When you’re investing in an animated whiteboard or 2D explainer video for your business, you should have one or more business goals to attach to its performance, such as:

• Increasing traffic to your website, or a specific webpage
• Increasing phone or email enquiries
• Increasing online sales
• Growing your email list

These are all measurable activities that can be tested before and after implementing your video, so that you can gauge how well it performs.

If your video is embedded into a squeeze page (a stand-alone web page that gathers customer email addresses in return for a free offer) or a sales page, then you can test versions of that page with different wording, different positioning of your video on the page, and even different versions of your video with alternative calls to action.

A ‘Call to Action’ is a direct instruction to the viewer, and is usually placed at the end of the video.  It tells them what to do next to develop their relationship with your business.

When we’re developing a new video for one of our customers, we usually start with the call to action.  We also find out things such as: who your target customer is, where and how they will be watching your video, and what they need to know and understand about your product or service in order to then want to take your call to action.

Here are 9 calls to action that give you better results than just ending your video with your main website address or phone number.

1. Download your free report

A free special report, white paper, or manifesto, targeted to the wants and needs of your target customer, or dealing with the questions that they usually ask before they buy your product or service, is a great way to build your email list.

You can ask for the person’s first name and email address, so that you can then follow up with personalised emails, but you will get more opt-ins if you only ask for their email address. When we added a ‘First name’ field to the data capture box of our free report, we got about 50% fewer opt-ins than when we just asked for their email address.

We would recommend two versions of your whiteboard or explainer video with two different calls to action – one ending with the URL of the squeeze page for the free report, that you can post on your social media channels, and one to be displayed on the page itself, possibly ending with an arrow pointing to the data capture fields.

Once the viewer has opted-in, you can then plug their details into a ‘nurture sequence’ of automated emails, written around the features and benefits of your product or service, pointing to your blogposts or case studies, or alternative products that you have for sale. You can set up this nurture sequence in software such as MailChimp, Aweber or Infusionsoft.

2. Call you for a free, or chargeable, consultation

Very popular with service-based businesses, especially where the service is built around the needs of the customer, such as coaching, financial advisors, solicitors, recruitment companies, estate agents and so on.

Although a free consultation is the most popular call to action, you might find that charging for a consultation with a specific benefit to the prospective customer gives you better sales conversions.

It’s a powerful option especially when selling information-based services such as business coaching or consulting, marketing services, or legal or financial advice.

It’s a powerful option especially when selling information-based services such as business coaching or consulting, marketing services, or legal or financial advice.

Here’s the link to our blogpost defining this chargeable consultation strategy.

3. Buy your product with a special offer discount code

If you’re selling physical or digital products online, then having your video end with a special discount code, to be entered into the shopping cart, can work well on social media, giving better results than a picture ad pointing to the sales page.

4. Download a free chapter of your new book

Books about your industry, or on specific topics of relevance to your target customer, are becoming more and more popular as lead generation tools, to give away at events or offer for free on your website.

Your book doesn’t have to be 300 pages long, unless you want it to become a best-seller. Just 50-80 pages is a popular length for lead-generation purposes.

Your book can contain a special offer to encourage people to work with you, or links to special sales pages with discount offers.

Here are a couple of links to webpages advertising longer books for which we created promotional whiteboard videos – The Blue Zones Solution by Dan Buettner (narrated by the author) and Winning the Brain Game by Matthew May.

5. Buy your book on Amazon and get free bonuses

One of the ways of getting onto Amazon’s bestseller lists is to have a large promotion for pre-orders of the book. Your call to action could be, if people buy your book from Amazon within the pre-order period, then they receive a number of bonuses linked to the subject of your book.  The bonuses could be video training programs, or reports, that you have created yourself, or related training programs offered by partners or colleagues in your industry. The URL at the end of your video could be that of the Amazon page, or a special webpage that you have set up strictly for the pre-launch promotion, giving more details about the book, and stating that, in order to receive the bonuses, you need to be sent the Amazon Oder ID.  Once the book has been launched, you could change the call to action at the end of the video to point to your book’s website and display the logos of Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.

6. Take advantage of your tripwire offer

A Tripwire offer is also known as a ‘loss leader’. It’s where you charge a small amount, usually between $7 and $97, for something worth a lot more, to encourage people to progress to your more expensive products or services.

For example, an information marketer might offer 4-hour online training program worth $97 for just $7. Beside the ‘Add to Cart’ button would be your whiteboard or explainer video encouraging them to buy.

Once the viewer buys the program, they are then sent to an ‘Upsell’ page which offers a more expensive program in the same niche, such as a $497 program or 1:1 consultation, for just $97 (see point 2 above). Some internet marketers have a series of 4 or 5 ‘upsells’ linked to the original tripwire offer. The upsell pages can be set up using software such as Leadpages.

7. Attend a presentation

This strategy is popular with startups looking for investment. Their whiteboard or explainer video gives a brief overview of their business and what it’s aiming to achieve, and then invites the viewer to contact them to attend a presentation where they can learn more about the business.  The video acts as a teaser, giving enough information to inspire the viewer to want to find out more about it, and possibly invest in the business. A link to the video is usually emailed to potential investors along with dates of forthcoming presentations, or an invite to a 1:1 meeting.

8. Apply for ‘early-bird’ tickets to your conference

Similar to the book launch idea (see point 5 above), you can create a buzz about your forthcoming conference by offering tickets at an ‘early bird’ discount.  Your whiteboard or explainer video would give an overview of the theme of the conference, the subjects covered and the main speakers. You could have a main version of the video displayed on the sales page, next to the ‘Buy tickets’ button, and a shorter version of the video to advertise on social media channels pointing to the sales page.

9. Take a survey

Surveys, which are essentially questionnaires, are becoming more popular since the release of the book ‘Ask’ by Ryan Levesque. They are a great way to capture prospective client information, especially if the survey is promising to give the person targeted information to help them with their problems and make a more educated purchase.

For example, if you sell laptops, you could run a survey entitled ‘Which kind of laptop is best for you?’

You could ask a series of questions about the way in which they want to use their laptop, then ask them to enter their email address to find out the answer and be sent a discount voucher to buy one from you.

If you are a financial advisor, you could ask various questions about the person’s savings, income and weekly expenditure, then ask them for their email address to be sent a list of recommended financial products along with an offer for a discounted 1:1 consultation to provide them with a targeted savings plan (see point 2 above).

Short animated videos advertising the survey work well on social media because they offer something of common value for free, so are extremely shareable.

I hope you found these tips useful for growing your business.

If you would like to find out how Cartoon Media can produce an animated video, or series of video, to help you exceed your specific business goals, simply contact us here and we’ll be happy to help.