Why Animated Explainer Videos are Essential to Your Business
Animated explainer videos have emerged as an exciting new medium, revolutionizing how businesses communicate with their audiences. With video being fifty times more likely to drive organic search than text and images alone, it's clear that a video is no longer an option but a crucial tool for businesses looking to improve their online visibility and engage their users.
What is an Animated Explainer Video?
Animated explainer videos are short videos that use visual storytelling with concise, informative narratives. They use animation to bring concepts to life in a way that text or a traditional "talking head" video cannot. They're great at simplifying complex ideas and making them understandable to viewers, which aligns perfectly with a core tenet of training: give people the minimum amount of information they need to do what they need to do. This prevents cognitive load and, of course, keeps people from getting bored.
Stats on Animated Explainer Videos for Customers
A staggering 80% of customers are influenced to purchase by videos on YouTube. On other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, 64% of people make their purchasing decisions after watching videos.
Stats on Animated Explainer Videos for Employees
On the internal end of things, animated explainer videos have become a mainstay in employee training due to their effectiveness in keeping learner attention. Employees are 75% more likely to watch a video than to read documents, emails, or knowledge articles. IBM completed a report that found that their employee productivity increased by 50% after incorporating videos into their training.
Moreover, you can communicate crucial information faster with animated video: the Brandon Hall Group found that companies that use videos for training could deliver training to employees 45% more quickly.
How should you use animated explainer videos?
Your Website Landing Page
An animated video explainer on your landing page is a surefire way to draw people's attention to your website. Landing pages with animated explainer videos can convert 86% better than those without videos.
Imperative uses an animated video on its page to showcase quotes and use cases for its product.
You can use an animated explainer video to "sell yourself" as well. When looking for a job a few years back, I even made an animated explainer video on my resume website. (By the way, it worked! I got a job!) The website is no longer up, but you can see the video here:
Alex Storey Video Resume
Video Marketing
Animated explainer videos are perfect for video marketing. Because they're usually less than 3 minutes, they're perfect for scroll-prone social media platforms like Facebook.
Product or Service Information
Animated explainer videos can quickly and succinctly inform customers about the value of your product. This is especially important for a company with a new, unique product or one that takes a little time to understand.
Wecinity's App Explainer is a great example of how to use an animated explainer video to walk through the use case of their application.
Dropbox has arguably one of the most famous animated explainer videos. When the cloud storage company burst on the scene in 2009, they used the video below to get immediate buzz. This netted them a $48,000,000 investment!
Walk Through a Process
Complex or scary processes can use animation to allow audiences to visualize what they might have to engage in. For example, I developed a friendly animated video for new hires at SUCCESS Computer Consulting. It welcomed new employees to the company and gave them crucial information on what to expect on their first day to ease their anxiety.
In the customer-facing world, you see it all the time with businesses showing how easy a process may be to put people at ease and to explain some of the more nerve-inducing steps with greater detail so audiences can understand that they're in good hands. A great example is Mint. The financial tech company made a great animated explainer video that blended animation with the steps users would need to take with the Mint software to get their bank account and other financial information working with the app.
Highlight Reviews, Quotes, or Stats
Businesses should celebrate their wins and share them with their customers and employees. When a company wins an award, gets a fantastic review, and sees an excellent quote about the organization, an animated video explainer is a perfect place to spotlight that recent win.
Customer Support Enhancements
From a front-end perspective, you can provide customers with how-to animated explainer videos on products and services. This reduces tickets and support needs, but you can also have videos ready to go on the reactive side. Imagine a frustrated customer having issues with a tool or software. Instead of a wall of undecipherable text explaining what they need to do next, they get a simple, well-animated video that walks them through their process. From the customer service side, explainer videos have led to a decrease of 43% in support calls.
Who Should Use Animated Explainer Videos?
Video Marketers
Animated explainer videos do a great job of increasing brand visibility and user engagement. Video marketers can use them to craft compelling narratives around products or services.
Businesses Aiming to Increase Conversion Rates
Any business seeking to improve its website's conversion rates should consider animated explainer videos. Because animated explainer videos are great at simplifying complex offerings and presenting them in an engaging format, they often translate into higher conversion rates. Customers who understand a product or service better feel more compelled to make a purchase.
Educational and Training Professionals
Animated explainer videos can be a game-changer in education and corporate training. They transform traditional, often monotonous learning materials into engaging, visually appealing content. For those in learning and development, like trainers, instructional designers, and even educators in the K-12 space, these videos are tools to make learning more efficient and enjoyable.
Customer Support Teams
These videos are invaluable for customer support teams. By providing clear, concise explanations of common issues and how to resolve them, animated explainer videos can significantly reduce the volume of support calls and emails. They offer customers a quick and easy way to find solutions, improving overall customer satisfaction.
How Do I Get Started Creating Animated Videos?
Learn How to Animate
It's easier than ever to get started animating videos. First, you need to learn video animation skills. You can find how-to videos on YouTube. However, I recommend enrolling in a learning experience platform like LinkedIn Learning or Udemy and watching videos on Adobe Character Animator, Adobe After Effects, or Adobe Animate.
If you want to speed up the process, you can use tools like Powtoon, Animaker, or Vyond that do much of the work for you. They're not the cheapest tools (Usually starting at $999 for a year), but you won't have to learn to create characters from scratch.
Work with Professionals
While DIY Tools are available, you may not have the time to invest in learning how to animate explainer videos. In this case, you can work with professionals to make polished explainers for you. Do your research when looking to hire someone. Animators like Skill Mammoth provide full-service animation that includes script-writing, edits, narration, music, and more, whereas other companies only offer some of these services.
Skill Mammoth can be a great resource if you're looking to use animated explainer videos to help your business but need help figuring out where to start. Book a chat with me today, and we can discuss your needs.
Let's summarize: animated video explainers are an incredibly versatile tool for almost anyone, whether you're a video marketer looking to increase brand visibility, a business looking to improve your conversion rate, or a trainer or instructional designer in the corporate learning development space. They can be a powerful asset, from explaining complex topics simply and efficiently, reducing friction to picking up a new product for a customer, and speeding up the delivery of information for an employee. If you're looking to embrace visual storytelling to educate, communicate a message, or market a service or product, you'll benefit from the unique advantages that animated explainer videos provide.
So, what are your thoughts on animated explainer videos? Have you used them in your business? Please share your experiences and insights in the comments below!
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Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.