Yes, you read that statement right. Whiteboard Animation can make your brand appear more authentic and build trust with your target audience.
Online marketing has shifted significantly over the last few years. Whereas the onus used to be on using psychological tricks to encourage visitors to your website to buy from you (whether they wanted to or not), or being the one in your niche who shouts the loudest, we are now moving to a more trust-based marketing approach, where relationships are built with your customers over time.
Amazon are one of the main companies who have perfected this approach, especially by using its Prime membership to offer free next-day delivery on any purchase for a small annual fee, and having a reliable returns policy.
But we now live in an age where big business doesn’t necessarily mean trusted business. Car manufacturers are caught fixing emissions tests. High street names reveal massive holes in their employee pension funds. And is it really being made clear how your branded T-shirt was sewn together by a 10-year old earning a pittance in poor working conditions?
Authenticity is the new keyword in marketing, and it’s an area where small businesses can triumph over larger competitors. Build a name for being a trusted, reliable, truthful business and see your customer base grow by word of mouth.
But if you’re a small business, how do you get that message across to new visitors to your website, who might only spend a few seconds browsing your homepage before moving on?
Having a short Whiteboard Animation video on your homepage will immediately encourage visitors to spend longer on your website and understand how your business works, and why you are better than your competitors, in less than 2 minutes.
Whiteboard Animations build trust and authenticity in the following three steps:
1. They make the audience feel more at ease
Rather than coming across as an obvious advert, Whiteboard Animations are an ‘infotainment’ environment where your message is being conveyed in an entertaining way. This initially lowers the viewer’s internal ‘sales barrier’, enabling them to be receptive to your message.
2. They inform rather than sell
Usually you wouldn’t expect someone to buy your product or service after watching a short Whiteboard Animation video. Instead, it’s a valuable link in your sales funnel, with its main aims being to educate and build trust. By the end of your video, the viewer should know enough about your product or service, and how it will benefit them, which will encourage them to take the call to action at the end of the video. This call to action could be to call you for a free consultation, enter their email address in return for a free report, or complete an online survey. If your video is being hosted on the likes of YouTube, it could just encourage viewers to visit your website to learn more about you.
3. They show that you know how to solve the viewer’s problem
A common structure for Whiteboard Animations is Problem > Solution > Call to Action. The problem and solution can be conveyed either in a story, which highlights the plight of your target customer, or in an informational way that talks directly to the viewer.
If your business model is well known (for example, a cleaning company or estate agent) then you only need to educate the viewer of your unique approach to solving their problem. Your approach will be (hopefully) unique to your business, which will help set you apart from your competitors.
If, however, your business model is more revolutionary, your video may also need to spend some time detailing the actual problem, as your audience might not be aware that the problem affects them as much as it does, or that there is a solution to it.
The main aim here is that you come across as the experts in your niche by highlighting the problem and solution from your unique angle, which will then resonate with the viewer if they are affected by that problem.
If you just try to entice viewers to buy your product or service without them knowing what makes it perfect for them, your efforts will fail. An effective Whiteboard Animation video, tailor-made to your business, will help to build your army of followers who trust you to deliver the solution to their problem.
If you’d like to find out more about how our custom-made Whiteboard Animation videos can help your business build trust and authenticity, please click here to contact us for a free, no obligation consultation.