5 Reasons for Using Animation in Your Content Plans

Most people see animation as something that belongs to TV, films or YouTube. But many are not utilising and leveraging this powerful medium to spice up their content marketing campaigns.

Developing a quick, straight- to- the- point production is effective in informing current customers, converting prospects, and helping to brand your company. If you’re debating whether to add animated video to your arsenal of marketing tools, here are five good reasons to get started right away:

Visual

Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, and on average users only read about 28% of words per visit. Furthermore. 90% of information that is transmitted to the brain Is visual, so using animation is a powerful medium to get your message across and leaving a lasting impression on your audience.

If you are selling something intangible such as a service, this can be difficult to describe. Animation allows you to show people the benefits, not just tell them. It enables you to explain your offering in a concise and clear way and can turn the most complex of processes into easily consumed information.

If executed well, it can showcase the flair of your business and enables the audience to connect with your brand as it’s brought to life through elements such as the use of colours, style of graphics, choice of music and voice-over.

Engaging

The biggest challenge in content marketing is to engage the target audience. With tens of millions of content pieces being shared every day, it’s no surprise that our average attention span is only 8 seconds. To get your prospects’ attention you need to take it to the next level.

We can get the sense of a visual scene in less than 1/10 of a second, so visually stimulating motion graphics tend to be more effective when it comes to getting someone’s attention. So when it comes to telling a story, you want to create a video that your audience can relate too. Powerful stories should convey your message and help grab your audience’s attention

Improves SEO

Animation is most effective when it’s part of a well thought out campaign which can be utilised across media platforms such as websites, social media, email marketing, sales meetings and mobile apps. Through these types of media, animation has the ability to boost conversion rates.

• Videos in search results have over 40% higher click- through rate than plain text.
• Videos on landing pages’ increases conversion by 70%.
• Viewers spend 100% more time on web pages with videos.
• Videos are shared 12,000 times more than links and texts posts on social media.

One main reason for this is because animation videos are easy to digest, entertaining and very targeted. Keeping your target customer in mind, you have the ability to create a video that is custom to their particular needs and desires. This includes everything from the way that they talk to the issues that drive them to watch your video in the first place. Your conversion rates can skyrocket with a highly targeted video.

Furthermore, using keyword tagging effectively on YouTube will provide a number of entries when people search for content, and with YouTube officially listed as the second largest search engine in the world, it’s clear how this is so effective. Keep in mind that having a company YouTube channel is important, but you can also see this boost in SEO by optimising the landing page on your business website.

Memorable

There’s something about moving images that appeal to the human brain, and this naturally extends to animated video. Animation is great because it appeals to both sides of the brain. The side that evokes emotion and the side that turns these emotions into images. Because animations are so captivating, they make a long lasting impressions and are therefore visually stored in long- term memories.

Uploading these animations to your website also allows prospects to view them day or night. When a production is posted to your website or social channel, it has the potential to attract customers 24/7, which surpasses any traditional form of marketing.

Flexibility

Alfred Hitchcock one said “Disney has the best casting. If he doesn’t like the actor, he just tears them up”. This is incredibly true; animations are not only cost effective, but they have no physical boundaries, meaning you are able to shoot scenes that no camera could ever capture, meaning you can create whatever you like. If you don’t like it, you can go back and change text, edit, or even do a complete overhaul of your entire video.