Bring Your Message to Life: The Art of Animated Explainer Videos

Bring Your Message to Life The Art of Animated Explainer Videos

An animated explainer video is a short, animated video that explains or promotes a product, service, organization, or idea. These videos use animation, motion graphics, and narrative voiceover to quickly and engagingly communicate key information and value propositions.

 

Explainer videos differ from live-action marketing videos because they use illustration, 2D animation, and motion graphics instead of filming real people on camera. The animated format allows creators to visually represent concepts, data, products, and services in a more flexible, stylized, and cost-effective way compared to live video.

 

Explainer videos are commonly used by technology companies, software as a service (SaaS) companies, and other digital products to demonstrate how their tools and platforms work. They are also utilized by nonprofits, medical companies, and financial service providers to efficiently communicate what they offer. The engaging animated format helps simplify and showcase complex services more interestingly.

 

So in summary, an animated explainer video production utilizes the creative medium of animation to clearly explain a business, product, or idea in an engaging, memorable, and efficient way compared to live-action marketing videos. They help brands connect with and educate their audience using the versatility of illustrated media.

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Benefits of Using Animated Videos

There is a holly-war on the topic of live action vs animation, so here are some of the key advantages of animation:

Increased Engagement and Attention

Animated videos are more likely to capture and hold viewers’ attention. The visual storytelling, characters, motion, and humor engage audiences in a way live video often cannot. Viewers are less likely to tune out or become distracted when watching a well-crafted animation.

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Simplifies Complex Topics

Animations are highly effective at turning complicated concepts into easy-to-understand stories. Complex services, products, or processes can be simplified and explained clearly through the use of characters, visual metaphors, and personalized narration.

More Memorable and Shareable

People remember information better when delivered visually and with an emotional component. Animated videos tap into this by using characters, humor, and compelling narratives that stick in the mind. This also makes them more likely to be shared via social media.

Cost-Effective

Professional animated videos can be produced for a fraction of the cost of hiring actors, shooting live video, and securing high-end production. Animations get straight to the point without expensive set-ups required for live-action. Their focus on core storytelling also makes them easier to localize and translate.

When to Use an Animated Explainer Video

Animated explainer videos can be highly effective marketing and communication tools in several key situations:

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Introducing a New Product or Service

One of the most common uses of animated videos is to explain and promote a new product, service, or feature. Videos allow you to demonstrate how your offering works and highlight the key benefits in an engaging, visual way. Viewers can better understand what you’re offering versus simple text or static images.

Demonstrating a Complex Process

Animated video is also ideal for showing a complicated process or system. Using video, you can break down each step, add motion and visuals, and simplify something that may be difficult to understand. This helps educate customers or employees on things like manufacturing systems, software workflows, etc.

Onboarding New Customers

Explainer videos make excellent onboarding tools for new customers or users of a product or service. They can concisely walk through how to get started, key features, and address common questions in an easy-to-follow format. Videos are more engaging than text-heavy instructions.

Promoting a Brand

Businesses can produce animated videos that focus on their brand story, culture, values, and mission. These are useful for brand awareness campaigns, PR, recruiting, and more. Animation allows brands to be more creative and compelling than a traditional corporate video.

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Matching Style to Brand

Check whether the agency provides follow-up support for the developed Shopify themes. Even the highest quality development may require revisions after the project is launched. The company should have technical support that will promptly correct possible errors and solve problems that arise.

Cost Differences

3D animation and intricate 2D character animations tend to cost the most. Simple motion graphics and whiteboard styles are more affordable. Look for a studio that offers options to suit your budget.

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Promoting Your Explainer Video

Once your animated video is complete, it’s time to get it in front of your target audience. Here are some of the best practices for promoting your new explainer video:

YouTube

YouTube should be your first stop for hosting and promoting your video. Upload the video to your brand’s YouTube channel, optimize it with a compelling title and description, add relevant tags, enable embedding, and add end screens to link to your website/other videos. Use YouTube Analytics to track views and engagement.

Social Media

Promote your video on all your social media channels by sharing the YouTube link. Create custom video posts for each platform – square videos for Instagram/Facebook, vertical for TikTok, etc. Write engaging captions that entice viewers to click. Consider promoting with ads to expand your reach.

Website

Embed the YouTube video on relevant pages of your website like the homepage, product pages, about us, etc. Ensure it’s easily visible above the fold. Make the video transcript available for SEO.

Email Marketing

Send a dedicated email campaign announcing your new video to your email list. Share some behind-the-scenes details of the production process to engage viewers.

Paid Ads

Run paid video ads on YouTube, social media, and Google Ads to get your video in front of new audiences. Test different thumbnail images, ad copy, and targeting to optimize results.

Gated Content

Offer to send the full video in exchange for an email address. Use a preview or trailer as gated content to build your email list. Offer additional related content to encourage signups.

 

The key is leveraging the video across all marketing channels and writing compelling supporting copy to pique interest. Test different headlines, images, captions, and CTAs to make your video impossible to ignore.

 

Track engagement analytics to double down on what resonates most with your audience.

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Conclusion

Once your animated explainer video is complete, you’ll want to track its performance to determine if it achieved your goals. Monitoring metrics over time can reveal how well your video is performing and if it’s reaching your target audience. Sudden spikes or drops in views may indicate external events driving traffic.

 

Surveys are a great way to measure your video’s impact on viewer knowledge, attitudes, or behaviors. You can survey people before/after watching the video to see if it increased their understanding of key concepts. Or ask viewers to self-report if they took a desired action after watching. 

 

Track brand mentions shares, likes, or comments about your video on social platforms. Increased social activity indicates you’ve created something worth spreading. Compare how well your video performs versus other marketing content.

 

By regularly measuring your animated explainer video’s impact through analytics, surveys, and other feedback, you can refine your video marketing approach over time.

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Animated Explainer Videos Everything you need to know

If you found this post useful you might like to read these post about Graphic Design Inspiration.

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