Smart marketers are aware that traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective, because consumers are shutting off the traditional marketing ‘junk’ that’s being thrown their way. They must ask themselves if online banners or buttons, TV and print ads are even relevant anymore, because people do everything they can to ignore them.
In the realm of content marketing, the primary goal is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating relevant and valuable content, with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. Unlike traditional advertising, it’s anything but a ‘one-trick pony’ sort of thing. It is a consistent, ongoing process that you can integrate into a winning marketing strategy.
You see, marketers and small business owners must adapt and learn how to master the art of communicating with their customers and prospects, without coming across as an overbearing, over-hyped salesperson. The approach is, instead of pitching your products or services, you are helping your customers to be more informed by providing them with information that they value. If you do this on an ongoing basis, they will ultimately reward your efforts with their business and loyalty.
When you’re trying to make an impact and get your message across, there are a number of ways to get noticed. But with loads of content available online, how do you stand out from the crowd? You want to be able to have a spiel that would be memorable and make a lasting impression.
This is where animated videos come in. Animated videos are fun, entertaining, and captivate their viewers to listen and watch out for your intended message.
Businesses nowadays aren’t only using animations for advertising, but for providing information, training and education.
But why animation? If you’ve ever had the experience of creating live videos, you’d be able to attest to the fact that there’s a lot of time, energy and possibly money that you can end up wasting- especially if you’re not careful. It can be a very complicated and frustrating process, since you have to think about and plan your location, props, who will be acting in the video and how they come across on camera, equipment, sets, and you even have to be mindful of the weather.
Animated videos give you much more freedom and flexibility, where you’ll have the ability to switch backgrounds, move characters and even add props- in just one click, drag-and-drop.
Here are 6 reasons why you should use animated videos for your business’ content marketing strategy:
It’s no secret that images appeal to the human brain a lot easier than words, and sets the platform for viewers to connect emotionally with your content. Do you remember your favorite cartoon as a child when you were growing up? That alone should demonstrate to you how captivating and memorable your animated videos would be to your audience.
If an online surfer had to choose between reading long, boring content and watching a creative and exciting guess which one they’d most likely choose. That’s right, if you ask your viewers to strain their eyes to read lines and lines of information that they’d forget before they even click the ‘close’ button on their browser, there’s a high change that they wouldn’t oblige. The truth is, on the internet, anything that’s considered boring or just takes too much effort to pay attention to, is usually left behind in the dust.
Perhaps you’ve hired a graphic designer to create a detailed infographic for your business. Sadly, infographic fatigue is a real and growing threat to your internet marketing efforts. Infographics are famous for having too much text or data, which tends to appear cluttered. Because of this, your prospects are likely to race through it, and probably miss a lot of the content that you want them to get. However, animated infographics can provide your viewers with a ‘guided tour’ through the content, and this gives you 2 benefits: (i) controlling the viewer’s pace through the content and (ii) the ability to use rich media, such as music and sound effects to highlight specific points.
When you don’t have a large budget to work with, it can be quite daunting to produce liveaction videos, since you typically need to source the right actors, find an appropriate location, and you would also be paying for equipment and video production costs, such as editing services. If you’re using animated videos, you never have to worry about not having a big budget because all you would need is a low monthly subscription from your favorite animation software provider.
There is a major challenge that marketers face when creating content, especially videos. Here’s the problem – if you upload a live action video, and you want to update it, it’s not so simple to re-shoot scenes or update very critical parts of your message, without taking several factors into account. On the other side of the playing field, animated videos are far easier to update. You can always go back and change text, edit animations or completely makeover your entire video, giving you greater control and flexibility.
Over time, as your business grows, you are going to need more engaging content to offer to your customers. Remember, content marketing is an ongoing process. It’s not like you get 100 new subscribers and call it day, because those new subscribers are going to be looking forward to new and further information from you. For example, you might need a video that gives an explanation about your product or service in full detail. Eventually, you’ll need supporting videos, since it’s better to share complex information in small, bite-sized chunks, so that you don’t overload or confuse your audience.
So there you have it, 6 reasons why you might want to incorporate animated videos into your content marketing strategy, especially if you are looking to build your audience and ultimately improve your sales margin. Have fun with them, because they’re wonderful tools that you can give you campaign a much needed boost.