Back in 2010, Dropbox, a storage service provider, tried a new kind of marketing campaign. They made a 120-second video that explained their service and removed all the content from their website’s homepage, leaving only the video. The result was amazing as within a month the video on the blank homepage got 750,000 views and increased the company’s user sign-up by 10%. This helped the company to make around $48 million because more than 10 million users joined the platform.
Many companies use animated explainer videos in their marketing strategies because it’s a cheap and effective way to promote a product or service, and it provides a great return on investment. Even though written content and regular videos are important for marketing, animated explainer videos are better at delivering product messages which leads to more conversions. But why are explainer videos such a key element in a marketing strategy?
The short answer is – explainer animated videos provide a visually engaging way to explain complex ideas that can make an audience easily understand the key information and benefits, so businesses can target specific audiences and improve conversion rates by demonstrating the value of a product or service in a compelling way.
Importance Of Animated Explainer Video In Marketing Strategy
Animated explainer videos are a valuable addition to any marketing strategy as they provide a visually engaging and effective way to communicate a brand’s message. They are particularly useful for businesses in technical or niche industries, where traditional marketing methods may not be as effective.
One of the main benefits of animated explainer videos is their ability to increase audience engagement and conversion rates. By presenting complex concepts in an easily digestible way, animated explainer videos make it easier for audiences to understand and remember a brand’s message. This results in a higher likelihood of audience engagement and conversion.
Animated explainer videos are also versatile and scalable, meaning they can be used across different platforms and in various stages of the customer journey. For example, they can be used on a website to introduce new products or services, on social media to educate audiences about a brand, or in an email marketing campaign to promote a sale. Additionally, animated explainer videos can be used to create an emotional connection with audiences. By using animation and visual elements to tell a story, animated explainer videos can elicit an emotional response from audiences, which is crucial for building brand loyalty.
For example, the charity organization “WaterAid” used an animated explainer video to tell the story of young girls leaving educational institutions in a community without access to clean water. The emotional and powerful video helped to raise awareness about the importance of access to clean water and the charity’s mission, resulting in an increase in donations and support.
Why Businesses Need Animated Explainer Videos
Can you still market products or services without animated explainer videos? Yes, it’s possible. But if your competitors are using them to build a better communication channel with customers and boost sales, why not use them too? Let’s see why animated explainer videos can help grow your business.
Customers Look For Explainer Videos
Customers look for animated explainer videos to understand products or services for several reasons, such as providing a visual representation of how a product or service works, simplifying complex concepts, being an efficient way to learn about a product or service, creating engagement, building emotional connections and being easily accessible on various platforms. With the help of animation and visual elements, these videos can make it easier for customers to understand and remember a product or service, break down information into easily digestible chunks, and even make customers more likely to make a purchase.
According to the 2022 GWI GenZ report, 46% of Gen Zers use TikTok to discover new products and brands, and 69% rely on Instagram. This means that, as a marketer, you should keep in mind that creating explainer videos for your company and posting them on social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, can be a logical step in reaching this demographic.
Delivers The Message Properly
Animated explainer videos can be an effective way to tell and paint your story. Using animation and visual elements, these videos can convey complex ideas and information in a simple and engaging way. They can also create an emotional connection with your audience by using animation to tell a story. By using a combination of text, voice-over, and music, these videos can help your brand stand out and convey your message in an effective and memorable way. Animated explainer videos can be a great way to showcase the unique features of your product or service and help customers understand how it can benefit them. Additionally, it’s more engaging than a simple text or image, people tend to remember more from a video than from a simple text or image. A great example of how an animated explainer video can tell and paint a story is Dropbox’s explainer video that we talked about earlier. The video uses simple animation and a clear narrative to explain the problem of not being able to access files from multiple devices and then shows how Dropbox’s service solves that problem. The video also uses humor and relatable scenarios to make the video more engaging and memorable. By the end of the video, viewers have a clear understanding of what Dropbox does and how it can benefit them. As a result, it was a great success in attracting new customers to Dropbox.
Increases Conversion Rate
Animated explainer videos can be an effective tool in increasing conversion rates. By providing a visual representation of a product or service, and simplifying complex information, animated explainer videos can make it easier for customers to understand and remember a product or service, which can lead to an increase in conversions. Additionally, these videos can create an emotional connection with customers, making them more likely to make a purchase. Moreover, animated explainer videos can also help to increase website traffic and improve SEO. Since they are more engaging than text-based descriptions, they can keep viewers on a website for longer periods of time, which can, in turn, increase the chances of conversion. Also, animated videos can be shared on social media platforms and other websites, which can drive more traffic to a business’ website.
Research conducted by Dr. Richard Wiseman has shown that animated videos, particularly whiteboard animations, can help learners retain knowledge by up to 15% more than traditional videos. Additionally, animated videos are able to clearly and simply explain the benefits and features of a product or service in a way that is easy for viewers to understand and relate to. This leads to a better overall experience for the viewer and a higher likelihood of making a purchase. In fact, Hubspot’s research shows that explainer videos account for 74% of the videos that companies are currently creating for their business because such videos can convert 20% more visitors into customers than text alone.
Improves SEO
Animated explainer videos are a powerful tool for effectively conveying information. They offer more flexibility in providing context, telling a story, and offering examples that viewers can easily relate to. As a result, viewers tend to spend more time watching videos on a website than reading long-form text. For example, animated explainer videos on Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) website are very resourceful, as someone can easily understand what services ADB offers and how those services are helping underprivileged communities.
Furthermore, the increased engagement with video content on a website improves metrics such as click-through rate and session duration, which are strong indicators of the quality and value of the content. These metrics are also important factors that Google considers when ranking websites on its search engine results page (SERP). Given these benefits, it is no surprise that Google prioritizes video content on the SERP as it provides a better user experience. Pages with video content are more likely to rank well on the SERP than those without. In fact, video content is 50 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google than plain text.
Brands That Use Animated Explainer Videos
Animated explainer videos have helped many businesses boost their growth and conversions. Some notable examples include MailChimp, Salesforce, Trello, and Grammarly. MailChimp used an animated explainer video to communicate the benefits of its email marketing service. Salesforce used an animated explainer video to explain the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) and how its software could help businesses manage their customer interactions. Trello used an animated explainer video to explain the concept of project management and how its software could help teams collaborate and stay organized. Grammarly used an animated explainer video to explain the concept of its writing enhancement software and how it could help users improve their writing skills. All these videos were effective in communicating the value of the service and helped to increase conversions by providing potential customers with a clear understanding of how the service could help them.
Right now, big companies like Microsoft, Sony, Apple, etc., are using animation videos to promote their products, launch new things, and present what their company is all about. Even when companies like Google or Apple launch new products, they use a lot of animation videos for those events. Also, recently, animated explainer videos have become very popular on social media sites where people watch videos, like YouTube. There are channels with millions of views per video, like The Infographic Show and Kronos. Considering animated explainer videos are becoming more popular, it suggests that a business might fall behind if they don’t include it in their marketing plan.
