Since the start of COVID-19, many learning and development initiatives have been forced to pivot from frontal facilitation to the virtual classroom. Consequently, online tools and technology have never been more important for video learning to keep learners engaged and ultimately have them succeed from afar.

But with the slow shift of companies going back to the office, L&D professionals are tasked yet again to adjust to this new normal, where they can’t guarantee if they will teach learners face-to-face, remotely, or even a hybrid of the two. 

That’s where visual learning through video is key, to help learners retain and apply their learning to work, no matter where they are. We’re already seeing a flowering in the many and various ways that people use video for learning during these unprecedented times. Today’s video learning is not one thing, but many. This glorious profusion includes:

• 1st person user-generated video sharing
• Explainers (both standalone and as an intro to a longer course)
• Video lectures
• Virtual classrooms
• Interactive videos
• AI-driven, chunked videos
• Online briefings and events

The bad news? Not all of it works. Warnings from instructional design experts suggest that significant amounts of the video learning being produced will never result in anyone learning anything, because of one big mistake that people consistently make.

Not All Video Learning Is Created Equal

Does this matter? In some circumstances, no. Sometimes video is just there to alert people to a new corporate policy change, for instance, or walk them through a procedure they might not need to do very often, so don’t need to commit to memory. But where deep learning is required, meaning a real change in knowledge and skills, learning really needs to work. And large amounts of training budget are in danger of being completely wasted if it doesn’t.

Before we dive into that big potential negative, however, let’s err on the side of positivity. Here are four tips for making your video learning relevant and impactful in a post-COVID-19 world. If you follow these you’re far more likely to use video effectively, avoid the one big trap, and make a return on your learning budget in improved performance.

Video Learning Tips

1. Keep It Short

Research shows that attention drops off drastically after six minutes while watching video. So if you have something that needs more than six minutes to get across, then chunk it into digestible sections.

There is no scientific basis for the claim, too often repeated, that our attention spans are now smaller than those of goldfish. However the limits of the human attention span definitely rule our world. 

For proof, just look at the entertainment industry.

Have you ever wondered why pop singles are all 3 minutes long? It’s to do with attention spans. Wherever you look, in music, films, TV, you see rules of thumb about timings driven by human attention spans and human psychology. Movies have a 5-act structure. A 100-minute film will break down into five parts of 20 minutes each. 

Timing. The secret of everything is in the timing. Creative artists have this whole set of tacit heuristics you probably don’t know about – though you watch and listen to their stuff every day.  

It’s psychology. It’s science. But we call it art. Learn about it. Watch what they’re up to. Learn and apply to your video learning.

2. Make It Accessible

This word accessible has two meanings. Both are important for us.

The first meaning, which we use in everyday life, is to make it easily available. Make your learning videos and visual teaching materials easy to find and get to. Two clicks and 10 seconds is the commonly used rule. This is especially true if you’re keeping things brief (see tip one). Nobody will spend 12 minutes searching for a six-minute video.

The second meaning of accessibility is the more specialized one, used in professional contexts. Making your learning video accessible means it has to be inclusive and culturally relevant. This isn’t a box-tick. It’s about productivity. Disabilities can run as high as 20% in some populations: do you want to tell one in five people, ‘this isn’t for you’? Provide subtitles to help the hearing impaired, transcripts to help screen readers. And with accompanying lists of topics tied to timecodes (a common practice in podcast show notes) learners can go to the precise part of a video that they need, a common benefit for everyone.

There are further benefits to taking accessibility seriously. When you make things better for people with disabilities, they also get more usable for people without disabilities. And also for machines. A video with a transcript attached (and decent metadata) become searchable by an AI. Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to serve and sequence chunked video learning, and we expect to see more of this in the future.

Similarly, make sure your casting is culturally relevant and inclusive. In an age of mass personalization it simply doesn’t send the right message if your learning video seems to assume that everyone in business is male, white, anglophone, and middle-aged.

3. Consider Your POV  

Point of view is absolutely fundamental to storytelling. It’s the biggest single decision a writer makes about her story. 

Question: Which classic novel begins this way? ‘They called him Ishmael.’

Answer: No classic novel. Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick (famously) begins with the words, ‘Call me Ishmael.’ Can you feel the difference between those two points of view?

The one we know is present tense, first person – the narrator talking directly to you. It’s a little like one of those first-person videos we see so many of nowadays in learning. This is me, this is my story, this is my truth. It’s uniquely compelling. But it’s not the only way to tell a story. 

If you’re watching The Crown on Netflix, nobody looks in the camera and talks to you. We get that this story is from the Queen’s point of view, but she never turns and breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the camera (she’s the Queen: not Deadpool).

We watch the action over her shoulder. And yet it’s no less immersive, no less engaging.

Point of view is everything. 

So think hard about creating a point of view in your learning video. Will you take the POV of an expert talking directly to camera – or put the learner in the driving seat, as you follow their journey? Or then again, do you want the viewer to feel included, as part of a group? All key decisions. 

4. We’re Winning Hearts and Minds, Not Oscars

This one’s about production value, as in – how slick does it really have to look? 

YouTube has drastically lowered expectations of production value.

If you want to know, say, how to change a bicycle tire quickly without putting your back out and breaking a couple of fingernails, then you won’t mind if the presenter of the video has a few annoying vocal tics and doesn’t exactly look like George Clooney, and the sound’s slightly distorted and it’s a bit scratchy and looks like he filmed it on his phone…  If it helps people do a necessary thing they need to do quickly and easily, then this lo-fi video might end up getting a million clicks on YouTube.  

What this is really about is the context of use. Movie production values are geared to a wall-filling screen watched in a darkened room with surround sound. But if you’re making a video to be watched by a strap-hanging commuter on a phone, doing a last-minute piece of learning on negotiation skills while on her way to a sales meeting, it frankly doesn’t have to be that posh.   

Video is so easy and cheap to produce nowadays. While in the past we might have written someone a note or drawn them a diagram, we can now dash off a video. It’s a way of communicating thoughts quickly: a sort of digital notepad. Some L&D people are using it as a tactical tool in learning, to address queries or uncertainties that employees are airing on a Yammer feed, for example.

It’s a whole different world. Video becomes a fast, responsive, part-automated, impactful, and uniquely flexible medium for learning. Using customizable L&D video templates in platforms like Powtoon, you can easily make videos in minutes that address a knowledge gap, and adjust it for various modules or as new information comes to light. Use video to invite learners to a session and explain why the information is key to their growth and success. It can (and should!) be used in your courses as well to break down complex ideas, whether presenting in-person or to remote employees. That way, everyone is working and learning off the same materials they can refer to later when needed. 

The one Big Mistake in Video Learning Too Many People Make

Where many people go wrong, and will continue to slip up as we transition back to a new normal, is in failing to appreciate that video does not do absolutely everything in training well, as respected learning guru Donald Clark points out in this blog post. For emotion, impact, and engagement, yes. For showing a process or a procedure, awesome. Using these types of videos to support your most important points and processes (especially when people need to retain detailed factual information) is the best way to leverage the power of video learning. One video can’t do it all. 

Smart learning people know video’s strengths as a learning medium, but also its weaknesses. They use it appropriately, and often in combination with other media and training modalities, to produce valuable, deep, and lasting learning experiences.

Returning to Work Post-COVID — Video Learning Resources

Much as our sudden shift to remote work, the post-COVID return to the office is uncharted territory. This is perhaps even more true for the field of learning and development. It is essential to all learning professionals to be able to access helpful and valuable resources. Be sure to visit Powtoon’s Back to Work Toolkit for more tips, video templates, inspiration, and more. 

Check out how smart L&D people are using Powtoon to get back to work after Covid-19 

About the Author — John Helmer, FLPI

John is a writer, senior marketing consultant, learning technologies expert, and host of the Learning Hack podcast.

The post 4 Tips for Video Learning After COVID-19 – and 1 Huge Mistake to Avoid appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Digital advertising technology has significantly advanced in recent years, enabling marketers to create, test, and optimize hundreds of personalized ads faster and easier than ever before. With many tools available today — from Google Dynamic Search Ads and Facebook Automated Ads, to email automation software and retargeting features — marketers can easily segment their audiences and deliver the best ads to the right people.

Even with all of these advertising options available across a wide variety of ad platforms, over 96% of paid ad clicks and more than 99% of display ad clicks still don’t convert.

This is a huge waste of budget in the multi-billion dollar digital advertising industry, and the main reason is that the post-click experience has not been a focused initiative in the market. The majority of digital advertisers spend most of their time on the pre-click experience (the ad) and fail to optimize the post-click experience.

What Is the Post-Click Experience?

The best way to define it is by comparing it to the pre-click.

The pre-click experience is everything that happens before a prospect clicks your ad. Many elements play into this stage and impact a prospect’s willingness to click. To name a few:

• Targeting
• Headlines
• Copy
• Colors
• Images
• Relevance
• Location
• Timing

The post-click experience, on the other hand, is everything that happens after a prospect clicks your ad which can impact their decision to convert on your offer:

• Page load time
• Message match consistency
• Skimmable text
• Usability
• Informational images

To address the fact that only a small fraction of ad clicks convert, it’s essential to know how to provide a true personalized experience for prospects while generating more conversions.

5 Elements of an Optimized Post-Click Experience for Success in 2019

Before we get into the 5 main elements of post-click optimization, let’s talk about page load speed for a moment. If your page doesn’t load fast enough — near instantly — visitors will likely bounce, never see your page, and the rest of the tips below are irrelevant.

A common solution to tackle slow page speed is AMP, the open-source framework introduced in 2015, which allows advertisers to create lightning-fast, smooth-loading mobile web pages that prioritize the user-experience above all else. AMP pages deliver near-instantaneous load times, while still supporting styling and branding customizability.

With fast page load speed as a requirement, let’s look at the five primary ways to optimize the post-click experience.

1. Message match consistency

Prospects click your ad expecting what follows to deliver the same offer and have the same message. This is called message match — coordinating your ad content to the post-click experience so visitors are certain they’re in the right place after clicking through.

You can create this consistency throughout your campaign by incorporating the same/similar headlines, aesthetic elements (fonts, colors, CTA buttons, etc.), visuals, and most importantly, the same overall message.

Akamai’s display ad matches closely to the corresponding post-click landing page:

They both include the same background graphic, similar copy, and company logo. They also have matching colors and promote the same exact offer.

With precise message match like this, the user experience remains consistent from start to finish and visitors are more likely to fulfill the post-click conversion goal. Without it, they may be confused, skeptical, and likely abandon the page.

2. White space

White space (aka negative space) is the empty space in between and around your page design elements. It helps provide visitors with a pleasing visual experience but also plays a vital role in persuading them to click your CTA button.

While this space doesn’t actually have to be white, it does have to help isolate and draw attention to important elements on your post-click page — headlines, images, forms, CTA buttons, etc.

Monday.com surrounded their headline, subheadline, and form/CTA button with ample white space to make it stand out on the left side of the page:

By surrounding these key elements with white space, they reduced clutter, improved readability, and effectively indicate to visitors what to focus on. 

3. F or Z pattern

The order in which elements appear on your page is essential to generating conversions. You must consider the way visitors are likely to view your page and there are two proven ways they’ll do this: in an F-pattern or a Z-pattern.

The F-pattern mimics typical reading behavior:

1. Visitors start in the upper left part of the page and read in a horizontal line across the top.
2. Their gaze moves down the left side of the page and then reads in a second horizontal movement.
3. Users finish by continuing down the left side of the page, moving to the right whenever content permits.

This SEMrush post-click page follows an F-pattern precisely:

The Z-pattern viewing method follows this order instead:

1. Visitors start from the upper left corner of the page and scan across the top.
2. Then they simultaneously look left and down in a diagonal path.
3. Lastly, their gaze moves from left to right again in a horizontal line.

You can see the Z-pattern clearly on this ConnectWise page:

It’s worth mentioning that users don’t only look at the areas mentioned in this section; however, eye movement tends to be slower and more focused in these specific regions. You can use this knowledge to strategically place the most important elements — in the areas where your visitors are most likely to notice and focus on them.

4. Form length

Many marketers struggle to create their lead capture forms the correct length. This could lead to two different outcomes: too many fields could intimidate prospects, or too few fields and you will generate more MQLs than SQLs.

Form length should be based primarily on the marketing funnel stage of your offer. Generally, the further down the funnel, the more information you can request without scaring them off. 

These basic guidelines can help determine how many fields to include:

• Top of the funnel offers — often times, free resources like the LiveRamp guide below — don’t need many form fields because they’re intended to generate as many leads as possible:

• Middle of the funnel offers like webinars, case studies, and free samples provide prospects with additional information, which means you can request more information from them as well. 

• Bottom of the funnel offers are for leads in the decision-making stage who are in the market to buy now. Brands can get away with longer forms in this stage, for offers like free consultations or product demos, like Percolate does here: 

No matter what funnel stage your offer lies, consider using a multi-step form if you require a lot of lead information. This breaks up your form into smaller sections so the visitor isn’t overwhelmed by a single lengthy form on the page.

5. Video

With the average user attention span at only 8 seconds, adding video to your post-click experience has the potential to better engage your visitors since they’re not forced to read lines of copy. In fact, post-click landing page videos can increase your total conversions by as much as 86%.

When adding video to your post-click optimization strategy, keep these tips in mind:

• No autoplay — Give visitors the chance to digest your information at their own control (by pressing play) and not annoying them with an autoplay video.
• Accentuate it — Rather than making it blend in with all of your other post-click elements, be sure it stands out so visitors can’t resist playing it.
• Animation vs. live action — Animated videos tend to be the better option for abstract products or services, as a way to simplify complex topics in an engaging way. Live action is usually better if your goal is to humanize your brand.
• Aim for high-quality — Keep it professional by using a high-quality camera, writing out a proper script with no awkward pauses or breaks in the voice over, hiring a designer for graphics, etc.
• Keep it short — One of the main points of the video is to explain your offer faster than copy, so as a general rule of thumb, keep it under 2 minutes.
• Add a CTA — Calls to action aren’t just for page copy, but also serve well at the end of a video to tell viewers what steps to take next.

This SharpSpring page features a video that implements all of these tips:

• It allows the visitor to play it on their own
• It’s above the fold so it’s noticeable immediately
• The 1 minute and 43 seconds duration is not too long
• It is high-quality and professionally designed 

If you feel you don’t have the budget to create a post-click video — or think that a video may distract from your main message — you can also opt for a GIF instead of a video. Gifs are especially ideal to play on a loop and demonstrate how your product is used.

Set Yourself Up for Success by Optimizing the Post-Click Experience

Optimizing the pre-click stage is crucial, but no campaign is complete without post-click optimization as well. With these design best practices — message match, white space, an intentional layout, correct form length, and of course, video — you can create optimized post-click pages for each campaign. Your conversion rates with thank you in no time.

About the Author

Tyson Quick is the Founder and CEO of Instapage, the leader in post-click automation. He founded Instapage in 2012 after seeing how performance and growth marketers were losing money in underperforming advertising campaigns. Since then his vision has been to create a suite of post-click automation products that maximize returns through advertising personalization.

The post How to Optimize the Post-Click Experience with Video & More appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Video marketing is huge right now, especially for CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). It’s been a thing for a while, but lately, it has really taken off  — 81% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool, according to a recent study.

Of course, this is driven by user demand. The same study found that the average time spent watching video per day is 90 minutes, and where both video and text are available on the same page, 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service, ultimately improving CRO.

People like videos.

However, producing effective video content is difficult. For one, video production costs tend to be higher than the costs of written content. Anecdotally, I’ve also found it much more difficult to produce a video that stands out and performs well than it is to produce functional written content.

When implemented effectively, video content can be a game-changer for your digital marketing strategy, leading to higher conversion rates and improved CRO. Video can be a powerful tool for attracting attention, engaging prospects, educating them about your product or service, and ultimately closing leads.  

This post is all about how to do video right. Essentially, this will cover six ways you can use video content to help convert more website visitors into leads, users, or customers.

1. Spice Up Your Testimonials

Social proof, while sometimes misused or overused, is still largely effective. No one wants to eat at an empty and lonely restaurant, no one wants to read a book that no one else has read yet, and no one wants to try your product without pretty solid evidence that other people use it and like it.

In many cases, people throw in a few quotes from well-known people, or from customers, on their landing pages. They usually adopt a format like this (taken from Wordable’s homepage):

These are great, especially because they are all well-known names in the content marketing space (and clearly customers as well).

However, a way you can spice up social proof further is to include a video testimonial. When done right, these can be incredibly powerful and persuasive.

That’s what they did at CXL Institute. They  got one of their best customers, Sanoma, to record a high-quality, well-produced video explaining the benefits they and their team got from training at CXL Institute:

This testimonial video is embedded directly on the landing page, though you can also create a specific testimonials page. The beauty of video is that you can republish your testimonials anywhere you believe they would be persuasive.

2. Show, Don’t Tell

Seeing is believing, and that’s especially true when it comes to shopping online. Despite the convenience, when you’re selling products on the internet, there will always be a gap between experiencing the product in real life and seeing a facsimile of the product online. This is where video ads come in – they offer a powerful way to bridge that gap by giving the viewer an immersive experience that is as close to real life as possible.

By using attention-grabbing video ads, you can capture the viewer’s attention and give them a taste of what it’s like to experience your product. You can show off its features and benefits, demonstrate how it works, and give them a glimpse of the real-life context in which it might be used. By doing so, you can help the viewer form a deeper connection with your product and increase the likelihood of a sale.

In short, video ads are an essential tool for any online retailer looking to improve the shopping experience for their customers. They offer a way to showcase your products in a way that is engaging, informative, and memorable, all while capturing the viewer’s attention and driving sales.

Most of the time, we try to resolve this gap using images. Especially when you have multiple, high-quality images, and when you use 360-degree spinning images, this can be very effective. Bonobos is a great example of a brand with good online imagery:

But what if you further reduced the gap between the real world and online shopping? Videos can help do that, especially when they feature a product in its natural environment or in use. BigCommerce has a whole list of great product videos. Here’s one from Training Mask:

This strategy applies to software products as well. It might even be more important to showcase a software product, especially if the copywriting on the page isn’t the clearest, or if your product is very new and innovative.

DigitalMarketer is a training company for online marketers, and they have a great explainer video (created using Powtoon):

When I work on CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) projects for e-commerce clients, I always find that some percentage of the audience enjoys video demonstrations and some percentage doesn’t.

Giving those that do prefer it, the option to view a video is a great way to boost your conversion rate in many cases. Sometimes it can be the final leg of persuasion needed to push someone over the edge and help them decide to purchase. It’s worth an A/B test anyway.

3. Win Hearts and Minds

Product demos and testimonials are great ways to leverage sensible judgment — namely social proof in the case of testimonials. But for the most part, videos like this provide a way to help one rationalize a purchase. They’re working on the prospect’s mind, not their heart.

But video is also a wonderful avenue to influence the emotional decision triggers of customers. The use case you’re most accustomed to with video is branding campaigns.

There are many great examples, from BlendTec to Old Spice, but one of my favorites is the classic Dollar Shave Club video that seemingly launched the brand to the successful place they now occupy:

One caveat I do have to point out is that, when marketers like myself make lists like this, it’s easy to gloss over the fact that most people that try to make viral brand videos fail. This is called Survivorship Bias. Many marketers will see results like Dollar Shave Club and will spend time and effort creating something that is viewed by little more than their friends and family. So you do have to have some sort of plan to define your video’s je ne sais quoi that will make it work.

But when videos work, they work. And you can, with time and consistency, see solid brand engagement, even if not at the stratospheric levels that Dollar Shave Club experienced.

When you align clever and lovable brand videos with a solid social media strategy, you can see surprising results. Some of my favorite brands, and really the only ones I follow on social media, are experts at crafting funny videos. Chubbies – absolute masters of branding – do this well:

4. Capture More Leads

I’m a data-driven growth marketing guy so all that brand stuff kind of goes over my head. But when it comes to email lead capture, conversion rate optimization, and getting visitors to fill out your lead forms, I’m all ears.

Video, as it turns out, is an incredibly novel way to capture email leads.

In inbound marketing, the usual path looks something like this:

• Write blog content aligned with your product or service offering
• Create “upgraded” content and lead magnets to entice visitors to sign up
• Use a traditional online form or a popup landing page to capture their information in exchange for the content (usually an eBook or webinar)

Nowadays, some marketers are shaking things up with live chat or chatbots to collect leads, but it’s really the same incentive structure.

But another interesting way of doing things, something I’m seeing more and more often, is to embed a video into your content and gate it after several seconds.

The visitor watches up to the point where they’re interested in continuing, and then you put an email gate to watch the rest of it.

Brian Balfour does this in his video content. Here’s an overlay that shows up about a minute into viewing a video on his site:

5. Optimize Your Onboarding and Nurturing

The point I want to drive home is that you can use video at almost every touch point of your marketing and customer experience. Video can help clarify as well as persuade, but there may be no more critical inflection point to do both of those things than in your user onboarding experience.

This is the point at which someone has decided to give your product a whirl, but they’re still likely somewhat unsure of the value. They’re confused as to how to use it, while they’re simultaneously excited to get going.

Now, there’s a lot that goes into architecting your onboarding flow, and you shouldn’t just go in and throw videos everywhere. But smart placement can bring ROI, as customer.io found. When they tried out a video in their onboarding emails, those emails with video got a 4.1% CTR, compared to an average of 2.2% CTR for the other onboarding emails without video.

In this example, the video was used to clarify. It provides a simple and clear product walkthrough.

But as we discussed before, video can be used to win hearts as well as minds. A great example comes from Segment, who embedded a GIF of their team celebrating your recent decision to use their product.

Here’s what the actual GIF looks like:

A good way to say, “Good job making this decision,  you’re in good hands, and we’re happy to have you.”

6. A/B Test Video Like Other Content

Rather than assuming that your audience will behave in a certain way, run an experiment to see what content actually resonates with your unique visitors. You’re likely already running multivariate tests on high-value touchpoints across your site — tweaking copy, CTAs, images, and other on-site elements to get more conversions from your traffic.

But are you treating video with the same data-driven approach? There’s no reason you shouldn’t be viewing video in the same framework as you view written content or static imagery. I’m guilty of this at times — but viewing videos with a “set it and forget it” mentality can be dangerous for marketers.

This is especially important when you’re displaying a video on the homepage of your site, a high-traffic landing page, or a demo sign-up flow.

Generate a hypothesis, set up a test, and start collecting data points to analyze.

Here’s a quick test idea that can be valuable and easy to launch for many brands: Show users two versions of the same video — one full-length and one shortened.

Look at how Proof was able to increase engagement on their SaaS demo funnel with this exact test. Originally, they sent traffic to a whopping 22-minute long demo (Version A) that explained the value proposition of their product.

Rather than scrapping the old experience completely, they wanted to see how a shortened version of the same video (7 minutes versus 22 minutes) would affect engagement. And it did the job — generating a 73% increase in engagement:

Conclusion

Video is a multi-purpose tool that, when executed well, can lift conversion rates on landing pages, lead capture forms, and even during the onboarding and product activation stage of the customer journey.

I’m not a huge believer in making predictions, but I think it’s safe to say video is here to stay, and it will likely become more and more important in the years to come. Those who do video well tend to craft more compelling and clear stories, which is obviously a huge part of conversion optimization, as well as increasing the lifetime value and retention of customers.

About the Author

Alex Birkett works on growth and user acquisition at HubSpot. He’s based in Austin, Texas, but lives nomadically for roughly half of the year.

When he’s not working on growth and optimization, he writes at alexbirkett.com.

You can follow him on Twitter here.

The post Video CRO: 6 Tips for Using Video to Boost Conversions [Guest Post] appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Create Your Own Animated Promotional Videos

Small Businesses and Startups use the Powtoon software for many internal functions, such as to create presentations or training videos. Many of these companies also create Powtoon videos in order to save thousands of dollars on advertising by creating their own ads.

Take a look at some of the different Powtoon styles used here by various companies:

Powtoon for Small Business example 1:​

Many people gamble and bet with their friends, however, according to this video, many people don’t pay up in the end. Not to fear! This company has a solution:

Powtoon for Small Business example 2:

This business offers a carpooling solution for frustrated commuters!

Powtoon for Small Business example 3:

Everyone is always looking for cheaper ways to print, and this company really knows it’s customers. This video is short, but sweet!

Why waste another minute?!? Grow your Small Business or Startup NOW by Clicking Here to sign up for Powtoon!

About the Author

Janis Raisen is an experienced journalist with a diverse portfolio. Her published articles can be found in an array of publications and online platforms.

Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.

The post How Small Businesses Use Video Marketing To Promote Their Brand appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Presenting some amazing explainer video examples -​ 5 Best Animated Explainer Examples

Animated Explainer example 1: Google Voice

What is an explainer video anyway? An explainer video is a short video that can be used to explain, well any concept that you wish, from a product demo, to an education lecture, or a quick explanation of your company’s brand. But when you integrate animation into your explainer video, the end result is an award-winning quality video. Well, don’t just take our word for it; let’s start, shall we?

Google is everywhere. Google became part of our vocabulary when we turned their company name into a verb. How many times a day do you “Google information?” Well, even Google has realized the importance of animated explainer videos.

They have the formula down pat for creating the ideal animated explainer video. With a perfect balance between text, visuals, combined with a great voiceover and script, Google mastered this concept.

What can we learn from this animated explainer video?

• Short and clear message

• Minimal use of text

• Animated tone

• Strong storytelling capability

• Excellent animation to support the main message

• Relatable message to technology overload

Animated Explainer example 2: Virgin America

Demos and safety instructions can be extremely boring if they are not created with flare. How many people actually watch or listen to safety instructions on an airline? The passengers at Virgin America surely do. The airline must have realized that if they wanted people to stop reading the in-flight magazine during the safety demo that they had to completely captivate them with an innovative approach.

This humorous animated explainer video on in-flight safety instructions is very cute and entertaining. It is very creative and effective at providing the necessary information in a manner that will remain in the passengers’ mind long after the flight.

What can we learn from this animated explainer video?

• Humor is used effectively

• Message is clear and concise

• Great choice of animated characters

• ​ Voice over is animated and entertaining

• Script is well written

• Best airline safety demo

Animated Explainer example 3:​ Christopher Danielson

Explainer videos also work well in the education market. They are excellent tools for breaking down ideas and concepts, while keeping students entertained and engaged. In this TED education animated explainer video, the lecturer brilliantly proves this point.

As Christopher Danielson (http://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/) begins with a mathematical dilemma he carried with him for many years, he takes the viewers on a short journey of discovery. He finally figures out what his teachers were trying to explain. His explainer video is a great example for the growing need for animated explainer videos in the classroom.

What can we learn this animated explainer video?

• ​ Clear and pleasant voice over

• Effective use of text

• Powerful visuals

• Strong Storytelling capability

• Creates intrigue

• Breaks down a concept into a simple digestible format

Animated Explainer example 4:​ Convertable

Animated explainer videos can work wonderfully in the B2B community. Below is a clever B2B animated explainer video that not only explains the business clearly and simply, the company brings to light real struggles that people may face with inbound email traffic on their company websites. ​ This can really make or break a business, or at least that is how convincing this video is for viewers. In this example, convertable.com uses Powtoon to explain how easy it can be to lose large clients if your website email is not streamlined.

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What can we learn from this explainer video?

• Strong Storytelling capability

• Great animation and visuals

• Clear and simple script using text only

• Relatable

• Presents a solution to a problem that companies may not have otherwise considered

Animated Explainer example 5:​ CleverCommuter

Here is another great animated explainer video by a company called CleverCommuter. They created a community for UK residents to share commuter woes, frustrations, questions, and most importantly — solutions. This clever explainer video is short, clear, entertaining and leaves no doubt about what CleverCommuter does and sends a clear message that their website is a real relief for regular commuters Their video has all the perfect elements to arouse interest and perhaps inspire people to share the video– always a bonus!

CleverCommuter used Powtoon to present the issue with awesome animation, and provided a solution in just a few short clips. ​ Check out the great animation style they chose to represent their brand.

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What can we learn from this animated explainer video?

• Short and clear message

• Minimal use of text

• Clear and pleasant voice over

• Strong storytelling capability

• Excellent animation to support the main message

• Creates curiosity

• Message is empathetic to the problem

Now that you are thoroughly entertained and inspired, don’t forget to create your animated explainer video using Powtoon (www.powtoon.com). ​ Your options are endless!

By Janis Raisen

About the Author

Janis Raisen is an experienced journalist with a diverse portfolio. Her published articles can be found in an array of publications and online platforms.

Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.

The post 5 Best Animated Explainer Examples appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Wow your clients and boost sales with animation

In our fast-paced society people are overwhelmed with emails, texts, social media, and of course so many ads — they are everywhere ​ — and businesses know this. Smart marketers know that potential clients want to be entertained, and wooed, not just presented boring facts. ​ Facebook has been a huge distraction for web surfers who cannot seem to unplug from the curiosity of each changing minute. How do you grab the attention of Facebook junkies?

• ​ Companies are focusing not only on strategy, but clever scripts

• ​ Viral animated videos with strong messages and colorful graphics create brand recognition

• ​ Animated videos are in high demand and extremely captivating

• YouTube videos have an enormous audience for animated ads

Examples of how businesses use animation for marketing

Here is a brilliant animated ad that helps the audience retain not only the company name, but leaves quite an impression on the company’s skills and expertise.

Have you noticed that e-cards are all animated? The greeting card companies caught onto this concept long ago, understanding that the higher the entertainment value, the higher the sales and profit. Everyone loves receiving animated e-cards and consumers will turn to search engines to find something engaging and memorable for friends and family.

Companies have shifted their marketing strategies to reach customers online and this includes reaching out to thank loyal customers and addressing their needs

With one tweet about Yoplait’s use of high fructose corn syrup, a Yoplait yogurt consumer captured the attention of other customers, and eventually the Yoplait management and development teams. Once this issue was resolved, Yoplait created this fabulous animated video to tell the story and thank their loyal fans.

Visual effects with great graphics and interesting animated characters will peak the interest of your audience. But what is the key to keeping them engaged? Russ from PowToons stresses the importance of creating images that match your narrative in order to create a powerful story.

Check out Powtoon to create awesome animated sales video!

About the Author

Janis Raisen is an experienced journalist with a diverse portfolio. Her published articles can be found in an array of publications and online platforms.

Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.

The post How Businesses Use Animation for Marketing appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

There are endless resources out there to learn how to improve your presentations, but what if you have never had to present before? ​ Presentations have become such an art that if you are about to embark on your first presentation masterpiece, you may not know where to even start. Let’s break down the essential things that you need to know.

Know your audience

Before writing one word or designing even one slide, you must first figure out your target market. This will take some research on your part, but it is the most important piece of information that you need to clearly identify.

Why should your audience watch your presentation?

Once you have figured out who you want to direct your message to, you then need to be clear on why — what drives your audience’s motivation and why they would want to hear what you have to say.

Start out by making a list on the five main ​ reasons why your message is relevant to your viewers, then narrow it down from there. This step is extremely important in getting you focused and ready to present a clear message that will be seen as beneficial.

How to present your ideas?

Now that you have your message ready to deliver to your target audience, how do you put it all together? What is the best way to divide your thoughts and ideas? Even if your presentation is riveting, the key is to fit your ideas into your allotted time in order to reach the ​ outcome of your presentation. You may be making a 30-minute presentation but the balance of ideas should be divided into three sections as explained in this video. If your presentation is work-related, think about what final message you would like to leave your ​ audience with at the end, ​ such as “so remember that…” ​ or “think about the impact of…” Your conclusion in this case will be your call to action.

Presentation Design

If you have never had to design a presentation before, check out our article below, complete with videos on the best way to approach presentation design.

​ http://www.powtoon.com/blog/presentation-design-powerpoint-alternative/

Now that you are armed with so much information on how to approach your first presentation, we want to make your life even easier by introducing you to our free animated presentation software — Powtoon! It is so easy for you to start playing with different characters, colors, styles and designs to create your first presentation design.

When you have a library of characters, props and markers at your disposal, it takes the pressure off designing slides when you can just select all the items you need from one place.

We hope our tips have helped break down the essential steps you need in order to create your first presentation with ease! Click here to get started with Powtoon!

About the Author

Janis Raisen is an experienced journalist with a diverse portfolio. Her published articles can be found in an array of publications and online platforms.

Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.

The post First-time Presenters – How To Impress Your Audience with presentation design appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Welcome to a new and exciting way for you to create Powtoons and post them directly to your instructor’s classroom page. The first thing you will need to do is to click on the signup link that your teacher will send to you by email. Once you have created your own account, you are ready to have fun with Powtoon. Here’s How:

Once you are registered as a student, you will be directed to this main page. It is from here where you will start the journey of creating Powtoons. You just need to click the “start” button in order to begin your Powtoon masterpiece.

After you hit the start button, you will be prompted to create a name and description for your Powtoon. Below that you will see a dropdown menu where you can assign your Powtoon to a group, either under your teacher’s name or another group name that your teacher provides.

There are several educational templates that you can use to create Powtoons, but templates are discussed in another article. We are going to show you in this tutorial what to do once your Powtoon has been created.

After you have created your Powtoon and you wish to submit it to your teacher, click on the “save” icon at the top left of the screen.​

From here you will need to go back to your main student page and click on “My Powtoons,” in order to see your saved Powtoon list.

You can see that under the name of the Powtoon is the group you have chosen ​ — in this case it is the name of the teacher. Once you have reviewed your Powtoon and it is ready to submit, you simply click on the submit button and your assignment will automatically appear in your teacher’s list of Powtoons.

Check out some of our tutorials (http://www.powtoon.com/tutorials/)/ on how to create Powtoons before you get started.

Have fun with your new classroom experience using Powtoon!

About the Author

Janis Raisen is an experienced journalist with a diverse portfolio. Her published articles can be found in an array of publications and online platforms.

Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.

The post Working with Powtoon in the classroom (for students) appeared first on Powtoon Blog.