Marketing and technology are converging at an incredible pace and with this, customer expectations are increasing. As customers today, we expect much more from the businesses we deal with in terms of customer service, the ability for them to make quick decisions and the pace at which they respond to our requests or requirements. In some respects, much of this can be summarised by accepting that customers today are simply more impatient than ever before. Today's customers value their time and lose respect for those that consume their more than they deem acceptable.
It's important that every business understands this.
How many times have you visited a website looking for a product or service provider and gave up due to the lack of clarity on what services or products they provide? Chances are this has happened at least once or twice in just the last month. Here are some of the reason's this happens:
What are animated videos?
Animated explainer videos are exactly what they say they are, which is video content that explains a service, product or concept using animation as oppose to real actors. There are 2 main types of animated explainer videos that we'd recommend for businesses:
Just to be clear, I wasn't previously a fan of businesses who chose to explain what they did using animated explainer videos. To be more specific, I actually hated most of those annoying white board videos, and was often more impressed and engaged with the artwork than the actual content being shared. That was until I decided to bite the bullet and create an animated explainer video that helped explain one of the services that my company offers, which in this case was providing Direct Booking Strategies for Hotels. I decided not to go for a whiteboard explainer video (no shocks there) but rather a carefully constructed video using motion graphics and storytelling.
In this case, the storytelling centred around identifying an industry-problem, explaining the reasons for this, how the problem can be solved and who we've worked with previously to offer similar services to. Here's the final video:
All of the content contained in the video above came from a long slide deck that I had created and had used in countless presentations when pitching to clients. The presentation often took over 40 minutes and while it was positively accepted by both prospects and clients, meant that scaling this was not possible, especially across boarders into wider geographies. The new video meant that I could share a link and within just 3 short minutes, a prospect would know whether they were interested in working with us to explore collaboration opportunities or not with either consequence being fully acceptable. For example, if a prospect was interested in discussing further - great, but if they decided against working with us, that saves both parties time, that would otherwise have been lost or wasted.
The results were fantastic and we found ourselves using this video not just to qualify sales prospects but also during our lead generation processes, at international trade shows and even embedded the video within our sales proposals.
So this got me thinking...
Where else would a similar video work? What other applications of the video would help drive efficiency within the business?
As a results focused business - we pride ourselves on generating tangible and measurable results for our clients - we often present complex case studies to clients. Again, the presentations are popular and very well received, but last upwards of 90 minutes per meeting. While this provides a good opportunity for prospects to understand what we do and the impact we can create, the ability to scale these specific services is limited and from a geographical perspective, almost impossible.
But with a video case study, the challenges can be overcome. We therefore proceeded and created a video case study for a UAE based education client:
As with the previous video, the time saved explaining what we do as a company and the results we can drive, was enormous. In less that 3 minutes, we would provide clear insights for a business and help them to qualify us as a potential partner to work with. In the same respect, it also allowed us to qualify prospects without having to invest a minimum of 90 minutes in a face to face meeting.
If like ours, your business provides complex products and services, a well-crafted, short 2 or 3 minute explainer video can often explain your offering better than any human. Here's an example video of Nexa's Account Based Marketing offering that would often take around 15 minutes to explain during a face to face meeting:
It's difficult to say, but if your business has any of the following criteria, then I would seriously consider using these to help your business grow:
Again, this is difficult to say and will depend on quality, the voice over artist employed (it's important to get a professional voice over artist rather than trying to insource this) and the length and complexity of the video required. That said, if you have a budget of a between $4,000 and $10,000, this might be one of the best marketing and sales investments that you will make this year.
The process required to create a animated explainer video is actually pretty straightforward:
Contact us for more information and insights. Simply complete the form on this page and we'll be in touch.
First Published on 20th May 2019. Updated on 20th January 2020 19:34:00