Animation is proving to be an extremely powerful marketing tool, it is able to communicate with an online audience more effectively. Customers love visual content, visual content can be processed 60,000 times faster than text (source). Animation content grabs the attention of consumers in less than 1/10th of a second (source).
Customers want instant information, they want to receive their information in the quickest and best way possible, animated video can go a long way when trying to explain your product or service to your customers. As marketers you should be thinking about using video in your marketing strategy, especially animation as it captures attention quickly and can help keep customers engaged for longer.
Here are a few reasons as to why you should use animation for your business;
Animation is attention grabbing, this is important as audiences now have shorter attention spans. For businesses this means you only have 10 to 30 seconds to communicate your message before customers decide if they want to continue on your website or leave to find what you are selling elsewhere. Animation is a great way to grab and hold customers' attention as it is interesting to look at, the moving visuals will capture the eye of audiences keeping them on your website for longer.
As there are many styles of animation you have a choice of what you want to use, when deciding you want to be making sure you are standing out from your competitors. If your competitors are using live video, try making an animation as this will grab your customers attention quicker as it will be something they haven't seen before in your industry. This will be more effective and appeal to more customers as you are distancing yourself from the competition and giving your audience something new to look at.
Being able to capture your audience's attention is crucial as it can help boost your businesses search engine optimisation, this is because if you are offering eye capturing visuals that traffic audiences to the videos you are making increasing the amount of customers on website. Searches engines like google also naturally favour videos, this will create maximum traffic to your online site. Therefore making sure the video is attention grabbing will keep your audience on your platform for longer increasing the amount of people to your website.
When dealing with complex concepts, trying to explain them to audiences in text format is challenging. The audiences might not be able to connect with paragraphs of writing and will find it hard to engage with as it isn't as enjoyable. Animation is a great way to convey a complex concept in the form of a short story. Using storytelling will help communicate the key selling points to consumers which is important for better online success. It helps complex ideas become more digestible as the information is being broken down for audiences.
Animation will let you tell a short story quickly, it will help you pick out the most important parts that your customers need to know and sell it in an understandable way. It is able to transform the message you are giving your customer and make it easy to understand and help them visualise what you're selling in a better way. It is essential to get across your message as fast as possible. Animation is giving you the opportunity to explain your business story faster and more efficiently compared to how text and images would or even a live action video. What you can present in animation can be much easier to understand in a few seconds than in any other medium.
Audiences may struggle in connecting with text alone likewise with images as they are only static. This is where animation and video is important as it is able to connect with your audience through the use of dynamic movement of characters and elements, it keeps the audience engage enough that they will listen to what the video is telling them. This is extremely beneficial for businesses as more people will want to watch the content they are putting out there and they will be more drawn to the product or service you are providing to them.
Audiences want video, seeing video content on a website will encourage more customers to spend longer on your page and they will be more interested in finding out more about who you are. If you have an animated explainer video of the benefits of your product or service, customers will more than likely spend time watching the whole video then they would read that content. This will help you get your message across better and clearer as they will choose to watch what you're posting, then adding a call to action will help drive them to take further action on what you are selling.
Posting content that is relatable and fun will make consumers want to watch the video until the end. This will help you educate your customers on your business and sell to them in a way that doesn't make them feel as if they are being sold to. This is the best way to sell as customers don't want to feel pushed to make a purchase, they want to find out more on what they are being sold then buy it from their own decision. Call to actions at the end of videos will help customers remember the reason as to why they are on your website and then they can make their purchasing decisions from this.
As animation is typically associated with cartoons and movies for children, this will grab the attention of audiences as they will see it and be reminded of their childhood. This will help businesses hold onto customers' attention as they are bringing back memories that customers will have positive memories of. Then due to the creation of your animation customers will continue watching as they will enjoy seeing your product or service video unfold.
Animation is full of endless possibilities, the content doesn't have to be realistic or accurate. You are able to use your own imagination and create whatever you want. This will help you present your business in a simple but fun way as it will keep engagement and will have a higher impact on your customers. Animation is a great way to show off a brand's personality as you are able to create what you want and show off your brand through these elements. Businesses are able to make things happen in animation that can happen in live video, you are able to make static elements of your businesses message come to life with animation. Customers are more likely to pay attention to animation ads and video over the traditional ads as it is different, audiences like to see something different from brands.
The mixture of graphics, voice over and text will help stimulate different areas of the brain, it helps engage the viewers in the process and help them understand the information more effectively. Animation can help build a stronger connection between the audience and the business due to the deeper engagement that is possible with the use of animation. When audiences experience something memorable they will instantly be more engaged as they are bringing back memories from the past which will give the business a competitive edge over competition due to capturing their feelings.
Viewers retain 58% more information than they do when just viewing images with text (source). The right hand size of the brain enjoys viewing animation, it easily ignites feelings and emotions, the left hand turns your thoughts into images, this allows animation to communicate to left brain thinkers in a way words won't be able to. This means that animation is able to communicate with both right and left side of the brain thinkers as the visuals connect with the audiences on a more personal level.
Different styles of animation can change the perception of the brand and make audiences remember the brand. Businesses are able to give further insights into their purpose, values and intentions through the use of animation. You are able to advertise your brand in a more creative form. Animation will always be remembered as it is able to tell a story and use the emotions in the story to evoke emotion in the audience. This will help leave a lasting impression as audiences will remember the feeling you have given them and feel more of a connection with your brand, it will change their perception of your brand making audiences more interested in what you do
Animation can be a powerful marketing tool, it helps connect with customers and make them remember you and your brand. It can help engage a brand new audience and help drive conversions. Animation is a great medium to use when wanting to keep your content fresh and entertaining, if you have more complex products or services that need explaining it will appeal to your audience more as it will look more interesting and fun to engage with.
Animation is limitless, you are able to try and do anything. Building connections with your customers is the most important thing and animation is able to build more of a personality around your brand and help audiences understand what you can offer them.
If you're thinking of creating animation for your brand, chat to one of the team to see how we can help
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