Animated videos are a great way to draw in more customers to your business. With its attractive and simple format, we can easily explain even complex processes. They are highly engaging and cost-effective as well. Read along to see why you need these animated videos for business and how you can create one yourself.
Reasons to have animated videos for your business
Since the entire world is online right now and the sheer volume of content consumption has grown exponentially, it is important to adapt to the times. With the rise in video content because of social media, people are further encouraged to watch videos than read about the products/services you offer. So put the same in a video format and the number of viewers increase vastly. Now how can you explain your services in a video format without making it sound too boring? That’s where animated videos come into play.
Important Uses of Animated Videos
With animated videos, you can present abstract ideas in a visually pleasing manner. This vibrant medium can attract new customers and engage the visitors to stay longer on your website. The longer they stay in your site, the more likely they are to avail your services and hence there is an increase in the conversion rates. According to a study, people are more likely to buy products or services when they see them in action in a video rather than in static images. It is also useful in reducing the bounce rate, which helps your content to rank higher in the search engines and makes your site more visible. With all these perks, you must be wondering how you can get your business to have animated videos as well. Follow along for the step-by-step procedure to make an animated video for your business.
Points to consider while making your animated video
First, make sure your product or service acts as a tool to solve a problem
A product that is mundane cannot persuade anyone to buy it, regardless of how appealing it might look. No matter how much it is marketed, if it is not solving an essential problem, then it will not be successful. So position your product in such a way that it acts as a tool to solve a particular problem.
Second, content marketing should be targeted towards building trust
Whatever you publish should be factually correct and well researched in order to build the trust with your viewers. Using animated videos to provide interesting and educational content can help the viewers to start trusting your brand. And when the time comes, your offers will be more readily accepted by them because of their sense of trust in your brand.
A guide to create your animated video
Step 1: Create a script for your video
A scriptwriter decides what needs to be present in the video. For scriptwriting your video, you need to determine the purpose of the video and in what direction you wish to take it towards.
To determine this, you can start by answering the following questions:
- Why are you making this video?
- Who are you making it for? Who is your target audience?
- What do you expect to achieve by the end of this video?
- What is the core message of this video?
- What sort of action should your audience take after watching this video?
To make sure your audience understands your core message in a simple and effective way, try to incorporate the message into a story. Storytelling is a powerful way to captivate your audience.
For the story, you can begin with a hook that creates curiosity and attracts the audience to stay and watch the video further. This needs to be done around the first few seconds into the video. Then comes the main part of the video, where you propose a solution or an explanation to the hook you introduced earlier. Since this is the important portion of the video, make sure it does justice to the buildup that was created. This directly influences the audiences’ decision in the following step. If the viewers were invested in the first two parts of the video, then this would automatically lead them to the final call to action.
Step 2: Storyboarding
As daunting as storyboarding sounds, it’s pretty simple. It is basically like creating a comic strip, but for a video. The storyboarding part helps stakeholders envision what the video will look like and in which direction it is proceeding towards before the video has been made. It allows for any changes in the script or the visuals before beginning the video production. It is sort of like doodling down your ideas and getting a confirmation before the big production.
What the final product will look like is completely based on the storyboard you have created. Storyboards include dialogue and ideas for the visuals, like close up shots or angular shots. It is a crucial process which helps structure the video in a meaningful way.
Storyboards can be created simply by using pen and paper, or you can choose storyboarding tools that are available online.
Step 3: Choose the style of animation you want
There are a variety of animation styles that are available, but it is important for you to choose a style that goes well with the theme of your video. There are styles that can be colourful and entertaining, while others can provide a serious tone. We have listed some styles below for you.
Whiteboard animation – This is a type of animation where the characters and products are illustrated on a whiteboard as the script progresses.
2D animation – This is the most commonly used animation style where consecutive drawings are sequenced together to create motion. In a way, it is like traditional animation.
Infographic animation – This style helps visualise data using images, charts and minimal texts.
Typography animation – This style involves text and its motion to express ideas.
Handcraft animation – This type of animation involves a hand which moves the objects around the scene. The movement causes the audience to be attentive towards the animation. Now that you are aware of the different styles, choose the style that you best think suits your vision and ensure that the style complements the information you are sharing.
Step 4: Animate the video
There are many options to do this step. You can either hire an in-house team, outsource it to a design company, or DIY it.
While an in-house team can be useful if you plan on making a series of animation videos, it can still be expensive. Hiring animators, narrators, scriptwriters and also providing them with the right equipment and licensing software could be a money-draining feat, unless you have a high budget.
Outsourcing it to a design company will be useful if this a one-time project. The quality of the video in this case depends on choosing the right animation company and clearly communicating your ideas. Design agencies like PitchWorx are experienced with years of animation video production. All you have to do is communicate your vision clearly and we will make sure you have a stellar animation video. Finally, you can always try your hand at animation by DIY-ing it.
Step 5: Add a suitable BGM
Music plays an important role in videos. Without the background music, the entire video will be bland. Choosing the right music that complements the video can evoke certain emotions in the audience. And this is an important factor which helps the viewers to remember and associate with your brand. Remember to use royalty-free music to avoid getting sued!
Step 6: Narrate
Instead of your video being crammed with loads of texts, you can use narration to convey your message in a powerful way. For this, you can either hire a voiceover artist or do the recording yourself.
Conclusion
I hope this blog was useful in understanding the benefits of animated video for business and an overview of how an animated video is made. If you would like an animated video to be made for your business with no hassle then, contact Pitchworx for more information.
