Why an animated explainer video should be your next marketing activity

Is seeing really the same as believing? Consider your own behaviour: how do you read, learn or consume information? For most of us, it’s visual. The numbers back this up – approximately one-third of all online activity is spent watching video, and 65 per cent of the population are visual learners.

Why is this important? Well, the power of the visual doesn’t just influence how we learn; it also influences how we spend. Studies show that including video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80 per cent, and after watching a video, 64 per cent of users are more likely to buy a product online.

If your business hasn’t already explored the power of visual content, the time to start is now. And the best place to start? Animated explainer videos.

For the uninitiated, an animated explainer video is a short, animated video that focuses on explaining a business idea in a simple, engaging and compelling way. They blend professional quality audio with real-time illustrations that come to life before the viewer’s eyes, make even the most complex or bland material interesting and accessible…and they are cost effective to boot.

Maximum impact, minimum spend

Animation is effective for any marketing need – telling your brand’s story, product explainer videos, infographics, and release announcements. They can also be produced much more quickly and cheaply than a live video. Once created, you can utilise your video asset in multiple formats and platforms such as GIFs, social media, email and websites.

Effective messaging

Animated videos help us process complex material, bringing concepts to life that text or live videos can’t. With the help of animation, you can use your characters to do any number of impossible things to show how mechanisms and processes work.

Go viral

Animated explainer videos have mass appeal – they are accessible to any age, gender, to the informed industry expert or the uninitiated. This makes them perfect material for sharing. Viewers of animated content (over traditional video) are three times more likely to share the video on social media and twice as likely to both recommend and buy the service.

Convinced? Here are a few of our top tips for businesses looking to get started with animated explainer videos.

Start with your script. Explainer videos should generally be 30 to 90 seconds in length, which translates into a written script of around 200 words or less in most cases. Once you have your script worked up, have a look at some of the animation tools out there. Here are two options:

  • Animoto: a nice tool for creating videos from photos, with a number of templates
  • Animatron: a great free online animation maker which allows you to create your own animations from scratch, or use pre-animated objects available in their market.

Use colour to your advantage. Researchers have found that up to 90 per cent of snap judgments made about products can be based on colour alone. By making smart choices with colour in your animated video, you can not only influence buyer behaviour, but also strengthen your brand awareness with your audience.

Additionally, if you customise the characters of the video to reflect your target audience’s style, look, age, etc. you’ll generate a strong emotional bond and build trust with your customer base.

Above all, keep it simple, informative, effective, and light-hearted – a winning combination!

Laura Qureshi and Martin Cox, Directors and Co-Founders, DO Commerce