Getting the attention of your audience can be tricky. You’re competing with a lot — social media, games, pop-up ads, and even other branded content. How are you supposed to compete with so many distractions?
Animated marketing videos are an effective, fun way to grip your audience. In fact, nearly 50% of internet users look for videos about a product before making a purchase, and 74% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software by watching a video. The perks of animated marketing videos are many, but making them requires the right knowledge and preparation.
The Benefits of Animated Marketing Videos
Videos with live actors can be costly and require extensive coordination between large teams and groups of actors. Animated marketing videos require smaller teams and cost less but still offer the powerful benefits of traditional video.
Animated marketing videos are versatile
Animated videos can go wherever your audience is, no matter the social channel or platform. If you have an audience segment on one social platform, you can easily customize an animated video to match that audience and share it there. Being able to make highly shareable video marketing is key in this day and age.
Animated marketing videos can be customized
Animated videos are easier to customize than a live-action video. This makes it possible to match or change your video’s purpose and tone as needed. For example, if you’ve made a video to invite customers to a webinar you can easily modify it to fit a new date or topic.
Sometimes you need to make tweaks or even major changes to a video. Changes with animated videos are more possible than with traditional video. When altering a live-action video, you need to organize actors, the set crew, and so on. Animated marketing videos only require software and maybe a voice actor to make any changes.
Animated marketing videos aren’t limited by reality
This allows even the most fantastic ideas to come to life in an animation. This is also useful for abstract ideas or concepts that would be difficult to show with live-action video.
How to Use Animated Videos for Business
Animation is great for entertainment, but it’s also a great option for businesses. Animation is a versatile form of content, and you can use it in the following ways:
- Animated videos can help explain complex products or services. Unlike live videos, animated videos aren’t bound by the constraints of reality, making them ideal for showing complex or abstract concepts.
- Animated videos are great for telling your brand’s story. Animated videos are easy to brand, can feature voiceovers from prominent figures in your business, and are easy to tweak to accommodate for changes down the road.
- Animated videos are perfect for customer education. Animated videos also make great supplements to product training texts, especially when explaining complicated concepts or technology.
- Product explainer videos are easy to make with animated videos, and you can tailor them for nearly any audience segment. For example, if you have a segment of your audience that’s younger and into pop-culture references, you can create an animated video that contains these elements.
How Much Does it Cost to Make an Animated Marketing Video?
The cost of animated marketing videos fluctuates. Some studios estimate a 60-second video costs as much as $50,000, while others cite several thousand. Ultimately, the cost of a custom animated video depends on numerous factors:
- Length of the animation: Longer animations typically tend to cost more, whether you’re using a design team or making the video on your own.
- Hired talent: Voice actors or designers needed to complete the video all impact the cost. And typically, the more talent required, the higher the cost. This also factors into the cost associated with longer videos.
- Cost of software: When making a video in-house, you’ll likely use various pieces of software for animation, editing, music, etc. This might include design software, illustration tools, or even animation software.
One thing that can greatly reduce the cost of animated videos is animation software. Animation software, like Vyond, generally requires a subscription fee or a one-time purchase. But animation software can allow you to make videos without a costly design team or the assistance of an animation studio. Vyond plans start at $89p/month with royalty-free music and sound effects included.
Animation software also helps you save time. For example, Vyond features a library of scenes and characters, all of which are customizable to fit any brand or audience. This makes animating quick and easy, saving you time and costly man-hours.
Tips for Making an Effective Marketing Video
Making an effective animated marketing video requires proper preparations and know-how. The following tips will help you get a proper start on your next animated marketing video:
- Plan ahead. It’s important that you create a strategy before spending any time or money on an animated marketing video. Think about what it is you’re trying to get across, whether a video is necessary, who will watch your video, where you should host your video, what your budget is, and so on.
- Tell a story. Animated marketing videos can be a great supplement to traditional content marketing. But, like content marketing, your video should tell a story rather than be overly sales-oriented. A video that focuses only on sales won’t resonate and last with your audience, as a story would. A story will captivate and reel your audience in by feeling more relatable.
- Consider audience segments. Your brand likely has multiple target audiences or audience segments. Think about these segments when making your animated marketing video. It’s possible you’ll need multiple versions of a marketing video in order to reach all the right segments.
- Develop a promotional plan. Your video may organically gain views, but you’ll still need a strategy to ensure that it’s viewed by those who need to see it most. Create a promotional plan that breaks down which social channels you’ll need to promote your video on, what kinds of ads you’ll create for it, and more.
The best-laid plans can fall flat without proper planning. Planning your animated marketing video ahead of time will reduce the chances that your video is a dud and, more importantly, will give your business the results you’re seeking.
Examples of Great Animated Marketing Videos
Animated videos are all about visuals, so we’re sharing some examples of great animated marketing videos. Use these top-notch videos to inspire you when creating your own animated marketing video.
Virtual Care for Kids
Explainer videos are great for breaking down technical, complex, or even less-than-exciting services or products. The below explainer video from Virtual Care for Kids does a great job of quickly breaking down their unique services:
The Virtual Care for Kids video is an especially strong example of an explainer video due to the clear voice-over, concise on-screen text, and colorful animation. It’s captivating while also doing a great job of explaining things.
EverString
EverString (acquired by ZoomInfo) was all about data and sales intelligence. The company explains the origin of data in the video below:
EverString’s video makes great use of animation coupled with infographics and stats to tell a story.
Wuvavi: North Pole Cyber Breach
There’s a fine line between content marketing and traditional marketing. That line is generally storytelling. Wuvavi uses a playful story about a data breach at the North Pole to explore the risks of skimping on cybersecurity.
Wuvavi’s video makes great use of video-in-video in the early scene while using fun characters and a voice-over to tell a story. The end result is a video that markets Wuvavi’s services and educates the audience on the importance of security.
BookYourWeddingday.com
Destination weddings sound great on paper but are a nightmare to plan. BookYourWeddingDay.com makes this point clear in the video below:
The video is a great example of storytelling as a way to connect with the audience. The target audience — those planning destination weddings — will immediately relate to the story and the problem of the couple in the video. This hook, coupled with a quality voice-over, makes for a great animated marketing video.
Envision Auto Relocations
Anyone who has ever moved a long distance has likely realized what a headache moving a car can be. Envision Auto Relocations uses animation to relate to their audience’s problem and illuminate a solution.
Quality animation, a professional voice-over, and a demo of Envision’s mobile app make their video relatable for an audience facing the problem of moving a car long distances.
The examples above span a variety of industries, niches, and problems. Animated marketing videos can be used for virtually any industry or issue; your imagination is the only limiting factor. You can make an animated marketing video for your market, no matter what that market is.
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