by Jace Vernon | Sep 10, 2019 | Animated Whiteboard Videos, Whiteboard animation, Whiteboard Video
Creating a whiteboard animation video for your business is a great idea. But don’t make the decision without putting in some thought first. It’s certainly a good idea to cover all your bases before putting your marketing dollars to work. But since you’ve haven’t given yourself the green light yet, let’s go over something important. You need to know what to consider before creating a whiteboard animation video.
Remember that there are a lot of companies out there that create whiteboard animation videos. The style and quality of work differ from one company to another. And as popular and effective as these videos are, a lot can go wrong in certain circumstances. This won’t happen to you, though, because we’re going to give you the information you need before moving forward.
Here’s what to consider before creating a whiteboard animation video.
Is a Whiteboard Animation Video Right For My Business?
There is almost no circumstance where the implementation of a whiteboard video wouldn’t help. They translate extremely well to virtually every kind of business. But we suppose it would be disingenuous to say with certainty that they’re perfect for every situation. The type of service or product you’re promoting, your long-term marketing goals, and your message should influence your decision.
But there are some circumstances where whiteboard animation videos really are a perfect choice. For example:
When You’re Explaining Something Technical or Complicated
If the message you want to deliver involves a complex system or innovative idea, whiteboard animation videos are ideal. Research has shown that retention increases almost 20% when information is delivered this way. When education is the goal, the whiteboard style excels. This kind of animation can unravel concepts in a fun and engaging way.
When You Have A Lot To Say
Whiteboard animation videos are great at presenting lengthy information in an appealing way. The best examples are whiteboard videos that animate speeches. You’ve likely seen some of these. The brain retains visual information better than auditory. So when animated explanations are paired with the audio of a speech, the speech is no longer, well, boring! It becomes exciting and twice as interesting when you see the speaker’s words come to life in a creative way.
When You Need A Corporate Training or B2B Video
Whiteboard videos are very popular in the corporate space for a reason. It doesn’t matter if the artwork style that matches your business is cartoony or realistic. With precise copywriting and good artwork, your B2B or training video will pique the viewer’s interest and keep their attention. Compared to other options, whiteboard animation should be strongly considered for corporate purposes.
Mistakes Companies Make When Creating A Whiteboard Animation Video
Not every whiteboard animation is created perfectly. Knowledge, experience, and asking the right questions are important to the success of your video. Some common mistakes in whiteboard animation videos are:
To Show The Hand Or Not To Show The Hand
Make sure you decide if showing the drawing hand is what you want. Most of the time, clients prefer to show the hand. It can bring a sense of realism and gives the video added character. But, sometimes showing the hand doesn’t mesh with the aesthetic. Communicate with your creative director to make this decision.
No White Background
We’ve seen whiteboard animation that presented content with a fully-colored background. In our opinion, this a mistake. It lessens the effect that this kind of animation can have. When the viewer sees the artwork manifesting on a white background, it becomes familiar. In a very real way, the white background makes the video more relatable. Only use color for background purposes to help emphasize certain points.
Be very cautious when thinking about doing a full-color background in whiteboard animation videos. It’s almost never a good idea.
No interconnected artwork
One of the calling cards of whiteboard animation is the seamless style of interconnected imagery. One thing always leads to the next with many images literally connected to each other. Some videos choose not to do this at all, resulting in a less-effective final product. We’re not saying the ink should literally connect everything throughout the entire video. But make sure that you break from connected imagery sparingly. Too much isolated imagery can hinder continuity.
Creating A Whiteboard Animation Video Using Multiple Artwork Styles
This adds confusion to the video that just isn’t necessary. Choose an art style and stick with it for the whole video.
Low-Quality Animation
Be sure that the whiteboard animation company you’re using has talented, experienced artists working for them. Bad artwork defeats the whole purpose of putting your marketing dollars toward a project like this. Look at artwork samples and previous videos the company has made to make sure it’s what you’re looking for.
What To Consider Before Creating a Whiteboard Animation Video – Conclusion
When choosing a whiteboard animation company, makes sure they’re actually a whiteboard animation company. Meaning, don’t go with a company that runs a different kind of business but offers whiteboard animation on the side. Hire professionals. Even if it costs a bit more, it will be worth it. When done right, commissioning a video like this can have far-reaching, positive effects. Do your best to stay informed and steer clear of easily-avoidable mistakes.
Contact Ydraw for the best customer experience and the best whiteboard animation videos in the industry!
by Jace Vernon | Nov 11, 2015 | MLM companies, Video Marketing, video online marketing, Whiteboard animation, Whiteboard Video
Attention multi-level marketers:
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.
See if these concerns sound familiar:
1. Recruiting
2. Sales prospecting
3. Retention
4. Product understanding
5. Leadership training
Here’s what we recommend:
1-Recruiting
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!
Dedicate each month to a different health issue and have a fun video explaining the issue and how to overcome that challenge. Something that’s easily sharable.
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!
by Jace Vernon | May 16, 2013 | Animated Whiteboard Videos, dry erase board animation, Explainer Video, explanation animation, scribed video, Video Scribing, Whiteboard animation, Whiteboard Video
Whiteboard is not just for classrooms anymore. What once was used to explain complicated concepts in math, science and English is now used to explain complex features of a very helpful product. Say you have a product or service that has the potential to make millions of lives easier – but no one is buying simply because they don’t quite understand what you do. Creating a whiteboard explainer video is perhaps the most efficient way to incorporate a narrative explanation along with images and sound effects in order to maximize impact and ease of understanding. Suddenly, the light bulb flickers on – your audience gets it. And your audience wants it.
In the past, whiteboard videos were primarily a way to inform or explain complicated concepts without necessarily pushing or selling. However, with the attention-grabbing and memory retention tactics used in whiteboard explainer videos, viewers can often be sold to without even realizing it. To the viewer, watching a whiteboard animation is a fun and painless way to get more information on a topic they’re interested in. But because whiteboard animation utilizes memory retention techniques – such as appealing to each type of learner, incorporating humor, and combining fast-paced visual information with sound – they walk away from the video with tons of information about your company tucked away in their long-term memory; easily accessible next time they run into a problem your product or service can fix.
The reasons your business needs a whiteboard video are several, but simple. In fact, if it were any more complicated we could probably create a whiteboard explainer video about whiteboard explainer videos. But I’ll tell you what – just in case you’re a little confused or still not convinced, we have made an explainer video about explainer videos, and you can watch it here.
+Jessica Anderson
