970 Likes in 6 minutes and 500,000 Views in a couple hours

I am all for creative videos.  We want to thank the Piano Guys for letting Ydraw be apart of this video. It stretched us a bit., but the end result was so worth it.  It was an experience for everyone involved.  Each person doing something a little bit new, and a little bit outside of their comfort zones.  That’s how we learn and grow though isn’t it?  Our experience with them was great and we hope that you all enjoy their new video as much as we do.  Read below to hear how The Piano Guys came up with their idea below.

So how did The Piano Guys come up with this concept?  This is what they had to say about it on their website:

As we began our arrangement of One Direction’s “Story of My Life” we wanted it to feel like each note of the music was a word in a vivid story being told. When writing a song sometimes you just need a little spark. That catalyst came from a piece of classical music – one that had such a “storybook feel” to it that we gleaned inspiration from it: Saint-Saëns’ “Aquarium” from his Suite “Carnival of the Animals.” It’s an incredibly beautiful and transportive piece.

 

So who are The Piano Guys?  Well if you haven’t heard about them yet, I’m glad we were the reason you stumbled upon them, because they are fantastic.  The Piano Guys are a group of musicians based out of St. George, Utah.  A piano shop owner was looking for a new marketing idea for his product and was also interested in viral videos.  A few musicians later, and they were creating their own amazing music and videos, and they’ve been an internet phenomenon since and with tour dates all over the country, even some international.  Go ahead and read more about them.

Ydraw creates some of the best animation videos out there including whiteboard animation, blackboard animation, 2D, and 3D animation videos.  Let us know if you have any questions or comments.

 

 

See more great stuff

Please include attribution to yincmarketing.com with this graphic.

Ultimate Facebook Marketing Guide Infographic

 

3 Content Creation Strategies That Will Help You Prosper
Courtesy of: Quick Sprout
Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Writing whiteboard video scripts using Ethos, Pathos and Logos

When you sit down to begin writing the script for your online marketing video, you want to keep three little words in your mind: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. These are the modes of persuasion. When trying to persuade somebody to do something – say, buy your product – you need to make sure we sound credible, appeal to the emotions, and prove certain truths about our company and product. If you’re a good marketer, you’ve obviously lived by the E.P.L mantra, but with whiteboard animation things can be a little different. Here’s some information on how using ethos, pathos and logos in a whiteboard video can work for you:

 

Ethos is the integrity of the presenter. It is how qualified the presenter appears to be to the audience. When writing a script for a marketing video such as a whiteboard animation video, you have to rely more heavily on everything other than body language or presence to get your message across. If you’re trying to sell something, have an image of the CEO telling viewers all about the company. Write a part with some testimonials. Whoever your main character is, make sure they look the part, and that the audience can tell they are a notable figure and have vested interest in the company or product.

 

Pathos is triggering emotions. In your whiteboard video, throw in a metaphor or simile, or deliver your message powerfully and passionately. Make the audience feel something, whether it is sadness for the characters who don’t have your product, joy for the characters who do, or excitement at the prospect of purchasing your product themselves. Pathos may also be used to provoke fear in order to sway viewers – but it is always better for whiteboard videos to focus on the fun, positive aspects. Try to play on viewers’ hopes and dreams by describing how their life could be when they follow the call to action.

 

Logos is the logical appeal used when describing facts and figures that support your cause. Logos and ethos are sort of related – in the sense that using logos can strengthen your ethos by making you look even more knowledgeable on the subject. However, be tasteful in your use of logos when making a whiteboard video – you want your audience to retain information with ease. If you use charts and figures, make sure to incorporate it into the theme of the video, and don’t throw so many statistics at them that they can’t remember why they clicked play.

 

These are what you need to keep in mind when writing.  Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.  Thanks Aristotle.

Animation For Business

Animation For Business

Video Animation for Business

If you want your business to have an online presence, you will need to use digital media. Video animation will help you get the word out about your goods and services. In today’s world people connect faster than ever and because of that are impatient and unwilling to sit through anything they don’t have to. Initially, consumers are only interested in the quickest way your business can convey information to them. But using animation for your business can pique the interest of viewers and keep their attention longer than any other means of advertisement.

Why Does Your Business Need Video Animation?

Animation is a very effective and inexpensive way to boost business, and when used correctly will increase customer traffic and lead to a more established internet presence. Technology is constantly changing, and chances are your competitors are also looking for ways to keep up. Here are a few reasons why your business needs video animation and how it can set you apart from your competitors, but for check out this video.

People Don’t Have Time

In this day and age it’s all about instant gratification. Who can provide me with the most pertinent information, and quickly? Sure, your product is amazing and has the potential to help a lot of people, but your pages of descriptions, features, and testimonials just aren’t going to hold attention for long. Get your message across with a creative minute-long animated video that sparks their interest and captures their imagination.

Consumers Care to Share

…If it’s worth sharing—and the chance your fans will do your marketing for you is improved if your content is fun and unique. Animated videos are so easy to link to and embed in other websites; all it takes is one click and your business just got a whole slew of new online viewers.

Multi-purpose

Not only will your video serve as an effective marketing technique—you can use it in the office, at trade shows, load it onto a disc or flash drive and hand it out. Post it to Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc… Video is endlessly versatile and its reach is incredible.

Very Impressive

Statistics have proven that your business will benefit from animated advertising. When it comes to animated videos, viewers retain 58% more information than they do just viewing images among black and white text. This is because animation caters to both sides of the brain. The left turns thoughts into images, allowing animation to communicate to left-brain thinkers in a way that words from live-action actors can’t. The right side of the brain likes animation because it easily ignites emotion and feelings. Animation is also more entertaining to right-brain thinkers, and they tend to hold onto the memory for a long time. In simpler words: if you want your audience to remember your business, show them an animated video.

Set Yourself Apart

If you’re company is the best, makes the best products or provides the best service, let people know. Stand out from your competition! When you use animation for your business, not only can you showcase products and features, you have the ability to do so creatively and express your company’s unique character. While your competitors provide boring, dry and lifeless pages of text to sift through, you provide humor and entertainment. And perhaps the best part of animated videos is the ability to convey information about your business in a way that anyone can easily understand it; from five years old to ninety.

OK, You Need Video Animation for Your Business, Now What?

Animation video, in particular, has achieved much success in product promotion and providing information while being entertaining enough to grab and hold consumers’ attention. Alright, you get it; video marketing has become pertinent to getting your information in front of a massive audience. So you decide you’d like to invest in an animated video for your business, but before you start, here are a few tips:

Remember:

Video is versatile. Your animated video can (and should) live everywhere, including:
– On your website
– Social video sites i.e. Youtube, Vimeo
– In emails sent to clients
– On a big screen at a trade show
– On a computer during meetings
– On handheld devices such as tablets and smart phones

Video is a tool every company needs in the realm of online advertising. Video animation can be a huge boom to your business by allowing large amounts of information to be viewed and retained in a short amount of time.

Animated videos get a higher click-through rate compared to other marketing videos, in turn giving you an increased return on investment, leading to a potential 85% increase in sales.

Forget:

To throw a snooze-fest—be imaginative. Using video animation to promote your business allows you to break through the boundaries of reality. The benefit of using animation over live action is the ability to create something that is unique, engaging, and high impact all while being within your budget.

To shoe-horn technical jargon and sales lingo into script. Your video should be entertaining and engaging. Use a storyline—introduce a problem (hit a hot-button issue) at the beginning and heroically provide the solution.

Power Point techniques. Avoid the urge to fill your video with text. Aim to entertain viewers with an eye-catching mix of moving imagery and sound. Use text only when necessary—highlight key points about your business but let the text flow with the overall design of animation.

If you’re looking to market your products or services online, your focus is on drawing people to your site while promoting your products. If you make sure the animated video for your business is educational, entertaining and informative, your online visitors will be likely to spread the word by sharing your video, and your site will experience a hefty boost in traffic.

To make a long article short, the reason you need video animation for your business is simply the fact that they lead to more views and more money. Online video has an infinite reach, widely distributing your content for a minimal investment. Technically speaking, it’s not the video your business needs, but the results that an animated video delivers.

+Jace Vernon

Animation Video: Essential, Entertaining and Engaging

Animation Video: Essential, Entertaining and Engaging

Animation Video: Essential, entertaining and engaging

Having an online business presence in today’s world requires digital media.

If you have a business with an online presence and you need to get word out about your goods and services you need digital media such as animation video. What was once a novelty is now fast becoming mainstream due to faster and cheaper internet combines with an increase in mobile devices that allow people to connect faster than ever. An animated video with a bit of humour and proper SEO can improve your search engine ranking and reach your audience quicker than ever before. 

You may have noticed the rise of videos over the past few years on the internet. A video on the internet was once a curious novelty reserved only for those with exclusive high speed connections and expensive computers. Today, people watch videos on their smartphones and other inexpensive devices all around the world.

Videos have become a mainstay of entertainment and information on the internet and animation video in particular has achieved a great level of success in promoting products, providing information and entertainment for hundreds of millions of people around the world. If you are running an online business, then animation video production should be an avenue you need to consider to help establish your company to potential customers. Mastering the art of animated video SEO, or search engine optimization, will definitely increase your customer traffic and may lead to having your company expand exponentially over the internet.

Animated Video

Thanks to new advances in software, an animation video production of good quality is now even easier and cheaper than before. Everyday, animation video production studios around the world, some of which are simple, one person operations using a single computer and program are producing high quality animation video on a regular basis. While it may not have the depth or movie screen quality of a fully animated film that you see in the theatres, many animation studios do have a sophisticated, eye pleasing look that makes them perfect to hire for promotional projects that you employ. They can be entertaining and engaging allowing a business to deliver their message in its entirety.

Video SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a well known standard for creating greater customer traffic to your website. While most people recognize how SEO works for their text content, it can also be of great benefit for videos as well. Popular search engines will view good quality video as a definite plus on results pages. This means that between otherwise equal use of proper keywords and key phrases along with link quality and such, a weblink with a video will rank higher than one without. Therefore, it pays to have a good, high quality animated video that will help you get noticed by more people and create more customer traffic.

Humor

Animated videos have a special place in the hearts of people who readily remember the hilarious cartoons that they grew up with as children. Plus, animation has established itself prominently on network TV, cable stations, and the like. This means that when an animation production of good quality and great humor appears on the internet, people will take notice.

In fact, humor is the best way to deliver a positive message about your company or the products that you carry. While its true that everyone has their own sense of humor and what may be hilarious to some may not be so well received by others, it is often the earnest intent of being funny that is enough to bring people over.

Creating a Sales Funnel With Video

Creating a Sales Funnel With Video

I have had my eyes opened these last few weeks.  It all started with a couple of books and it ended with a class in Dallas, Texas known as the GKIC workshop put on by Glazer and Kennedy. It was amazing and proved to be well worth my time.  Hence the reason for this blog post.

Its all about the Sales Funnel

One of the most important parts of any business is sales and marketing, yet most businesses do not spend the necessary capital. If they do, they spend it on the wrong things.  Small businesses can not market like large corporation nor should we want to. For us it comes down to leads, leads, leads.

If you do not create leads, you will not survive.  If you do not have faithful customers, you will hardly grow.  Simple, right?  Well, it is easier said then done. Our whiteboard videos are designed and created to capture leads.  We want people to call us on the phone or fill out a form on our site to capture info.  That way they enter our sales funnel which has a nurturing campaign.  Once a lead enters the door we have a series of videos or emails to follow up with the clients.

I learned this technique of survival back when I served a two year mission in El Salvador at the ripe old age of 19.  We would spend hours each day knocking doors, talking to people, or asking for member referrals.  It was tough to find people who would listen to our message about the Savior. Once we got into the door we would teach the first discussion and move them into the nurturing pool where we would follow up with 5 more discussions making sure to resolve doubts along the way.  It was not easy and it took alot of work to get the leads into the pipeline and nurture them.  Luckily for us, we do not have to knock on doors 9 hours a day.  We have software that systemizes the whole nurturing process until someone is ready to act. Here’s a great quote.

“Most business owners and marketers lead lives of DESPERATION, because they do not know how to create a STEADY and SUFFICIENT SUPPLY of GOOD LEADS.”-Dan Kennedy

How to Capture Great Leads

  1. Use Video- the first step is to create a video that is fun, educational and has some type of value proposition.  We love whiteboard videos, but animation videos created by Ydraw, Epipheo, Demoduck, or Common Craft are also great.  Once you have a great video the job is to put it in front of your target audience.   If you have no idea who your target audience is, you will waste a lot money on advertising to people who do not need your product or service.
  2. Create Landing Pages-Landing pages are a great way to capture a lead.  You can use CPC ads or banner ads to drive people to a landing pages. That page needs a form on it to capture info.
  3. Direct Mail- This is something I do not know a lot about, but I am implementing it and will let you know the results.  From what I have read direct mail is still the most powerful way to generate leads.
  4. Monthly Videos or Newsletters- Currently at Ydraw we are implementing this plan.  Each month we create a general video that people enjoy watching hoping it will get passed around. The video is more for entertainment and fun than a business pitch.

Those are just a few ideas on capturing leads. Start with one and work your way up to where you have multiple avenues.  The more leads you capture the better.

Nurturing your Leads

Once you capture a lead you have to nurture it.  We spend so much time, energy, and money in capturing leads, it would be a shame not to get the most out of them.  Nurturing leads is an easy step to automate, it just requires a bit of planning and design.  Use Aweber, Mailchip, or Infusionsoft to start email follow ups. Be careful with bombarding your lead pool with too much advertising. You do not want to end up in spam folders or trash. One email per week works great. Make your emails educational, and entertaining; using stories, videos, receipts, and  a direct mail piece.

Of course, most businesses will read this article and go on their merry way not implementing this strategy.  It takes too much effort, organization, and discipline.  Don’t be them!  Jump in with both feet and become the 5% who actually experience sustainable success.

+Jace Vernon