As time goes by, the way people consume content changes periodically. Over the past decade, video content has been the dominant format for most users. This consistent trend suggests that your target audience likely prefers video formats over other types of content.
Animated videos, in particular, have recently garnered significant attention. This blog is dedicated to exploring their effectiveness on social media platforms.
In essence, this blog aims to be your comprehensive guide to leveraging animation in your social media content strategy.
Let’s explore animation’s advantages at the beginning.
What are the Benefits of Animated Videos?
Everybody knows the definition of animation: bringing still images to life by creating an illusion of movement.
The history of animation stretches back decades, a testament to its enduring appeal and innovation. In recent years, animation has seen a flurry of advancements and improvements, continuing to captivate and inspire with its ever-evolving techniques.
Besides its entertaining nature, animation has proven to be a strategic tool in the arsenal of businesses. Recognizing its effectiveness in marketing efforts, several brands are now utilizing it in their various campaigns, empowering marketing professionals to turn heads toward their ads and achieve marketing goals.
The reason behind this public favor lies in its numerous advantages, which are:
- Effectively captures attention and boosts engagement: Due to its dynamic nature, video content material is favored by the majority of people. Colorful worlds, lovable characters, and demolished boundaries are traits of animation videos that successfully capture attention and increase engagement with the brand.
- Improves information retention: In the current era of humanity, people quickly forget unnecessary data. If your marketing message seems nonessential to the audience, even after a while, when they need what you offer, they cannot recall your brand! Animation in marketing efforts will decrease negative effects regarding this problem as people process visuals better, especially when animated, which we said is inherently attention-grabbing.
- The whole world loves it: Shockingly, people from East to West possess massive differences. However, almost everyone likes animation videos, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, or mood.
- Explains complex concepts easily: As with animation, you can truly depict everything! Therefore, if your field of work includes several complex concepts that must be explained to non-technical audiences, animation videos will be your capable assistant in this regard.
These are the general pros of using animation in marketing campaigns. Let’s take a closer look at its advantages for social media content.
Why is it Super Effective for Social Media Content?
Imagine social media platforms as the battleground where you and your competitors vie for the attention of a shared target audience. These potential customers are bombarded with a massive amount of daily data. To succeed, you must strive to grab their attention efficiently, and animated videos are your finest tool for this matter.
Remember the first benefit of animated videos: they grab attention in the best way possible. Therefore, creating high-quality, well-planned animation helps you stay ahead of your rivals and build an eye-catching presence.
In addition, one should not overlook the importance of engagement in social media. It is a two-way street, and interaction plays a crucial role. Hence, the more engagement people show in your content, the more likely you will be successful. Fortunately, animation is excellent at boosting engagement.
Furthermore, animation is a memory-making form of content, and one of your main goals on social media should be increasing brand awareness.
These reasons justify leveraging animated videos for your social media content.
Now, it is time to familiarize yourself with approaches to making the most of this form of content.
3 Ways to Harvest Animation’s Potential in Social Media Marketing
Depending on the platform, you can create animated content on various topics.
It is possible to use it to introduce your recently established brand or create an animation to announce the launch of your new products. There are no limits; you can proceed as far as your creativity allows.
Nonetheless, we have decided to mention three specific ways you can use animation to supercharge your social media content.
Explainer Videos
As we have mentioned earlier, animation has the potential to simplify intricate concepts by breaking them into smaller and more understandable topics. As a result, it achieves clear and concise communication with the target audience.
Leverage animated visuals that align with your branding principles and incorporate a touch of humor to streamline the teaching process. Typically, the ultimate goal is to help audiences understand what you are offering, whether it’s an uncommon product or a technical service that requires further explanation.
Animated videos offer a distinct advantage over static images and text. They capture your target audience’s attention and pique their curiosity, making them more eager to engage with your content.
Imagine a hosting business whose clients need to become more familiar with the technical aspects of its services, such as SSL certificates.
This is why a reputable hosting provider opts for animation to explain the SSL protocol and its certificates, in addition to offering comprehensive blog posts and infographics created by their marketing department. Posting the animation on social media platforms like Instagram is likely to generate buzz and go viral, leading to an increase in brand awareness.
Product Releases
Before launching a new product, it’s essential to prepare the target audience in advance. Undoubtedly, social media platforms offer the widest reach to potential buyers, making them an efficient channel for creating content about new product launches.
Once again, animation proves to be a fantastic choice for introducing new products, as it grabs attention and naturally engages viewers.
With animated video, you have the freedom to showcase your product’s features and capabilities in a way that is both informative and entertaining. This creative tool allows you to push boundaries and make your social media content outstanding, inspiring your audience and setting your product apart.
Story Narration
Storytelling in marketing and business is a powerful mechanism for outshining competitors, hands down.
One of the many ways to leverage the power of storytelling for your brand is through animated videos. These dynamic and engaging content pieces have a unique ability to captivate your audience, leaving them intrigued and enthusiastic to learn more about your brand.
When narrating brand stories on social media, it’s best to keep them short and to the point.
These days, people get bored quickly and may be distracted from consuming your brand’s story, especially on social media platforms flooded with content. They may feel the next reel will be more attractive to them and stop watching your brand’s creation!
Regardless of the ways you are seeking to take advantage of animated videos, you should keep in mind that whether you put it into your daily, weekly, or monthly calendar, you need to create short, entertaining, and thought-provoking videos that can engage your target audience and motivate them to interact with your account.
Each Platform Requires its own Suitable Form of Animation
Each social media platform varies in how audiences consume videos, as people have slightly different attitudes toward each of them. Therefore, it is safe to say that contextualizing the video format for each platform is highly important.
For example, TikTok users prefer short, fun videos, while YouTube users may prefer longer ones.
If your marketing strategy requires you to create animation for your Instagram account, prioritize eye-catching visuals. Instagram users highly value visually appealing content.
Nowadays, most social media platforms support various video formats. Back then, Instagram users were limited to 15-second videos for their stories. Now, the limit is one minute. Additionally, the reels section allows users to post much longer videos if they think their target audience finds them appealing.
Even the X (the former Twitter) provides all the necessities for its users to post videos of all kinds, regardless of length.
Our message is simple: understand the platform you’re working on. This guarantees success in leveraging animation in social media content.
We will delve into metrics that define success in this regard, but before that, let’s examine some examples of triumph.
3 Brands That Successfully Leveraged Animation in Their Social Media Marketing Campaigns
In recent years, both big and small brands have utilized animation for their social media content. As a result, the chances are you are already familiar with some great examples.
In this section of the blog, we will share our opinions and discuss some instances where this video format has been leveraged effectively for social media content.
MailChimp
The well-known email marketing service MailChimp utilizes animation mainly for one of its core benefits: its ability to simplify complex concepts, which we discussed in detail earlier in the blog.
MailChimp wisely utilizes animation to explain various aspects of email marketing and its services. By posting these animated videos on social media platforms, the brand’s marketers reach a large number of potential customers and streamline the process of adopting MailChimp services for them beforehand.
MailChimp follows best practices for creating informative animations, and the result of their efforts is genuinely engaging and educative.
Uber
The gigantic transformation company that continues to conquer new markets has opted for a unique form of animated videos.
The psychedelic style, featuring strangely colored objects and characters, distinguishes this brand’s animated social media content from that of other major names. Have you ever played GTA? It has a similar atmosphere.
The visuals are stunning, the content is fun, and it keeps the audience engaged until the end. Additionally, the sound complements the entire creation very well.
Overall, Uber is a fantastic example of a major brand that has successfully leveraged animation for its social media content.
Disney
It’s impossible to talk about animation without mentioning Disney, the renowned company that continues to be a key player in the industry.
Disney has been leveraging animation for years, using it to showcase demos of its upcoming products in this desirable video form.
For Disney, animated videos are not just marketing materials—they are often their primary product.
With the rise of social media acceptance worldwide, Disney recognized the need to be present on various platforms to stay visible. Therefore, they animated their movie teasers and created social media content in this format.
These are successful examples of using animation to enhance social media content. But what defines success?
Metrics that Determine Success Regarding Using Animation in Social Media Content
Success is a relative concept. One business’s failure may be another’s achievement, and vice versa. So, we cannot provide a magic formula to gauge whether your brand is thriving with animated social media content.
However, most businesses use specific metrics to evaluate their success. We will discuss these standards in the following paragraphs, but before that, you should also consider another important factor.
Before creating and publishing animated videos on your social media accounts, set goals within your marketing strategy. This way, you will know what you want to achieve, and your success depends on reaching those milestones. Remember to set realistic goals; unrealistic ones will only waste your time.
With clear objectives, it becomes much easier to determine your success or failure after using animation for a while.
The most critical metrics on social media platforms usually relate directly to engagement and interaction. Metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and saves are crucial.
Moreover, the number of viewers who take your desired action is important, as these conversions directly impact your business’s conversion rate.
Other metrics, such as the number of brand mentions after publishing an animated video, can indicate that your animation went viral, likely leading to higher brand awareness.
Additionally, measures such as impression, reach, and video-specific metrics will be useful in this regard.
Once you have the required data, compare it with your predefined goals. Do they match? Has animation helped your business achieve those levels? Your answers to these questions determine your success or loss.
Not all animated videos will be successful, which is why it is essential to create outstanding animation.
How to Create an Attention-grabbing Animation for Your Social Media Accounts?
Technically speaking, creating an animation requires specific skills, and we cannot teach you them with a single blog post. However, we do not aim to do so, either.
This section strives to guide you through the process of creating animations that will effectively enhance your social media presence.
First, determine the social media platform where you plan to publish your animation. As discussed above, each platform has specific characteristics and rules that you should obey to achieve success.
Afterward, goal determination kicks in. We already mentioned the importance of this phase, too.
When you know what you want to achieve, it is best to gather enough information about your target audience—those who want to grab their attention and make them do your desired action.
Regardless of the animation type and tools used, sketching various scenes and preparing a compelling story that conveys the main message clearly and engagingly is essential.
Keep in mind that every step of the process must align with your overall branding efforts to maintain consistency.
When you provide all the prerequisites, it is time to leave the job to experts and let them do the hard work. Several software and tools, such as Adobe’s various products, can create a superb animated video. But we suggest you let those in charge choose their preferred set of tools and offer them the required freedom to leverage creativity. It has been proven that the outcome will be much better and more effective this way.
If you run a business with multiple departments, consider hiring talent to create animated social media content. Otherwise, outsourcing the process may be the best option.
Before jumping to conclusions, let’s address some frequently asked questions about creating animated social media content.
FAQ
If you’re still uncertain about using animation for your social media content, this final part aims to address your concerns by answering three frequently asked questions about this topic. After that, if you are still struggling with any complexities in this matter, please feel free to leave a comment.
Why is Animation so Effective For Social Media Content?
The dynamic and engaging nature of animation helps brands efficiently grab their target audience’s attention, allowing them to stand out from their rivals.
By producing high-quality animations with stunning visuals for consumers on social media platforms, you will have the chance to go viral and witness a sharp rise in brand awareness.
What Kind of Animations Can I Use For Social Media Content?
There is no limit! Diverse types of animation can be employed depending on your goals, the platform you want to publish media on, and the attributes of your target audience.
Various types of animation, such as simple motion graphics, 2D and 3D animated videos, and stop-motion animations, are suitable for social media content.
I Do Not Have a Huge Budget – Can I Still Use It to Create Animation For Social Media?
Definitely! One of the primary benefits of animated videos is that you can create them with fewer budgets, too. Recent technological advances have made it possible to create animation with smaller budgets.
While you may not be able to compete with wealthy businesses that have access to more capital and resources, with the right strategy, you can still reap the benefits of using animation for your social media content.
Outsource the Whole Process to Dream Farm and Put Your Mind at Ease
In the middle of the blog, we told you that if you cannot afford to hire experts in your firm, you should consider outsourcing the creation of social media animations.
For optimal results, it’s important to entrust your project to a reputable professional with a proven track record of successful jobs.
In addition to our comprehensive branding services for well-established clients, we specialize in creating animated videos tailored to their brand identity, suitable for use across social media platforms.
If your business is considering outsourcing the animation process, we’re here to assist you. Interested? Contact us to discuss your project with our experts.