by Jace Vernon | May 16, 2013 | Animated Whiteboard Videos, dry erase board animation, Explainer Video, explanation animation, scribed video, Video Scribing, Whiteboard animation, Whiteboard Video
Whiteboard is not just for classrooms anymore. What once was used to explain complicated concepts in math, science and English is now used to explain complex features of a very helpful product. Say you have a product or service that has the potential to make millions of lives easier – but no one is buying simply because they don’t quite understand what you do. Creating a whiteboard explainer video is perhaps the most efficient way to incorporate a narrative explanation along with images and sound effects in order to maximize impact and ease of understanding. Suddenly, the light bulb flickers on – your audience gets it. And your audience wants it.
In the past, whiteboard videos were primarily a way to inform or explain complicated concepts without necessarily pushing or selling. However, with the attention-grabbing and memory retention tactics used in whiteboard explainer videos, viewers can often be sold to without even realizing it. To the viewer, watching a whiteboard animation is a fun and painless way to get more information on a topic they’re interested in. But because whiteboard animation utilizes memory retention techniques – such as appealing to each type of learner, incorporating humor, and combining fast-paced visual information with sound – they walk away from the video with tons of information about your company tucked away in their long-term memory; easily accessible next time they run into a problem your product or service can fix.
The reasons your business needs a whiteboard video are several, but simple. In fact, if it were any more complicated we could probably create a whiteboard explainer video about whiteboard explainer videos. But I’ll tell you what – just in case you’re a little confused or still not convinced, we have made an explainer video about explainer videos, and you can watch it here.
+Jessica Anderson
by Ydraw | May 15, 2013 | Explainer Video, video
The Explainer Video Update and Trends.
The explainer video industry is still going strong and I wanted to update everyone and show how we can make it a little bit better. More and more companies are realizing that people are tired of the same old thing, but we are still missing a couple of key points. Meetings are too long, videos are too complicated, and our delivered messages are not being heard. Why is that? Because we are still trying to be overly sophisticated when simplicity is the key. Blah Blah Blah by Dan Roam says:
“In order to stand out in this crowd, one of us starts talking a little louder and a little faster. That works for a moment, but to compensate, all the rest of us start talking louder and faster, too. Things ratchet up until a new blah-blah-blah equilibrium is reached, at a volume, velocity, and quantity that make it difficult to know what’s worth listening to. And that’s the real danger here: With all our clamoring words, it’s not long before we’re so busy keeping up that we not only stop listening to anyone else-we stop listening to ourselves. Pretty soon we don’t remember what our own idea was-or whether we even had one. All that matters is being heard.”
All of us are trying to communicate a message and do so effectively but we have missed the mark a bit and need to adjust the scopes. But first a quick commercial break. Ydraw creates whiteboard explainer videos and we are actually pretty good. The video below was produced for Oxford Properties. It communicates effectively and delivers a message in 2 minutes. It has been one of my favorites due to the fact that it is simple, well written, has a story, and delivers the message. Check it out.
So what makes a good explainer video? One that is effective, short, simple, and will cut through the noise, change minds and move others to take action. It is not simple, but doable. It all starts with a script and ends with the music selection. You can mess up your video on each phase so you will want to put in the effort all throughout the process. A great script produces a great video so make sure you pay to have it done right or at least take the time to do it right. Heck, if you are desperate, find a video that you like then adjust the script to fit your business.
1. Explainer Video Script
Since we are talking about simplicity I am going to keep this simple. A script should have 5 things:
- Headline (a headline that grabs attention)
- Story (a simple story with characters, to show your product in action)
- Problem (let the audience know how bad their life is without your product. What problems are they facing)
- Solution (show how your product can solve the problem)
- Call to Action (tell the audience exactly what they need to do to take advantage of your product)
Pitfalls of Scripting
- Too Long (No blabbering. Deliver the message and be done. If it takes 10 minutes that is fine)
- Too Complicated (at the end of the day products or services provide a solution to a problem. If you can’t identify the problem and solutions in a couple of sentence, go back to the drawing board)
- Too boring (Explainer videos should be educational, but at the same time they need to be entertaining)
2. Pictures and Visuals
We all know the power of pictures or at least we did back in kindergarten. I will never forget a picture I drew when I was 5 years old. It was a turtle and I colored it every single color I could fine. To me it was amazing, but my crush Andrea had the nerve to make fun of it. I will never forget that picture; and Andrea if you are reading this you are forgiven and we love you. Some where between childhood and adulthood the pictures stopped and words became our primary tool.
Pictures are a part of thinking that provides us with guidance and direction. It’s the “big picture” that lets us see where we’re going. Pictures aren’t training wheels; pictures are the front wheel.
3. Voice Over
Here’s a secret. Crapy voiceover equals a poor explainer video. Pay the extra money to get a good voiceover. A great place to search for one is on voices.com or you can find someone on fiverr.com for 5 dollars.
4. Music and Sound Effects
Some videos have music others have sound effects. Either one works, but I tend to lean more toward both. Check out the the video below and you will see what I am talking about.
So there you have it. The Explainer Video Update
+Jace Vernon
by Ydraw | Oct 25, 2012 | Explainer Video
Explainer Video Absence Creates Marketing Dilemma
The Dilemma Marketers Face in Absence of Explainer Videos. Text is Boring. Give Your Audience Something Captivating!!!
Marketers face a serious dilemma everyday when trying to reach out to their audience. Conventional methods of marketing in the form of written text is boring and uninspiring. We are faced with the daunting task of reading each and every day and often with little or no interest in the topic. Explainer Videos overcome this dilemma by offering a visual experience that is truly inspiring and captivating.
It is a dilemma that marketers and people with a message to get across know all too well: text is boring.
Quite frankly people are sick of reading. We are bombarded with so many articles and pamphlets to read each day that the average person has little to no interest reading down a wall of text to come away with nothing but a good old fashioned advertisement. This has caused many would be text advertisers to go the way of audio messages. Some choose to flock to radio airwaves with very little success. Luckily whiteboard video messages seem to combine the best of both worlds while offering even more benefits than traditional means.
Sometimes known as an explainer video, whiteboard videos can be comprised of an individual drawing out a scenario or display of information in an engaging and highly visual way. Using a simple whiteboard and some markers they create and manipulate elements in the whiteboard video that gain the audience’s attention without ever letting them go. Best of all, explainer videos can be complimentary to the video SEO strategy of your company.
Just as any other video can be shared and spread, whiteboard videos can too. This ability creates a large web like effect for your website and companies video SEO, growing larger and larger as more blogs and networks pick up on and report its message. The explainer videos are also much more likely to go viral than traditional video advertisement. This is thanks to the uniqueness of their approach and how compelling the designs of a whiteboard video can be.
+Jace Vernon
Alecsy Christensen
by Ydraw | Oct 5, 2012 | Explainer Video, video
Explainer Videos Becoming More Popular in Marketing Circles… Don’t Miss the Boat!
If you’re not familiar with explainer videos, they’re short, engaging, online videos that explain and promote a company, product, or service. You will find plenty of examples at Ydraw.
Why Have Explainer Videos Grown in Popularity?
There are no shortage of statistics that show the positive effect video can have on conversion rates, sales, and information retention, but the bottom line is this – if you could learn about something by watching a quick, entertaining video, or read a page of text, which would you choose?
Explainer videos can cut short the time taken to explain about a business and its products. They are a fun way to engage the visitors, who may not always be in a mood to go through the loads of texts available on a website. Being equipped with texts, graphics, sounds and moving images, they can give a movie like effect to a viewer.
According to a recent survey conducted by Video Rascal,
85 percent of people are more likely to buy a product once they see an accompanying explainer video.
Explainer videos help budding business owners keep tally of how many visitors on their sites could become actual customers. Although most businesses manually count sales to see what products are most popular, explainer videos keep track of what product or service potential customers are interested by displaying the number of views on each video.
Text can be tricky since there are so many ways people can interpret what they read. Explainer videos take the guess work out of explaining the usefulness and basic function of a product or service. People gain a better understanding of a product or service once they see and hear someone explain it. An explainer video helps you to connect better with your potential customer by explaining what your business can do for them and why they should choose you over other competing businesses.
Statistically speaking, stale websites don’t do well. Websites that contain endless pages of block text and images rank low in Google search, which means less exposure. This also scares away customers who want to quickly understand a product, and purchase it right then and there. In most cases, the average person takes less than a minute to make a purchasing decision. An explainer video will get their attention immediately.
According to Spork Marketing and several others, websites with videos rank higher in Google universal searches.
by Ydraw | Jul 27, 2012 | Explainer Video
Explainer Video Company Announces 5 Tips on the Art of Enchantment
Whether a person is looking to enchant through blogging, video marketing, script writing, video editing, business ventures, or socially, it is essential to learn the basics of the art of enchantment. This can help in every aspect of life and lead to successful choice making skills.
Here are 5 important tips on the art of enchantment, brought to Ydraw by Guy Kawasaki, a speaker at the well-known ad:tech conference held in San Francisco.
Tip #1: Create a Polite and Valuable Presence
How does a person do this? It is essential that one has a good, stern, handshake. It is also important to have a good, sincere smile. In business or in social life, it is also key that people learn to trust others. Customers should be trusted, as the explainer video company Ydraw does through allowing clients to be involved in the full process of video editing, scripting, storyboarding, and animation to create the best product possible.
Tip #2: Thoroughly Assess Your Product
Conduct a pre-trial for the desired product or service before it is launched to the public, naming and locating all the reasons why it could fail. Before a product/service is launched, make sure that all of the reasons it could fail are eliminated.
Tip #3: Tell a Story
When producing videos like the explainer video company Ydraw, or when trying to entice a customer or person and get them excited about something, remember to tell a story. Stories will connect the user or viewer with what is being presented, helping them to retain information better by visualization.
Tip #4: Plant as Many Seeds as Possible
Do not just go after one source of media or press releasing, but try to target multiple channels of news and announcement systems, connect with people on small social networks, getting personal with all different types of people.
Ydraw, one of the leading explainer video companies on the market today, creates compelling and enticing animated explainer videos through whiteboard animation and video scribing. Call today to get more information on how to make a great video marketing campaign for business.
+Jace Vernon
+Alecsy Christensen
by Ydraw | Jul 9, 2012 | Explainer Video
Explainer video marketing effective distribution strategies are measured through many different aspects of a brand marketing campaign.
Some key strategies to consider as well as ideas on how to develop some video marketing goals are listed by Ydraw.
Explainer video marketing metrics are hard to specifically define, because they are different for each company and it’s ultimate goals. It is important to find those key metrics along with these other helpful strategies for brand video marketing distribution success. Listed are a few key metrics a brand should consider when starting a branded explainer video marketing distribution strategy.
Brand Awareness: This is one of the main goals of many explainer video marketing campaigns, and usually involves a campaign to reach a broad audience. Effective campaigns can be used through real-time-bidding exchanges like SpotXchange or TubeMogul. What is real-time-bidding? This is a way of selling and buying online display advertising in real time, one ad impression at a time. There are also various video ad networks that can be used if a company does not want to be monitoring bids 24-7 including Tremor, YuMe, and Brightroll.
User Engagement: Many brands look toward online explainer video marketing because of the amazing ability users have to share videos through social networks and media. The ability to share videos through social networks has many business owners excited to start a video. If a brand is looking to optimize their video for sharing socially, it is a good idea to consider cost-per-view models. This means that a video is placed as content on a site. Viewable Media and Sharethrough are various CPV players that could be useful to a growing brand.
Content Strategy: Content in a video is maybe the most important part of a branded video campaign. A video must be informative, entertaining, and able to compel audiences and hold user engagement. The goal is to hook the user and grab their attention for as long as possible.
Overall, it is important to develop, as a brand, what the key points and goals are for marketing. Once those are set in stone, it is also good to consider the 3 previous strategy helpers in video marketing. Every aspect of a video marketing campaign should be aligned ultimately with the brand goals. What are the ultimate video marketing brand results that are important?
Ydraw has had successes with various video marketing distribution strategies, including releasing videos on YouTube, Vimeo, and other popular formats. Find the right distribution strategy that fits, and make sure to email Ydraw and tell them about it!
+Jace Vernon
+Alecsy Christensen
