Donald Fomby
Animation marketing – slowly, it’s becoming the ultimate buzzword for marketers everywhere. Believe it or not, more than 70% of US companies regularly invest in their content marketing, as content marketing is one of the #1 growing assets of the tech world.
Content marketing is all about creativity, not how much money you invest. In most cases, people will focus on textual content, and try to boost their brand awareness in that way. They forget that words aren’t the only option – it’s about time they opened their eyes to the innovative world of animation.
Splitting from the mass of other businesses can be easy (keep in mind 70% of them are investing a lot of money into the animation marketing avenue), you just have to do your research on animation marketing!
If you are a complete newbie in the digital marketing world, you should start from the very beginning. Before anything else, you need to understand what exactly animations are – as they aren’t just a Disney or Pixar film…
So, without further ado, let’s delve in!
Animation Marketing: What Are Animations?
As previously mentioned, the purpose of content marketing is to find an entertaining and effective way to tell a story that your audience will remember. In other words, great content marketing helps to boost your brand identity and separate you from the other businesses working in the same industry.
Telling your brand’s story with only words is not easy. Animations, on the other hand, can tell a story through video and motion graphics – allowing you to connect with your target audience in an engaging way.
For instance, Toggle used animations to describe the benefits of the services they offer. Samsung, in turn, used animations to demonstrate the key features of their new product. For more inspiration, check out this article on some great animation marketing examples – tried and tested!
Basically, content marketing is making way for the new animation marketing – a multi-practical and multi-beneficial tool for all businesses.
Need more convincing? We’ve prepared a list of reasons why investing in this form of advertising will pay off in the end. Let’s find them out!
Animation Marketing is Entertaining…
It doesn’t matter which type of product you are offering or who your target audience is – animation is entertaining for all.
Also, it’s important to remember your customers have reached you because they are looking for a solution to a problem or concern they have. The question is – why would they spend their money on your products if the product description or the way how your product works are confusing?
…and Easy to Understand!
Animations are an excellent way to simplify the message you are sending. For instance, does everyone in the world understand what Microsoft is doing, with all their tech and gadgets? Probably not. But, they created a neat and all-encompassing explainer video, that ensures even a complete novice with digital media will understand!
Microsoft Privacy & Cloud Security from Yogi Parish / www.parish.ch on Vimeo.
Animation Marketing is Easily Shareable
Believe it or not, nearly 85% of marketers testify that video marketing boosts traffic to their websites. Animation marketing won’t only simplify the message you are sending to your target audience, but will also convince them to check out who you are and talk to others about you!
The good thing about videos is that they work fluently with social media – which is something everyone and their mother is using. If someone wanted to share your animations on their social media profile, or directly through a personal message, they’re effectively spreading third party awareness. A great PR stunt – and, you haven’t had to pay a dime!
Let’s face it, to boost your brand awareness, you need people to talk about you. It’s the other marketing strategies and quality of your products that will determine whether people purchase your goods or not. Your animations and videos will help you convince them to start the journey through your sales funnel. Isn’t that an excellent benefit?
You Won’t Blend In To The Noise
The fact that people see between 6000 and 10000 ads on average every day will probably scare you and motivate you to change your marketing strategy. This should probably be reason enough that you need to work on your uniqueness!
First, you should understand that the human attention span is not at the highest level (just like our reading habits). Believe it or not, an average viewer will skim-read only 28% of the words you publish on your advertising channels. Will that be enough to convince them to become your loyal customer? Well, maybe. It’s a risky strategy though, so you can decide whether it’s work the gamble…
On the other hand, if your motion graphics are eye-catching, fun, unique, and professional at the same time, there is a big chance that the people who catch them, will remember them. That means they will have you in mind next time they have a concern or problem that your product can solve.
You won’t be just “another brand” producing the same, boring content – you’ll be thought of as a company that has an eye for innovation and is one to watch.
Animation Marketing Is “Clickable”
Many kinds of research confirm animated content is more clickable than any other regular post.
One study explains that the average click-through rate of all video ads is nearly 2%, and although that doesn’t sound much, don’t let the numbers confuse you. It is actually the highest CTR rate of all digital ad formats.
It’s true – in order to succeed in the current climate, with it’s over-saturation of content, you need to stand out. Good news – animation marketing can do that for you!
Basic Text is Out, Animated Content is In
As previously mentioned, the reading habits of people are not at the highest level at all. Believe it or not, more than 40% of people don’t spend more than one hour reading a book. That means you need to be an extremely lucky and highly skilled content writer to grab people’s attention and keep it.
Animated marketing videos are easily digestible because they do not require a lot of energy and time from people. That’s not to say you should completely underestimate the importance of textual content. The combination of visual and textual content is the best way to improve your content marketing and make it unique, engaging, and entertaining.
Marketing Strategy with Animations Is a Cost-Effective Solution
Many entrepreneurs struggle to organize their budgets properly. However, not investing in the business isn’t an option. Instead of that, look for the most affordable way to boost your business performance.
Publishing a company video is an excellent option to attract more people and send a clear message.
According to Pricing Advids, the costs of a 60-second animated video (you won’t need a longer one) are estimated between 1000 and 5000 dollars. Of course, various factors influence the price such as the type of video production, style, and design, the requirements you have, etc.
So, before you decide to hire someone to create a nifty piece of animation marketing, note down your costs and figure out what type of ROI animation will be giving you.
Animation Marketing is an Excellent SEO “Booster”
Keywords, backlinks, and other SEO practices will help you reach the first page of Google. However, you should also understand that Google’s algorithm adores video content.
The reason why videos are great for SEO is simple – the algorithm also uses the time people spend on your website as a factor when improving or decreasing your position on Google. As mentioned, animated videos are the most affordable option, as you can add them to a blog post, about me page, or anywhere else on your site! They’re a great way of explaining to people everything you want in an entertaining fashion, and not to mention keeping them on your site…
Final Thought
To conclude, animation marketing is an affordable marketing tool that will boost your brand awareness, and make your marketing strategy much more effective.
Plenty of businesses are jumping on the back of animation marketing – whether it’s explainer videos, simple motion graphics on their pages or within their emails or newsletters. Whatever it may be, spend some time thinking about how you can include animation within your own marketing campaign. You won’t regret it.
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Stuart Logan
Wondershare
Michelle Payne
