Using Video Or Animation To Improve User Engagement
As a User, you would have noticed an increase in video or animation on websites in recent years. What started as a trend on social media platforms, has become almost a necessity on websites. From mortgage advisors to dog trainers, to cake sellers – video and animation is a great addition to your website.
All about engagement
Digital marketing is all about engagement. Social Media may be looking for likes, comments and shares. A website is looking for a call to action to be fulfilled, a form completed, or a purchase made.
Specifically for websites, we are looking to increase engagement rate by measuring factors such as:
- Pages per session
- Time on video
- Bounce rate
- Scroll depth
- Conversions
An image tells a thousand words
Video or animation is a great way of telling your story and getting your message across. The User is left with images in their mind. Video and animation tend to be more accessible, and appeal to a wide market. The use of video or animation can overcome language difficulties or reading challenges.
Benefits of video and animation in improving engagement
Animation and video can be used to enforce your brand. It can tell your message, and show your logo in a different way which can be memorable. It can make it easier to understand encouraging your Users to remember your company more.
Simple
The most complex message can be easily understood. Imagine trying to explain a production process, or a customer’s journey in words – and then imagine showing it through video or animation. Quicker, simpler and more memorable.
Engaging
The User can watch, rewatch and share to a platform of choice. They can be entertained, and take in the information in a fun way if appropriate.
Emotional
It is easier to evoke an emotion with animation or video than it is with words. And that emotion is likely to stay with the User. This could be hard-hitting for a charity call-out, or amusing for, say a pet company.
SEO
Google loves a bit of animation and video!! Your ranking will improve and people will find your website easier.
Journey
You can take your User on a journey quickly to share more information in a shorter time, with less effort needed by them. Users have a short attention span and respond well to video and animation.
Accessible
Overcoming language and reading challenges, animation and video can be more accessible. With captions or a narrative, the audience increases further
Isn’t it complex and expensive?
Not anymore! You may be surprised at how easy it now is to produce 2D or 3D animation or have your own video put together. We would never recommend a DIY approach as it needs to be professional and slick to get the User engagement that you want – and to show your brand at its best. If you haven’t looked recently, you may be surprised at how accessible animation and video are.
Won’t it slow things down?
Quite possibly if you don’t work with an awesome web designer such as Popcorn! It is important to have your animation or video inserted into your website in the “right” way to make sure that not only does the video run quickly, but that it doesn’t clog up and slow down the performance of your website. We want animation and video to improve User engagement, not frustrate them!
Interested?
Why not give the team at Popcorn a call to find out how you could use animation or video as part of your digital marketing strategy, and improve User engagement on your website.
