5 Animated Video Tips Every Marketer Needs To Know

Here at Sparksight, we’ve helped fulfill content marketing needs for our clients by creating animated videos that get placed in email campaigns, on corporate websites, social platforms, and much more. From our experience, we’ve noticed some common traps that companies tend to fall into. To help you avoid falling into the same traps, we’ve compiled a quick and simple list of animated video tips that every marketer needs to know. Following these tips can help you improve the success of your next animated video and the effect it has on your overall marketing strategy.

#1: Adjust length to maintain your audience’s attention  

Ain’t nobody got time for a 5 minute animated video. Not only have we done our research, we’ve seen first-hand, the results that can happen when you make your videos shorter. If one of your goals is to get more views on your video, one of the best things you can do it shorten up the length. The attention span of your audience is less than that of a goldfish and it’s shrinking with every second, so you’ve got to work fast! We’ve found that :30 ­-1:30 is the range you want to stay in. To learn more about shortening explainer videos, take a look at this blog post.

#2: Be more creative to stand out from your competition 

This is where most companies tend to follow the crowd and pick the same style that every other marketer is using. Icons, icons, and for kicks, how about more icons? To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with this style. However, it certainly doesn’t help if you’re trying to set your company/product/service apart from your competitors. Put the creatives to work and ask for something new that the rest of the crowd, specifically in your industry, isn’t doing. This tactic can help captivate and grow interest from your targeted audience… interest that your competitors aren’t necessarily getting. For reference, here’s a list of animated company videos that rise above the rest, not just in terms of quality design and animation, but in marketing the brand extremely well and standing out from the crowd.

#3: Keep your message simple, clear, and to the point

In the scriptwriting phase, we sometimes see clients get bogged down in jargon and extraneous descriptions. Sometimes, the best way to make your video memorable is by making sure your message is simple and clear. Animated videos rely heavily on the perfect balance between visual and auditory information. If your video script is overwhelmed by detailed descriptions and explanations, the message you want the viewer to take away will get lost in the rest of the chatter! When writing a script for your video, try to focus on simple key points that come together to convey one powerful message for your audience.

#4: The whole kitchen sink isn’t necessary

Much like being too wordy, cramming too much content into an animated video can be overwhelming! The majority of businesses offer much more than what can be fully explained in one video, so don’t try to work against that. As the saying goes, do one thing and do it well. Try to focus on conveying one message, otherwise, you risk confusing your audience. Keep in mind, the message your audience receives by the end of the video will greatly affect what they do next. Besides, who is going to actively seek you out to learn more about your company if you put everything in one video?

#5: Use the video to meet your goals

Last but not least, what is the overall goal behind your animated video? It’s heartbreaking to see videos with no strategy end up lonely on Youtube or Vimeo without a real home. Make sure there’s a strategic place on your website, your blog, or even a landing page where your video can live and make it easy for viewers to proceed to your desired call to action. Even better, consider thinking about the goal and purpose of your animated video before handing it off to a creative team. Whether your goal is to get as many views as possible, or to gain as many leads as possible, this should all be taken into account before the video is created. In fact, throughout the process, you should continually ask yourself and the company making your video, “How does this help achieve my end goal?” How the video is delivered to your audience can have a big impact on your end goal and can help build future marketing goals, so make sure this stays top-of-mind from start to finish.

Interested in commissioning an awesome new animated video? Check out our new Sparklers Campaign for a great deal on your next animation. Be sure to act fast, this deal ends August 15th!