We’ve teamed up with Human Factors International to show you why it’s critical to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) of user experience. Human Factors International partnered with Truscribe Whiteboard Videos to add the visual element to Dr. Susan Weinschenk’s testimony of why it’s critical to invest time and resources in the user experience in order to save money long term.

The ROI of the User Experience

In an effort to show how user experience affects ROI, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) released a report about why software fails. The report estimates the amount of money spent on worldwide information technology is $1 trillion per year. Yet the percentage of projects that are abandoned each year because they are deemed inadequate is 15%. The report also states that three of the 12 reasons new projects fail center around user experience.

Dr. Weinschenk goes on to give an example of how ROI changes if user experience is tested. She used the example of a micro lending company, which is a nonprofit organization that looks to people for donations and then takes that money to fund other small businesses. This is a business where people donate on the website. It is estimated that 50 customers will abandon the effort to donate money because the searching and donating part of the website is too difficult to navigate.

Yet if the micro lending company invested $100,000 to fix the user experience and the back-end coding, it would take just over a month (approximately 40 days) to recoup the investment. Other ways that improving user experience impacts ROI is through reduced training requirements and fewer calls to a help desk.

Finally Dr. Weinschenk uses the following quote from Albert Eintstein to illustrate Human Factors International’s philosophy.

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” — Albert Einstein

These days, nearly every successful business has integrated video into its website presence. Obviously we love creating video that helps our clients drive traffic, engage viewers, and share their message. While whiteboard animation video and our Scribology™ can be highly effective for a wide-variety of content types, there are a few video styles that work better for some content.

Software Demos – Screen Capture

If you are a software or SaaS company you’ve probably created quite a few screen capture videos that highlight the design and function of your product. It’s hard to imagine doing a video about your product, without showing your actual product. We have created a lot of software sales videos, but in this case of showing off the actual interface we recommend Screen Capture.

Personal Introductions – Talking Head

Whenever Apple creates a new product video, they show the experts behind it. When you need to give your product or service more ‘humanity’, talking head videos are great. When you have a someone in your team who is charismatic and can really show the personal side of your business, it’s a shame NOT to use them. Talking heads work best when you can show people from the waist up and they can be highly emotive with their hands and body. We use real hands and hand-drawn images to achieve this ‘humanity’ effect that

“Day in the Life” and Behind the Scenes

It is human nature for people to be voyeurs into other people’s lives. (Why do you think reality television is so popular?) Use this concept to your advantage by creating a “day in the life” video that take customers behind the scenes of your business. Use video footage to introduce your employees, show a storeroom, or highlight a brainstorming session. We did a realy quick one of these for a local newspaper event. It can be great for getting ‘regular staff’ involved.

Event Highlights

Events are visual, providing great potential for video footage. If your company participates in or hosts events, take advantage of this opportunity by creating quick and easy videos of your presence. For example, shoot some video of your company reps at a booth talking with customers. Or if a company representative speaks at an event, include some footage of the presentation as well. Then be sure to post the video on your website and YouTube channel. This strategy provides the added benefit of people searching for the event and finding your company’s site.

Integrating video into your website and marketing strategy is one of the best ways to increase search traffic and engagement on your business website. If you’re interested in whiteboard animation we’d love to work with you to create videos that are really effective for a majority of your content. However, if you have software demos or need to show real people doing real things, there are some alternatives you’ve probably already thought about.

If you think there’s another type of video content you think whiteboard animation would be less suited for, make a comment below.

In not very much time, Pinterest became the third most popular social network. And over the last year, the social media giant took a big leap forward by integrating video sharing capability to its platform. In other words, you can now pin YouTube and Vimeo videos to Pinterest boards.

As a marketing professional for your company, you cannot afford to ignore the power of Pinterest. Social media critics note that this platform is driving more traffic to websites than Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google Plus combined. Video integration will have great appeal to web users who like sharing more artistically designed content, which mirrors Pinterest’s visually inclined user base. Here are five tips to help your company get the most out of video sharing on Pinterest.

1. Make videos specifically for Pinterest

One of the most unique aspects of Pinterest is its unique brand and image. Don’t simply pin all your YouTube videos to Pinterest (although you can). Many brands are developing video campaigns to encourage users to follow them on Pinterest and pin their items. Create specific videos for Pinterest and consider a Pinterest-only campaign for your company.

2. Create pinboards for video.

Don’t make the mistake several companies have made by placing all of your videos on a single pinboard and then entitling it, “videos.” Be specific in your boards and descriptions, and look for ways to pair themed videos with like boards and use keyword-rich descriptors.

3. Use an appealing thumbnail image.

Pinterest is all about the appeal of a visual image. Create an eye-catching image to go with your video to increase the likelihood of pins and click-throughs.

4. Make it easy to pin and repin.

When you have video on your website or YouTube channel, always include a “pin this” social sharing button along with each video. Another idea to encourage pinning is to include the words “pin this video to Pinterest” at the end of each video.

5. Repin other videos

Remember it’s all about social sharing and the way to build momentum and pins on Pinterest is to repin others. Just as you would with appealing images, repin other companies’ videos.

Pinterest had more than 23 million unique visitors and more than 1. 7 billion monthly page views in July 2012. Video allows you to tell a compelling visual story and Pinterest gives you the ability to share that story with millions. If your company is not yet using Pinterest for video, you are missing out on what is one of the best ways to share your story and drive traffic to your company website.

One of the toughest life stages a person faces is when a family member is ailing. Yet those times also can provide memorable interactions and stories that beg to be remembered.

We’ve teamed up Blank on Blank to show you how a precious moment with a loved one can be captured through the process of video scribing. In this case, Bono, the world-renowned musician from the band U2, reflected upon his father’s final days. Blank on Blank partnered with TruScribe Whiteboard Videos to add the visual element to Bono’s story so listeners can literally see what is being said.

Remembering a Father

In late 2001, Anthony Bozza, journalist for Rolling Stone magazine, was writing a story looking back at the year’s memorable moments. As part of his research, he recorded a conversation with Bono of U2. They talked about performing in America just days after September 11. And when asked what his most memorable personal encounter of the year was, Bono said it was sitting by his father’s bedside the days and hours before he died.

Bono describes the conversations he had with his father, and how he went into the hospital room armed with a pint of Guinness and a chaser because he didn’t want his father to be alone at night. He describes a personal epiphany he had while sitting with his dying father. He describes that all he wanted for his father was to keep his dignity. Yet he wasn’t able to do that because cancer is not a dignified disease.

Bono states that as he sat holding his father’s hand, he realized the two most important events of one’s life – birth and death – are actually very messy. The insight was that perhaps dignity is, in fact, a human construct. And that it is humility that is the eye of the needle that all people must pass through.

Beyond Listening

TruScribe knows just how important listening is. But just like how experiencing the loss of a loved one is not an easy task, listening isn’t enough when it comes to retaining information. That’s why we combine audio and video messaging. And by doing so, the retention rate is increased by 65%, more than six times more effective than audio alone.

By using drawings that illustrate those last few days and conversations between Bono and his father, the viewer can actually see what precious moments were had in these days and hours. And during a time where photographs are rarely taken, coupling a personal narrative with video scribing is a way to memorialize the loved one for years to come.

1. Think About Your Messaging and Tone

Once your script length and structure have been determined, it’s time to look at the message and tone you want to send viewers. To best understand the tone, jot down answers to the following questions before writing.

• Who are you telling the story to?
• Will the tone be personal and conversational, or informative using an expert?
• What is the overall message you want to convey?
• What kind of content are you providing? You content or Them content?
• What makes your company different from competitors?

Once the questions are answered, shorten the word length to capture as much of the important details as possible. Then use these written points to help determine the structure you will develop in Tip #2.

2. Determine Your Script Structure

You will want to know from the beginning—before you start writing—the approximate length of your video and how you will break down each component. For example, if your video will be longer than five minutes, consider breaking the script into two or three key segments. Developing an outline, before you draft it, will allow you to develop a stronger, more meaningful message for your audience.

Remember: If the message you deliver is mostly about you, a shorter video tends to work better. If the message is more entertaining or highly valuable to your audience, you can often go longer. Consider 160 words a minute as a general guide. Determining the video length and number of segments helps tremendously before you write the script.

3. Know Your Call to Action

Every marketing piece you create should include a call to action. This includes any video you produce. Always state the call to action clearly at the end of your video. Call-to-action messages do not have to ask for thousands of dollars. A call to action includes lines such as, “Register today,” “Contact us,” or “Like our Facebook page.” Even if the goal of your video is not to sell, it’s important to include some type of call to action in order to measure your video’s success.

Writing a video script does not have to be a daunting process. First, answer a few basic questions about the content to determine the Message and Tone. Then, determine the length and develop an outline before you create your first draft. And finally clearly articulatethe action you would like your viewers to take once they have finished watching. Once those three steps are taken, you will have a script draft ready for review.

To succeed in a competitive marketplace where consumers are growing increasingly annoyed by intrusive advertising, your message needs to reach your target audiences and inspire them to respond in some way. You need your target audiences to do more than see or hear your message – you need them to pay attention, understand, remember and take action.

But your message can easily become tied down by message-trapping strings, holding it back from its full potential. In our recent “5 Strings” series, we identified and expanded upon the five message-trapping strings, which is also clearly explained through our homepage video. Take a look at the video below and discover why your message is not being received or retained by your audience.

Here, we revisit the five strings again, providing bite size tips for cutting the strings and getting your message to your target audience.

1. Your message is trapped in the wrong medium. Too many messages are trapped in a medium that are harder for people to consume in a deep and memorable way. Eighty-three percent of learning occurs visually and 11 percent occurs audibly; combining audio and video increases retention to 65 percent. TruScribe’s whiteboard videos are 50 times more likely to receive a high search engine ranking than traditional text pages.
2. Your message is too short. A common belief about video is that all videos must be kept short (no longer than 90 seconds), lest you risk losing viewers with short attention spans. But short videos are often guilty of cramming too much information (product benefits, features, value propositions, et cetera) into a small space. TruScribe’s whiteboard animations use hand-drawn illustrations to tell stories, keeping viewers’ attention longer.
3. Your message is tangled in a format that’s hard to process. If your product, service or cause is difficult to explain, you want to present it in as much detail as possible, ensuring your competitive advantage is clearly represented. However, stacks of facts and figures and never-ending PowerPoint presentations is hard (and likely boring) for your audience to process. Sharing information in a story format is a much more engaging alternative.
4. Your message is trapped in “development hell.” When you choose to take advantage of the benefits of video, but don’t have the skills necessary for production, you’re at the mercy of a video production company that may never deliver on time or within the budget. We’re the most experienced video scribing company on earth because we’ve delivered more than 166 whiteboard animation videos than anyone else.
5. Your video just isn’t working. You’ve overcome the other message-trapping strings to create an attention-grabbing video and feel like it should be soaring, but you don’t see the invisible threads of how often and how long people are engaged with your message.  Sites like YouTube offer free video hosting and analytics functions, while dedicated video hosting sites like Vidyard or Wistia provide even more tools that can be used to understand how your audience is engaging with each of your video clips.

Do any (or all) of these message-trapping strings seem too familiar to you? Learn how we apply our Scribology method of video scribing to set your message free! Get in touch by clicking the banner below and filling out our contact form. We’ll walk you through our video production process and let you know exactly what to expect as we work together.

We teamed up with EZLaw.com to create a Whiteboard Animation explaining just how simple finding a lawyer can really be if you know what resource to use. Here is what WE learned: 

Researching Lawyers is Time Consuming & Hard

Dealing with legal issues can be overwhelming and finding the right attorney is not an easy (or inexpensive) task. When you’re in the midst of legal trouble – or just need an attorney for general advice of consultation – the last thing you want to do is countless hours of research to find the right lawyer.

Find Legal Advice Like You Find Everything Else – Online

EZLaw is an online service that pairs clients with real attorneys at your convenience. It’s a simple process in which you answer a few questions and the service connects you with experienced legal experts in your state. The lawyer then walks you through the legal processes, answers your questions, and creates the document you need. All you do is download the document, press the “print” button, sign the paper, and you’re done!

EZLaw Has Major Cred

EZLaw is backed by one of the most reputable names in the legal industry, Lexis-Nexis Martindale-Hubbell, the legal authority that has been rating attorneys for more than 130 years.

It Was Our Pleasure

We really enjoyed working with EZLaw for the duration of the production process and are proud of the whiteboard animation we created together. Since the launch of this video we have been asked to develop half a dozen more videos for Lexis-Nexis and for Lawyers.com. It’s relationships like these that drive us to put our best into the video scribing we do.

1. Identify High Quality Voices

Do your homework and search for the highest-quality voiceover talent. Websites such as Voice Talent Productions and Voice Archive are a great starting place for locating talent online (and typically the work can be done from anywhere). Referrals are also a good way to find quality voice talent. Always ask for more than one sample recording from your talent prospects.

2. Use a Voice That Fits Your Audience and Brand

Be sure to keep your audience in mind when you select voice talent. For example, would a male or female voice be more persuasive? Is an accent required? If the video is geared toward children, you may want a voice that is higher and more enthusiastic compared to a sophisticated sound for high-end clientele.

3. Pay Attention to Subtle Voice Qualities

Don’t just listen to the talent for the sound of his voice. Pay attention to the qualities of his voice. Is the pitch and tone clear? Is he enunciating words clearly? Does the speaking rhythm flow? Is there something about his voice that is unique? A memorable voice will help people remember and identify the voice with your video/product.

4. Ask About Equipment

A voiceover professional should have his own studio equipment. This includes a studio-quality microphone. The right equipment is critical because the quality of the recording is what will make the difference in your video. The voice may be pitch-perfect, but if the recording has pops or sounds hollow, you have a problem.

5. Don’t Forget the Business Details

You may have identified a great voice talent, but be sure to always ask the important questions. For example, what is the turn-around time, and does it fit within your production schedule? In addition, always ask about a edit policy. If you need to change a part of the recording – even if it’s just a word or two – there is likely to be a edit charge. Know this ahead of time so you can plan your budget accordingly.

6. Never Say Never You

We usually recommend hiring professional talent. It’s simply the easiest and fastest way to get the best results. However, there may be occassions where you want to draw from talent in your own company. For instance, you might have a sales rep who just knows the material and can deliver it with ease. Or maybe your have a subject expert in your midst and since the material is based in her research, her voice would lend a lot of credibility. In these cases we never recommend recording on a laptop. Find someone who has some quality equipment, or get into a studio.

As you embark on your next video project, keep the above tips in mind as you select your voiceover talent. Remember the voice is equally as important as the content itself. The voice helps persuade, inform and build rapport with the audience. Do not ignore this critical part of your whiteboard animation or you may end up reducing the effectiveness of your efforts.

If you’d like your videos to do more than educate and entertain, pushing people to do something next, it’s imperative to end each video with a strong “Call to Action” or CTA. Encourage the viewer to do something when the message is over and be explicit with what you’d like them to do.

To get viewers motivated and moving along, here are three calls to action strategies you can use when creating a marketing video.

1. Download this _____

If you’ve done your job right, your video has successfully illustrated how great your product is and how much it can help the consumer. Hopefully the viewer is left wanting more and is ready to get started. So don’t make him wait. Give them the URL where they can Download a free trial or Download a Whitepaper. Often the viewer is asked to enter her contact information and begin using the downloaded content or software. This gets your other content onto their computer, into their inbox, and makes your company more tangible in their life.

2. Subscribe

Building contact lists and finding new leads is a critical part of your company’s marketing efforts. Videos provide an opportunity to reach prospects. So once you have them on your site and watching the screen, use the “subscribe” CTA to invite them into further engagement outside the video. You can encourage them to subscribe to an e-newsletter or simply ask them to keep in touch to hear about future promotions and news from your business. Always give the viewer a reason to subscribe. For example, tell viewers the can see more exciting videos by joining your list.

3. Comment, Share and Like

If the video is primarily being posted on social media, use the video to ask your audience to engage with you using the platform you’re on. Comments help tremendously with search ranking, viewer interaction, and sharing. Ask your viewer to leave a comment, or direct the comment by asking people to answer a specific question.

If your video is being placed somewhere other than a social media platform, be sure the page your video is embeded on is enabled with Facebook and Twitter “like” and “share” buttons as well. Close the video with a call to action inviting viewers to “like” the video, or tweet it now. Remember that when an individual shares your video, it will go to all of his or her social network contacts, which opens you up to a wider audience for your business.

Don’t think your video marketing work is done when the script is final and shooting takes place. Always remember to write CTAs into the script at the end of your video so you can get creative with how they are delivered. Having the narrator or subject of the video do the asking is a lot more effective than a stand alone graphic at the end.

The whole point of any marketing is to help your audience to take the next step with your business. CTAs help your videos do just that.

The final string in the “5 strings” process is the importance of video analytics. No matter how good your message “feels,” being unaware of how often and how long people are interacting with your video prevents your corporate story from ever truly being set free.

Video Analysis

Fortunately, snipping this string is easy, using any of the number of video analytics programs on the market today. Sites like YouTube offer free video hosting and analytics functions, while dedicated video hosting sites like Vidyard or Wistia provide even more tools that can be used to understand how your audience is engaging with each of your video clips.

From the information that these analytics programs provide, you’ll be able to account for a number of different factors, including:

• The differences in engagement that exist between separate video placements. Whenever you release a new whiteboard scribing video, you may post it in several different places, including your homepage, your YouTube channel and any other video sharing website. Without analytics, you won’t be able to determine which audiences your message resonates most strongly with – preventing you from tailoring related content materials to the demonstrated needs of these separate viewer groups.
• Whether or not your video traffic is well qualified. If your analytics programs reveal that most viewers only tune into your videos for a few seconds before clicking away, it’s possible that you aren’t targeting the right types of traffic for your company.  In this case, having this data available will make it easier to see which traffic sources are engaging with your videos, and which ones should be ignored in order to focus on better qualified visitors.
• How compelling your message is for your audience members. In general, whiteboard scribing videos are created with an action in mind – whether that’s requesting more information about a product, signing a petition or taking some other dedicated action. But if your video analytics reveal viewers sitting through to the end of your clip and then failing to take action, you’ve got a conversion problem. In these cases, you may need to rework your videos in order to achieve better overall results.

The great thing about TruScribe’s whiteboard scribing videos is that your message isn’t set in stone.  If you find that some aspect of your video isn’t working for your audience, it’s easy to change certain elements and roll new clips out again for further testing.

If any of these individual strings have struck a nerve or hit a little too closely to home, shoot our staff an email at GetStarted@Truscribe.com.  We’ll walk you through our video production process and let you know exactly what to expect as we work together in order to set your company’s message free once and for all.

Think back to the worst PowerPoint presentation you’ve ever had to sit through. I’m talking about drab slides, poorly-chosen animations and – worst of all – slide after slide of dry, boring bullet points. Remember exactly how it felt to sit and listen to the speaker’s monotone, trying to keep your feet from fidgeting and your fingers from straying to your smartphone.

If you think that there’s got to be a better way to convey your company’s message, you’re absolutely right!

Tell a Story

Too often, your message becomes tangled up in a format that’s hard for audiences to process. Although it’s certainly important to convey information about your competitive advantage and the specific benefits and features your product offers, detailing your value proposition through slide after slide of buzzwords and bullet points isn’t doing your message any favors.

So what’s the solution? If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you won’t be surprised to hear that the process of sharing information in story format is a much more engaging alternative.

Our brains are conditioned to hone in on stories, which means that your listeners will be better able to process and understand your company’s message if it resembles this type of pattern.

Now, I’m not saying that you need to start out every sales presentation using a tacky, “Meet Bob” approach. While that might work in some situations, corporate or B2B sales isn’t usually one of them. Instead, you’ll want to capture some of the elements that make storytelling so effective in your business presentations in order to set your message free.

Here’s how to do it:

• Focus on the relationships between ideas and how these ideas impact your listeners. Doing so gives listeners the impression that they’re hearing an engaging and compelling story without any cutesy gimmicks.
• Break your content up into easily digestible chunks. Think about books, which are structured by chapters and then broken down even further by paragraphs. This implicit hierarchy gives the brain a break and allows it to process information at its own pace – making it much more likely that your message will be retained by listeners.
• Tailor your story to your clients’ experiences. Stop focusing so closely on what your product can do and use your sales presentation to actually show clients how you can heal what’s ailing them!

Transforming your Message

Obviously, if you’re working with traditional presentation methods, your ability to create engaging, story-style sales pitches will be limited. That’s one of the reasons we’re so passionate about the potential whiteboard scribing videos hold for sales message delivery.

Using our Scribology video format, we’re able to transform your dated, bullet point-riddled PowerPoint slides into compelling videos that make use of simple images, refined colors and focused framing in order to un-trap your message and deliver your corporate story in a way your audience can process and enjoy.

First of all, how often have you heard someone say, “Well, you’ve got to keep your ads short – after all, people’s attention spans are so short these days!”?

Let’s just go ahead and burst that bubble right now! If you’ve bought into this myth in the past, you might be surprised to learn that the average online viewer commits 6.8 minutes to a typical video. This isn’t even an upper limit – viewers are increasingly focusing their attention on long-form video content, which makes the use of whiteboard scribing videos all the more appealing when it comes to conveying your company’s message in an effective way.

Cutting String #2

However, the fact that this myth still hangs around leads us to String #2 that keeps your message tied down – the idea that videos can be no longer than 30-90 seconds, lest you risk losing viewers.

The result of this common myth is marketing videos that focus too heavily on “You” content.  Because they have so little time to get your message across, these videos must cram your product’s benefits, features and value propositions into a snippet of time. As a consequence, these short videos pack too much information into a small space – trapping your message by being unable to provide any really valuable content.

So if 30-90 seconds seems too short to share all this information (and believe me, it really is!), just imagine what you could do if you were given the full 6+ minutes that online video viewers are already committing to content pieces that hold their interest?!

Creating “Them” Content

When you’re able to free your message using longer video clips, your company can transition away from this damaging “You” content and into more valuable “Them” content.  “Them” content uses your message to both educate and entertain customers through the use of storylines that focus on the things your customers care about.

The use of the hand-drawn illustrations found in TruScribe’s whiteboard scribing videos take these benefits even further by adding a certain amount of warmth and authenticity to your message. As a result, you’re no longer cramming a quick sales pitch down your customers’ throats with your online videos – you’re instead telling stories, providing viewer valued content that will hold their attention for 5, 10 or even 15 minutes while sharing your company’s message in a safe and non-threatening way.

If that all sounds good for you, give us a call today at 888.684.4944.  Using our extensive experience transforming hundreds of messages into engaging online video files, we’ll help you to snap this string by giving your customers valuable “Them” content through the use of our Scribology method of Whiteboard Animation. 

We call these limitations “strings,” and over the next few posts on this blog, we’ll be going into more detail on the top five strings that trap your message from being fully realized by your audience.

Today, we’ll start with string #1 – the fact that most messages are trapped in mediums (typically text or audio content) that are harder for people to consume.

While it might seem strange to think of video as an ideal format for message delivery – especially considering that the rise of internet video is still somewhat in its infancy – the reality is that this particular medium represents one of the best ways to share your messages with your audience.

In fact, according to recent studies, pairing the vocal delivery of your information with video imagery results in two times more message retention than conveying information via video alone – and nearly six times the retention achieved using audio files alone. As a result, if you’re serious about getting your message out to your audience members, consider that the combination of voice and video found in whiteboard scribing videos may be the ideal way to bring about this result!

It’s also important to note that there’s never been a better time to share your message using online video services. Here’s why:

• Online video viewing habits continue to skyrocket, with the average online viewer consuming 20 hours of video footage each month. And increasingly, users are viewing longer and longer videos at a time – meaning that they’ve already been conditioned to receive your message in this way.
• Video files offer significantly better SEO results than text alone. Both search users and the search engines love to see video files in the natural search result listings, making your video files as much as 50 times more likely to be ranked for your target keywords than standard text pages.
• YouTube is already the third most-viewed website in the world. The popular video sharing service is a search engine in its own right, with tons of traffic from interested online viewers. As there’s no end in sight to the upward trend of video viewership, you’ve got every reason in the world to position your company as a leader in online video now.

To learn more about how you can cut the string of message-trapping mediums, email TruScribe today at GetStarted@TruScribe.com.  Using our proven whiteboard scribing processes, we’ll help you to create engaging videos from any message that can be launched online to both entertain and educate your audience members in a way that resonates with them!

Buzzword Burnout

Unfortunately, encouraging these conversions can be a challenging process. Today’s digital consumers are burned out on advertisements and marketing buzzwords – and even if your sales language presents your company’s value proposition in a seemingly reasonable way, website visitors may dismiss your benefit statements without ever giving them a fair shake.

But while this behavior may seem reasonable when we’re the ones slogging through digital promotion after digital promotion, it’s quite a bit more irritating when it’s your company’s success or failure on the line!

In these situations, you need something that cuts through the digital clutter in order to regain visitor attention and increase your likelihood of scoring the website conversions you’re so hoping for. You need whiteboard animation videos.

Utilize Whiteboard Animation Videos

Although video scribing can be used in practically any circumstance in order to increase on-site conversions, let’s look at just a few possibilities in order to reveal the full potential of this engaging advertising medium. Whiteboard scribing videos can be used:

• When selling products. If your company retails high-value or highly-technical products on its website, whiteboard scribing videos can help to bridge the gap between text-based product descriptions and actual user experiences. Using our Scribology process to illustrate exactly what kind of a difference your products can make in your consumers’ lives can go a long way towards eliminating the fear that comes along with making big-ticket purchases online.
• When generating leads. As another example, if your company runs an email marketing newsletter, getting customers to voluntarily give away their email addresses can be a challenge. No matter how many flashing arrow graphics you use or how many bullet point lists of benefits you provide, it can be difficult for consumers to see enough value in your offering to make the tradeoff between signing up and enjoying the benefits you’ll provide. Again, whiteboard scribing videos can be used to make this process of persuasion more personable, increasing this particular type of website conversion.
• When prompting action. Alternatively, if your organization seeks to inform website visitors about a cause and encourage their action on issues that are particularly meaningful to you, there’s simply no better way to do it than with whiteboard videos. Whiteboard videos make excellent use of the visual storytelling process, which allows you to draw viewers into your organization’s story and share why exactly their action is so important to you. It’s also a great way to break complex issues down into easily understood concepts, making whiteboard scribing videos an ideal solution for motivating action on issues at any end of the complexity spectrum.

Time and time again, the videos we’ve produced for our customers have proven effective when it comes to breaking through the noise online in order to compel website visitors to action.

If you’d like to learn more about how Truscribe’s proprietary Scribology method can be used to set your company’s message free in order to increase website conversions, download our latest whitepaper, “The 5 Strings Holding Your Message Back from Reaching Your Audience” today!

In fact, whiteboarding videos can be used anywhere that traditional Power Point presentations can be found, whether that includes internal sales enablement trainings, conference seminars and other demonstrations.

However, if you’re used to delivering your materials via Power Point, your biggest concern with the process will likely be how to integrate the two in a way that complements your message. The last thing you want is to find yourself standing at the podium, fiddling with your laptop and trying to get these two different technologies to play nice together.

Fortunately, you have a number of different options for integrating whiteboard scribing videos with Power Point presentations. The solution that’s right for you will depend on your presentation style, your technological savvy and the audience you’re delivering your message to.

The following are a few of the solutions you’ll want to consider:

Option #1 – Get rid of Power Point entirely

This option might sound scary (I almost didn’t lead with it), it’s only because business people today have been conditioned to use Power Point like a crutch.  Instead of familiarizing ourselves with the message being delivered, we rely on boring slides filled with uninspired text, which we can click through and read out loud – rather than truly engage with our audience members.

The result of this standard presentation style isn’t surprising.  Instead of an attentive, focused audience, you’ll wind up facing a room full of attendees who are either daydreaming about what they’ll do after your session or trying to sneakily check their mobile devices for any possible distraction!  Either way, it’s not an ideal system for message understanding and retention.

If this scenario sounds all too familiar, you may benefit from eliminating Power Point entirely.  Instead of throwing together yet another set of slides, set your message free with a whiteboard scribing video that conveys all the same information in a much more fun and exciting way.

Option #2 – Switch back and forth between the two

If you aren’t able to get away from Power Point entirely (either because you aren’t comfortable with this change or because the length/scope of your message makes whiteboarding the entire thing impractical), you can always alternate between both technologies.

For example, you could record an introductory message via whiteboarding video that will be played before the bulk of your Power Point presentation, as well as a video closing that’s played afterwards. Giving your presentation in this way will capture your audience’s attention initially, and then provide a compelling recap of your main points that’s more likely to stick with attendees than a traditional Power Point wrap-up.

Option #3 – Embed whiteboard videos within your Power Point presentation

Alternatively, if you’d like to break things up even further, consider embedding short whiteboarding presentations inside of your Power Point. If your presentation has several different objectives or sections, producing a short whiteboard video to complement each part of your speech may help to keep audiences attentive through the entire thing.

To do this, you’ll need to host your whiteboard videos online – either on your own website or on a separate video hosting account. Then, you’ll take a screen capture of each of your videos, embed it into the Power Point presentation and link out from the slide to the video.  You’ll need to have an active internet connection to present in this way, but as long as this is the case, you’ll be able to switch between the two technologies without the hassle of loading separate video files every time.

If you’re interested in exploring which of these options is right for your unique situation, give us a call at 888-684-4944. We’ll walk you through the process of whiteboard video creation and show you exactly how this fascinating technology can be effectively integrated into your existing presentations.

The reality of today’s sales and marketing world is that there are plenty of different elements that hold back your value proposition from reaching your intended audience, including:

• Format – Messages that are delivered via text or audio alone simply don’t engage the brain the same way that videos do. As a result, information and value propositions conveyed through traditional print or radio advertisements may not have the “stickiness” of content being shared through whiteboard videos.
• Message competition – Fascinating new data released by IT management service DOMO indicates that every minute of every day, Facebook users share 684,487 pieces of content, Twitter users publish 100,000 tweets and YouTube users upload 48 hours of video footage. Add in the compounding effect of the sales messages that filter into every aspect of our lives through both traditional and web advertising mediums, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster when it comes to getting your value propositions and sales messages noticed through all this noise!
• Attention spans – There’s a lot competition for consumer attention, and most of the content being pushed out there isn’t adding value to the viewer. So it’s no surprise that consumer attention spans are at an all-time low. If you want to break through these barriers and captivate your target audience members, you’ll need something special to get the job done.

That “something special” can be whiteboard animation!

Whiteboard video scribing helps to cut through many of the limitations described above, providing enhanced message delivery, comprehension and retention when compared to text campaigns, radio spots and even traditional, character-driven videos. The use of engaging story lines and professionally-deployed psychological cues (for example, the density and simplicity of the imagery used) make this medium memorable, giving you a great opportunity to showcase your company’s value proposition.

To learn more about how these techniques can be used to disseminate your message more effectively than ever, contact Truscribe today by emailing GetStarted@Truscribe.com. Our extensive industry experience allows us to hone in on the specific elements that are holding your value proposition back in order to find ways to set your message free!

The following are just a few possibilities to get your creative juices flowing!

Whiteboard animations on your homepage

When new visitors arrive on your page, what do they see first?  Do they encounter an intimidating-looking block of text describing your company’s product and service offerings, or do they see a welcoming, engaging whiteboard animation message sharing the same information in a fun way?

If you’re concerned that your text-intensive website may be resulting in on-site visitor confusion or frustration, replacing text blocks with 60-90 second, “you focused” whiteboard videos telling your company story or explaining your business philosophy may provide a better jumping off point for your website.

Whiteboard animations instead of whitepapers

Though you may have used whitepapers in the past to convey detailed or highly-technical information, sharing this same content in a whiteboard scribing format can be much more engaging! To accomplish this, you’ll want to focus your video on “them information” – that is, on the content that your target audience will find most useful. Try incorporating industry trends, new data or other “insider” information to turn your new “whiteboarding whitepaper” into a valuable content marketing tool.

Whiteboard animations in your training library

Many websites offer tutorial videos and other training resources on their websites – but too often, these materials are dull and uninspiring. And while it may not make sense to scribe your software interface instead of screen capture videos, whiteboard videos can be used in most situations to visualize your training materials and connect on a deeper level with product users.

Whiteboard animations as information graphic

Today, the hottest type of content in the digital marketing world is the infographic – a graphically-oriented image that visualizes data in new and exciting ways. But while these graphics can be useful tools for attracting new website visitors, they’re still static.  This means that viewers must determine on their own how to engage with and interpret your data.

To remedy this situation, try creating an infoMOTION™ graphic using TruScribes unique process, which will help viewers to better understand your content, while also encouraging the type of viral sharing for which infographics have become so popular.

Whiteboard animations as a sales tool

In addition, one of the most effective uses of whiteboard animation videos is as a vehicle for sales message delivery. In fact, giving sales pitches via video offers a number of different advantages compared to standard, “stand and deliver” style Power Point presentations.

On the one hand, whiteboard animation videos can go where salespeople sometimes can’t.  Because these videos can be distributed digitally, they can be deployed on the web or via email in situations where an in-person meeting isn’t possible or practical. In this way, they can help increase sales where traditional presentation methods would have failed.

Whiteboard animations in the sales enablement process

Whiteboard animation videos can also be useful tools when it comes to sales enablement – particularly when used by large organizations with multiple sales channels.

Instead of emailing out Power Point presentations and hoping that division leads convey the enclosed information appropriately, training employees on updated company procedures or messaging via whiteboard animation videos is a much better way to ensure that new information is passed on in an engaging and consistent way.

Whiteboard animations to communicate a message

The organic, intriguing style of whiteboard animation videos can be used for much more than just business sales and messaging. In addition, whiteboarding can be an especially effective tool in spurring innovation and advocacy.

Whether you want to educate viewers on an issue that’s near and dear to your heart or to motivate and inspire users to bring about a change in their environments, whiteboard scribing can be particularly useful when it comes to illustrating information that exists only in your imagination.

To see an example of how one such message was brought to life through the use of whiteboard scribing videos, take a look at the animation we created for the British Airline Pilots Association in support of their ongoing pursuit of airline safety. Or, to learn more about how your own message can be set free in such a compelling way, contact us today at GetStarted@TruScribe.com.

The following are a few of the interesting statistics we found, as well as the potential implications that businesses must consider:

Video Views per Day

• “In 2011, more than 100 million Americans watched online video content on an average day, representing a 43-percent increase versus a year ago.”

More Americans watching videos means that more target audiences are now engaging with this medium online. In contrast to the past – when video viewing was carried out primarily by young, tech-savvy audiences – this newly video-optimized environment presents more opportunities than ever for companies to reach their desired prospective customers.

As a result, if you’ve ruled out video advertisements or video message delivery in the past due to low interest, it may be time to reevaluate the potential this medium holds within your unique marketplace niche.

Minutes per Video

• “The average number of minutes per video view rose from 5.0 minutes to 5.8 minutes by the end of 2011, due in large part to the increasing adoption of long-form video content viewing.”

In addition to the number of video views increasing, the industry has seen a shift in terms of average viewing length. And while the move from 5.0 to 5.8 minutes might not seem significant, it’s worth considering that this increase stems primarily from the viewing of online television shows and movies.

What this says to business owners is that online video attention spans are increasing. What was once a medium composed primarily of throwaway video clip views now represents something that captures much more of the public’s attention. As a result, viewers may be more amenable to serious information or sales pitches delivered via video, simply because of the increasing presence online video holds in our lives.

Videos and Video Ads Published

• “The volume of video ads streamed across the internet increased 20% versus the previous year, but the ratio of the number of video ads to total videos grew at a somewhat more muted rate, from 12.8% to 14.1%.”

Interestingly, although the number of video ads streamed online in 2011 increased significantly, the ratio of videos to ads changed only slightly – obviously due to the overall increase in videos published online.

And while this trend may not offer much substantive information on its own, it’s a trend that’s worth following. While video ads – especially those that make use of the highly effective whiteboard scribing style – may represent a profitable message delivery channel in the future, it will be important for businesses to watch for the point of saturation at which video ads become tuned out and irrelevant.

With these statistics in mind, we want to hear from you. Are you ramping up video production and dissemination in light of the trend toward higher online viewership? Are you seeing an increase in audience retention throughout your videos due to longer online video viewing averages? Or are you experiencing a change in video ad effectiveness, given the influx of new advertisers shown above?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

But what is it that makes the storytelling process so engaging? In fact, there are a number of different factors that bring about this result…

We’re conditioned to learn lessons from stories.

First, it’s worth recognizing that, as we grow up, we often learn important lessons through stories. We’re taught not to lie based on the tale of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” and not to stray from our parents as the unfortunate “Hansel and Gretel” quickly learned.

Throughout our lives, the lessons told in these stories were reinforced through real world experiences and information, conditioning our brains to respond strongly to this particular format. As adults we often overlook the role stories play in our lives. The reality is that when stories are used, we’re more likely to listen. Past experiences have shown us that good things come to those who pay attention.

Our brains prefer that patterns be completed.

In addition to understanding these mental reinforcement patterns that occur, we need to look at the school of Gestalt psychology – which focuses on pattern recognition – to understand what makes the process of storytelling so compelling.

On a basic level, our brains love to identify patterns – but when we do so, we want to see them completed. In the case of storytelling, once a story begins, it is this part of our brains that encourage us to sit still until the ending is resolved, as leaving the pattern uncompleted produces a sense of cognitive dissonance.

“Transportation” makes our thought processes more flexible.

Besides these two psychological processes, social scientists recognize something called “transportation,” which occurs when we become involved with a story line.

Essentially, when we’re “transported” into a story, we become more amiable to new thoughts and less likely to question details that don’t match up with our past experiences or real world knowledge. If a presenter says something we otherwise wouldn’t agree with, we’ll be more likely to let the discrepancy slide when listening to a story than we would be when presented with the same information conveyed in a different style.

For sales people and educators, “transportation” is critical. Too often, initial resistance – whether seemingly justified or not – derails message delivery before it can even begin. In the case of sales pitches, being able to overcome the skepticism potential customers often bring to meetings is an absolute must when it comes to connecting with buyers and closing sales.

As a result of all these different factors, the power of storytelling makes prospects and listeners more willing to engage with and accept the message being delivered – ultimately increasing the effectiveness of the overall story and the person sharing it.

To learn more about the process we use at TruScribe to develop a compelling story for your company’s message, send us an email at GetStarted@Truscribe.com. Our goal is to set your message free, and we’ll show you exactly how the use of stories in the whiteboard selling is the ideal way to achieve this objective.

In fact, studies have found that the amount of information transferred and retained when conveyed via video format is significantly higher than the amount of learning that occurs when topics are described using either audio or text-based methods alone!

As a result, whiteboard videos represent a great opportunity for conveying complex topics in a way that’s intuitive and easy-to-understand. Here’s how the process works:

• Message identification – The first step in any TruScribe whiteboarding project is to identify and clarify the message that will be delivered in your video. You can do this on your own, or we can match you up with an experienced copywriter – either way, we won’t move ahead with graphics creation until you’re satisfied that your message has been structured appropriately.
• Concept sketching – Once we’ve identified the key points that need to be made in your video, we’ll start the process of illustrating these topics with compelling imagery. At TruScribe, we don’t just use pretty pictures in your video animations – the graphics we develop are steeped with additional layers of information and make use of psychological cues to ensure that important points are understood and remembered by your audience.
• Audio recording – Again, you can either record your own vocal delivery of your message at our state-of-the-art sound system, or we can bring in a talented voice artist to ensure the tone of your video’s audio track sounds just right.
• Video production – After you’ve signed off on our illustration concepts, we get to work on bringing your video vision to life.  Throughout this process, we’ll film “live action” versions of your graphics, sync them up with your audio recording and integrate whatever video stylizations suit your brand and message best.
• Production wrap-up – Once our initial video recording is complete, we’ll edit your video content, making sure that any custom intro/outro slides are added and that any calls to action you’ve set up will be highly visible in your finished product.
• Launch – After all of these steps have been completed, your message is ready to be set free! To assist you, we provide a variety of video files to suit your needs, including everything from compressed web files to portable Thumbdrive versions to full 1080 HD recordings that are suitable for the big screen.

Once you sign off on your unique whiteboard scribing video, it’s yours to use in whatever venue or capacity you deem appropriate. A few examples of situations in which the whiteboard scribing process could be especially useful in communicating complex topics include:

• In scientific presentations – Whether you’re presenting scientific data to fellow researchers, investors or students, whiteboard scribing is a great way to detail these technical topics in an engaging fashion.
• Within technical sales – If the product or service you’re selling involves highly-technical components that must be discussed and understood as part of the sales process, the use of whiteboard videos can keep your presentation light without compromising its informative value.
• When sharing detailed information with the public – Occasionally, it’s necessary to convey messages to the public that can’t be summed up in a simple press release or article. In these cases, whiteboard videos may offer a more engaging medium for public and private organizations.

To see an example of how whiteboard videos can be used to convey complex topics, take a look at the “Integrated Oil Recovery from TIORCO” video in our whiteboard video gallery. Although the process of advanced oil reclamation isn’t necessarily an easy one to understand, the use of engaging graphics and an informative script makes even this highly-technical subject easily understood.

If you’re creating whiteboard videos for public consumption, properly optimizing your videos for discovery and prioritization by the search engines using SEO best practices is an absolute must!

To understand why this is so important, we first need to look at how the search engines operate.  Every search engine – including Google, Bing, Yahoo and a host of second-tier companies – maintains an “index” of all the web pages its automated programs have discovered on the internet.  Then, when users enter search queries into their browser windows, these engines must parse through their indexes to determine which results to show, using algorithms that weight more than 200 factors when choosing the best possible results.

If your whiteboard video is selected as one of these top results, it will be listed on the first page of the search engine’s natural results area (as opposed to the sponsored results area).  Achieving one of these top rankings is especially important when it comes to building traffic to your website via SEO, as few search users take the time to navigate past the first page of results.

With this in mind, if you plan to use your whiteboard videos to build free traffic to your website, you’ll want to adhere to the following guidelines in order to optimize your content correctly for SEO:

Step #1 – Know your keywords

Search results pages are created in response to the queries – also known as keywords or keyword phrases – that search users enter into the engines.  As a result, getting your video included in these listings means that you need to be aware of the particular search phrases your customers are entering into the search engines, as well as which keyword combinations you’d like your video to appear in the search results for.

Good keyword research involves understanding two key components – search volume and competition. Ideally, you want enough people searching for your chosen keywords, as it doesn’t make sense to try to rank for phrases that receive no search volume. At the same time, targeting highly competitive keyword phrases (for example, “auto insurance,” “lose weight” or “make money online”) may be so difficult to break into given their existing competition levels that they aren’t worth pursuing.

Plenty of other resources exist online detailing how to choose the right keywords for your SEO campaign, but for now, it’s enough to know that you’ll want to have these target phrases identified before you begin the video creation process.

Step #2 – Add your keywords to target video promotion areas

Once your video is created, you’ll want to incorporate your target keywords into your videos in different ways. As an example, if you choose to upload your video to Youtube, you can include your keyword phrases in your file name, your video title, your video description and your video tags.

Doing so will help the search engines to understand what your video is about, though you should be careful not to over-optimize. Making each of the elements listed above appear natural (while still incorporating your keywords into these valuable places) will help to prevent the search engines from labeling you a spammer.

Step #3 – Use your keywords in your video’s content

Finally, if you plan on uploading your video to Youtube, be aware that this service automatically creates a text-based version of your video’s audio content for use in its accessibility services. Because these text files are also stored in the Google index, including your target keywords in the content of your video can give you an extra opportunity to inform the search engines as to what your content is about.

Connect

Chronicle (Story)In the first few seconds of your video, you have to connect with the audience. Convince them that you understand their pleasure or pain point and that your product or service fits their need. Even for kids, this is the “hook”. Disney might lead into a promotion for families with a kid meeting Mickey, then show Disney World full of kids and families with smiles on their faces. You can visualize the young viewers salivating over the moment, then running to strong-arm their parents. The exact same thinking applies for the PhD engineer. Show them the thing they want want most – a beautiful suspension bridge over a gorgeous river, solving a community traffic problem, then a team intently mulling over a set of plans. From there you use story to engage, entertain, and educate.

Now you fill in the details within a logical framework. What’s are all the steps needed to get to Disney World? Which comes first? What kinds of obstacles might you run into and how can each one be addressed? Where will you stay and what packages are available? What’s included and how much? What about travel, and how long should we stay? Kids might not care so much about those details, but their parents, the buyers do. Remember who the video is intended for – the influencers (kids) and the buyers (parents).

In the B2B setting, the doers (engineers) might be looking for software to help them build bridges better, and the buyers (CFO for example) might be looking for increased productivity, faster turnaround and higher profitability. You will want to stress the buyer’s and influencer’s points of view in telling your story.

Close

Recap the benefits in a short summary and use a sales lever, like letting them know that time is short, or if availability is scarce. This offer expires today! Show people smiling, kids having fun, engineers giving each other high fives as they look out over the bridge. Give them a view of how happy they will be to buy from you.

Call to Action

Once you’ve presented your case, you should tell them what they can do next to obtain your solution. That’s the whole point of your video. Tell your viewers how to sign up or call for reservations or where to buy your product.

Whiteboards Make it Easy

The basic concepts of constructing a compelling sales and marketing video are easy enough to grasp, but what about the execution? Unless you’re an experienced video script writer and producer, your video may lack the professionalism and coherence to really work. Sure there are plenty of handheld amateur videos that go viral, but how many of them are designed for increasing sales? A great alternative is to tell your story on a whiteboard using video scribing. Kids and adults will feel right at home with your story as it unfolds on a whiteboard. Make sure your video captures the essential elements, and you can create a memorable and effective sales tool that has a great chance of going viral and generating sales revenues.

However, in other examples, we’ve seen older technologies coexist peacefully beside their modern counterparts. Electronic readers haven’t totally wiped out printed texts, while plenty of DVD movies continue to be sold despite the superior Blu-Ray technology entering the marketplace.

So with these disparate examples in mind, is it possible that videos could replace blogs within the next five years?

My personal opinion is a qualified “No.” In many ways, text-based blog posts and web videos meet different needs for consumers. Because there are – and will continue to be – situations in which viewing video isn’t appropriate (at work, for example), I believe that text-oriented blogs will continue to retain audiences despite the presence of newer, flashier video content.

However, just because they may not replace blogs entirely in the near future doesn’t mean that video marketing shouldn’t be seriously considered. In fact, the rate at which online video is being consumed on both traditional and mobile devices is increasing so significantly that every company competing online should be using this new marketing method.

According to a Nielsen survey of over 27,000 online consumers in 55 countries, approximately 70% of global internet users watch videos online. Interestingly, North America and Europe actually lag behind other countries in online video consumption, with connected users in the Asia-Pacific region being 45% more likely to view mobile videos than the global average!

The conclusion I draw from this data – as well as trends indicating that US-based smartphone penetration is at its highest peak ever – is that your audience is watching video and they want more of it. In fact, I think it’s possible that we’ll even see viewership trends growing more rapidly to catch up with levels seen in other areas of the world.

So, if you’re a business owner trying to determine how to best reach your audience in these changing times, I’d offer the following pieces of advice:

• Investing now in online video could put your business ahead of others that haven’t yet adopted these technologies. There’s always a benefit to being the first mover when it comes to using new tools and techniques effectively, and although viewer participation is up, many businesses still haven’t integrated online video marketing into their arsenals.
• Don’t feel that your marketing investments need to be “either/or” in terms of choosing between text-based blog posts and videos. Pairing an engaging web video with a printed transcript in a blog post can create an effective combination that appeals to both readers and video viewers.
• Be careful when choosing the video production style that will best meet your audience’s needs. If you’re trying to educate viewers on your company’s value proposition or explain complex product dynamics, flashy, “viral style” videos may obscure the point you’re trying to make.

Finally, keep in mind that different audiences respond to online video in different ways. Since there’s really no “one size fits all” approach, it’s important to invest the necessary time to set up analytics tracking programs and metrics that will let you know conclusively whether your website readers respond best to video content or text-based blog posts.

Basically, if you’ve got something to teach, the internet may just be your newest ally in disseminating information!

Of course, when it comes to online training, the way in which you convey information matters a great deal. While it’s easy to write up and distribute text-based articles, the unfortunate reality is that explaining complex subjects in this manner isn’t always an effective approach.

To understand why, think back on how you were taught difficult subjects in high school and college. While you certainly had printed textbooks detailing these concepts, you also had teachers and professors who would stand up in front of you to convey this same information in a visual and auditory manner. Really, if you thought calculus and organic chemistry were challenging subjects – just imagine how difficult it would have been to teach yourself these topics using text alone!

This necessary combination of both visual and auditory learning is what makes whiteboard videos so successful as a teaching tool. Not only does the combination of these two learning styles account for approximately 94% of how people learn. Messages delivered in this way benefit from 65% retention – which is much higher than disseminating content via audio or text cues alone.

Another aspect that makes whiteboard videos incredibly effective from an educational standpoint is the use of storytelling to engage viewers and enhance both message delivery and retention. Think back on your high school days again for a moment. Chances are you can recall both good teachers and bad teachers.  For most former students, the bad teachers were the ones who droned on monotonously at the front of the classroom, while the good ones were the teachers who put the effort into making students feel as if they were part of an ongoing story.

In addition to making use of these basic psychological principles, there are a number of other techniques that can be adopted to make whiteboard videos even more effective as learning tools. In some instances, the use of different highlight color markers can draw attention to key instruction points, making it possible to specify the pieces of information that you want your audience to retain.

As an example, if you’re using whiteboard videos to conduct safety training sessions for manufacturing workers, a red highlighter could be used to illustrate important safety concerns that staff members need to remember while on the floor. Alternatively, environmental advocacy groups may find the use of a green highlight color to be useful in terms of leveraging existing mental associations between the color green and environmental issues to share their concepts more effectively.

Example 1: The Kahn Academy - Salman Kahn has created over over 3,300 on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history. He is on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace and is creating an effective library of learning for a global classroom. His use of ‘digital’ scribing (tablet and software instead of hand-drawn) strips down the gloss and gets right to the heart of the subject.

Example 2: Our own example of a great educational video is the video we did for Susan Weinschenk and for her book 100 Things Every Presenter Should Know About People. Here she outlines the top 5 things in a solid framework that delivers a solid chunk of applicable information to her audience.

Contact the Truscribe team today at GetStarted@Truscribe.com for more information on how whiteboard videos can help you to convey your organization’s message more clearly!

Interestingly, according to data compiled by Nielsen, the month of March 2012 represented a turning point in the mobile world. For the first time in history, a majority of US mobile subscribers owned smartphones – with 50.4% of cellular plan holders carrying data-enabled devices, up from 47.8% in December 2011.

Even more intriguing is the increase in mobile device usage amongst key marketing demographics. Smartphone penetration is slightly higher amongst female users than with male subscribers, while more than 66% of members of the retail-friendly “25-34 year old” age bracket own and use at least one smartphone.

So what does this mean for your organization?

It’s worth noting that there are no existing segments in which smartphone usage is in decline.  Data-enabled device penetration is growing – across genders, age groups, ethnicities and countries – and there’s no evidence that these trends will be reversing any time soon.

As a result, consumers are using their smartphones for more activities than ever. They use them to kill time with entertaining games, to answer questions on the fly, to research future purchase decisions (and even execute these choices while on-the-go), and much, much more.  This enormous amount of engagement means that if your company doesn’t have a mobile marketing plan in place, you’re missing out on a key opportunity to reach your target customers!

It’s probably no big surprise that we at TruScribe are fond of video when it comes to potential opportunities to capitalize on smartphone engagement. But believe us – there’s a method to our madness…

Further data from Nielsen suggests that more than 30 million smartphone users in the US viewed video clips on their mobile devices in the third quarter of 2011 – representing both 14% of all mobile users and a consistent quarter-over-quarter increase from the same period in 2010:

With these statistics in mind, it’s easy to see how developing and launching videos for consumption on mobile devices represents an interesting new opportunity to reach prospective customers in a different way.

However, it’s also important to keep in mind that not all videos or video styles are well-suited for smartphone viewing. Highly-detailed, cinematography-intensive videos, for example, tend to lose their luster when viewed on the tiny screens of most mobile devices. At the same time, given the data costs that are sometimes involved in streaming video content, it’s also true that mobile videos must be extremely engaging in order to justify the possible expense.

Whiteboard scribing videos represent the perfect solution to these dilemmas. The clean contrast of a whiteboard and its drawing instruments makes these types of videos watchable on even the smallest of screens. In addition, the use of intriguing stories created through hand-drawn graphics and spoken words make whiteboard animation videos a particularly compelling type of mobile marketing content.

To find out more about how you can set your message free, click here to contact us. 

Photo by Susan Sermoneta.