Ads are everywhere, from the logo on your coffee cup to your children’s mobile devices we are constantly immersed in a consumer driven society. Of the many different modes of delivery your company can choose to market your product or services there are none that compare to a video.
Video marketing does what print cannot, it engages the consumer with both audio and visual means. Everyone knows the old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words”, but what is a video worth? According to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research the value of a one minute video is worth 1.8 million words. The human brain is constantly absorbing information and “filing” it into our conscious and subconscious mind, guiding our everyday actions. Research by comScore states that 45.4% of internet users view at least one online video in a month’s time and the average user is exposed to a median of 32.2 videos per month.
As our technological advances are ever transforming; so too are our forms of entertainment. Nielsen’s Total Audience Report stated that people are spending more time with media and less time watching live television. This means huge shifts in how companies reach their audience with advertisements.
Aside from the fact that we now have DVR and the power to fast forward through commercials, people aren’t just sitting at home watching the boob tube. They’re streaming their movies and shows on tablets, smart phones, and computers. People are streaming everywhere from parks to public restrooms. Traditional television commercials and print advertisements cannot raise your bottom line alone. The future is here, and that future is online video marketing.
100 million internet users watch videos online each day. Statistically speaking the numbers don’t lie in 2010, the Forrester Marketing Group conducted a survey and found that when an explainer video was included in an email the click-through rate had increased by 200%-300%. A growing number of people would rather watch a video than read text. This is support by Forbes Insight which states that 59% of senior executives prefer to watch than read.
Major retailers have found that 90% of online shoppers have said that an online product video was useful in guiding them to make a purchase. Researching a product via written specs and reviews is now coming in second to product videos and video reviews. Product videos are a growing advertisement resource for retailers and are statistically proven. Not only do these videos allow for the consumer to better understand and “experience” the product, but it also leaves them feeling more confident in their purchase. Consumer confidence is key to achieving brand loyalty and additional word of mouth sales.
In short video marketing is more than just an ad. It is a means of connecting with the consumer beyond the traditional – “hey here’s my product, it is amazing you should buy it” approach that traditional or virtual print ads provide. Connect with your audience and reach your target market where ever they may be.
Already many large content marketing brands like Red Bull, Amazon, Cisco, Netflix, GoPro and many more have already made video their secret weapon to get awareness and loyalty from their customers. Marketing gurus say this is year will be all about video.
Are you wondering if you should invest in video marketing?
Reason #1: 50% of mobile traffic comes from videos
Reason #2: 64% of consumer internet traffic came from video last year and it’s predicted to rise to 69% by next year and 79% the year after that.
Reason #3: Nearly 80% of people watch videos throughout the week.
Reason #4: Over half of people watch videos everyday.
Reason #5: Of all the people viewing the videos, 65% will watch ¾ of it.
Reason #6: Forbes says they have found over 80% of senior executives watch more videos today than last year
Reason #7: ¾ of senior executives will watch videos related to their jobs and 54% of them share the videos with their colleagues.
Reason #8: Most people say they would like to have the text on the same page as the video.
Reason#9: Of marketing, sales and business professionals 69% of them say they have used video marketing and a lot of the people who haven’t used it yet say they’re going to in the upcoming year.
Reason #10: Respondents who are already using video marketing score it fair to extremely successful.
Reason #11: 81% of people post videos to their brand websites.
Reason #12: Of all online marketers, communication and sales professionals 93% are currently using video.
Reason #13: About half of marketers have found that marketing videos are effective for brand awareness.
Reason #14: over the next year 96% of B2B companies say they’ll be using video.
Reason #15: If you use the word “video” in your email subject lines will increase your open rate by 19% and 26% less likely to unsubscribe.
Reason #16: If your page has a video you’ll be getting an extra two-minute dwell time on average.
Reason #17: Half of marketers across the world say video has the highest ROI.
click here to read more about how video marketing can help you this year.
Every single day multi-level marketers are asking the same tough questions:
• How do we communicate more in less time?
• Or: How do we communicate more, and not only make it stick, but also actionable?
• Or even tougher: How do we communicate more, and make it stick, actionable, and worthy of sharing—in less time?
Tough indeed.
The deficit of attention is killing your organization
You’ve already heard that America is suffering from a deficit of attention. In fact, the whole world has the same diagnosis.
Attention spans have measurably shrunken. In 2008, Lloyds TSB Insurance commissioned a shocking study that found our average attention span halved in a decade, from twelve minutes to five minutes.
Then, just this spring (2015), a study from Microsoft had researchers announcing that the average human attention span was just eight seconds! Think of it: twelve minutes to eight seconds in 15 years.
Don’t think for a minute that the direct sales, also known has the multi-level marketing industry, hasn’t been affected by the short attention span trend.
Direct Sales offices from Amway to Zurvita have been struggling with this phenomenon—and it’s not going away or getting better.
What should direct sales do? What does the future hold for multi-level marketing companies that are determined to grow?
A big part of the answer actually lies in the past
More than four decades ago, a young Don Failla started an MLM empire by reducing his entire “presentation” to being able to draw it on a simple plain paper napkin. It was simple, visual, memorable, and repeatable!
You’ve probably already used a napkin presentation and not known it:
Imagine you’re sitting in a booth at a diner with a close friend. She asks, “Hey, tell me about _________.” You say, “Well, it’s really very simple…” You reach over, grab a napkin from the holder, and start to draw. And you explain as you draw it out. After a short moment, your friend says, “Oh! I get it! That’s cool!”
Message transmitted, received, understood, and remembered!
If you took that simple, effective napkin presentation and gave it a 21st century twist, you’d have a whiteboard-style explainer video.
What are whiteboard explainer videos?
Instead of a napkin, we start with a blank whiteboard and tell your story with fun drawings and images along with sound effects, music, and a professional voiceover.
Generally speaking, Ydraw whiteboard videos grab and hold viewers’ attention by telling a story—usually about a company, product, or service. Viewers often relate to the character in the video, which results in imagining themselves in the character’s position, using the product or service.
In fact, nothing is more powerful than a whiteboard video to hold the attention of an audience ranging from school children to business executives. (Their attention spans being roughly equal.)
And that’s exactly why Ydraw videos work so well—they capture and hold attention long enough for your message to be transmitted, and even shared!
Whiteboard-style explainer videos are an updated version of the napkin presentation!
Whiteboard videos allow you to leverage the power of social media
And here’s the best part—they don’t have to be presented one-to-one like the old napkin presentation. Your Independent Business Owners can leverage the power of email, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and personal websites to share a whiteboard video about your opportunity, or a new product or benefit.
Living and working in Utah makes it difficult to ignore the presence of the Direct Sales or Multi-Level Marketing industry. After all, about a dozen of the top companies make Utah their headquarters. We’ve consulted with several of them and been allowed “behind the curtain” to learn their biggest worries.
Nothing is more approachable and non-threatening than a brief whiteboard explainer video. Tell a simple “before/after” “problem/solution” story. You don’t have to focus on the mechanics of your business, instead, focus on the benefits of your opportunity: more income, more time, more freedom, more control, and so on.
Your Independent Business Owner places the video in an email or on their website or social media site and invites prospects to view the video and contact them if they’d like to know more. You can see the benefits of having a brief, fun, concise introduction to your company. Remember, at this point, your presentation should be more about the viewer and how you understand and can help them—than about your company.
2-Sales prospecting
Most of the companies we’ve worked with have two approaches with sales—promoting the benefits of their business opportunity and inviting the prospect to benefit from being their own Independent Business Owner; or promoting the benefits of their products and inviting the prospect to purchase the products.
Imagine if every IBO had both approaches posted on their sites, and could email one or the other to prospects!
3-Retention
Retention is a toughy because your retention campaign starts on day one. Retention works best through relationships and frequent and relevant communication. We don’t recommend “canned” videos—instead, if you want to use video, make sure it’s fresh and up-to-date.
4-Product understanding
Imagine having an entire video library of each of your products and product benefits! Your friend talks about her struggle with weight loss, then send an email or log on with her to watch a brief video about your amazing weight loss products!
If your company isn’t focused on health supplements, you still get the idea of how to use whiteboard videos to promote what you do.
5-Leadership training
Training is another sweet spot for whiteboard explainer videos! The number one complaint from the field is lack of training! The number one complaint from headquarters is untrained representatives!
Training doesn’t have to be complex or drudgery—especially when it’s fun and bite-sized!
Imagine an explainer video library available to IBOs from their first day on. Each one in the problem/solution format and ending in a challenge to try a specific action. An email is sent each week from headquarters to every representative inviting them to focus on the technique of the week!
6-You already have an in-house video department?
That’s perfect! Then you already know how important a role video plays in communication today.
However, side-by-side, whiteboard explainer videos outperform “talking head” videos at every level. Whiteboard-style videos create viewer anticipation—viewers pay attention and stay engaged in order to guess what’s being drawn next. Whiteboard viewers stay engaged with the video longer than a “live” video, and have better recall on four out of five memory tests after the video.
Well-crafted whiteboard videos do take time and resources, but it’s possible to begin a production schedule that eventually delivers two or three a month—and that adds up to messages that are received, understood, remembered, and appreciated!
Thank you for reading How Whiteboard-Style Explainer Videos are the Updated Version of a 40-year-old MLM Breakthrough!
It was the 2nd quarter and he launched his clipboard into the ground, breaking it into pieces.
“#&*$^%^…get over here. What the #$%^$?” (we love it)
That, my friends, is Shane Battier, my coach for the next 3 days. For those of you who do not know who Shane Battier is, you should Google him. He was probably one of the best NBA players nobody ever knows.
Hoop Scoop Magazine named Shane Battier the fourth-best seventh grader in the United States. When he graduated from Detroit Country Day School in 1997, he received the Naismith Award as the best high school basketball player in the nation. When he graduated from Duke in 2001, where he won a record-tying 131 college basketball games, including that year’s N.C.A.A. Championship, he received another Naismith Award as the best college basketball player in the nation.
On day two of our tournament, Shane and I were talking basketball and warming up for the game. I tossed him the ball and watched him rim check 5 shots in a row. He told me he hadn’t shot a ball in a while, but still, I expected him to hit a couple shots at least.
My thought… “How does this guy have an NBA championship ring?”
It was at that time Shane Battier changed the way I looked at basketball forever. I will never play the game the same again. He ended up leading us to the championship where we lost to a much better team. (Just picture a bunch of old guys trying to relive their glory days. It’s a blast.)
In the 90s a virus of statistical probabilities infected professional sports.
Math geniuses began to take all the data that sports lovers keep and put it to work. Think Money Ball.
He asked me what I thought the worst shot in basketball was. I wasn’t sure, so I guessed a side shot. I was wrong. It’s a jump shot off the dribble.
Kobe Bryant, one of the best players of all time would become pretty inefficient when Shane guarded him. If Kobe dribbled left and pulled up for an 18 foot jump shot: his numbers tanked. Shane knew this.
Shane’s success did not come from his raw talent. It came because he understood the numbers. He would cause his opponents to always take the lowest probability shot.
On offense, Shane would always get the ball to the right teammate where he could take the highest probability shot. It’s all about the numbers.
Shane’s game is a weird combination of obvious weaknesses and nearly invisible strengths. When he is on the court, his teammates get better, often a lot better, and his opponents get worse.
When I step onto a court, I see a court, a basketball hoop, and my opponent. When Shane steps onto a court he sees probabilities, a grid, and numbers.
It’s genius.
Knowing the odds, Shane can pursue an inherently uncertain strategy with total certainty. He can devote himself to a process and disregard the outcome of any given encounter.
To the point…
Do you know and understand your numbers?
When Ydraw creates a video, we like to take into account the numbers.
We know, statistically speaking, a well-written script with a story is going to have a higher success rate.
We know that a testimonial is going to increase your conversions.
We know that if you start your video off from a high level of intensity, your click through rate goes up.
We know that by adding humor and some special effects you’re going to enhance the viewer’s experience in a positive way and your success rate goes up.
Lastly, we know that boring videos, have zero chance.
These types of numbers come from years of experience. We also apply this to our video marketing division. We can’t tell you all the little things we do to shift the probabilities in our favor. We just do them because we have been in the game long enough.
I watch so many video marketing campaigns fail because they are playing a game they do not understand.
Our job is to do what works statistically speaking and yet 35% of the videos that leave our office end up being sabotaged by the client.
It hurts and I am begging you to not do it.
We want to create an amazing video for your company.
Call or shoot us an email to get started.
PS. It’s that time of year. Some of you have year-end budgets left over. If you are looking for a way to spend your budget, we would like to chat. We want to show you what we have been working on. It’s amazing.
We love our customers and appreciate the business you all have given us. Without you, we would not be eating.
You would think that after creating animation videos for five years our ideas would run out, but they have not. Success breeds more success, and animation video creation only breeds more video ideas. It’s racking our brains and we just have to make it stop.
You’re going to help us…lol
Over the last year we have come up with some glorious ideas that will certainly go “viral” or at least put you on the map.
For our happy customers, we are going to present you with three video styles and ideas that could change your business forever. These ideas can be adjusted, changed, or adapted to your business, so my hope is that your marketing director will take a look and maybe bring us back some more ideas.
Now, I must warn you that these ideas do not come cheap, nor are they going to be simple. It’s going to take a big budget and for this to work you are going to have to let our professional animators do what they do best:
Create amazing stuff!
I will tell you whom these video ideas are not for…
· Companies with a very tight budget. (Sorry, it’s going to take a lot of time and teamwork. This does not come cheap.)
· Companies that have a hard time pushing the envelope.
· Companies who worry about offending every Tom, Dick and Harry on the planet. These videos will be loved by most, but there will be haters. There always are.
So lets jump in.
I am going to give you examples of these ideas so that you can see what type of traction they have received in the past. Remember, the reason for sharing our ideas is to spark a few ideas of your own.
Video Campaign Number 1
“Fart On A Plane”
All of us have experienced the misery that comes with plane travel. It ranks among the worst experiences – next to death. Personally, I feel like we are being treated like a bunch of lost sheep and I am sure airline workers feel like we are a bunch of dumb lost sheep.
We want to create a series of funny videos. (Five of them to be exact.) These videos are going to show the different scenarios that happen on a plane. It’s something we all relate to and it will bring a smile to the face of the audience.
The kicker is, after each video we will have branding and a message that applies to your company. It’s marketing without the audience knowing.
Here are some great examples:
Have you ever heard of “Dumb Ways To Die?”
It was a video created by Metro Train Station that has over 100 million views, but it doesn’t stop there. The campaign we would create would mimic theirs in that we would create.
Can either of these examples be applied to your business? “Fart On A Plane” could be perfect for a Net Jets, Magellan Jets, Flex Jets, or a private plane company looking to show the misery of commercial plane travel.
What are the pain points of your business that the audience can relate to?
Video Idea Number 2
“Training Like You Have Never Seen Before”
Have you ever seen “The Bottom of the Ninth?” I’m guessing you have not. It is probably one of the cooler ideas I have seen, but it did not get any traction due to lack of marketing and lack of usefulness.
This style of video is 3D, with 2D elements encompassing a comic book feel.
Take a look:
This style would be perfect for a training video series. Could you imagine being trained by videos and a comic book style pamphlet?
Your audience would not forget it!
They could watch the training video series on their phone, at any time, or they could read the comic style pamphlet. It would be the most effective training ever done on planet earth.
A year or two ago we created a training video for The Cosmopolitan and it was a huge success. I think it is time we push the envelope a bit and really create a training video style that will be recognized by companies all around the world.
We can do this; we just need the right customer to make it happen.
Video Idea Number 3
“Still Coming Up With A Title”
If you have been with Ydraw for a while you will know that we love the Chipotle video.
I have written about it a couple of times before. Check it out below:
They nailed the message and were rewarded with millions of views. We want to create something like this for your company. Once again they took the pain point of the audience and exploited it.
Did you see the poor cow?
Now can you see the challenge that we are facing? We have some amazing writers, Disney animators, and editors, who want to be stretched to the limit.
Currently we are doing a full campaign for National Safety Council. They had the budget and we were able to let our artists create. It has stretched them a bit, but they still have hidden talents that we have yet to see.
Here are some screen shots and scenes.
Let’s chat and discuss ways to make this happen. It’s for the greater good. If these video ideas do not stop soon we might have to start creating them on our own.
It’s our job to build it, and the audience will come… lol
Hope you enjoyed…
The Rise Of Video Marketing Ideas and How To Make It Stop
Sometimes it doesn’t work to just tell your audience how your company can be essential to their business plan and how they need you so they can live a long and fruitful life. There are a lot of ads that are patronizing to the audience with incredibly dull narratives and poor acting. Perhaps by explaining what you do will persuade consumers better than any actor pretending to care about your company ever could. But here’s the problem, sitting and explaining your company is boring. It’s not engaging, it’s uninspired and it’s so very boring. Like, Jane Austen narrated by Ben Stein boring. So how do you balance out an entertaining video and explaining your company’s concepts and ideas?
Whiteboard explainer videos, of course! Let’s go through why.
ILLUSTRATIONS CAN HELP CONVEY COMPLEX CONCEPTS EASIER. Visual concepts are a driving force that allows your audience to grasp your ideas easier. The perfect example are the before and after pictures of meth addicts, though grisly they may be. The before pictures shows a healthy person who doesn’t seem to have any effects of drug abuse. The after pictures show the devastating and shocking effect that meth has on the human body. It appears as though the life had been sucked out of them. Without having to go into detail on how the drug has this effect, or why the person started to take the drug, the story of how it destroys you is clearly presented instantly.
WATCHING THE CREATION OF THE VISUALS IS CAPTIVATING. As the artist creates characters, environment and situations, the viewer is watching the story unfold in front of them. The simplicity of being able to watch that process pulls in the viewer and in turn they are keen on watching to see what comes next. Being able to see the illustration come to life adds a human touch to the video. Rather than having a polished animation from start to finish, the viewer gets to connect with the person behind the drawing. Knowing there is somebody behind that pen lets the viewer know there are people behind the drawing, just like there are people behind your company.
SIMPLE AND AFFORDABLE. Without having to use a crowded infographic that can come across more complex than it intends to be, a whiteboard animation is simple and tells your story without having to assault your viewer with statistics and mission statements. Perhaps the thing that stops most people from using video for their company is the cost. Luckily whiteboard explainer videos are incredibly cost effective and can reach a large number of people quickly.
USING NARRATIVE CAN PERSUADE AND MOTIVATE VIEWERS. Any parent knows the influence any kids TV show has on their children. Why when I was a lad, I too became a victim of Saturday morning television shows and for about 2 years straight dressed up like Pee Wee Herman…. EVERYDAY. It happened, deal with it. Just because the audience you have are now older and wiser doesn’t mean they can’t be persuaded by an engaging video. A study by LaMarre and Landreville in 2009 found that the difference of watching a film that reenacted a historical event and a documentary on the same subject had similar levels of issue interest and engagement with the narrative presented. Fictional stories are as effective as factual stories in persuading and shifting ideas related to the narrative. Both can be engaging and compelling experience for the viewer.
EASY TO DISTRIBUTE. Distribution of digital video is incredibly simple. A video can be uploaded to a many platforms an infinite amount of times. It can be sent in an email to consumers or link to your YouTube account. The entire world can take part of your company and the video can work its magic every hour of every day. Reaching your audience has been easier than ever.
A promotional video using whiteboard animation can present a complex subject matter into something that can be easily understood while being entertaining. That entertaining video can retain a high engagement rate and rack up views to direct consumers to your company. It’s simple, affordable, it’s easy to distribute to your clients and perhaps you’ll be able to have some free time to catch some Pee Wee Herman yourself. If that’s your thing, it’s certainly mine.
Today businesses are struggling to raise brand awareness and achieve monthly sales. Without an online presence those goals are not easily reached, if they are reached at all. 90% of online shoppers said they found a video helped in making and buying decisions, 80% of internet users recall watching a video ad on a website in the past 30 days and 64% are more likely to make a purchase.
But why?
THE HUMAN BRAIN CAN PROCESS VISUAL CONCEPTS QUICKER. In a study last year, scientists found that the human brain can process an image that has been seen for just 13 milliseconds. Which means that the brain can process visual information 60,000 times faster than the time it takes for the brain to process text. This is why visuals can be used as a strong communication tool to gather potential consumers. Even the earliest versions of man communicated with each other through cave paintings. Those evolved to pictures with full meanings, to written text and have ended on video, the collaboration of visual and sound sensory. These two senses are the most basic form of understanding and are still the most effective means to present ideas to consumers.
IT WILL IMPACT LONG-TERM MEMORY RECALL. Reeling in your audience with stimulating images can lodge an idea inside the heads of consumers. That idea then calls the person to action. That action can manifest by a retrieval cue, based on an ad they saw before a YouTube video started, that stirs the consumers memory and redirects them to your website or your product on an online store. Video images are essentially being used as prompting that trigger the retrieval of long-term memory.
ONLINE VIEWING IS AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH. The number of video content posts from companies and individuals has risen by 94% in the United States and the average viewing session on YouTube is now 40 minutes and watch time on mobile devices have more than doubled since last year. 89 Million people in the United States alone with watch 1.2 billion online videos today and 52% of them say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchases. Any device that connects to the Internet now allows companies, large and small; to promote themselves in creative ways and let untapped revenue streams flow into their company.
VIDEOS ARE IDEAL FOR SOCIAL MEDIA. Videos are ready made to engage consumers and get them to click through to your website. In 2010 a marketing survey found that when marketers included an explainer video in an email, the click-through rate increased by 200% to 300%. Those numbers only multiply when applied to Facebook and Twitter. Videos are easy to share and easy to engage your key demographic.
There are many other statistics on video content and it’s effectiveness online and they further prove this point; an online presence is critical in today’s market, but that presence needs something to push and prod the consumer towards your company. Utilizing video to quickly explain to and easily share with consumers can dramatically increase the draw to your company and allow you to grow. Don’t be left behind as the online market changes the way consumers pay attention to companies and their products. Change with the market and get ahead of your competitors.
