Optimizing Your Marketing Funnel with 2D and Explainer Video Animation

Introduction to 2D & Explainer Video Animation

In today’s digital world, marketers use several tactics to engage and captivate their audiences. Animation is one such marketing tactic that has become popular over time. This multifaceted medium includes two-dimensional (2D) and explainer video animation as powerful forms of marketing solutions. 2D animation is the art of giving still images the appearance of movement in a two-dimensional space. It usually gives the impression that they are shifting on two-axis planes which are often hand-made drawings or computer-generated visuals. 2D animated characters tend to have flat and cartoonish designs.

Popular animated movies and cartoons like “The Lion King,” “Aladdin,” and “The Simpsons” have used this technique both manually and digitally. It is also a widely used tool for web animations, advertisements, and various infotainment videos. Explainer videos are short, animated films that communicate about a subject, product, service, or process in an efficient manner. Ranging in length from 30 seconds to a few minutes, explainer videos utilize 2D animation techniques to simplify complex concepts. Explainer videos typically combine graphics, narration, music, and text to communicate their point. They have long been used in advertising campaigns, tutorials, and for internal company communications.

The growing role of animation in marketing:

Over the years, businesses have realized how effective the use of animation can be to market their products. Animation is a powerful marketing technique that can help you connect with your audience, make your brand memorable, increase new leads and conversions. Animations are a great method to stand out from the competition by creating eye-catching adverts. You can achieve all this without going over the budget. Several marketing surveys have revealed that many businesses are hesitant to spend money on a professionally produced video. However, 83% of companies claim that their return on investment increased with the use of 2D animation.
Additionally, 57% of users claim that using videos has increased their trust in a firm, making them more likely to click the “buy” button. Videos help you raise your online conversion rate and sell more of your product because consumers like straightforward content. Search engines also prefer the use of video. Users can stay on your website for up to 88% longer if you have embedded videos and animations. A page with an integrated video is 53 times more likely to appear first in Google search results.

What is the “Marketing Funnel”?

A ‘marketing funnel’ lays down the interaction between you and your customers. It is a conceptual framework that shows the customer’s journey to conversion from the first moment someone hears about your company. A marketing funnel can help you increase sales, build loyalty, and ignite brand recognition in your customers. 2D animation and explainer videos can be viable options for marketers to employ during different stages in a marketing funnel. The motive of the video and the duration may differ depending on the exact location of the customer’s journey in the funnel.

Understanding the MOF (Marketing, Optimization, Funnel) framework:

The MOF framework is a strategy used in digital marketing that guides firms through obtaining and converting leads into actual consumers. Three elements are essential here: marketing, optimization, and the funnel. In the “Marketing” phase of the framework, the objective is to increase traffic to your website or landing pages. In this phase a variety of marketing techniques need to be used to spread knowledge and create interest in your goods and services. Within the marketing phase, employing 2D and explainer video animation stands out as a widely embraced method. At this point, firms aim to draw the customers to the bottom of the marketing funnel.

After leads have been attracted, the next step in the process is “Optimization,” which focuses on enhancing the user experience to boost conversion rates. To improve the efficiency of your animation advertisement, you need to study data, figure out problems, and find out their solutions. Strategies such as A/B testing, heatmaps, user feedback, and other analytics can help to optimize your marketing results.

In the “Funnel” phase, prospective customers are led through a sequence of actions that ultimately result in a conversion. This fits with the idea of the conventional marketing funnel, which starts with awareness, moves through consideration, and ends with conversion. To address potential consumers’ unique requirements and concerns, each level of the funnel needs customized content and message.

Stages of the Marketing Funnel: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA)

The Marketing Funnel is a classic marketing model which was introduced by Elias St. Elmo Lewis at the end of the 20th century. It is also known as the ‘AIDA’ model. The AIDA Model describes the phases a consumer experiences when purchasing a good or service. Buyers move back and forth through the funnel at each stage to assist them in completing the sale.

Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA) funnel can be explained as follows:

• Awareness: Spreading awareness about your brand and explaining its connection to your good or service. This is the top of the funnel where animation can play a vital role in grasping customer attention, educating the customers about the brand, and highlighting its USPs. Well-curated and engaging 2D animations and explainer videos can efficiently communicate core messages and leave a positive mark.
• Interest: During this phase, the intention is to create curiosity and spark interest amongst the audience. The customer will look for the benefits of your product or service and investigate more about your brand. 2D animation is perfect for giving in-depth explanations, highlighting features, and benefits. It is effective at simplifying complicated ideas. In this case, explainer videos are beneficial.
• Desire: A desire needs to be created during this phase, making your customers want and like your product so that they become loyal to your brand. 2D animation videos can be used to demonstrate the character of your brand and create an emotional attachment to it.
• Action: This phase revolves around using effective calls-to-action (CTAs) to influence the buyer in buying your product. This is the conversion stage where 2D animation can put forward compelling CTAs. This final step towards conversion is important, and animation’s ability to affect emotions can be a strong stimulus.

The Power of Visual Storytelling

In modern communication, visual storytelling is a powerful tool. It can surpass language barriers and engage viewers. It has a lasting impact by combining attractive images with a storyline. This method captures interest, communicates complex concepts, and leaves a lasting impression on the audience’s mind. It is a powerful marketing tool. The impact of visual storytelling is undeniable.

How storytelling through animation captures the audience’s attention

Storytelling through animation is a marketing tactic that takes the viewers through a journey that tells them about the brand. Video storytelling can tell viewers about the problems that they are facing, create an emotional response, and offer a solution to them. Elements like catchy visuals, soundtrack and interesting characters can contribute to capturing the audience’s attention. In today’s era where people’s attention spans are shorter than ever, visual storytelling can be very effective. It is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than other forms of content.

The impact of visual content on marketing

In today’s age of digital marketing, visual content is ‘king.’ Marketers may boost participation, click-through rates, and brand recognition with the use of visual content.

Here’s why visual content is so effective in marketing:

It Creates a Compelling Story

Visual content like 2D animation offers more than just amusing cartoons. It gives your users an in-depth explanation of any topic – no matter how complex or abstract it is.

Simplifies Communication Through Visual Appeal

Visual content can make complex ideas easily understandable. Colorful and artistic 2D animations evoke feelings in viewers, helping them to connect with your message. With 2D animations, you can highlight what matters most while leaving out unnecessary details.

Visual Content is a Smart Investmen

Visual content has the potential to go a long way because it not only increases your rate of conversion but also enhances your profile on social media. It can provide you with a blank canvas to paint any scene you like. Brands can experience up to a 300% increase in their business leads when they use visual content.

Identifying your target audience and their pain points

When it comes to animation, it is essential to create content that will resonate with your intended audience. You can use various tools to identify your target audience, including Google Analytics, social media analytics, and customer surveys. These tools can help you gather data about your audience’s age, gender, location, income, education, interests, etc.

Choose your target market wisely, then find ways to communicate with them creatively. Plain text and images no longer do the trick – video animation has taken over!

A well-crafted script is the backbone of any successful animation. It must be able to address issues and goals that are important to your target customers. Your script can create a deep connection with the audience if it shows empathy for their problems and offers their solutions. Your video script should essentially cover the following points:

• What problem does your product/service solve
• How does your product/service solve this problem
• Why should the audience choose your company
• What should the audience do next (call, email, etc.)

Design & Animation Techniques

• Character Design:
  Character design refers to a kind of animation in which a character’s actions and dialogues are all animated. Animators can shape characters to show a specific personality, emotions, or take the viewers on a physical or mental journey.
• Frame-by-Frame Animation:
  Like the classic Disney shorts, frame-by-frame animation is any style of animation in which each frame is created individually. Although making this content is time-consuming, frame-by-frame animation gives room to techniques such as rotoscoping. It gives animators complete control over the animation.

• Kinetic Typography:
  Through kinetic typography, even a moving sentence can be transformed into a work of art. It is an informative and effective technique that highlights what you want to say. By highlighting the aesthetics of the text, you can improve the overall user experience of your brand.
• Shape Animation:
  Shape animation allows you to use geometry to your advantage and create successful corporate videos. It enables you to explain, educate, and effectively entertain your audience. Colorful shape animations can draw attention and explain complex concepts while saving time.
• Cut-out Technique:
  Characters, objects, and situations in the 2D animation cut-out technique are made up of individual, moveable pieces of art that are placed on top of one another. The cut-out technique requires far fewer drawings than a full-scale animation.
• Rigging in Spine:
  Spine offers a variety of tools designed to shape and enhance characters. It requires fewer art resources, freeing up time and money for your budget and project timeline.

Creating engaging characters and visuals

Developing characters that have unique traits and distinctive personalities is essential. Visual characteristics such as color schemes, typography, and imagery can give life to the characters. Connecting it back to the concept of ‘Marketing Funnel,’ we will now talk about the three levels of the funnel where different strategies can be applied.

Top-of-Funnel (TOFU) Strategies

Top-of-the-funnel, also known as ‘TOFU,’ is where people looking for information about your brand can be reached – no sales messages are appropriate here yet. TOFU is the awareness stage in the customer journey. At this point, prospective clients identify their issues and are looking for solutions from different brands. Because of this, the main focus of your animated video content should be on the customer needs and the solutions that you are offering. Videos that are “sales-oriented” and “promotional” are not appropriate at this point.

An example of a successful TOFU explainer video is Spotify, a music streaming service that has become increasingly popular. After releasing the app with a clever promotional video, Spotify gained millions of views and subscribers. The video’s cheery tone and emphasis on the platform’s ease of use made a great impact on the target audience.

Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) Strategie

Middle of the funnel (MOFU) is the consideration phase in the marketing process. The customers now know what they want and compare different possible solutions. Virtual tours, comparison videos, product demos, and case study videos are a few examples of the types of videos you can use here. Your customers have realized the intensity of their issues and are actively hunting for answers. Now is the time to show them how your product or service can improve their lives and solve their problems. If you want people to choose your brand, then you need to make an animated explainer film that grabs their attention, offers the best solution and convinces them to choose your brand.

Incorporating explainer videos into email marketing and social media

Explainer videos can be used in social media and email marketing. It is a powerful strategy for expanding and engaging your audience. It can assist you in raising brand awareness. For your marketing, video is like rocket fuel. It is a method that can take your business to new heights. It can result in increased email openings, click-throughs, and conversions.

Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU) Strategies

This is the last stage of the marketing funnel. Once a potential customer has reached the end of the funnel, you must convince them that you are the ideal person to solve their problems. Product demonstrations, tutorial videos, and testimonials are some of the videos that can be helpful. A brand should highlight all the benefits of its goods or services and why it is the most outstanding choice for the people. You can do so by highlighting your awards and company rankings to encourage a purchase. Being at this stage of the funnel is your last opportunity to persuade someone to buy. This is why good quality video content is very important here. Here, the goal is to turn a lead into an actual customer. So, calls-to-action (CTAs) and landing page links should be used in BOFU videos.

Leveraging testimonials and case studies in video form

Video testimonials and case studies are effective ways to generate online leads. They highlight your unique offerings, achievements, and also establish credibility with your customers. The first step here is to choose the ideal clients to include in your case studies and video testimonials. You must choose clients who have benefited significantly from your product or service. Therefore, the clients should also be able to talk about their experience in detail, while creating a connection with your ideal target market. The second stage is to create an engaging story for each case study and video testimonial. It must discuss the client’s issue, the solution they found with your good or service and the results that they got. Moving on, you should be able to optimize your video case studies and testimonials.

Make sure your videos are short, and well-produced. Ideally, your videos should be between one and three minutes long, with ample lighting, sounds, also having captions and subtitles. Make sure your case studies are also simple to read, scan, and download. The fourth step is delivering your case studies and testimonials to the audience. You can put videos on websites, landing pages, and blog posts. Additionally, you can share videos through email newsletters, and social media sites.

You can use Google Analytics, YouTube Analytics, landing page results, email software, or CRM to track and analyze the performance of your content and test its efficiency. You can decide what works for you and what doesn’t at this point. Moreover, based on data-driven insights, A/B testing can be beneficial for optimizing your video marketing content. You can experiment and compare the performance of two or more versions of your video to see which one generates better results.

Make data-driven improvements to your marketing funnel

By analyzing the different stages of the marketing funnel, from awareness to conversion, you can spot points where website visitors lose interest or face problems. You can track user activity and look for potential issues using Google Analytics or other tracking tools. However, you may use this information to make changes that will increase conversion rates and boost your profits through 2D and explainer animation videos.

You can also use up-selling and cross-selling marketing tactics through video animation. According to a 2022 HubSpot survey of more than 500 sales professionals, 72% of salespeople who upsell and 74% who cross-sell say it increases 30% of their revenue. So, incorporating these sales tactics can prove to be profitable for your company. The use of compelling 2D animations is a great way to up-sell and cross-sell.

Case Studies & Success Stories:

Here are a few real-world examples of 2D and explainer video animation case studies that have been successful.

1. Drop Box

Dropbox is one of the most popular file-hosting platforms, with millions of downloads on both Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. And, while it may seem a bit hard to digest, the explainer video contributed a lot to their success.

The Challenge

With Dropbox, the primary challenge was setting up a marketing strategy to allow Google to reach a wider audience without exceeding the specified budget.

The Results

The explainer video became a huge success overnight. It helped Google acquire 10 million global customers, which skyrocketed its revenue and helped them become an industry leader.

2. Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is a popular web application designed to help website owners optimize their landing pages by analyzing users’ interactions.

The Challenge

Despite being a successful blogger, Neil needed help to drive the required traffic for his new product. The traditional marketing strategies (including his blog) failed to deliver the expected results.

The Results

In one of his blog posts, Neil mentioned that the explainer video helped him earn $21,000 monthly.

3. Nirvana

Nirvana is a popular task management app for mobile users that you can use to create to-do lists and sync them across all devices. The general idea is to prioritize important tasks and increase your productivity throughout the day.

The Challenge

Since there are dozens of task management tools in the market, Nirvana needed to develop an explainer video describing how this product differed from other available options.

The Results

Nirvana has become one of the extensively popular task managers with nearly 50,000 downloads on the Google Play Store.

4. Google

Google used this explainer video with a flat design and simple visuals to showcase their router’s ‘congestion sensing’ technology.

5. Ikea

Since there are dozens of task management tools in the market, Nirvana needed to develop an explainer video describing how this product differed from other available options.

Key Takeaways from Successful Campaigns

✔ With every passing day, explainer videos gain more and more popularity in marketing

✔ Explainer videos are more affordable and successful at reaching a wider audience than conventional marketing techniques.

✔ You may create explainer videos to attract new clients and drive out the competition whether you run a small-scale business or a well-known company

Future Trends in Animated Marketing Funnels

Video marketing is an essential part of a brand strategy today, as it allows customers to engage through their preferred content type – video. It helps companies be SEEN, HEARD, and UNDERSTOOD by their target audiences. Some of the currently adopted and future trends in animated marketing include animated explainer videos. Animated explainer videos are becoming the most popular amongst B2B companies. From the financial sector, healthcare, and real estate to digital marketing – animated videos have reached different industries. Additionally, future trends also include the mix of 2D and 3D elements in videos. Creative animated commercial videos using both 2D and 3D often spark human emotions. They also help build stronger bonds between the brand and its customers.

Moreover, the mix of animation and live motion is an exciting feature that is also becoming popular. This allows the viewers to create an imagination in their minds while introducing the brand and its concepts. Whiteboard animation has also gained more attention in 2023. A whiteboard animation video looks like a process of “hand-drawing” the storyline. This kind of video has become so popular because it is cheaper to produce than a fully 3D animated video.

Lastly, brands have started to use an integrated marketing funnel, with video being an integral part of the funnel. From the first customer interaction with a brand to purchase, animated video can accompany the customer throughout the journey. It can support the customers with helpful tips, and recommendations at every step, making the experience even more exciting and fulfilling.