Bring Your Brand To Life With B2B Animated Videos

Let me just start out by saying that I’m almost definitely biased when it comes to animation. I’ve had months-long intellectual debates on Pixar’s Cars and could share Oswald the Lucky Rabbit lore that would change your entire outlook on life.

But when it comes to B2B animation, I’m being entirely objective when I say your viewers will thank you.

It’s not just about captivating visuals, accessible ideas and content designed for the era of short attention spans. B2B animated videos are a tool that helps fill in the gaps between other types of communication.

Here’s what I mean, why it matters and how to harness the power of animation.

Why B2B Video Matters to Your Brand

Marketing is all about choosing the right tool for the job. If you’ve ever had your favorite book turned into a movie that just felt wrong, you might know what I mean. The truth is that some stories are best told using a specific medium — and changing that medium irrevocably alters the experience.

B2B video is just one tool in your repertoire, but it does things a blog, social post, white paper or infographic may not be able to achieve alone. For example:

Enhancing Communication

In the writing world, we know that “show, don’t tell” is a big deal — and video marketing is the pinnacle of showing. It’s a perfect way to explain complex concepts or ideas, breaking down your products, services or value propositions with less confusion and more engagement.

Building Brand Consistency

Animated video content gives your brand a distinct personality and tone, helping you remain memorable to your B2B audience. If a single picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what a fun, fluid animation style can do.

Increasing Reach and Visibility

If you want more people to see your content, you have to bring it to them. That means posting on video-focused sites like YouTube and TikTok — which also means capturing traffic from users who might start there instead of a search engine.

Inspiring Action

Videos are a great way to lay out specific instructions, and that’s especially true for CTAs. Clear, enticing invitations to take the next step can help minimize confusion and encourage viewers to act in the moment. 

Improving ROI

Short-form videos are one of the top-performing content types when it comes to ROI. That means you can get more bang for your marketing buck — especially if you know how to repurpose content for different campaigns, channels and media types.

The Difference Between Animation and Live-Action (+ Benefits of Each)

By now, you might have a lot of ideas for your B2B video marketing campaign — but do you know how to bring them to the screen?

You have two basic options: animation and live-action. 

Animation

Animation is all about motion and illusion. From traditional hand-drawn and stop-motion animation to 3D and CGI, this filmmaking style is all about bringing art to life. 

Here’s an example:

There are elements of emotion, movement and contrast here that give this moment a sense of tenderness that would feel totally different with real dogs. Plus, it’s cute.

Benefits

Whether you love 3D or you’re sticking to the classic 2D animation, you get the flexibility of the fantastic. That means you can exaggerate expressions, body language, activity, perspective and even color to tell bigger stories. Also, because you’re free to animate any background or character you can imagine, there’s no need to worry about scouting locations or hiring actors with the right physicality. 

Perhaps most importantly, you can experiment with different animation styles until you find one that creates the right mood and emotional response in viewers. That’s the thing about this video type: Everything from the color of the sky to the way you draw your characters’ eyes is telling a story even before you’ve written or said a word.

When To Use It

If you’re trying to exaggerate an emotion, simplify visuals or immediately create a unique tone, animation may be the best video production approach.

Live-Action

If animation brings art to life, then live-action filmmaking is all about making real life into art. Despite its name, this style may include elements of CGI and special effects — but its main value is in its depiction of realism.

Check it out:

See? Still cute, but that cuteness is based more on the dog than any anthropomorphized emotions used to make the point.

Benefits

A live-action video has the benefit of being grounded, practical and immediately relatable, while different animation styles can rely heavily on the viewer’s creative and artistic preferences. Plus, you may have easier access to cameras, everyday props, eager actors and even stock footage than 3D animation programs (or the skill to hand-draw an entire B2B business video using 2D animation).

When To Use It

B2B marketers tend to choose this style when telling down-to-earth, realistic stories or depicting specifics in a product video.

How To Create a B2B Animated Video That People Will Want to Replay 

If you want to get the most out of your video strategy, it’s important to know how to put animation to work. Check out these quick tips:

• Focus your efforts: Do you want to create whiteboard videos explaining a basic concept to the average B2B buyer, or are you hoping to craft thought leadership videos that challenge and engage the whole industry? Will you use voice actors or on-screen text? Always know your focus before taking additional steps.
• Choose your approach: Remember, every element of an animated video contributes to the overall mood — so think about how you’ll depict the main beats of your story. (Hint: Storyboarding is key here!)
• Keep it short and sweet: Today’s audiences are less patient and more demanding, so get to the point quickly, offer immediate value and let your captivating visuals do some of the talking.
• Have a point: Every B2B marketing video should have a primary goal for you (generating leads, increasing conversions, boosting engagement) and for your viewer (requesting a demo, sharing the video, making a purchase).
• Use good video storytelling techniques: Even a training video can benefit from best practices like knowing your audience, including a strong hook, leveraging conflict and having a satisfying resolution.

No matter what kind of animated video your B2B marketing strategy needs, just remember that you’re bringing art to life. Without you, it would be stuck on the page or computer screen forever.