We are constantly building new styles and wanted to give you some ideas of what we can do with Animation Videos. Here are 3 different styles and we would like you to vote on which one you like better. We are constantly adapting to the markets to make sure our clients get the best.
Video 1
At the top of the list you have the a fun little animation style created by our Editor Lee Wiley. The guy loves drawing and editing videos.
Video 2
This video is rather time consuming and more of your traditional animation style. Turned out great!
Video 3
Here’s a simple preview of what is to come. We like this story style video because it grabs attention and teaches you at the same time. If you want one, we would be happy to create it for you!
Video 4
We have always enjoyed this style. Watch it and let us know what you think.
Quick Summary of Why Video Marketing Is So Effective: 1. Boosts Brand Awareness 2. Makes You An Authority 3. Incites Action 4. Generates Engagement 5. It’s What They Want
If you haven’t noticed by now, video is king. In 2018, over 75% of all internet traffic was video content – and that percentage is still climbing. It’s estimated that over 60% of the world’s internet users watch videos online every day. Though written articles still get plenty of clicks, data shows that video traffic far surpasses all other forms. Saying video is trending up would be a gross understatement.
Needless to say, if you’re not putting marketing efforts toward the creation of video content, you are behind the times. The absence of a video marketing strategy means you’re leaving so much on the table in terms of audience engagement, social media influence, and much more.
Why is video marketing so effective? Why does it carry so much weight when it comes to modern business success?
Boosts Brand Awareness
How important is successful branding to a business owner? It’s not just important. It’s imperative. And video marketing is the BEST way to increase awareness of your brand. Through video you easily answer all the questions your demographic is asking, you can share testimonials from existing customers, and tell your story. On top of all that, the world can hear your voice and/or see your face as you’re doing all these things, making everything much more memorable for them.
Through video, you pull back the curtain, revealing the personality behind the brand. It humanizes your brand and allows them to really feel the passion you have for what you do. They get a taste of the culture inside your organization. All of this builds something you absolutely have to have with your customers: trust. Bring transparency and authenticity to your message with video.
When you upload quality video content, your brand has the potential to reach an infinite amount of people. There’s simply no better way to get in front of your audience than original videos.
Makes You An Authority
You feel like an authority in your field. But your potential customers aren’t automatically going to view you and your brand that way. You’ve got to prove to them that you are an experienced and trustworthy voice worth listening to. There’s something about well-made video content that instantly legitimizes you. When the public views your material, in their minds you have automatically entered the ring as an industry thought-leader, simply by having video content.
Now add to that video that actually educates them, solves their problems, and inspires them and you’ve got a winning recipe for being viewed as an expert.
Incites Action
When it comes to conversions, video is essential. Recent data shows that almost 70% of people are more likely to buy a product or sign up for something when they can watch a video about it first. The legitimizing nature of video content accompanying a product or service is in play here. But it also works because a call-to-action in a video is so good at being direct, compelling, quick, and memorable. Sales always get a boost with video content.
Generates Engagement
One particular aspect of video marketing that’s becoming more popular is live streaming. This is because of the great ROI companies receive when dedicating time to this. Three times as many people spend time watching live video than they did only a few years ago. Apps that allow live streaming (Periscope, Instagram, Facebook) are generating huge amounts of engagement.
By live streaming with your audience, you’re offering them real-time opportunities to interact with you which does wonders for trust-building. There are multiple reasons you might want to live stream; report breaking news, give a behind-the-scenes look at something relevant, or do a Q&A session, for example. Live streaming is a fantastic way to truly allow your customers to connect with your brand.
It’s What They Want
YouTube gets more daily visitors than Facebook. Behind Google, YouTube is the most visited website in the world. If that’s where everyone is, why wouldn’t you make an effort to be there too?
Recent polls revealed that, when thinking about buying a product, almost 5 times more people prefer viewing a video about it rather than reading about it. This shouldn’t be a surprise. A video lets them see it instead of imagining it. The benefits and features can be demonstrated right then and there. Science has also concluded that our brains understand and retain visual information faster and easier than written information. No wonder people gravitate to video more than anything else.
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.
We get asked by clients if they should do a whiteboard video over other types of videos. We stand by our conviction that a whiteboard animation video still will get you the results you need.
But we wouldn’t want you to just take our word for it. We are a little bias. Our friends from the UK created a video that can explain it better than we can.
Cognitive started Whiteboard videos in the UK back around the same time that Ydraw began. They received millions of views and awards.
They were the inspiration that started it all. Here are some stats on why you should be telling your story with a whiteboard video.
Don’t forget these quick points.
Although a whiteboard video will get you better results, a bad script will ruin any video
Businesses all have a story and it should be told.
When you tell your story people will relate to your product or service.
We are breaking it down on what types of stories you should be sharing with your customers in this weeks episode of Moron Monday.
If you missed last weeks episode, you can find it here.
Hey guys. What’s up? Jace over here at Ydraw.
Today we’re going to be talking about one of my favorite subjects. We’ve been trying to push this down companies throats for years now, and I just thought I’d sit down and break it down for you guys so you know why stories matter.
Here are six stories you should be telling your customers. We have another blog that has seven, but I put two together.
I’m going to go over these and then, at the end of this video, I’m going to show you guys what we did for Ydraw. We just created a simple video to show you step number one, a history of our business case.
So let’s run through these real quick.
HISTORY
Very first thing, every company should be talking about their history. They should be telling the stories of how their company got started. And that does matter.
Think about the story of Apple, we all know it.
Think about the story of Tesla, about SpaceX, about Facebook. Zuckerberg…young… didn’t know what he was doing, built a billion dollar company. We all get pulled into the stories, and majority of companies don’t tell their stories.
So it’s important that you go out there and tell them how you got started.
HOW YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE WAS DISCOVERED
Next is how your product or service was discovered. What did you do to figure out your product or service?
Now, you can combine these a little bit, but people want to know….how did you discover your product or service?
And by doing that, what happens is, they’re like, hey, I was in that same guy’s shoes.
I was looking for the same solution to a problem. And if you tell people how your company came about or how the problem was discovered, then they’re more likely to buy into your business.
And remember, what all of this does is it gets multiple touches so people want to do business with you.
People do business with those who they like and trust. And all these stories get people to like and trust you so that they’ll give you money.
Back in 2011 explainer videos where the hot thing, everyone went out and got explainer videos because they were told that’s what they need, but they didn’t realize there was a bunch of other stuff that needs to go with it.
So they would have a great explainer video, stick it out on YouTube and hope they get business but it didn’t happen that way.
But a good explainer video is simple. You need to do a strong opening, a headline, problem, solution, and call to action.
That should be your formula because it just shows, here’s the problem, here’s how our product solves that problem, and then it gives them a call to action.
You need people who will talk about your business, it’s like a case study, or if somebody gets on a camera, that’s good social proof, so you need those.
WHY YOU OVER THE COMPETITORS
You need, “why you over your competitors?” I get asked this all the time on sales calls, businesses will say, “hey, Jace, why should I choose you over your competitors?”.
And I just tell them, we have videos that discuss that.
When somebody buys your product or service, it’s best if you can give them tutorial videos so they know how to use it.
And then within those you can always ask for referrals. Got it.
HISTORY
So let’s talk about history.
Last month I went and spoke at PPAI conference, and it was on video marketing. I always start off with my story, my struggle, my triumph, and then why it matters to them.
Now why do I do this? It’s so that people can look at me and be like, “hey, he’s relatable, he’s been in the dumps, he’s had to overcome some trial stuff like that”.
If you ever go listen to really good speakers, they always start with their story.
Jimmy Fallon, in one of our articles, which I’ll link to this, we talked about the first night when Jimmy Fallon came on the tonight show (I think it’s the tonight show).
All he did was tell the story, he explained where he came from and people loved it.
So when you’re telling the history, tell them where you came from, the struggles, and then how you overcame those struggles, and then why it matters to them.
A video that we just created for Ydraw, I’m going to show you how we did it. Well, I’m just going to show it to you and you’ll get how we did it.
We basically talk about where we started, why it mattered, and then there were stakes at hand.
You have to have some type of stakes in your story. And when I say stakes, that means you have to overcome something.
There has to be an obstacle. If you just go out and say, “oh yeah, I started a company made millions of dollars”, no one really cares.
What they care about is the struggle that it took to start that company.
What were you going to lose? Did you put up all your money? Did you put up everything? And every business out there has stakes.
So, if you’d take a look at Apple, if you take a look at Facebook, the history of all these great companies, they had stakes.
They had something that they were about to lose. They were about to go under. They put all their life on line, stuff like that.
If you go into the movie theaters, every good movie is structured like this.
You have a Star Wars, it starts off with Luke, whose parents die, finds a guide Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he trains him. He overcomes great odds and happily ever after.
And you’ll notice Pixar does the same thing. They have a certain formula that every single one of their movies follow.
YDRAW HISTORY
So, I’m going to show you the video that we have, but make sure your company is doing these stories.
Go out there and start off with a history. Tell people (and it doesn’t need to be some big production) how you got started, why it matters, and why it should matter to them.
Tell them what you overcame, and just from doing that, you’re going to get more business. And then also it gives you content to put in front of people.
So, if you have questions on this, we would love to help. We do create scripts for this, we do create videos for this, we’d be happy to help you go to ydraw.com and that is it. Peace.
Is your website actually communicating the right message to your audience or turning them away? Don’t let yourself fall into the category of those who are doing things incorrectly! We’ve got plenty of tips that will help guide you to the perfect website and make sure you are sending the right message to your audience.
Take a look at this weeks Moron Monday video to learn what you should and shouldn’t be doing when it comes to your website.
If you missed last weeks episode, you can find it HERE! We talked about how to run successful video ads!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
Hey, what’s up guys? I want to welcome you to another session of Moron Monday.
It’s not Monday, we call it Moron Monday because we just show you the different things that morons do in marketing, and especially video marketing.
Today is probably one of the most important episodes we’ve had. We’ve only had three, but it’s probably one of the most important episodes you’re going to see and continue to see, because we’re going to talk about the words. The words we use and the messaging we use. If you are a business and you are creating a website or you’re creating a new video, it’s really important that you say the right things to get people to take action.
If somebody comes to your website, they need to know what it is that you do immediately. It needs to pass the five second test.
If you’re creating a video, they need to know “Hey, what is this video about?”. Don’t go into some long old story before you tell them what it’s about. It’s like a trailer.
Whatever it is that you are using to get your message in front of people, you need to have your Unique Selling Proposition there.
And then same with your video message, it needs to be in there.
STEP NUMBER 1
This is probably where we see people screw up the most, is with simplicity.
I am a big fan of keeping things simple, and a lot of times when a customer comes to us and they’re like, “Hey, we want you guys to create our script,” (because we do all the scriptwriting when it comes to our videos), most of the time there’s a bit of a clash because what they’re focused on is actually confusing the heck out of the audience.
There’s that knowledge gap where they have been working in that industry, they know everything about it, and then you have a consumer who knows nothing about it.
What happens is they try to take all their jargon, all of their message, all of their features, and they just cram it into a video, and usually it doesn’t turn out good and it confuses the audience.
What we try to do is get them to step back and say, “Hey, let’s keep things simple and do not confuse.” Because if you confuse your audience, you’re going to lose them. They’re going to jump over to somebody else who doesn’t confuse them.
STEP NUMBER 2
And then the next thing, everything that you do needs to be customer and problem-solution focused.
Don’t go out there and say we, we, we, we, we.
You need to talk about what it is that you’re going to do for them.
How can you solve their problem? Because people really don’t care about your awards, they don’t care about that kind of stuff.
Now, you do need to show social proof, I’m not saying go get rid of all your awards, go get rid of all your testimonials. No. That comes a little later, like if you’re creating a website, social proof should be down below.
But you don’t want to start off with “we’re the number one lawyer in the world”. And I’m going to show you some examples of different sites.
I’m going to jump over to a simple screencast and give you guys an idea of what to do and what not to do on what makes sense.
So the very first site we’re going to go jump into is a lawyer site.
Lawyers are actually notorious for confusing their audience, and they love cramming so much information on above the fold.
It just doesn’t make sense. And people don’t pay attention to it anyway.
So the very first one I pulled up was this NevadaDivorce.net. And you will see above the fold, which above the fold is above the crease, you have a bunch of call to actions.
You have a ton of paragraphs. You have no idea what it is that these guys do, I mean they’re divorce attorneys, but it just says Nevada divorce and document service.
Now they have some bullet points, they have a whole paragraph here, paragraph there, and bunch of links on the right, call us … You just don’t know what it is that they actually do here, so most people will bounce.
Compare that to this. Neil Patel. If you don’t know who Neil Patel is, he’s one of the SEO experts out there. He ranks for a lot of different things.
But on his website he just says “Do you want more traffic?”
Great. You come there and you’re like, “Oh, what it is that Neil does? He gets me more traffic.” Do you want more traffic lead sales? Enter your URL below if you want to grow your traffic and revenue.
And then he has a website. Now, what he’ll do with this website is more of a lead capture. You put your information in here, and that’s it. That’s what his whole website is set up to do.
It’s simple, effective, and I like to use some of his stuff.
Here’s another attorney. I just kind of make fun of attorneys, sorry. But their websites are usually the worst.
So they start off, here’s my number. They’re the 702 Firm.
Now, you have a smiley, a mean, a half-smile guy here, and they’re awarded the best personal injury law firm. That is a hundred percent me, me-focused, it is not consumer-focused.
Best injury lawyers in Las Vegas…personal injuries…
They’re trying to do a lot of stuff with search engine optimization and load it in here, but this whole website does not talk one bit about the consumer.
Compared to this. This is StoryBrand.
If you don’t know who he is, he actually writes about clarifying your message. So workshops to help you clarify your message, that’s what he does.
He does workshops to help clarify message. And then he just says eliminate confusion, connect with customers, grow your company.
You can see that that is customer-focused and it’s not about him, he doesn’t say, “We do this, this, this, this,” it’s like no, you’re going to eliminate confusion, you’re going to connect with your audience, and grow your company.
And then in the background he actually shows a good image of what’s going on so there’s just no confusion.
Compared to this one, this is a mortgage one. So hundreds of mortgage options under one roof.
Then they have this slider here that is going way too fast. They have nothing here, they just have some images and then this creepy little thing that pops up.
And then if you scroll down, there’s this long old paragraph here that nobody reads.
If you looked at the bounce rate and just said, “Hey, what happened?”
Now, if you space it out it’s okay to do some paragraphs. I’ll show you what I’m testing right now.
Okay, if you jump over onto this page here. I’m testing some longer form because long form sales letters do work.
It doesn’t all need to be simple, but if you hit the website, a YouTube Campaign can grow your business.
Then I go into these long form paragraphs here, where I talk about what kind of results we get for customers, and this seems to be working.
But you’ll see I space it out. I very rarely have two sentences per paragraph. I space it out, I highlight it. I don’t make it look all slammed together where people aren’t going to read that stuff.
You don’t need to eliminate all the writing on a website. This seems to be working, and we’ll keep testing.
But the main point it, just don’t confuse your audience.
Keep things simple, don’t confuse them.
Go back through your material.
The best way to get the most out of these courses that we do is go back through your material and apply these things that we talk about. Look at your website messaging and say, “Am I confusing my audience? If they come here, do they know what it is that I do within five seconds?”
And then another big thing, on a website you should have your headline. You can have a sub-headline here.
Make sure you have a call to action. You want to say, “Hey, if you’re here at my website, this is what I want you to do. Here’s what you’re going to get.” Don’t forget to put a call to action, and most of those websites that I did show you did not have that.
Same with video. So video, it needs to kind of fall in the same format, but it’s a little different.
What we like to do on videos is a headline, problem, solution, call to action, and then we’ll extend it out.
There’s a lot of popular videos that have millions of views that follow this same formula. They will do a guarantee, another solution, another call to action.
But don’t forget this call to action in your videos. You want them to do something. After they engage with any of your material, whether it’s brochures, website, videos, you want to ask them to do something so that you can do business. So don’t forget that.
And that is it. Go through your stuff, make the changes, and we’ll see you on the next episode.
