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.
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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.
By filling your marketing quiver with smart, sentence arrows, you’ll be able to deliver direct hits to your target audience.
Certain words and phrases can enable you to connect with audiences and spur them to take action.
For email marketers, the importance of using the “right” words in print and video voiceovers cannot be overstated.
Which word or phrase will click with your subscribers and nudge them to open emails, click to visit your website or make a purchase?
Words can motivate. The trick is determining which ones work for your business and your particular situation. A word or phrase that performs well in one campaign may not be the best option for your next campaign. Trial and error can help you narrow down which words connect with your audience.
To get you started, try some of the following “magic marketing words” in your next email or social post. (Don’t hesitate to use them on your print marketing and your website too.)
You: Write as if you were speaking directly to the customer. Make it about the reader, not about yourself.
Because: Give customers a compelling reason to take action.
Free: Don’t underestimate the appeal of “free.”
Value: Highlight the value that customers receive for their money. “Cost” or “price” imply losing something – in this case, money.
Guaranteed: Make readers feel they have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Amazing/incredible: Customers respond to something out of the ordinary. But be careful not to overuse these terms, or they lose their power.
Easy: Let subscribers know how much easier life will be with your product or service, and then make it simple for them to take the next step in the purchasing process.
Discover: Imply there is something new and unknown to the customer, something that offers distinct benefits and gives them an edge.
Act now: Motivate an immediate response with a limited-time offer.
Everything included/everything you need: Establish that your product or service is all your customers will have to buy in order to achieve their goal.
Never: Use this to point out a “negative benefit,” such as “never worry again,” or “never overpay again.”
New: Like “free,” “new” has the ability to make people sit up and take notice.
Save: The best, clearest word to showcase monetary or time savings.
Proven: Remind customers that your product, service or business is tried and true.
Safe and effective: Minimize risk perception for health and monetary loss.
Powerful: Let customers know that your business, product or service is robust.
Real results: Everyone wants results.
Secret: Is your product or service the secret to success? Let customers know you can reveal that secret.
The: This implies your solution is the be-all and end-all. Consider the difference: “3 Solutions for Marketing Success” vs. “The 3 Solutions for Marketing Success.”
Instant: Instant access or downloads are more appealing than waiting.
How to…: Help your readers accomplish a challenging task or goal.
Elite: Invite newbies to join the highly desirable club you’re hosting.
Premium: Premium helps denote high quality.
Caused by: If your email campaigns build a case for your product, transitional phrases such as “caused by,” “therefore” and “thus” reinforce the logic of a purchase.
More: Do you offer more than your competitors? Show it.
Bargain: Customers want a great deal.
No obligation: Create a win-win situation for your customers.
100% money-back guarantee: Again, no risk.
Huge: A large discount or outstanding offer is difficult to resist.
Wealth: If you’re selling products and services related to money, wealth is a desirable word for customers.
Bonus: phrases that trigger positive responses in readers
Marketing Words and Phrases that Reduce Risk
Minimizing a customer’s perception of risk will make them that much more comfortable pulling the trigger and doing business with you. Try to use phrases that provide reassurance that they aren’t at risk of losing money or being tied into some sort of scheme resulting in a 12-year membership to your jelly of the month club.
Guaranteed
• Or your money back
• You can unsubscribe at any time
• We won’t flood your inbox
• No obligation
• No purchase necessary
• Cancel at any time
• What do you have to lose?
• Premium
Words and Phrases that Reduce Uncertainty
Customers will feel uncertain about your company or services when they’re unfamiliar with you. Marketing phrases that work to reduce uncertainty and boost confidence in a new customer include:
No questions asked
• First month free
• Find out
• See why
• See for yourself
• No hidden fees
Words and Phrases that Inspire to Buy
People must be able to visualize how your product or services will change their lives for the better. Lead them down this imaginary road toward their new and improved self/situation by using phrases like the below:
See for yourself
• What do you have to lose?
• Give us a shot
• Receive
• What you get
• What’s in it for you?
• Bargain
• Do you want to(insert benefits of your services)?
• Results
• Growth
• Effective
• Start now
• Become
• Ends soon
• Real results
Words and Phrases that Encourage Urgency
Running a promotion for a finite period of time is a great way to get people to act. Try using these words in your next time-limited offer:
Download now/today
• While supplies last
• For a limited time only
• Save your spot
• Sale ends Saturday
• Act now before time runs out
• Get it while it’s hot
• Last chance
• Don’t want to miss
Marketing Phrases to Spark Curiosity
You want to encourage customers to engage with you on many different levels. Whether that’s getting them to visit your blog or sign up for newsletters, the key is to make them curious enough to take the next step. Consider using the following:
What if?
• Insider
• Special
• Scoop
• Learn how to…
• Join
• Discover
• Uncover
• Unlock
Marketing Phrases to Connect with Your Audience
Relating to clients on a personal level goes a long way in winning and keeping their business. When churning out customer-facing marketing materials, try to include some of these phrases which show that you empathize with the reader:
Ever wish you could…
• Finally, a …
• At last…
• Aren’t you tired of
• We get it
• We’ve got you
• Improve your…
• Discover what it’s like to…
• Look familiar?
• Experience what it’s like to
• You deserve
• You’ve earned
Marketing Phrases the Communicate Value
Give them an extra dose of confidence by making an appeal for the value of your offerings. Quality will never stop being important to the consumer and addressing it will prove beneficial:
Top notch
• Premium
• Value
• Equivalent to
• New
• Safe
• Secure
• Efficient
• Quality
• Custom-built
• Only
• First
• One-of-a-kind
• Harness the power of
Save now
• Affordable
• Get your money’s worth
• Without breaking the bank
• Easy on your wallet
• Avoid unnecessary fees
• Rewards
• Collect
• Earn
And a few words to avoid
Miracle: This oversells. Is what you’re offering truly a miracle?
Revolutionary: This is another oversell. Unless the product or service truly upends its industry, it’s not revolutionary.
Unique: Everyone uses unique now, so nothing is unique.
Great: Don’t be generic by using “great.”
Exciting: This is nearly as generic as “great.”
Language is powerful and using the right wordswill be the difference between marketing phrases that work and those that fall flat. Remember that a word or phrase that bodes well for one campaign doesn’t necessarily mean it will work across the board. As always, be strategic and conduct A/B testing to confirm you’re using these marketing phrases properly.
