Officials at The Draw Shop would have you know that everyone from the United Nations to Twitter uses whiteboard videos to advance their views. The term whiteboard video describes the recording of any creative story being drawn on a whiteboard. This unique medium has been scientifically proven to communicate ideas and messages in a way that gets people leaning forward and engaging.
What’s more, whiteboard videos have shown to substantially increase customer engagement levels.
Loyalty360 will host a webinar titled, “Producing the Best Whiteboard Video For Your Company,” on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, at 1 p.m. EDT, which will be presented by The Draw Shop. Founder and CEO Summer Felix-Mulder will be the webinar’s featured speaker and some of the themes she will focus on will be:
What types of companies benefit most from whiteboard video,
The science behind what makes a good whiteboard video script, and
Tips on marketing your whiteboard video
Loyalty360 talked to Bruce Lilly, lead copywriter, The Draw Shop, to find out more about this intriguing topic.
Can you talk to our audience about whiteboard videos, what they are, and how they can drive customer engagement, customer experience, and customer loyalty?
Lilly: Sure thing! So about 90 percent of the information sent to your brain is visual and video. And whiteboard video—at its core is just a video of a skilled artist drawing on a whiteboard while a beautiful voice reads a carefully honed script—is the BEST way to get your message across to anyone because of this.
While people generally read only 28 percent of the content of any given site, with whiteboard video people generally stick around for the whole ride. What also helps drive customer engagement is that whiteboard videos hold people’s attention for longer than the average attention span. That’s because they’re created bit by bit in front of you. This mimics the natural way we study.
Whiteboard videos are actually proven to increase learning by up 15 percent, which is perfect for introducing everything from amazing new technologies and ideas to pretty much any product or service—and doubly amazing for classrooms.
Whiteboard videos are also proven to increase conversion rate by 20 percent, or up to 80 percent when placed on a landing page. That’s because people love explainer videos in general. And when you give people what they love, they love you back!
Can any brand leverage a whiteboard video to enhance customer engagement?
Lilly: Yes. Whether your message is a training curriculum, a crowdfunding initiative, a product, or service that might not be the sexiest or most glamorous thing in the world—whiteboard video makes it eye-poppingly attractive and impossible to misunderstand.
Now, should every brand leverage a whiteboard video to increase customer engagement? The short answer is no. You need to meet your customer where they are, where they hang out, where they live, and in whatever means they like to interact. You need to take it on a case-by-case basis. That means having a myriad of solutions—everything from podcasts for people who love listening to stuff in the car to infographics for the big-time readers. A customer engagement strategy needs to be nuanced, and while whiteboard is a spectacular marketing tool, it has to be used in the right context, for the right job. That’s why we always chat with clients before getting started to make sure we can provide a maximum probability of success if customer engagement is indeed their goal!
What are the main components of a whiteboard video?
Lilly: If you’ve seen one you probably know this. Generally, whiteboard videos are laid out in a step-by-step manner. With each new discovery or section of a well-done whiteboard, the brain gets a burst of dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter—making even the driest products or services a blast to engage with!
To make this work, we need to know exactly what information needs to be communicated, how would be the most effective way to communicate it, and who should be the voice behind the words and pictures? Of course, we have our proprietary ways honed over thousands of jobs to make this work just right and to be simple for the client. But the basics are, you need information, then you need context.
After that, you need a wonderfully talented copywriter, a ninja drawing expert, and a magician of a voice-over professional. And in the end, you need a great and experienced team to tie it all together and get it seen into the world! So many people forget to market their videos properly, and that’s just like deciding to lay down on the one-yard line, a step away from a touchdown. Don’t do it!
What makes a good whiteboard video script?
Lilly: Without getting too into our proprietary writing mechanisms, a good whiteboard script needs to connect with the specific target audience, engage them at the heart, have them lean forward, and then lead them to take action.
Of course, if I had to choose one thing, it would be understanding your customer.
Without that, all bets are off. With it, you’ve got an amazing start.
What do you foresee for the future of whiteboard videos?
Lilly: You’ve got virtual reality whiteboard, cartoons, IWs (interactive whiteboards)—but really, I think the whiteboard video is here to stay. Your question reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Douglas Adams:
“Books are sharks … Sharks have been around for a very long time. There were sharks before there were dinosaurs, and the reason sharks are still in the ocean is that nothing is better at being a shark than a shark.”
The simple fact is, nothing is better at being a whiteboard video than a whiteboard video. And as long as they keep doing what they do, bringing customers closer to brands, they’ll be around forever.