Video is no longer just video. It’s video with animation. Businesses, charities, and individuals are all looking to video as an affordable way to get their message out there in the world.
But video with animation is more than video; it’s imagery combined with motion which makes for an effective promotional video. Most of us think of animation as cartoon characters, but animation can include video and video editing.
Animation video has a high production value, is memorable, grabs attention, and speaks to people in a way that traditional video can’t.
Whether you’re looking to market yourself or your product, animation video makes the impact that video with just video cannot.
Animated video is a great asset to have in your marketing strategy, not only for businesses but also for educational institutions or even families. It’s a powerful promotional video tactic that wins over viewers’ hearts and minds more often than not.
Without further ado, here are 8 tips for animating your promotional video:
1) Keep it simple
We know you want to go all out with animation: it’s flashy, attention-grabbing, and really fun to add to any video. But, more bells and whistles aren’t always the best practice. Sometimes you have to live by the rules of K.I.S.S.: Keep it simple, s…. well, we don’t think anyone is “stupid”, but we didn’t create the acronym.
Keeping things simple is the best course of action for video animation. You should keep your video short and to the point, with only the main message that you want potential customers to see. If there are any minor parts that you would like video viewers to understand, simply add an annotation (a separate video positioned next to, over, or below video) explaining the video topic.
Simplicity is key when bringing animation into your marketing efforts.
It’s also best to keep videos under two minutes long. Too long and you lose viewers out of time constraints and lack of engaging content. Keeping video clips short is important to video success. Since video viewers have very little time in terms of attention span, keeping your video under two minutes is a must.
2) Keep it short
With video growing in popularity, video producers are constantly making their videos longer to accommodate all that they want to say or show. This is not necessary, however, or even really recommended. People have very short attention spans when it comes to video, especially online video sharing video, so make your video short and to the point. Come up with a video topic and video viewers will be satisfied. If there are any minor parts that you would like video viewers to understand, simply add an annotation (a separate video positioned next to, over, or below video) explaining the video topic.
Besides, breaking up longer videos into shorter clips that can be posted as a series can be more beneficial to your marketing strategy! It will engage more people over time as you post the content at different times as well as make your content more sharable.
3) Keep it beautiful
A video containing animation can’t be as effective as video without animation if the video is not aesthetically pleasing. You may have a video with a good message, but video viewers’ attention span will stray from the video if you do not make your video look nice.
Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and can be interpreted in many different ways. When it comes to animation, it could mean anything from a smooth transition to artfully designed characters.
Attractive animation is video animation that is aesthetically pleasing and video viewers will appreciate looking at it. They’ll want to share the video with other potential customers, whereas videos that aren’t nice to look at won’t be shared. Many people share videos to their social media only if it fits in their aesthetic, too. So, making sure that it’s pleasing to look at, but can fit into many aesthetics can be extremely beneficial. But don’t let your brand’s personality suffer in order to fit in.
If you need help with video animation, hiring an animator or video graphics designer can help bring your vision to life for video purposes. Many video production firms, like C&I Studios offer animation along with their other production services. If you’re looking for animation with a firm like C&I Studios, it’s important to make sure you’re on the same page of what you consider to be attractive animation.
4) Keep it entertaining
Along with making sure your animation is attractive, you want to make sure it’s actually entertaining.
Let’s face it, people want to be entertained when companies are trying to get them to spend money with them. People are more likely to remember things that keep them interested rather than dry video topics. You want people to watch your video because it’s awesome, not just because you have a great message. Though a great message certainly plays a part in the entertainment aspect of the video, it’s not enough.
An entertaining video evokes emotion. Animation can certainly play a role in entertainment value. It can easily grab the eyes and viewers’ attention. But video animation is not the only way video producers can successfully create a video that video viewers will want to keep watching, even if video production companies couldn’t afford a more involved animation style.
You don’t have to be an animator or video graphic designer yourself in order to make your video entertaining! Using some simple video editing techniques to make video transitions, insert video clips, and video graphics can also help your video feel more complete. For example, adding video animation into the more dry parts of the video can be beneficial to keep viewers interested in your video.
5) Keep it consistent
Consistency is the key to video animation. This means that video viewers should be able to recognize what video graphics and video voiceover parts mean during your video. You should keep video edits, video effects, video time, video size, video color scheme, video font style, and video font size consistent throughout the video. This type of consistency allows viewers to be more focused on your video message instead of individual components.
For example, if you’re going to have a cartoon character pop up every other scene, then keep that same cartoon character showing up throughout the video. If your video contains video animation, video graphics, video voiceover, and video text, then keep them all consistent to maintain video continuity through your video. You don’t want too many voices speaking at your audience or too many graphics flying across the screen, it can be incredibly overwhelming and noisy to most viewers.
This tip goes along with keeping things simple. You don’t want too many different parts coming in and taking over; that’s how you lose viewer interest and get confused customers.
6) Keep it relevant
Relevancy is extremely important when animating a promotional video. You want people to remember the message that you are trying to get across during video animation. If video viewers are distracted by video graphics, video voiceover, or video text that is not relevant to your video message then they will not pay attention nor care what you’re trying to say.
You should keep video edits, video effects, video time, video size, video color scheme, video font style, and video font size relevant to video animation, video graphics, video voiceover, and video text. Keeping everything relevant allows video viewers to focus on your video message because all of the components that make up your video are related.
Your animation should also be relevant to current social commentary and issues, too.
Making sure you’re not using images that could be considered taboo or offensive to not only your target audience but to anyone who might view your video is important when trying to market your company. Offending your potential customers is not something you want to do. You don’t need to be political in your marketing by any means, but you should make yourself and your marketing sector aware of any changes in what is appropriate to include and what you should absolutely be excluding.
7) Keep in mind your company’s personality
Even though video animation is a great way to market your product or service, if the video doesn’t feel authentic it will backfire on you.
You want video viewers to associate video animation with your company, so video producers should take the time to put video animation in their video that properly represents their company.
Your company’s personality is found within your brand as well as your company culture. If your video company is known for being colorful, make sure you add video animation that represents your company’s personality by having fun and showing off the character of your video. If your video animation is bland and not true to how your company actually interacts with its clients and customers, you’ll find that past customers will not return and you won’t be engaging with your targeted audience.
You should get video feedback from your team on top of your video customers to get a great idea of what video animation should include. Make sure to ask them if the marketing feels authentic to your brand.
8) Keep video viewers engaged
Using animation is one way to keep your audience engaged, but only if it’s really done right. And creating the right kind of animation depends upon your target audience, your brand, and what you’re selling.
Children will be more engaged by silly cartoon characters that are convincing them that they want a certain toy or game, while an adult may not find them appealing when they’re deciding to make a purchase for themselves. Adults might appreciate specific animated texts or graphics that give information. Charts and graphs can really sell something to an audience with an analytical mindset!
Video animation can also turn off your video viewers if it is not done right. While we’ve already talked about making sure they’re aesthetically pleasing, you should also consider how active it is and how a viewer might react to its presence. If your video looks too flashy or if video graphics are popping up everywhere, then video viewers will not know what to watch and where they should be focused.
If video viewers are not paying attention to your video or don’t understand what video animation is trying to get across, they will leave the viewing process and find a video that better suits their needs. You want video viewers to enjoy watching your promotional video animation so keep them entertained and interested!
We know animation can be a difficult area to get into when it comes to video marketing, but it can really boost your marketing game and therefore boost your sales. That’s what C&I Studios is here for!
C&I Studios specializes in professional video production of all kinds.
Need video animation? We’ve got video animation.
Want video graphics, video editing, video voiceover, video text?
We can do all of those things at C&I Studios!
You can peruse our portfolio here and see what we’ve provided many other brands with. You might even find something that you never thought about pursuing with your marketing strategy! Let’s get the ideas rolling!
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