No matter if your marketing goal is more traffic, more subscriptions or sales, your prospects look for some basic information about why they need what you’re offering and why you’re better than your competitors.

The problem is that nobody wants to read big chunks of text to get that information – and that’s where whiteboard videos come in to help you fully explain your product or service with an engaging story.

Whiteboard videos are very versatile but they are especially suitable for complex products/services such as IT solutions, software and business to business (B2B) campaigns that need a little more time to be fully explained.

All that being said, you may have noticed that there are thousands of whiteboard videos on the web but not all of them really deliver the appeal we’re talking about.

There are a few tricks and tips you need to know before making a killer whiteboard video that converts. Let’s review them and I’m sure at the end you’ll feel more confident.

1) Harness the power of storytelling

Since the dawn of time, human beings have been yearning for stories. Even the oldest cave paintings support that. Your marketing video should also take advantage of that deep human desire.

Let’s try to explain how to apply storytelling to marketing videos (not only whiteboard videos, but all of them).

Your story needs to answer three basic questions: what, how and why.

• What problem does your product/service solve?
• How does it solve it?
• Why is it the best choice in the market to solve that problem?

First, you need to focus on your prospect’s need or pain point. Then, your product/service will show up to sort it out. Finally, you’ll explain your product’s differentiators or provide information to prove that your product is the right choice. Oh, and you need to do all that in 90 seconds!

Don’t panic. Just think of a story in which your target audience has a problem (their pain point) and your product is the hero who will help them. It’s not so difficult, right?

With our explainer video production company, Yum Yum Videos, we created this video for an IT company. Check it out and you’ll see this story and its three moments crystal clearly:

Spigit – Whiteboard Animated Explainer Video

At http://yumyumvideos.com we produced this custom animated explainer video (whiteboard) for Spigit, a management software that helps you invent new products and experiences with the best people for each specific industry.

In the first 30 seconds, we explain the audience’s problem. Then, after the logo appears, we explain how this software can solve it and at the end, we provide some stats to prove why the product is very efficient to do that task.

2) Create relatable characters

Once you have your story, you’ll need animated characters who will drive it forward. A video that resonates with the intended audience should grab their attention from the first second. You’ll achieve that by customizing your characters to represent your target audience. Think about their gender, average age, overall style and tone and create your character according to that data.

In the previous video, the “Head of Innovation” represents the target audience. This likeable and funny character helps the prospect feel connected with the story.

3) Keep it fun!

In general, this is a valuable piece of advice for any explainer video but with whiteboard videos, this is essential. Whiteboard videos’ educational focus should never be confused with a boring style. Please, don’t do that!

A simple hint of humor will enhance your brand’s message and keep your audience entertained.

Your character could be funny, you can refer to something funny in your story or add some funny secondary characters. Don’t you think those sheep in the previous video are funny and likable at the same time?

4) Keep the classic whiteboard’s elements

What’s a whiteboard video without a white background? That’s the first element to achieve that simple and clean style that you need to make your story shine.

You’ll also need a hand that will draw the whole story. Back in the old days, the artist used to draw everything live in front of the camera. Today, the digital artist uses a digital image of a hand to mimic that first analogic experience.

Last but not least, that hand will be holding a black marker and it will look like this:

5) Brand your video

Right now we count on a powerful story, likeable characters and a black and white style. Then, how will you represent your brand? Easy as pie! Just add a hint of color!

Your brand’s colors can help you highlight some important parts of the story. This video style helps the audience retain more information, that’s why it’s important that they also remember your brand.

Your logo also needs to appear, in general, before the second part of the script (the how).

As an example, check the first video and look for the orange highlights. Bear in mind that you need to use your exact brand color so that it matches your logo.

6) Only accept the highest quality

The Whiteboard style may seem easy to get but in fact, it is one of the most difficult ones.

Nowadays, people watch several videos per day so they are used to knowing what’s great and what’s lame. If they feel your video is cheap, they will back out without hesitating. Simply put, that means a higher bounce rate on your landing page and lower ranking in the page results. You’ll end up wasting money and time for a video that won’t show the results you’re looking for.

So, don’t skimp on quality! Pay attention to the animation design. Keep in mind that it needs to resemble a hand-made drawing made with a magic marker or a stylish pen and that’s not so easy to do with digital art.

Take a look at this fine capture and its shading to know how a professional artist should do it:

7) Hire a professional voice actor

In a whiteboard video, characters don’t speak. Their voice is a voice-over that needs to be recorded separately.

To choose the right voice is the key to truly represent your audience. It needs to match their gender, age and tone. That’s why it’s very important to hire a professional voice-actor who should be a native speaker (of the country of the target audience) to tell your story.

Of course there are some free automated voice generators on the web but they sound robotic and lame. Try them and you’ll agree with me. Believe me, that mistake could ruin your video instead of building that priceless bond with your audience.

8) Interconnect your drawings

A professional whiteboard video needs to be planned as a whole because every scene should be connected with the next one. Remember that whiteboard videos are actually telling a story by drawing it in front of the viewer’s eyes so it should flow seamlessly in order to maintain your viewer’s attention.

The secret is a continuous and interconnected drawing. Of course, sometimes you’ll need to clean the whiteboard and start from scratch but try to do this as few times as possible. You don’t want to break the story into too many pieces and lose your audience’s attention.

Let’s watch an example:

Fraudlogix – Whiteboard Explainer Video

At http://www.yumyumvideos.com we created this whiteboard animation video production for Clickfraud Solution. If you want to learn more about how we can help you with your custome animated explainer video, please visit us at https://www.yumyumvideos.com/ You can also write us at barry@yumyumvideos.com Enjoy! Script transcript below: Meet Steve.

How cool is that? Interconnected drawings have a huge power to grab your audience’s attention. Note that this video is a little longer than the average 90 seconds that we mentioned before, but it’s still engaging.

Leverage interconnected drawings and your audience will feel visually appealed to your story and they’ll keep watching until the end of the video. The longer they watch, the more time your brand message will have to sink in. Talking about the end…

9) Don’t forget your call to action (CTA)

At the end you need to tell your audience what they should do next. Whether it is to buy a product, like, share, sign up to an email list, visit your site or download an eBook, ask for that action and support that message with the right image. This is an example:

If you upload your video on YouTube, which I definitely recommend you do, you can leverage YouTube’s features to maximize engagement. Try YouTube cards and end cards to achieve your marketing goals.

But remember that first you need that your prospects keep watching through until the end of your video, so let’s review all the tips you’ve learned in this article to create a killer whiteboard video that converts.

Wrapping up…

Whiteboard videos are very versatile but they’re a must when it comes to complex products or services.

With an engaging story, you can maintain your audience’s attention through the whole video. Given that you’ll state your audience’s pain point from the start, they’ll feel connected with your product/service. At least one of the characters needs to be fully customized to fit your target audience. Make it likeable and fun. Even if it’s a B2B service there is no need to be so serious!

Look for the highest quality. Remember that the devil is in the details and only a professional video production company will ensure a stellar video that elevates your brand and makes it distinguishable from the crowded marketplace we live in today.

Don’t forget your call to action or you’ll lose those precious leads who, by the end of your video, will have totally embraced your brand!

Note: The opinions expressed in this article are the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of Caphyon, its staff, or its partners.

If we match those two statements with the rise of video as the most engaging type of content on the internet today, working on your Youtube SEO strategy to rank high, should be at the top of any business’s priority list.

In this article, we are going to discuss the best way to go about doing this.

I’ve broken down this post into the following topics:

• Why your business needs to be on YouTube
• Keyword research
• Optimizing video elements
• Video creation
  • Best types of video marketing to rank on YouTube
  • How long should the video be?
  • How to hook the audience
  • What’s the most important segment of the video?
  • How to create a video for audience retention
  • Using keywords for SEO purposes
• Calls To Action
• Playlists

Why your business needs to be on YouTube

In 2019, having an effective online presence means using video marketing to communicate your brand to the world. YouTube should be the first platform that comes to mind when thinking about showcasing your video content. After all, it does have over 1.5 billion monthly active users viewing more than 5 billion videos per day.

If the magnitude of its reach is not enough to convince you, here are a few more facts to help you see why it is important to have your video on Youtube:

YouTube attracts about ⅓ of users on the internet – Having your video on YouTube will not guarantee views, but if you want to start somewhere, it’s probably a smart idea to begin by being where 33% of worldwide users hang out online.

Millennials prefer YouTube 2:1 over traditional television – The word “millennial” is not just a buzzword, it’s more like an indication of where to find the influencers of the 21st century. It’s probably wise to follow their tracks.

By 2025, it’s predicted that 50% of viewers under 32 will not subscribe to paid TV – Yet another reason why online video will rule for years to come.

Keyword research

Now that your video is on YouTube (let’s hope), you have to make sure your content gets found. That’s why it is imperative that you use the right keywords to help you drive traffic to it. Here’s a brief rundown of how to do this:

1. Make a list of very specific keywords that best describe your content.
2. Head over to Google’s keyword planner and see which of these drive the most traffic.
3. Once you’ve identified the most popular keywords, come up with both a title and description that uses said keywords.

Optimizing video elements

Tags

Like keywords, using tags the right way will allow you to reach the right audience. So choose words and phrase that best describe your video. One way to do this is by putting yourself in your audience’s shoes and asking yourself which search terms you would use in order to find your video.

Finally, don’t fall into the trap of using generic tags just because they have a larger reach. Being specific with your tags will allow you to reach audiences that will actually engage with your video. Keep in mind that it’s about how much time users spend watching your video and not about how many views your video has.

Video description

This is an opportunity to describe your video with all the keywords you researched earlier. It is also an opportunity to add useful information and links that viewers can later reference.

If it’s pertinent, you can also add links to your other videos. This way, you’ll be making it easier for your audience to reach any useful information mentioned in your video.

Title

The title should be a cohesive snippet that describes the content of your video to perfection. It has the duty of doing this while incorporating the relevant keywords that will rank your video higher in the search engines. So be descriptive but brief.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails are like mini advertisements for your video. You only get one chance with them before users scroll past you, so make them stand out. Use colorful images that best describe what your video is about and avoid abstract looking images.

Video creation

Best types of videos to rank on YouTube

There are many videos you can publish on YouTube. Here’s a quick rundown of the ones I think will give you the best ranking.

Explainer videos

Besides using it for entertainment, YouTube is often used as a resource to learn about new things. At first, during the discovery phase, you just want to watch someone explain things briefly instead of having to read dozens upon dozens of blog posts. A primer on the topic. 

Explainer videos do a great job at this, and when it comes to introducing a new idea or process, having this kind of video on YouTube and tagging it as such will definitely get you some hits.

How-to Videos

Users will eventually want to get into the nitty-gritty of the topic they are researching. To do this, they are very likely to search the term “how-to” and then fill in the blank. Not only is it a popular keyword, it is also a very popular genre of video, which you can later organize into playlists to make it easier for potential subscribers to find.

Product Videos

Businesses will often have a video about their product on their company’s site (especially on eCommerce platforms). This is of course a good idea, but a better idea is to make sure these videos are on YouTube. User’s will flock to YouTube to look for all kinds of videos about the product.

They don’t care who makes it as long as it gives them a well rounded picture of what the product is. A good idea is to make many videos showcasing a different product feature in each video. You can then reference each video to each other through playlists or by way of the description.

How long should the video be?

The length of your video will vary depending on the type of video you want to make. In my experience, explainer videos are best kept under the two minute mark.

However, how-to videos will require more time allotted to them since they have a lot more content to get through. As long as it is engaging and you hook them early on then you should be fine. This brings me to my next point.

How to hook the audience

According to some research, “20% of users will leave a video if it hasn’t hooked them in the first 10 seconds.” In other words, you better make your video memorable and fast.

Cut to the chase by telling your audience what your video is about as soon as playback starts. You can do this in the form of a question so that it is clear that the remainder of the video will be spent answering it. This way you are telling your audience what the video is about while also peeking their interest.

Another good way to do this is by showing the end result of some process right at the beginning and then letting your audience know that the rest of the video will be spent showing them how you got there.

What’s the most important segment of the video?

With video, you are basically creating a story. And with any story, there should be a beginning, a middle and an end. So which one is the most important?

Short answer, every segment of your video should be considered equally important. However, they are important in their own specific way. I’ll be succinct in explaining this:

1. In the beginning you hook the audience.
2. Then you give them the meat of your argument/content.
3. And in the end, you reel them in with a call to action.

Not one of these segments works without the other, so pay special attention to make sure each one is doing its part accordingly.

Calls To Action

Not only should your video be informative, it should also be persuasive enough for the viewer to take some kind of action. It could be anything. You can call on them to visit your website, subscribe to your channel and newsletter, or even purchase your product.

Be elegant as to how you go about it though, so that it doesn’t feel like you’re desperately and indiscriminately building spammy email lists.

The point here is to get your audience to opt in voluntarily so that you can follow up with them with something they’ll find valuable in return. A call to action should drive this message home. This means being clear as to what they’ll get in terms of value for taking any specific action.

Playlists

With the use of playlists, you can organize content into topics or themes. The point of doing this is to make it easier for users to find and consume your video. Getting into the habit of doing this will help drive views to videos that might have been overlooked had they not been part of a themed playlist.

Of course, don’t just bundle together random videos for the sake of it. The playlists should feel way more valuable than the individual videos that are within them. Or at least that’s how you should think about it when making them.

Conclusion

YouTube is a great platform to host and promote your video. In order to do so, you will have to work on building the right kind of content and make sure it is easily found by your users. This means doing it in a way that appeals to user’s psychology as well as YouTube’s algorithms. So be prepared to use keywords, tags and visuals that consider these two variables.

A simple title may be enough for a human to gauge a video’s content without any further context, but it may not be enough for a search engine to do the same and rank it with the most relevant searches. The key is testing different angles while thinking wholesomely of how to best build your brand’s YouTube presence in a way that stands out.

Note: The opinions expressed in this article are the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of Caphyon, its staff, or its partners.