated Videos Enhance Public Relations?
A high-quality animated video shows that you’re serious about delivering your message efficiently. It shows the public that you care about being understood. Even fun or silly videos add an element of legitimacy and professionalism to your brand.
Also, social media is where you find the most accurate info regarding how the public feels about your company. Browsing comments from a meme you shared off someone else’s page is fine. But when you have original, animated content, the percentage of positive feedback is higher. Animated videos lead the public to view your organization as stable and confident.
How Do Animated Videos Build A Community of Advocates?
When someone shares your video, a seed of loyalty is planted. That action proves it spoke to them to the point where they wanted others to experience what they did. Whether your animated video made them laugh, cry, or think, them sharing it is a sure bet that you’ve stuck in their brains. This is the first stage of brand loyalty.
Animation has a way of making people feel comfortable. Helping your audience feel comfortable with your business is an important step toward turning them into an advocate.
How Do Animated Videos Promote Research and Development?
One of the best things about using videos in social media marketing is how easily traceable they are. You can combine the analytic data of both Facebook and the video hosting platform for your benefit. This makes gathering data and putting it to future use so easy.
There’s also evidence suggesting that for businesses, short, animated videos receive more engagement than live-action ones. This is because the nature of animation allows complex ideas to be more easily explained. More engagement means more data which leads to more refined processes.
Plus, they’re cheaper to produce than live-action videos. This leaves you with more marketing dollars to make more videos or put toward further research and development.
How Do Animated Videos Drive Sales and Leads?
Animation is less likely to come across as intrusive marketing. This means that viewers are more likely to get hooked within the first few moments and watch the whole thing. This does wonders for conversion rates.
Why are they less intrusive? Because animated videos are fun, even when they’re talking shop. Being entertained and persuaded at the same time is an age-old marketing tool, and it’s all over social media. Animated videos exude an element of fun, making the purchase more appealing.
There’s also something nostalgic about animation, and nostalgia is huge in our culture right now. It’s a very effective marketing tool, and animation is a great way to tap into that.
Conclusion
If you feel like your social media marketing is lacking and you haven’t commissioned an animated video of some kind, we highly recommend you consider it. It’s worked wonders for our clients’ social media efforts. There’s no reason it won’t work for you.
by Jace Vernon | Aug 8, 2018 | animated explainer video, Creative Marketing, Emotional Connection, Marketing, Simple marketing, Social Media Marketing, Video Marketing, video online marketing, viral video, Ydraw
So, you have this spiffy new Ydraw video ready to download and share with the world.
Now what?
Don’t leave what happens next to chance. How you market your video will make a huge difference in how many of the RIGHT people actually WATCH it.
That’s where a social media marketing plan can help. If you’re thinking, “I already have a marketing plan.” Good for you. You’re already a few steps ahead.
But, if that plan doesn’t spell out exactly how you’ll take advantage of the amazingly effective, and mostly free, opportunities on social media marketing sites – then sit down and take some notes.
Your class on Social Media Marketing 101 just got started.
1. GET NOTICED:
Basically, if your business isn’t active on the main social media sites, you may not exist yet to your target consumer.
To give you an idea of how many people are regularly using the most common social media sites, here’s a quick summary of the current numbers, according to Statista:
Facebook: 2.23 billion profiles, with 1.45 billion users visiting daily.
YouTube: Over 1 billion users, with over 500 million hours of videos watched daily.
Instagram: 800 million users and adding over 100 million in the last year alone.
LinkedIn: Over 562 million profiles in more than 200 countries worldwide.
Twitter: 335 million active users visit Twitter monthly.
Pinterest: 200 million monthly active users, predominantly female.
Can you really afford to pass up that kind of exposure?
Or, better question, why would you want to?
2. PEOPLE WANT VIDEO:
Mike Henry said, “We’re operating in a world where ONE GOOD VIDEO can lead to a massive social following.”
Now you have that good video – so what do you do with it?
Not only does social media offer an incredible marketing opportunity, but posts that use video have a much higher conversion rate on all of the social media platforms. Check out just a few of the many powerful statistics on the impact of video in this infographic created by The E Word.
So, if your consumer is browsing Facebook, your video should be on Facebook. If they’re tweeting about their morning bagel, your video should be popping up on their Twitter feed. When they’re scrolling their LinkedIn at lunch, you want that video to smack them right in the face. YouTube? Instagram? Same story – different channel.
Social media allows you to deliver your video to your target consumer on a silver platter.
3. START A CONVERSATION:
You don’t want your marketing plan to be a monologue. Your target consumer really only cares about themselves. If you’re doing all the talking – that doesn’t mean that they’re doing all the listening.
Instead, put your video out there and start a dialogue. Use your video as a springboard into building a community. This will also make your brand relatable and that will attract even more followers.
4. MARKET MORE; SPEND LESS:
Did I mention that social media marketing is …. FREE? That’s right. It costs ZERO dollars to set up business profiles on social media sites and begin posting.
Now, you may eventually choose to pay for ad campaigns that will further your reach, and many companies find it very effective, but you certainly do not have to do that to get started and get your video out there.
Plus, since we already discussed how much more effective video is as a marketing tool on social media, you’ll get pretty good reach without paying another buck.
5. FREE FOCUS GROUPS:
You know the value of focus groups when branding your business or making business decisions.
Well, with social media marketing, you have access to a focus group – 24/7, 365 days a year, that never sleeps, never slows down, and is actively engaging in dialogue on what they like and don’t like.
There has never before been a greater opportunity to talk directly with your target consumer whenever you want than today – on social media.
So, gather information by reading and following their conversations. Or, utilize free tools on platforms like Sprout Social and Hootsuite, where you can access trending conversations pertaining to your target market.
Take it a step further and download apps like Instagram Insights, WhenToPost and Crowdfire to learn more about what is really engaging your target audience and when they’re online looking for it.
You can even learn about your competitor’s performance and connect with Instagram influencers on apps like Iconosquare.
And – yep, you guessed it – it’s all free.
The bottom line is – we live in unique technological times that can sometimes present challenges, but in other cases, offer you an incredibly insightful, effective, and affordable opportunity to connect with your target consumer like never before.
Leverage whatever you can to promote your video and your brand!
And, if you have any questions on how Ydraw can support you in developing your own social media marketing plan, please reach out. We can’t wait to hear from you.