The 8 Best Laptops for After Effects in 2019 (GPU and RAM)

Today, laptops offer plenty of functionality that almost match that of desktop PCs. This can make laptop shopping a bit chaotic, and especially when you have a specific agenda for it. However, one thing is for sure: you definitely want a laptop that will meet all your needs. Video editing, such as with Adobe After Effects, demands decent hardware specifications. We’ve gone ahead and evaluated the Top 8 Laptops for After Affects.

Microsoft Surface Book 2

If you are after versatility, the Surface Book 2 is a great choice. Packed with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, you can bet that the laptop is more than up for the task. It’s power-efficient 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8650U is exactly what every video editor requires as it balances performance with power consumption. In essence, it adapts to your way of working and can be used in four modes: studio mode, laptop mode, view mode, and tablet mode. This gives you endless ways of working comfortably. After Effects is just one of the many things that it can handle as the 16GB RAM and the 3240 x 2160 resolution take productivity to a whole new level.

2018 MacBook Pro

Not a Microsoft Windows fan? Not a problem. The MacBook Pro can take up the mantle. Available in both the 13-inch and 15-inch models, video editors would fancy the 15-inch model for their After Effects projects. The 15-inch model comes with an AMD Radeon R9 M370X as its dedicated GPU and an i7-8550H processor to top it up. With a configurable memory of up to 32GB, you can max out all the power for multi-tasking between After Effects and other support applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro. While battery life is not usually a big deal whenever users go after laptops with GPUs, the MacBook Pro promises up to 10 hours of battery life when surfing the web. This would relate to a 3 to 4-hour battery life under intense video editing.

HP ZBook x2

Equally fitted with an i7 processor, the ZBook x2 differs from the MacBook Pro because of its adaptability. Its NVIDIA Quadro M620 GPU may seem inferior to that of the Surface Book Pro 2 but would still be ideal for After Effects. It allows up to two 4K external displays which lets you push productivity a bit further. However, because of its design, the ZBook x2 would better suit artists and animators rather than video editors. Hence, if you are a content creator looking for high resolution pen-enabled workstation, you should consider the HP ZBook x2.

Yoga 720

This Lenovo beast has an NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti GPU and a core i9 processor. Harmoniously, the screen pad is built into the touchpad to make multitasking easy. So far, the Yoga 720 is among one of the most powerful pen-enabled PCs while coming with a rather decent price tag when you compare the other laptops we’ve reviewed. Other great features of the Yoga 720 include a long battery life battery and an optional 4K screen model.

Dell XPS 15

The specifications that define the XPS 15 are: good overall graphics performance, vibrant screen, unique design, and excellent battery life. It holds the gold standard rate when it comes to premium notebooks and is certainly among the sleekest and most powerful notebooks in the market. To add to its modern industrial design, it comes equipped with an i7 processor and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics. At this point, this would seem redundant and cliché, but many forget to talk about the laptop’s premium design and plenty of helpful utility software such as the power manager that enables a user to regulate power consumption for more demanding tasks and run diagnostics on the system battery as well. Irrefutably, the Dell XPS 15 can do it all when it is a matter of video editing.

Razer Blade Pro

The Razer Blade Pro is an equally powerful contender and one of the thinnest laptops in the market. The 4K display it comes with offers a rich diversity of colors which makes details on the screen sharp. Notwithstanding its slimness this laptop is equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU which makes it special in more ways than one. Razer Blade Pro can conquer any task with the extreme performance of its processor. Thus, Adobe After Effects would not be an issue for this PC.

Acer Nitro 5 Spin

Your computer must meet the minimum technical specifications for it to be able to run and use After Effects. If you are on a tight budget the Acer Nitro 5 Spin is probably the best choice for you. Being a 2-in-1 it can be used in a variety of modes and performs well in laptop mode. The touch screen response is fairly good and the trackpad also works well with Windows 10 gestures. For a low budget laptop, the Acer Nitro 5 Spin stands out with regards to its compatibility with After Effects.

Alienware M15

This is yet another one from Dell. Primarily known as a gaming laptop, the Alienware m15 houses a good deal of GPU and CPU power. A 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7-8750H processor and 32GB of RAM make the Alienware m15 an overkill when it comes to video editing. Compared to other gaming laptops, it has the one of the best batteries in its class. This is remarkable for a laptop that is mostly considered great for gaming and not video editing. This would mean that it is more than ideal for video editing tasks and in turn great for all your After Effects projects.

That’s it for our list! If you are interested in our selection criteria, read more below.

What Makes a Good Laptop for After Effects?

For the Central Processing Unit (CPU), the more cores your CPU has, the higher the capability to process data and give you a good overall performance. On the other hand, the Random Access Memory (RAM) is crucial as well since this is where data is temporarily stored before being processed. As video files can be large, you’d want a RAM that can have your back all through. However, if your laptop comes with a dedicated Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), you can comfortably smile during video editing as the GPU is the all-father in video editing. Thus, it is essential to have a laptop with a dedicated GPU since it handles all things graphics more effectively than laptops lacking GPUs. It would be folly to forget screen resolution as well, especially since 4K videos are gaining popularity by the day.

Boiling down to the actual specifications of the laptop can become a bummer because different people have different needs. If your intended function for the laptop is to create professional videos for a YouTube channel, for instance, your requirements would be higher than that of someone who creates 2-minute videos with the aid of Adobe After Effects. However, it creates a clear picture of what you need to look for when choosing a laptop. With that said, below is a review of some of the coolest laptops for After Effects that would put things into perspective and help you decide.

Are These The Only Factors for Selecting a Laptop?

Certainly not. The features of a good laptop are somewhat simple for less-demanding computer users. Since laptop preferences are often personal, it is important to consider other general specifications before settling for a specific laptop. Things such as the preferred brand, the input and output ports should also be taken into account as they will dictate the ease with which you can share your content to other people. Details such as physical size, storage capacity, connectivity, and speed of RAM play an important role too, but you can bet that most laptops mentioned above already have the best features.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, if you are looking for a good laptop for After Effects, you will most certainly need one that meets the minimum requirements for the program to run. However, you can never go wrong with a laptop that is already fitted with a GPU. As you have noticed from the laptops reviewed above, multi-core processors and at least 16GB of RAM keep repeating. Hard disk space was not greatly focused on because almost all laptops with the minimum specifications for After Effects come with at least 256GB of Hard Disk Drive space which is considered sufficient for the installation of After Effects and also for storage of video projects. Of course, as with most software products, there is usually a give or take and Adobe After Effects is no exception. Supposing you fall short of the minimum system requirements, After Effects might still run, but the experience may not be all that pleasant. While the general narrative has been to choose a laptop with a decent GPU, you should not forget that a fast CPU will also improve your overall experience during the video editing process.

How is Animation Used in User Interface Design?

For a long time now, animation has played a major role in determining whether the attention of users retains on a website or not. Initially, there was a lot of debate and negative outlook that encompassed the segment of animation. This was because of the fact that anything in motion gave the notion of a pop-up or advertisement.

Hence, the only reflexive action that would come out would be to close that page! However, that perception has of course changed over time. Animations are no longer looked upon that way and have become an integral part of providing UI design services.

How can Animation enhance the Experience of Users on an App?

Anything that is in a moving state or is in motion always engages a user more than how a normal graphic would. This is the main reason why mobile app developers indulge in animation, even though it is a bit tedious. Some other ways due to which animations are so important are:

Gives life to your interface

Even when a user is not performing any intricate task on an app, there are a lot of calculations and work taking place in the background. There might be some data downloading from the server, or something else.

Now, these processes take time and meanwhile, might give your app a frozen look. Which is why developers should use animation to show that there is some ongoing process happening. This sign of process would make the user feel like they are in charge of the app and they have the power of navigating around.

Make the waiting time interesting

No matter what, one thing that every user consistently hates is waiting. There are hardly any users who would have the patience to wait around while your web app is loading.

The problem here is, there is nothing you can do about the waiting time. What you can do is, use animation techniques to make that wait time interesting. Even though that would not reduce the time it takes for the page to load, it would at least keep the users attention on the web app.

Notify in an interactive way

By the name itself, notifications stand for demanding the attention of the users. What better of informing them about something important other than using the most interactive way!
Moving objects immediately grab attention, and you can then notify the users about whatever it was without making it annoying. Using a motion would attract the users,

Motions appeal to the users in a way simple designs cannot, giving them an edge over the others.

Use animation to navigate users

How would the users know that they are moving from one location to another on a website or a web app? Rather than doing that in an abrupt manner, you can make use of animation to navigate them.

Motion design has the power to accommodate the attention of users in an informative as well as interactive way.

This navigation can take place in various ways:

• Smooth transitions

• Transporting from one location to another

• Setting a visual hierarchy to describe a connection between elements

• Designing a button whose functionality variates based on the situation

he button changes its look from a “plus” to the “pencil” to indicate that the function of the button has changed.

The response in the form of visuals

For any user, getting some feedback in the form of visuals is more than just necessary. This response would be the element because of which the user would feel that they have the power on the app and not the other way around.

This can be done in many ways. For instance, the buttons would respond in a slight way when the user taps on it, acknowledging the move. At any point, using animation can enhance the interaction between a user and the app.

On an unconscious level, users notice the smallest details. Through visuals, you can show responses using animation and that would mean a better experience of the users.

What is Conceptual Animation?

Moving towards the next facet of animation is the conceptual animation. It is a kind of motion design that conveys a particular idea before converting it into actuality. In User Interface Design, conceptual designs can be present in animations like transitions, or other interactions.

The fact that conceptual animation is very different from the mainstream approaches is what makes it stand out and to an extent, controversial. Basically, Conceptual Animation is the trendsetter today.

Every developer today is looking for a unique concept to set themselves apart from the others. This technique of animation is different than the other styles and goes beyond all the tested ideas.

Some of the concepts in animation

Scrolling a list of items

This is the first feature in animation which basically determines the interaction of users with a list of items. There can be two variants, the first one where the list simply moves up or down respectively.
On the second one, there is a bit of a holdback after the user scrolls the list. This holdback gives more life to the animation and creates an idea that there is more space.

The transition from the list to item

In this feature, the user navigates from the list to a particular item upon selecting any one item. There are two variants in this case too. The first one is where the transition happens in the most basic way.
The second way, where more focus is given to the transition and that makes it more interactive.

Opening side menu

The side menu is a very common feature that any app developer uses. Using conceptual animation in this menu makes the appearance more elegant; like using the technique of gradually flowing of items.

Tutorials

You can refer the following tutorials to get a better idea of how you can incorporate the dynamic concepts of animation in your app development (iOS and Android) user interface design projects.

• The guidelines of Building apps with Graphics and Animation will help you in adding a motion in your Android app.

• Using Adobe After Effects will help you in animation.

• You can use Custom animation for your iOS projects.

Conclusion

The animation is a very elegant and powerful way to attract your users if used in a proper manner. It gives life to even the most basic elements and makes an interactive interface. However, if the animation is not used in a proper manner, it can backfire and drive the users away from your app.

While we are still used to the simple and flat shapes, the concept of animation is thriving towards building a better and creative interface. There are a lot of opportunities presenting themselves which require the attention of app development companies.

This article was originally posted by Hemendra Singh at theninehertz.com

Why it is Best to Keep Your Video Marketing Ads Short and Precise

Without question, video ads are among the most powerful visual tools you can use for your campaigns. While text, pictures, and other static contents can be quite useful, it is the gifs, infographics and animated videos that communicate better to clients. Adding sound, music and other video effects also make animated videos more effective, appealing to the senses and more emotionally effective for a wide range of the audience in order get them to take a required action, whether it is to buy your product or simply visit your website.

Various social media has popularized the use of videos for marketing. However, asides YouTube which allows users to post virtually unlimited minutes of videos, most of the other channels put a limit on how long the video you are allowed to upload should be. The message is simple; keeping your videos short precise and to the point is a more effective approach than setting up a complicated production with several minutes of play time. In fact, statistic shows that viewers generally prefer videos to be less than 3.5 minutes in length. What’s more? Attention span seems to drop significantly after the first 30 seconds of a video which means whatever message your video advert is trying to deliver you have to say what you want to say as fast as you can. Still, need convincing. Here are some reasons why a short 90 seconds template is more than sufficient for your video content.

Catch and hold your audience’s attention

Reports indicate that the average attention span of consumers online is about 8 seconds. Of course, if your video is engaging enough, you might get them to stay on for the next minute, but no matter how interesting your content is, you will find it quite difficult to go get viewers to go past the 3 minutes mark on any video advert. It is very simple logic, the longer the video; the less likely it is to hold your audience’s attention. Thus if you desire views and want your content to get the required attention, breaking it down into small bite-sized bits is highly recommended.

Get to the Point Fast

Shorter videos are a lot more straightforward and easier to understand. Of course, there are times when it seems you need more time to break down the concept or idea you are trying to market. But directing all your efforts into making the video short and effective no matter how complex your idea is can make all the difference in how well it is received. You need to get to the point and do so fast. There are plenty of juicy stuffs online and if your viewers don’t see what you are offering within the first few seconds of your video, they will scroll off to the next one.

Marketable

Think about it, in the frenzied world of social media marketing where everyone is trying to get the audience attention do you think it would be easier to convince a viewer to watch a 10 minutes video or a 30 seconds animated video? The winner is pretty much obvious. If you can’t even convince an online user to watch your video, how will you be able to convince such a user to buy your product? Shorter videos are a lot more marketable than longer ones and should.

It is cheaper

This one is a no brainer!!! You are more likely to save production cost on a short video. Among other things, length is one of the factors that determine how much you will pay for a video. Just so you know, even a short 60 seconds 3D explainer video can cost anything between $6000 to $10,000 dollars. If you choose to compromise on quality and opt for a simple whiteboard animation with simple graphics and characters then you can manage to bring costs down to about $3000.

Fortunately, there are a lot of tools out there that can be used for making short advertisement videos. Even better, you can simply purchase extremely low-cost pre-existing templates like this 90-second video that’s already complete with clean typography, exciting animations, and stunning visuals all for just $29. The template can then be edited to suit your ads and campaign, no additional expensive tools like third-party plug-ins and tools required and with little to no expert skills.  

Get Quality

When it comes to video marketing, quality should be the target and not quantity. By making your videos short and to the point, you can be better maximize the value of your content by focusing on making a professionally produced top quality short videos instead of a longer one of lesser quality. Consumers are better won over when your video is attractive and compelling rather than long, boring and unattractive.

Ensure a wider reach

One of the best ways to ensure a wider reach and connect with a wide range of audience is by making use of multiple platforms for advertisement. However, most online platforms generally encourage the use of short videos rather than long ones. Platforms like Vine, Instagram, and other social media channels limit video content to just a few seconds which means you will still have to break your long content down into bits if you want to post on these platforms.

Instead, it is best to tailor and trim your content to the shortest length possible while still preserving your message. There are video templates that are as low as 60, 30, 15 or even 6 seconds available here that can be customized to suit your marketing and advertisement needs. Also, using shorter videos means supporters of your brands can easily share your video contents thus helping you connect to a wider audience in the long run and you stand a better chance of your content going viral.

Lastly…

When it comes to online marketing, shorter is always better. Shorter videos are not only cheaper to make but they also perform better on different online marketing channels. They are also quite easy to make. With the right tools, you can get a good quality short videos ready for your campaigns in no time. There are loads of short animated video templates available on https://www.vdeesign.com. You can choose and purchase any of the great quality videos and edit according to your preferences for buzzing up your upcoming products, events, and so on within a very short but effective time frame.

Looking for Professionally Designed and Animated Layouts?

Animated Design Layouts Pack is built to present your content in the most professional, clean and modern look. With completely customizable set up and user-friendly design you can quickly deliver quality content by promoting your product using pre-animated layouts across all platforms. It features 12 major categories: Technology, Sports, Product Review, Music, Medicine, Lifestyle, Interior Design & Architecture, Health & Nutrition, Finance, Fashion, Events, Corporate

You can inspire and educate your audience across the world using these professional designs. This template does not require third party plug-in or scripts. Its user friendly set-up allows anyone with minimum After Effects experience to produce quick results on the fly. Just drop your images, clips and paste the text. A step by step video tutorial is included. Animated Design Layouts Pack template is exclusive, modern, and effective way to share your content on the market today.

Benefits

 When using templates, a placeholder is a box that indicates the font name and size the user is to use, and location where the user is to go next. The placeholder is written in text. It is a prompt for where the user’s next entry should be, for example, a text saying “Add Title”. Placeholder texts can also give users instructions on how to add graphics to their presentation.

Without needing plug-in modules or software, you can easily use the animated templates. This makes it ideal for even people not too knowledgeable about computers.

The animated template pack comes with a ready-to-play video tutorial, highlighting some of the areas a user might have problems with. Although the templates are already easy to use, the added video tutorial ensures that all areas of confusion would be cleared. Also available is a customer care email line where any lingering troubles would be immediately attended to.

Animated Social Media and Website Posts

The key to a successful social media marketing technique is researching your audience and creating engaging content that is relevant to your audience. You must learn to attract, grab, and hold onto your audience’s attention because there are others doing the exact same thing you are, trying to attract your audience’s attention, too.

Once you decide what kind of content you will be creating, you must be ready to invest into it and make it stand out. Does your audience prefer colorful texts on your images? Our animated template pack can do that for you. Or, do you need to create a digital marketing plan to present to your bosses using cool graphics and slides? Our animated template pack has got you covered in that area as well.

Marketers need to keep up with the fast, ever-changing trend surrounding the social media and internet. If you have discovered the increasing popularity of animated templates in social media marketing and are looking for ways to include them, you can use our templates.

With our templates, you can create cool GIFs to grab your audience’s attention.

Animated Templates for PowerPoint

If you are preparing for a PowerPoint presentation, you need to download these animated templates. It is important for you to present your points in an organized, enlightening way and, with our animated template pack, you can do just that. Get your ideas designed and polish up your presentation board, then stand bold before your audience.

Who says you PowerPoint presentation has to be boring? Our professional animated templates have unique, impressive slide designs to make all your presentations stand out. The template packs have cool visuals and motion slide design options that allow you showcase your important ideas creatively.  

It matters little who you are presenting to – it could be your classmates or a board of directors at your office. Every message contained in your presentation must be highlighted clearly and carefully, and hold your audience’s attention. Adding a touch of modernity is welcome; and this is where our animated templates come into play. With the right templates, you can add some motion to your texts, and include fun graphics.

Animated Ads and Banners

Don’t just stop at using our animated templates for your emails, presentation, and social media marketing strategies. You can also use the animated templates to make your ads and banners. Animated objects of course have higher chances of catching your audience’s attention than still images.

Banners are a proven way to grab your audience’s attention to a specific deal, business offer, or company. Online banners can be used on all kinds of websites; from business to celebrity news websites. Depending on the layout of a particular website, your banner can be placed in the form of grids, organized into sliders, or placed in the sidebar.

Animated ads or GIF banners are the next level from of web advertising. They are moving graphics that bear a company’s promotions, deals, and offers. Animated banner designs use images displayed one after the other, allowing businesses advertise more information in more complex and cool ways.

Whether an ad for attracting customers for your online business, you must include graphics and moving items to increase the chances of engaging your audience’s attention. Your ad will stand out from the other competition, and your offers will have more chances of being noticed.

Keep your audience captivated with moving, modern graphics, rather than boring still ads. The advantages of an animated banner or an ad are seemingly endless. They can be used for promoting new offers, deals and sales. They can also be used to advertise projects, e-commerce and personal projects.

If you are looking for an effective way to promote a new offer or business, using our animated template pack to design your ads will ensure that your content gets noticed immediately and more than the competition.

Use our animated templates to easily add graphics, texts and switch between presentations to create eye-catching, professional content in little to no time. From designing catchy ads to creating PowerPoint presentations to hold your audience’s attention, our template pack has everything you need.

You can check out more what the Animated Design Layouts Pack has to offer here

What is After Effects and How can I Learn it?

Adobe After Effects is a software application for creating motion graphics and special effects used in video, online content and presentations. After Effects is available on both Mac OS and Windows computers. After Effects is used widely in TV and film post-production, the creation of special effects, and animation. After Effects is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud 

After Effects Creative Cloud (CC)

Adobe After Effects CC is the industry standard software for visual effects and motion graphics. It is part of the subscription-based Adobe Creative Suite. CC stands for “creative cloud” and is automatically updated for its users on a continuous basis. This collaboration also makes it easier to use other Adobe applications when needed. CC also allows syncing of your settings to use it on any computer anywhere in the world. Although the program can be stored locally, the subscription must be active to receive updates and have all functionality. Subscriptions can be cancelled at any time.

What does After Effects do?

There are so many things you can do with After Effects. A creative and technical program, you can compose, create and stylize 2D footage in a 3D space. Depending on your role, the abilities of the program vary. It can design titles, create 2D cartoon characters, and more. Although it can do all these things, it is not the same as video editing software. This program is best used to apply effects after the footage has been edited.

Who uses After Effects?

After Effects is a specialized program and is primarily used by video editors, artists, graphic designers, social media and digital media designers, video producers, motion graphics designers and animators. Gaining proficiency in this program comes from in-depth training and hands-on use.

The History of After Effects

Adobe After Effects originally came from the Company of Science and Art in Rhode Island in 1993. This is where versions 1.0 and 1.1 were released. It was only available for Mac-based computers and was limited in its capabilities, which included layered compositing with mask, effect, transforms and keyframes.

The next version of After Effects was 2.0 in 1994 by Aldus Corporation,  which added motion blur,  multi-machine rendering and a Time Layout window. Subsequent versions 2.0.1, 3.0, and 3.1 were released in 1995 and 1996. Adobe acquired Aldus in July, 1993 and the first Adobe version commenced with 3.0

In May 1997 with version 3.1, the first Windows version was released, along with French and German translations. In November of that same year, Animated GIF output and Path Text effect were released to users for free.

Version 4.0 was released in January 1999 and added a number of improvements, including audio and transform effects, tabbed windows, particle playground, adjustment layers, rulers and guides, Premier import, Illustrator layers support, and label colors in the timeline. This was also the first dual Mac & Windows release of this program.

4.1 followed in December of that same year, adding 3D channel effects, sequence layers, 30,000x30,000 image support and other enhancements.

5.0 was released in April 2001 and added major bells and whistles. This was the introduction of Photoshop 6 vector mask import, PDF import, solo switch, 16 bits per channel color, Atomic Power plug-ins, 3D layers and lights, dynamic previews and more.

In January 2002, version 5.5 was released and was the first OS X version. It added RealMedia output, Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Classic bundled, effects palette, import camera data and multiple 3D views.

Version 6.0 was released in August 2003. With this release came editable Photoshop text layers, paint, scripting, text layers and animation, Keylight, Scribble, Dust & Scratches and Open GL support. Version 6.5 was released in June 2004 with minor enhancements.

In January 2006, Version 7.0 was released, adding Adobe Bridge support, display color management, Photoshop file creation, smart blur, a dynamic link with Premiere Pro, timewarp, 32-bit audio and the first Spanish & Italian versions.

The introduction of CS3 came with version 8.0 in July 2007, added full color management, and the first Universal Binary Intel Mac version. CS3 (8.0.2) was released in February, 2008 and was the last Mac PowerPC version.

CS4 was released in September 2008, with updates in May 2009 and October 2010. CS5 was also released in 2010, overlapping CS4 to fix glitches that were present. The CS5 release made 64-bit native mandatory on OS X and Windows. CS5 had four updates.

CS6 was released in April 2012, and added import from Final Cut Pro along with other enhancements. Live PSD 3D layer import was removed. CS6 had 2 upgrades.

The first version of CC was introduced June 2013, which added Maxon Cinema 4D Lite & Cinewar3e integration, Refine Soft Matte, layer snapping and Warp Stabilizer VFX. Additional upgrades in October 2013 and December 2013 added OS 10.9 & Retina support, property linking, mask tracker, the automatic creation of folders for image sequences, and other small quality improvements.

CC2014 was released June 2014. This included the ability to import Sony RAW footage, MPEG-4 SStp, and video preview on an external monitor with Mercury Transmit. This also had two upgrades in September and December.

CC2015 was released in November 2015, with upgrades in January 2016 and June 2016.  The release of CC2017 in November 2016 introduced Creative Cloud Team Projects. The upgrade in CC2017 allowed Team projects to be saved locally. The second upgrade of 2017 was released in April 2017 and added Lumetri Scopes, camera-shake deblur, and multiple GPU optimizations.

After Effects file formats

After Effects CC can import and export certain file formats. There are also codecs (third-party plug-ins) that can extend this listing. To import a QuickTime or AVI file, the codec must be present on the computer. Error messages received usually mean the codec needs to be installed. These are the current file formats supported per category:

Audio

These audio files can be imported and exported:

Advanced Audio Coding (AAC, M4A); Audio Interchange File Format (AIF, AIFF); MP3 (MP3, MPEG, MPA, MPA, MPE); and Waveform (WAV);

Still images

These still image extension can be imported and exported. Note: You can import files of any still image format as a sequence.

Adobe Photoshop (PSD); Cineon (CIN, DPX); IFF (IFF, TDI); JPEG (JPG, JPE); OpenEXR (EXR); Portable Network Graphics (PNG); Radiance (HDR, RGBE, XYZE); SGI (SGI, BW, RGB); Targa (TGA, VDA, ICB, VST); and TIFF (TIF).

These still images files are only for importing into After Effects:

Adobe Illustrator (AI, EPS, PS); Adobe PDF (PDF); Bitmap (BMP, RLE, DIB); Camera raw (TIF, CRW, NEF, RAF, ORF, MRW, DCR, MOS, RAW, PEF, SRF, DNG, X3F, CR2, ERF); CompuServe GIF (GIF); Discreet RLA/RPF; ElectricImage (IMG, EI); Encapsulated PostScript (EPS); Maya Camera Data (MA); and PCX.

Video and Animation

These video files can be imported and exported:

3GPP (3GP, 3G2, AMC); Animated GIF (GIF); DV; Open Media Framework (OMF); QuickTime (MOV); and Video for Windows (AVI).

These video files are import only:

Adobe Flash Player (SWF); Adobe Flash Video (FLV,  F4V); AVCHD (M2TS); Media eXchange Format (MXF); MPEG-1 (MPG, MPE, MPA, MPV, MOD); MPEG-2 (MPG, M2P, M2V, M2A, M2T); MPEG-4 (MP4,  M4V); Windows Media (WMV, WMA); and XDCAM HD/XDCAM EX (MXF, MP4)

Project Files

These files can be imported and exported, with the exception of Advanced Authoring Format (AAF), which is import only.

Adobe After Effects XML Project (AEPX); Adobe Premiere Pro (PRPROJ); Cinema 4D Importer

CMYK file formats

The following files that use the CMYK color space can be imported through After Effects:

Adobe Photoshop (.PSD); Adobe Illustrator (.AI); and Encapsulated PostScript (.EPS). The files are then converted to RGB.

Note: After Effects cannot assign an input color profile to files that use non-RGB color spaces, such as CMYK, limited color management. Every effort should be made to convert the files to RGB before importing them.

16-bpc and 32-bpc file formats

While After Effects can operate in 16 and 32 bits per channel, most video and animation file formats and codecs support only 8-bpc. Typical cross-application workflows for higher bit-depth color involve rendering to a still image sequence rather than a video or animation file. Still image formats that support 16-bpc that After Effects can render to include PSD, PNG, TIFF, IFF, and SGI. Formats that support 32-bpc include PSD, EXR, HDR, and TIFF.

Video codecs that support 10-bpc are provided with hardware such as a capture card or software such as Adobe Premiere Pro. You can import 10-bpc uncompressed YUV AVI files created in Adobe Premiere Pro into 16-bpc RGB After Effects projects. You can also render from After Effects with 10-bpc YUV compression.

How to Learn After Effects

There are a number of ways to learn After Effects, including in the classroom, online, and through videos and tutorials.

Learning After Effects in the Classroom

Local institutions and training centers provide hands-on teaching for those individuals who learn better in a classroom setting. After Effects classes are on a set schedule and require the presence of both student and instructor. This can be beneficial, as real-time demonstrations and questions can be answered right away, and students are working on the computer and receiving textbook learning for practical experiences. After Effects courses are available in many cities including Boston, as well as New York and also Philadelphia

After Effects Online Training

Learning online is another option for those choosing to learn After Effects. This solution is for those individuals who need may not be able to attend a classroom training. These After Effects training courses online are small-group live sessions delivered via a web conference.  In these settings, they also interact through discussions and live chat with the instructor.

After Effects Private Training

Many businesses offer this option to their employees as an incentive for retention. This is also a viable option because these trainings can be tailored to address exactly what the students need.

Self-Help After Effects Training

There are a number of video tutorials and books on After Effects that can enhance learning this program. This also allows you to learn at your own pace, which can be beneficial.

After Effects Mac vs Windows

Puget Systems, a custom computer business solution, conducted a test to determine the differences of After Effects on Mac vs Windows. The test systems:

Mac Pro (Late 2013); Intel Xeon 2.7-3.5 GHz; Intel Core i7 6900K 3.2 GHz.

Operating Systems for After Effects: Mac OS Sierra; Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Software: After Effects CC 2017.1

Both of these systems were single drive. The tests were conducted with both standard animation projects, as well as 4K video files using effects such as Lumetri Color. They also tested motion tracking with both 1080 p and 4K footage. The results:

RAM Preview

There was not much of a difference between the two at any preview resolution, but the Windows was about 8% faster at quarter resolution, 4% faster at half resolution, and 15% faster at full resolution.

RAM Preview – Lumetri Color

There was no significant difference between Metal and Open CL on the Mac Pro, but the PC was much faster. At full resolution, the MAC Pro’s performance got worse.

Motion Tracking

Windows was a few seconds faster on a 1080 project, which is a 7% gain. On 4K however, the PC was ~22% faster. Overall, there was a 15% performance gain using Windows.

The conclusion was that the current version of Windows is faster than the Mac when using After Effects.

How much does After Effects cost?

The cost of a stand-alone version of After Effects CC  is approximately $20 per month on its own, or to access all Creative Cloud apps, including After Effects, the fees are approximately $50 per month. After Effects is available only by subscription as part of the Creative Cloud. It is not sold as a packaged product with a long-term license.

This article was originally published by Christopher Smith. Christopher is president of American Graphics Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the publisher and editor of the Digital Classroom book series, which have sold more than one million copies. 

The Power of Leveraging Video Marketing for Your App’s Promotion

Video, a prominent tool in app marketing, has earned the reputation of being one of the fastest and simplest ways for users to evaluate an app. Particularly, in the last few years, it has emerged as one of the best ways of promoting your mobile app. Companies of all sizes are reaping the benefits of video collaboration by working in cohesion across varied time zones and geographies. And you can too.

Let’s explore how you can fully harness the power of video marketing for your app.

What Determines the Significance of Video?

A thoughtfully made short video is better than thousands of words. With visuals appealing a greater mass, as compared to lengthy text, well-crafted videos can do wonders to have a gripping effect on the viewers. More than 50% customers rely on product video, thereby creating credibility for your app.

The nature of video and its content determine your video marketing success. These factors would depend on how and where you intend to make use of the video.

Once people get to know about the concept and use of your app, you can expect increasing downloads of the app, if you app offers a compelling value proposition. Apart from offering value to the viewers, the video needs to have a good pitch with crisp and attention-grabbing content. Do anticipate what people would discover when they search for keywords pertaining to your app, to enhance your visibility.

Important Aspects of Having an App Video

Visuals are undeniably, one of the most promising marketing tools because people relate to them very easily. More than 50% of marketing experts worldwide consider video content to offer the highest ROI. Research backs that colored visuals increase willingness to read by 80%. Moreover, information that is heard is likely to be retained only 10%, 3 days after hearing while 65% people are likely to retain an image, 3 days after watching it. That’s the power of visual content, as backed by another research.

Before you begin, make sure you know how you want your app video to progress. It can give you a basic idea of what you need to project. Here’s how:

• Getting the App: Make your app visible and known to users through the video. Your target audience should know that the app can be found in Play Stores. Optimize it for exact search terms, or keywords, and feed your users so that they can easily find the app. You can also brief them that the app can be seen on any device using web view.

• Briefing on App Navigation: All your users may not be conversant with app navigation. You should also introduce your users to the basic features such as menu items on the home screen, tips to search the app, and how/where to find the basic functions like inbox or schedule.

• Highlighting Value Added Features: For users who wish to understand how the app can help them, your video should convey the message. Common special features like personal schedule, networking feature for photo uploads, use of Twitter hashtag – are some of the best ways to attract more users.

• Branding and Call to Action: Irrespective of who your targeted audience is, you expect people watching your video to remember your app. For this to happen, focus on branding aspects (company logo, app icon, tagline, app name etc.) and place a call to action at the end (“download now”, “install now”, “join us” and “update now” etc.).

Highlights of a Great Video

• A welcome introduction from a friendly face

• A clear, nice shot of the mobile in use

• Highlights of some of the most important features and value additions to users

• A word to let the world know why this app is so important

• A call to action line for better conversion

5 Best Reasons to Use Video Marketing for Promoting Your App

If your video works as a solution to the audience for the information they are looking for, you’ve hit the right chord. Using video to generate awareness towards your app has several benefits.

Here are the 5 best reasons why you should promote your app through videos:

1. Having a Lasting Impression: With a well-crafted video, you can create a lasting impression on the minds of customers. Irrespective of whether people identify your brand or not, videos create awareness. Preparing videos with short app reviews or trailers are sure to catch the attention of people. Shoppers who view video content are 1.81 times more likely to buy than non-viewers.

2. Tap Curious Customers: With creatively designed videos, you can exhibit the features of your app and its specialty in a short duration. In less than a minute, you can target prospective customers having curiosity about your app.

3. Connect to Existing Customer Base: Connecting to existing customer’s via video has the potential to boost loyalty and encourage promotion via social media channels and/or word of mouth. This gives them a further understanding of the functionality and benefits of your app.

4. For More Qualified Downloads: Getting users to download your app no longer suffices in the mobile app world; you have to ensure that more and more qualified users are drawn to your app. Such users can be critical as they want to check what they can do with your app before getting into it. They also develop an understanding of its concepts and have basic idea about how it works before tapping any button. For instance, if you have a good demo video, it can give you better downloads from interested users as it serves as an introduction to your product.

5. To Target Audience on the Basis of SEO: The value of YouTube, the 2nd largest search engine, cannot be ignored. There are millions of users reviewing apps and posting app trailers in YouTube. You can influence what people find online with respect to corresponding keywords used in your app. This can effectively increase your app’s visibility. As you know, having a good number of views and getting people hooked to an app video can boost your Google rankings too.

Where and Why to Promote Your App Video?

There are different ways to use videos to promote your app’s adoption. The following tips will help you make optimum utilization of different available channels for app marketing.

• Apple App Store and Google Play Store:

Using Apple App Store, Google Play Store, you can aim at video marketing to target app fans. Your app page within these stores provides you with a stage to present your app and highlight its unique value proposition. This is your chance to win over potential users. That is why many app marketers take advantage of the power of video for these pages.  Not only can a video help visually illuminate the advantages of your app, you can also give quick tips on how and when to use the app.

Apple lets you create 30 second app previews for iPhone and iPad apps. You can check everything about app previews here.

Google Play allows a space for promotional video URL. To know its display position and tips, click here. Additionally, it lets you target global audience with the help of videos in different foreign languages. The best part of getting clicks on videos on Google Play Store is that each click is counted as click on YouTube, which further boosts your YouTube search result ranking, further letting you have better ranking on Google search engine too. That calls for better engagement.

• Alternative App Stores:

Due to increasing competition on two biggest app stores, Google Play Store and Apple App Store, gaining visibility for apps has become difficult. You can also target some other app distribution channels like appbrain.com, Amazon App Store, slideme.org, soc.io for better visibility, monetization benefits, lower competition and ease of integration they provide.

• Facebook Ads:

For better user acquisition, reap the benefits of 15 to 30 seconds video ads with Facebook. With a direct “install now” option that leads to the app store, Facebook video ads are perfect for app success.

• Social Media Platforms:

With the rising popularity of Instagram, Twitter and many other social platforms, you are sure to gain enhanced access to your target audience. Undoubtedly, by posting your app video for your product followers, you increase the exposure and virality of your app. The viral power of social media platforms gives you an opportunity of having the video shared and liked so much that more and more people can know about your app. By posting videos, you also have a chance to read comments of your audience and increase your awareness of their issues, attitudes, and behaviors towards your product. This can also help you to modify your promotion strategy at a later stage.

• The App Website:

It is a best practice to have your app website ready before launch. A good landing page on your product website with a matching layout, promo video, a small description of the video, and Call to Action (CTA) to download your app can help to increase conversions and generate buzz for your app pre-launch and post-launch too.

Make it fully functional, easy to navigate and mobile-friendly. Remember, this website will help desktop users obtain a good understanding of your app without having to navigate to the app stores.

Having an official blog on the app website can also be a good promotional strategy. It can help increase social media and SEO traction for your product and enlighten current and potential users. The content of your posts should further support the value proposition of your app and incorporate case studies, screenshots, videos, and user interviews.

• Circulate to Journalists/Bloggers:

Besides having your own website, consider circulating your app video to journalists and bloggers across the world. You can request a complete review written for the app or simply have an informative blog, which includes a line to the video promoting the app at the end of the blog. But, to make sure these busy professional bloggers are convinced to review your app along with a video link, your video and pitch need to be effectively designed.

• Other Video Platforms:

There are many video sharing platforms, other than YouTube like Daily Motion, Flickr, MetaCafe, Vimeo and more that offer a greater scope to your app. Upload your app video on multiple video platforms for better response and higher conversions. Also, choose an appropriate video title include the primary keyword and other related keywords. Use keywords generously in the video description too.

• Feature in Emails:

You have to engrave the app into various aspects of the marketing strategy, including emails. Businesses send out uncountable emails. Increasing awareness about your app, by providing a link to the online video can increase the chances of conversions. Any email you send, be it in the form of a newsletter or technical support, it is good to include the app’s video link to increase app adoption and visibility.

Conclusion

Given the basic viral quality of videos and the power they possess to resonate with potential users, it would be a mistake to not consider utilizing video marketing for your app. But be warned, do not approach the video creation process carelessly, or the video could backfire on your app. To ensure an extra level of confidence regarding your video’s quality, it is recommended to consult a professional in the realm.

7 Top Reasons Why an Animated Video Might be The Best Approach For Your Business

Pictures, videos, charts, infographics, and other graphic contents have always been important to marketing efforts. They have gained even greater prominence today with the rise of various graphics-focused social media platforms. But of them all, animated videos have proven to be one of the most effective for various reasons. If you are planning a marketing campaign for your business, here are some top reasons why you should consider using animated videos to get the message across to your audience. 

Communicate quickly and clearly

Every business gets a very narrow window of opportunity to communicate with potential customers. An animation is an effective way to make use of those few seconds you have and communicate your message effectively. You can summarize the key details of your business in a few seconds or minutes’ videos and present it succinctly to your audience which is one of the key qualities of a good online campaign. 

From a scientific point of view, animated content is easier to process than static information. Animations ignite feelings and deep-seated emotions in the brain and images are quickly interpreted and turned into thoughts that pass the message clearly to any group of audience. 

Boost engagement

Static messages are great, but most times, they don’t quite cut it in terms of how well they engage the audience which is the primary aim of every campaign. Animations give life to an otherwise dormant message and are more likely to elicit a reaction from an audience. Simply animating a “click to buy” text or any other type of call to action text increases click-through rates drastically. Also, people are more likely to leave a comment on a cartoon video and share the video if they enjoy it of find it funny compared to a text or static graphics.

Animation allows you to present information in a simple and fun way, which is engaging and high impact. Using animation, businesses can make things happen that are outside the realms of reality and typical corporate video production budgets.

Reach any audience

Every marketing effort is directed towards a specific audience. However, texts, pictures, and other traditional digital marketing mediums are not always effective for communicating with some audiences. You change the game entirely with animations as it allows you to reach a range of demographics effectively. For example, you can make the character in your animated video female if you want something women can relate with more. You can make it an old man, or even a puppy depending on who it is intended for and you will still be able to get the message across effectively.

 Simplify your message

Let’s face it, the concepts of some businesses are simply too boring or unfamiliar that attempting to make ordinary people understand it is almost impossible. For example, even some tech savvy people have a hard time understanding the concept of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. But, put it in a creative animated video and even a child should be able to get the idea.  If you are trying to deliver a complicated or hard to grasp the message, the best way is to present it using animated videos. That way you can break it down into simple fun steps rather than uninteresting mind-numbing text that will have your audience scrolling off to the next post after reading the first paragraph.

Stand out

People are actually more interested in unique things, and what better way to present an idea in an uncommon way by using animated videos. Text is boring, we can’t emphasize it enough and even more, it is the same as everything else. You stand a better chance of getting noticed when you present information in a way people are not particularly used to. Even when you are presenting an old idea, or advertising a fairly common business, an animated video is still more likely to have your audience hooked simply because of its originality and uniqueness. Animated videos are different and will always stand out.

Grab attention and leave a lasting impression

We live in a world where everyone is in a hurry. People generally have a short attention span and they are unlikely to read through a text unless it is absolutely compulsory. Whether you are on social media or on a website, you have mere seconds to convince anyone to stay and listen to you rather than move on to the next post. So what do you do? The best strategy is to use something that will get them hooked from the very first minute and make them stay and listen to every message. An animated video does that job perfectly.

Also, since people are bombarded with loads of information on a daily basis, you need to leave a lasting impression with every message you put out. Graphic content and more importantly animated videos are more likely to linger on in people’s mind more than text would which makes it a more effective way of leaving the message out there. A one-liner dropped by a cartoon character in an animated video will stick to the audience mind better than a whole essay or blog post about the importance of your product.

No hard-selling

No one likes being pressured into making a sales decision. People are more likely to patronize you if they know you are not trying to hard-sell a product to them. An animated video is a humorous way to deliver a message. If you have a funny and enchanting animated character selling your product, people are less likely to see you as pushy and are will possibly feel at home with your business which is a more effective way to sell anything. 

Conclusion

Without question, animations provide an undeniably effective way to present information of any kind. There is no limit to the type of information you can summarize and display, and even complex information can be broken into easily digestible bits that your readers will find interesting.

Video Editing Basics: A 15-minute Masterclass

Want to dive into video marketing, master the video editing basics and create some killer content? Excellent!

Think of this post as your uber-brief but thorough guide to everything you need to know about video editing. We’ll talk about putting together a script, adding the right kind of audio, formatting your video like a pro, and so much more. Let’s dive in.

1. Craft a killer script

If you want to hold people’s attention, you gotta have a good script.

The best script depends on what type of video you want to make. Not sure what that is? Here are some ideas, plus some other resources on writing specific kinds of scripts.

An effective script should:

• Have clear, audience-specific goals. What do you want your video to do? Who’s going to watch it? Getting super clear about the video’s purpose will help you present your message in a more engaging way.

• Focus on a single idea at a time. Figure out what the key idea of your video is and focus on that. By sticking to one theme or problem at a time, you can create a tighter, more informative video.

• Speak to your audience. A video is a conversation. When writing your script, think about what questions, thoughts, and feelings are going through the viewer’s mind and address them.

2. Choose the right color combination for your video

Colors directly affect our perception and mood. Upbringing, preferences, cultural background and experience all influence how we perceive colors. That’s why it’s so important to keep your audience in mind when putting together the color scheme for your video.

How do you put an attractive palette together if your knowledge of color theory is vague at best? Don’t worry, there are tools for that! First, let’s take a super quick look at the two main color systems you’ll come across when making a video.

• RGB: This color system is used for all electronic displays — it’s how you see colors on your phone, tablet, and TV. The primary colors used here are red, green and blue.

• HEX: Hex codes are six-digit numbers used to represent RGB colors for screen displays. Hex codes are the default for the web. A hex code will be a hash followed by six numbers and/or letters, and looks something like this: #23f4a3.

3. Use high-quality images

Choosing the right images for your video can make or break it. High-res images are essential if you want your video to stand out.

We already mentioned RGB and HEX (they’re kind of the same thing), but CMYK is a color profile used for print, so if you see it, you’ll need to change it to RGB. Don’t worry, After Effects does this automatically. Just upload any picture you’ve got and it’ll be fine. If you’re not using After Effects, you can use a tool like Photoshop (or its free, open source twin GIMP) to change the color profile.

4. Get the sound right

Most of us would put up with a video with less than HD quality if the sound is top notch. Bottom line, if your audio doesn’t work, your video won’t be very effective.

When you’re putting together your own video you’ve got two main options — you can add great music or upload your own voice over. When picking the perfect soundtrack for your video, you can use high-quality royalty free music. Whatever you do though, don’t use music you don’t have rights to — the lawsuits are just not worth it. If you want to try something different, adding a voiceover can help you tell an effective story.

5. Format your video like a pro

Just like you get all kinds of text documents, videos come in a pretty large variety of formats. The most common ones for online streaming are MP4, FLV, and WMV.

All three of these are supported by the main social media platforms and work well online. We suggest to export your video as an MP4, a format supported by pretty much every platform today.

6. Marketing your video

Now that you’ve made your video, it’s time to get it in front of the right people.

You can use your video in a lot of different ways.

• Embed video in emails. Email is still one of the best ways to reach your audience and adding a video to it can increase engagement and click-through rates.

• Add video to your landing page. Doing this doesn’t just increase conversion rates by up to 80%. It helps you create a personal connection with the visitor right off the bat.

• Share your video on social media. Video content on social media gets more engagement, comments, and shares so don’t be afraid to use it! Not sure your followers are interested? HubSpot found that 83% of consumers would share a brand’s video if they find it useful or interesting.

• Run video ads. Most social media platforms now support video ads (even LinkedIn are on board!) and video ads tend to perform better.

Of course, to use a video in a marketing campaign you do have to house it somewhere. YouTube and Vimeo are both great places to start, however, there’s plenty of other options for video hosting if these two don’t make you wild.

Bringing it all together

Creating a fun to watch video doesn’t have to be hard. With a killer script, attractive images, and an appealing color scheme you can make people pay attention to what you’ve got to say.

According to the latest data from HubSpot, a stunning 81% of people have decided to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video.

This article was originally posted by Biteable

The Business Value of Motion Design

We all see lots of great animations published on Dribbble, Bechance or Uplabs. However, there is much less motion in the apps or websites. During my professional work, I came up with a conclusion that there are two main reasons for this situation.

The first is the technical feasibility. Sometimes motion cannot be directly implemented in code. Thankfully this is changing for better. The second reason for that we use apps with mostly static pages is following: very often Stakeholders do not see the business value of motion implementation in the solutions.

Animations are often the first elements to throw away if the estimations are bigger than the budget. However, if we want to create solutions 10 times better than competitors, stakeholders should consider taking the risk. To explain why motion matters, this story contains an explanation of its real business value.

Let’s dive into the money in motion.

Motion helps to accomplish a task by providing visual clues

There are many situations when a user does not know what to do on the page. This may be the moment when the process is abandoned. If a user cannot accomplish the task, they can become frustrated and never come back to a website or an app. If that moment occurred during a purchase process, it would cause the loss of the potential income.

The good animation suggests what happened and what can be done next. Just take a look at the macOS dock and the bouncing icon of an iTunes that tries to inform us that the app needs your attention. Notice how the system windows are minimized, they provide a simple visual clue that shows where the element is hiding.

It builds an impression of higher quality

If the animation is natural and the elements move with ease, users have a better impression that leads to the belief of higher quality. Users may think that if someone was able to make this kind of animation, it was undoubtedly a very professional and talented team.

The lack of natural motion was the primary disadvantage of not native mobile apps. Users instantly noticed the lower quality of the solution. They did not think about that it was the same data presented or the same tasks accomplished. If there was no motion or animation lagged the conclusion was simple.

App feels to work faster

Users hate to wait. They require solutions to answer their actions immediately. Thanks to the animated transitions, an app may feel faster. The data load in the background while the animation continuous to play. Instead of showing blank screen by a 1 second, a user has an impression that he waited just a couple of milliseconds.

Note: Beware of overuse of this technique. Animations longer than 400ms may feel unnatural and frustrate users if they have to watch them every time they interact with the solution.

Animation ensures the user that the action has an effect

Users love to have control over the solution they use. It means that every initiated interaction should give the right feedback. Sometimes the button changing its color and displaying circle progress indicator is enough. It can prevent the user from abandoning the page and your business from losing the money.

This kind of motion can give a clue to the user that it is worth to wait for a while to finish what they started.

Motion helps to embrace the brand personality

Brands spend tons of money to design a unique appearance that will be remembered by the users. However, the way something move is also a part of the brand experience.

The holistic approach to branding process has to remember about all aspects of interaction with a customer, this may be sound, scent and of course motion. An animation may feel joyful, playful or professional and minimalistic.

Better customer satisfaction and engagement.

We all love to be served well, in a way that feels more than a standard. If we get more than we expected, we surely remember this particular moment.

Following example may also be a perfect case for animation. Friendly motion after accomplishing the particular task may bring the smile to the face of user. The more satisfied users are, more likely they return to the solution.

Motion that may ruin your business

The previous paragraphs mention mostly the positive aspect of the motion and its implementation in digital solutions. However, there are also some cases where bad motion may hurt your solution. Here are a couple of things to avoid:

• Lags – Lags are real engagement killer. If you make the motion, it has to animate with ease. It is even better to disable the motion if you cannot achieve smooth movement.

• Flashy motion – Every animation should have an intention. Making too much of motion or random ones may annoy users instead of amaze them.

• Expensive animation – the investment made in animation implementation may be worth its prize. However, if developers warn you about very serious costs that are required to implement a particular element consider alternatives.

• Overcomplicated motion – Simplicity is ultimate sophistication. Making animation that has a purpose is often a simple set of a few parameters. Do not make complicate choreography because it distracts users.

To conclude

More and more solutions discover the value of animations that are not just a caprice of creators but has got a serious business value. Modern software libraries and SDKs allow developers to build more complex motion with ease. Now, there are also tools like Lottie that generates the file with animation directly from designers source files without any effort of a software developer.

It is the time to implement motion in the solutions wisely. If you found this matter interesting, feel free to discover more about motion design and how to prepare specification that may help developers implement it faster.

The Untapped Power of Video Content

One of the most powerful ways for companies to connect with consumers is through visual content. While the benefits of compelling images are well known, our understanding of the return on video content is becoming clearer. Video should now be part of a brand's communication strategy to maximize engagement, revenue, repeat business and word of mouth.

Video Has a Powerful Effect on Purchasing Decisions

When it comes to the power of video, the numbers put its importance into perspective. According to HubSpot findings cited in Forbes, 64 percent of online shoppers are more inclined to purchase a product after watching a video about it, and including videos in marketing emails can skyrocket click-through rates by 200 to 300 percent.

What’s more, our hypermobile world allows consumers to browse and check prices on devices before making a purchasing decision, which 30 percent of online shoppers do at least once per month.

Advances in video technology now deliver 360-degree views and on-the-fly zoom capabilities to offer close-ups of essential features and the ability to add voiceovers to convey critical information. While images and text descriptions remain the industry standard for promoting products online, video can do so in infinitely less time while making information easily digestible — including when customers are on the go.

Related Article: You're So Vain: Beyond Marketing Vanity Metrics

Why Aren't More Companies Using Video?

So with consumer preference and engagement stats like these, why aren’t we maximizing the power of video?

A recent Forrester study discovered only 38 percent of companies received passing marks for engaging consumers with video beyond just repurposing content like ads and speeches.

Companies cite concerns about the time and costs associated with finalizing videos — not to mention uncertainty around ROI. There are substantial bandwidth costs with serving video, and companies often implement them incorrectly, which results in consumer indifference.

Some companies fail to align video content with their brand strategy. Considering 80 percent of customers recall a video clip consumed in the past 30 days, making sure video content employs brand fonts, colors, tone and more are critical for achieving the necessary recall. Case in point: Have you ever watched a commercial during the Super Bowl, laughed uncontrollably, but then forgot the name of the brand behind the ad? No matter how compelling the video content might be, if consumers don’t instantly recognize or remember the brand, then recall will fade faster than a dream, right after awakening.

There are also examples of companies pivoting entirely to video with less-than-stellar results. Fox Sports eliminated its digital writing and editing teams in the summer of 2017 to put its muscle behind digital video. According to sources, Fox Sports Digital lost 88 percent of its audience shortly after the change.

The Fox Sports situation is a warning that simply uploading video content doesn’t always pay dividends. Companies need to understand the context of each video and how it showcases the brand while providing value for the consumer.

Related Article: Why B2B Marketers Should Experiment With Live Video

Video Done Right

What do we make of such compelling video stats on the consumer side that fail to align with best practices by online companies and additional media outlets, especially when factoring in Cisco's prediction that video marketing could be responsible for 80 percent of internet traffic by 2019?

Videos alone aren't a panacea. Placing a YouTube embed on a homepage isn’t enough. The content must look professional, provide information in a clear and concise visual and auditory fashion, and considering smartphones are expected to impact over $1 trillion of retail sales in 2018, the importance of optimizing for mobile cannot be overstated.

If you aren't providing your prospective and current customers with the video content they so clearly desire, you are likely missing out on a big opportunity to help foster the kind of engagement you’re aiming for.

This article was originally published by Sanjay Sarathy. Sanjay is VP of marketing at Cloudinary, a provider of end-to-end digital media management solutions. With more than twenty years experience in leading global marketing programs, his work spans tech startups and established market leaders in SaaS, Big Data, analytics and e-commerce.

The Truth About In-House Digital Video Advertising

Digital video advertising is mainstream. From the smallest brands, to huge multinationals, digital video has cemented its place in the marketing mix. The reason? It’s never been easier to produce and publish in-house.

Whether this is a good thing or not is a matter of artistic debate. However, With US advertisers expecting video advertising to increase from $17.87 billion in 2018 to $29.61 billion in 2022, it’s growing in prominence.

The viewership of digital video is evolving too. Millennials and Generation Z are more at home watching short-form videos on social platforms than traditional live tv. Snapchat and Instagram being two favorite hangouts.  

Yet, across the board consumers are engaging more with video – B2B marketing via Linkedin video a prime example. It is now critical that advertisers reach consumers through a range of video formats, working across multiple channels and devices.

The way we consume digital video is changing

What’s more, how viewers interact with video ads is constantly changing. With the length and placement of video ads now varying greatly. From skippable pre-roll ads on Youtube, to out-stream video located in a publisher’s content, there are many options. Not to mention the humble in-banner video format – which still plays an important role in digital video consumption.

Viewers can even experience different types of video ads when consuming the same content too. For example, one 17-minute Youtube video can deliver as many as six video ads: two pre-roll ads (both skippable), two ads one-third of the way through, and two more ads two-thirds of the way through.

All of this can be rather bewildering, and not just for the viewer! For example, marketers need to take into consideration the location and format of their video ads too. Senior writer at Econsultancy, Ben Davis, notes: “Placing an ad is, as ever, all about context. You want to make sure your ads are seen in places where viewers are happy with the perceived transaction.” Indeed, it is a delicate balance between digital video ads, and creating optimal viewing experiences for audiences.

Moreover, being able to adapt and scale your video ads are is key. Longer digital video ads, 30 seconds or more, are not appropriate for the way content is consumed via certain channels. According to Bogdana Butnar, head of strategy at Poke, “video completion is less relevant for fragmented video environments like Instagram Stories or Snapchat, and overall for mobile. This is why Google is switching to simpler six-second ads instead of the traditional skippables”. The lesson for advertisers? You need to be adaptable when producing effective digital video campaigns.  

Building your digital video advertisements in-house

One way of producing all the digital video ads for your campaign is by doing it in-house. In fact, in-house teams (and in-house agencies) are now at the forefront of current digital marketing thinking. A recent survey found 30% of marketers were “unsatisfied” with their current agency! While brand’s employing more staff with the right skills, means creating digital video ads in-house is likely how most video ads in the future will be produced.

However, talking in the Drum, Kate Tancred, co-founder of The Smalls, a video commissioning platform, sees positives and negatives in the shift in-house. “Creating in-house videos will help with consistent storytelling and optimization.” However, she also notes that the key is to success is ensuring an in-house team knows how, and when, to connect with outside talent. “A good combination of working with agencies, publishers, when creating [your] own content”, she adds.  For example, knowing when to commission an agency to create key video, which can then be edited, and reused, by an in-house team across marketing materials.  

The solution to producing digital video in-house?

Yet, the question is: how can digital advertisers adapt and produce the sheer amount of video ads required? The old answer is expensively, and slowly via an agency, or using a fully equipped in-house agency. But what if I told you there was another way? And you could produce your digital video ads easily in-house? After all, not all marketing teams are so blessed with talent.

Producing digital video is set to become as easy as producing digital display ads. In fact, the same tool that makes banners so easy to produce is at the heart of the solution. Thanks to enterprise-level creative management platforms, or CMPs, producing and exporting, video content quickly, for all your campaigns, is now a reality.

That’s the beauty of it. The same as before! The same powerful versioning, scaling, translating, and collaborating tools for display advertising campaigns, are now applicable when creating digital video ads.

The catch? There isn’t one. The only limitation is the power of your designer’s imagination. The ability to create the 6 second ads, or longer pre-roll ads, which work seamlessly within the context of your digital campaign is now possible. This means that you can create the huge numbers of digital video ads required for the many different platforms you might be serving. You can cover everything.

Just make sure you invest in the right CMP as some basic platforms will not offer this feature!

Why is this feature useful?

The reality, as previously mentioned, is that brands need to be adaptable; producing a large quantity of digital video ads per campaign. This is where being able to export your video from a creative management platform becomes extremely useful.  But where can use the digital video ads created in your CMP?  

Social channels

The most obvious place for videos to be served is via social platforms. From the traditional big three of Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin, to the youthful and fragmented narratives of Snapchat, and intimidator/competitor Instagram.     

Digital out of home (DOOH)

With out-of-home becoming ever more digital and programmatically driven, the opportunities for marketers are exploding. For example, a brand’s in-house digital video can go global like never before. From digital transit ads on Stockholm trains, to the huge screens of London’s Piccadilly Circus.

What’s more with in-store screens now part of the mix for many commerce brands, creating messages for consumers is even easier. Update and churn out as many messages as you want across your entire store network!     

Internal marketing

But why stop there with your use of digital video? Use the same functionality to create content that can be used to display video on internal web pages and portals. Even add it to the emails you send, or use it within company presentations.  

Other hosting networks

The list of options for digital video ads is endless. However, before we forget, why not upload your exported digital video to Google Ads and serve it on YouTube too?

Then there is all the other options from Vimeo, to countless other third-party hosts. Your video creatives can be displayed wherever you wish. Not to mention new options such as programmatic TV.

The future of digital video and programmatic TV

Staying ahead of the game in terms of digital video ads looks a good bet for the future too. The merging of traditional television and programmatic is predicted to be the next big thing in ad-tech. There are already strong indications that TV is going programmatic and Netflix will lead the charge.

Indeed, Netflix is unlikely to be a slouch when it comes to adopting programmatic. Advertisers will need to be ready for the floodgates opening as more players take notice of Netflix and enter the programmatic market. As usual those Advertisers that can embrace the change look set to prosper.

The Anatomy of a Successful Social Video Ad [New Research]

Social advertising has come a long way since it was first introduced.

Gone are the days when static banner ads and search ads were the only ways to reach your audience in a digital world.

Today, for a brand to be successful with social advertising (or marketing in general), video has to be a part of a broader strategy.

Video advertising is a core growth tactic for the major social networks because it is engaging and easy to monetize. In fact, in 2017, social video advertising spending leaped 130%.

According to our latest research at Wave.video on the state of social video ads, businesses are using video in advertising to drive traffic to their website, promote new content, and boost website conversions. 

Source

However, with more brands taking advantage of social video advertising, we are approaching saturation. Creating an engaging social video ad that will actually convert is an increasing challenge.

What makes a social video ad successful?

In this article, we will break down the key elements that will help you create a converting video ad for social, based on our latest research.

How Social Trends Shape Video Ads

Video ads posted on social should not exist in vacuum. They should take into account great social media behaviors in order to see the greatest success.

Here are some of the trends we’re seeing that should shape your video ads on social media:

1. Storytelling

People love stories. They work well because they are one of the most effective ways of conveying relatable emotions.  

When it comes to stories, we, as human beings, are “susceptible to getting ‘swept up’ in both their message and in the manner of their telling,” which makes them highly effective ways of communicating. 

Whenever you hear a TED speaker begin their talk with the words “Imagine you were…”, your mind starts constructing an image in your head.

Advertisers recognize this trend.

According to our research, 71% of respondents said that storytelling is the most popular type of video ads for their business. This far exceeds other popular video types such as explainer videos or how-to’s.

2. More About the Viewer than the Brand.

While it’s only understandable that you want to tell about your brand early on, your viewers might not think so. The Wave.video research revealed that 63% of respondents find it best to show their brand after the first 3 seconds of the video ad.

It’s content marketing 101. When the focus of your video is you and not anything of value to your audience, they are more likely to tune out your message or worse, stop watching.

You want your content to be perceived as helpful as possible. Leading with the value to the viewer, not your sales pitch, is the most effective way to do this in a video ad.

3. Humanizing the Brand

Gone are the times when people were ok with stock images and footage.

Now, brands are being personal and more human in the way they communicate with clients and the benefits are clear.

67% of the most successful video ads show people. Seeing individuals like ourselves in ads again helps them resonate. It helps viewers picture themselves in shoes of those people, using your product or experiencing the results/perks of doing so. 

4. Getting Emotional.

Social media is not about sales. It’s about bringing people together, connecting them on an emotional level and helping them stay in touch.

Social media ads are different from traditional advertising media like TV or radio ads. It’s too easy to scroll past an ad when it sticks out like a sore thumb in a feed full of family and friends.  

If you analyze the most successful video ads collected by HubSpot, the majority of them strike emotion and make you go “awww” or “oh wow” immediately.

Take this example from Android:

Capitalizing on the popularity of “cute animal” videos on social media, Android creates an irresistible ad that keeps you watching until the end.

5. Keeping it Short

Have you seen the movie “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?” If you haven’t, I’m not surprised.

I tried watching it twice: first, when I was on the plane flying over the Atlantic, and the second time, just the other day. Both times, I fell asleep during the first 15 minutes.

It’s not because the movie is bad; quite the opposite actually, but the beginning doesn’t cut straight to the point.

Instead, it takes a while to unfold, gradually telling the story. Probably not the best choice for a jet-lagged person like myself.

When it comes to social video ads, the situation is even worse. According to Facebook Business, people lose interest very fast when it comes to in-feed ads: 

Source

And our research confirmed this.

83% of the most successful video ads are shorter than 1 minute and the best performing ones are only 15 to 30 seconds long.

In this sense, video ads reinforce the global trend “the shorter the better.”

6. Be Mindful of Your Call-to-Action

48% of brands use video ads on social to drive traffic to their website and yet, only 53% of viewers proceed to the company’s website and learn more about the brand after having watched an ad.

This might mean two things.

First, it could mean the audience doesn’t want to leave the social platform of choice and businesses might want to find a way to engage with customers without doing so.

For instance, with Instagram, you might lead the viewers to your company’s profile where they can learn more about the brand or on Facebook, it might be a good idea to promote your page or community.

On the other hand, it might mean the call-to-action just isn’t the right one, and viewers simply don’t understand what they are supposed to do after watching an ad.

Check out these findings on some of the most common CTA language:

The point is, be mindful of your call-to-action. Make sure that it makes sense for the platform and the point in the buyer’s journey that viewers encounter it, and also make sure that it is clear and easy to understand.

7. Unconventional Formats

Nowadays, the majority of social networks get their visits from mobile devices, which means it’s more important than ever to deliver your social video ad in the format that will best serve your audience’s viewing behavior.

On Facebook and Snapchat, it definitely means going vertical. According to Facebook, almost 80% of video consumers find vertical video more engaging and are more likely to watch a vertical video than a landscape one.

Even Google just recently announced that vertical video ads now available for advertising campaigns on YouTube. Vertical videos occupy more real estate than any other format, hence looking more prominent on mobile.

The saying is on the wall: social platforms want to create the best experience for their users, video ads included. For us as social video ad creators, it makes sense to experiment with different advertising formats, including square and vertical.

So, What Makes a Video Ad Successful? The Key Takeaways for Businesses

With ever-changing social trends and saturated environment, it seems more difficult than ever for a business to create compelling social video ads. How can your company thrive and get results with social advertising?

Don’t Sell a Product. Sell a Solution.

Once I heard someone say that when people go to Home Depot to get a drill, they are not actually looking forward to buying the tool. What they need is a hole in the wall.

With the video ads that you post on social, the idea is to provide value to your customers in the first place. (This is an example that we used in a retargeting ad in the past.)

Here are just a few ideas on how you can make sure the video ad addresses customers’ needs:

1. Provide a solution to a common pain point

2. Entertain the viewer

3. Evoke emotions and educate your audience. Share curious facts, industry trends and stats, or useful tips related to your product or service.

This article was originally published by Olga Bedrina

Ways to Effectively Use Animated Templates

Are you looking to spice up your business and set your content aside from the others? A surefire way to do this is by using animated templates. Animated templates are basically a series of photos that serve to emphasize a point or create a slideshow effect. They cause words and objects on your slides to move around and allow for smooth transitions between slides.

If you have a business you own, manage or contribute to, it is important to focus on some strategies that can not only build your brand but, attract new customers. Do you ever stop to really scrutinize your marketing strategies and marketing team’s efforts? If you do not, you run the risk of running a dying business. A good marketing plan ensures that your marketing stays on the right course, according to plan to ensure success in the business field.

Using animated templates in your content is a great way to catch and hold the attention of your readers/listeners and help push them to take action. Also, they are a great idea to boost your sales and grab readers’ attention.

A Couple of Ways Animated Templates Can be Used to Enhance Content Are

·       To preview a part of the content that you are highlighting on.

·       To properly convey the level of excitement attached to a promotion or a pitch.

·       To add levels of fun to an otherwise boring content or presentation.

·       To help control the pace of a presentation

There may be some levels of uncertainty towards how animation templates can be used. After Effects offers its users a more than enough array of animation effects to choose from. But, it all comes down to being used in one of these three ways:

Emphasis Animation: Emphasis animation basically serves to bring the viewer’s attention to a particular point, whether object, image or text. Emphasis animation types include the wave, spin and bold flash among others.

Entrance Animation: An entrance animation comes into play when the object of the presentation is being added to the slide. It is the effect that is added to introduce the text or object into the presentation (think photos, videos, products, screenshots, etc). Other examples of the entrance animation include the float-in, fly-in, random bars and many others.

Exit Animations: The exit animations are the effects applied to the slide as the object of the presentation is being removed. This is the animation effect that accompanies the object out of the slide. Some of the examples of the exit animations include the fly-out, fade-out, scale down, zoom out, and float-out.

Animation effects can also be even be added between slides as a transition effect. Some of the effects include the fade, wipe, and random bars. The purpose of using an animation template never differs. The goal behind it is to create a more interesting content that would attract and captivate your audience.

Creating a slideshow with animations might seem easy enough after watching a few YouTube videos but, in truth it would actually take quite a bit of time and may need some expertise. If you simply use the basic ideas you have picked up from multiple instruction videos and sites, you could end up with a presentation not quite in line with the standards you had set your eyes on.

A better way for you to get the best, quality animation template service is to use premium template services like Vdeesign; which provides users with template packs to suit their every need. You have the chance to enjoy a pre-animated setup which usually comes with instructional manuals, and still have your presentation stand out in your own unique way.

Using Animated Templates in Presentations

It is important to give your presentation the clarity that it needs, to help build your case and to allow your listeners understand better. It does not matter if the presentation will take place in front of your classmates or in front of a large group of people at the office. Whatever presentation design you pick, it must clearly carry whatever points you mean to carry across.

Every part of your message must hold your listener's attention and also properly get your points across to them. Adding some motion helps your case in that area. Also, it adds some elements of modernization into your presentation, compelling your audience to listen more.

Having the right animated template allows your presentation be more interactive and modern, without feeling over the top or out of context.

You can find an almost unlimited bundle of animated templates on the web and here at Vdeesign. Each of the templates have hundreds of options in respect to presentation creativity. With all the options available, you would be pleased to know that the are also easy enough to work with and can be quickly set up.

Customize your inspiring and unique ideas and put them all into motion with the aid of readily available, fun animation templates. Create an interactive slideshow presentation to add clarity and elements of coolness to your presentation. Each slide should tell a story that compelled your listeners, and lends some impact to add to your words.

Professional animated templates have enough unique designs with added visuals and cool motion effects to make any presentation hold your audience's attention. All you need to do is add some of your own creative ideas and some animation effects, and your audience/viewers/readers would be properly captivated.

Animation Sites You Should Know

Want to engage your audience and increase the time they spend browsing your site? Hungry for more social media comments and shares that lead to sign-ups for your email list?

Making a quality animated video to use on your landing page, Facebook ad campaign, or YouTube channel can help you attract viewers and turn them into subscribers and customers.

If you’re looking for an online animation maker then congrats — you’re in the right place! You can make animated videos in less time than it takes you to brew and drink a strong cup of coffee. We’ve got dozens of animated video templates that’ll get you started so you can get measurable results straight away.

All you have to do is pick your favorite template and customize it by adding your own text, music, brand colors, and/or voiceover. You’ll have a finished video you can use on your website or share on social media in minutes.

The best animation sites

But what if you don’t want to get started yet? Maybe you’re a video creator looking for inspiration and advice on how to improve your animation and graphics skills. Well, here’s something you’ll love.

We’ve rounded up some of the best animation sites that aspiring animators and motion graphic designers should be aware of. Without further ado, here it is — your secret animation inspiration list.

Motionographer

Inside Motionographer, you’ll find articles designed to inspire, challenge, and inform. The content is aimed at designers, animators, and storytellers of all stripes — whoever you are, you’ll find something to grease your creative wheels.

Motionographer is all about celebrating talent and stunning creative work. The core team and a network of contributors share the work of talented creators, craft industry stories, and try to spark up conversations about the field they love.

To celebrate motion graphics, in 2016 the team started The Motion Awards — a brilliant source of inspiration for motion graphics creators and enthusiasts.

If you’re into animation — in any of its forms — you’ll find something to spark your imagination here.

CreativeBloq

Whether you’re an artist, designer, or animator, CreativeBloq has something to get you thinking. To make it easier to find exactly what you need right now, the site’s content is divided into focused mini-publications like Inspiration, Advice, or Computer Arts. They’ve also grouped content by topics.

Their recent animation-focused material includes an SVG tutorial, a guide to Disney-style animation, and general tips on improving your craft. If you want to up-skill, learn a new technique, or just see what other animators are up to, check CreativeBloq out.

Motion Graphics

Looking for pure inspiration from creators just like you? Motion Graphics is full of videos uploaded by users — you can even add your own! Browse the latest material and see what other creatives in your field are up to. There’s nothing quite like seeing a new animation technique in action to make you decide to try it out.

To make browsing easier, the content has been divided into categories like Advertising, Experimental, or Motion. Head over to the one that interests you and take a look — you never know what you’re going to find.

Stash Media

Stash Media was created to show off and highlight fantastic animation, motion design, and visual effects work. The team behind it understand the important role brilliant content plays in inspiring creators, and they offer plenty. Their blog (‘Inbox’) regularly introduces talented creatives and high quality work, so it’s worth checking out too.

Stash Media also has a paid subscription option that gives you access to over 5000 stunning projects and behind-the-scenes features and interviews — there’s a free 30-day trial to help you figure out if it’s for you.

School of Motion

If you’re looking to take your animation skills to a whole other level of kickass, or just hungry to get started with animation, School of Motion has a large selection of courses and tutorials for aspiring animators and designers in a variety of media.

They offer a large library of free content to whet your appetite as well as premium courses for those looking to seriously up-skill or considering a career change.

Greyscalegorilla

Greyscalegorilla create animation tools as well as inspiring content to get you on the road to being a better animator. Whether you use their products or not, their content is worth a look.

They’ve got free tutorials, an active email newsletter that contains exclusive tips, and a podcast, as well as paid premium courses. If you’re interested in motion design or animation, you’ll find plenty of inspiration here.

The Futur

The Futur was created as an answer to the failings (and expense) of a traditional design education. They’ve got resources aimed at students, freelancers, in-house designers, and agency owners — whatever your background or aspirations, you’ll find something here.

The Futur offer premium courses on design basics as well as a blog, podcast, and YouTube channel. Whatever type of design you’re into, you can find something to get those creative juices going faster here — it is, after all, the future.

Become a better animator

Consuming other creators’ work can help unlock your own creativity. If you’re ready to improve and develop new animation and motion graphics skills, these sites are a great place to start.

If you want to make a quick animated video for very low cost, however, we’re here for you! Check out our animated video templates and you’ll be finished faster than it took to read this article.

Pros of Using Visual Content For Digital Marketing Campaigns

There was a time marketing was nothing more than white papers and mere text. Today, things have evolved and your inbound marketing success now depends to a large extent on your visual marketing efforts. Visual tools like animated videos, pictures and infographics have become important for grabbing your audience’s attention and improve your brand’s recognition across web.

The rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram Pinterest and the rest of them as the main channels for digital marketing has further increased the focus on visual tools. Statistics have shown that greater results are achieved with a shift in strategy from mere text to visual tools. This means there is a need to incorporate visuals into your marketing campaigns

What do the stats say?

Typically, people are more likely to remember the information they see than what they are told or read online. In fact, the retention rate of visual content is up to 65% even after three days of seeing the information. Knowing these, it makes complete sense that marketers are opting for visual content. A 2016 study by the Content Marketing Institute revealed that more than ever, digital marketers are making use of visual tools more than any other way to display content.

In the past two years alone, the usage of mobile videos alone has grown by up to 10 million viewing minutes per day. In fact, videos have become so important that merely adding the word “Video” in the subject line of your email can boost open rate  by up to 19%.

But video isn’t the only form of visual content that has become widely popular for marketing. Eye-tracking studies on various online platforms show that users are more likely to pay attention to information displayed as an image and will spend more time looking at it than they would on reading texts.  In fact, infographics can potentially increase web traffic to your website by up to 12%.

Summing it all up, it is certain you are likely to achieve more with visual content that you would without it. Here are some of the advantages of using visuals in your marketing.

So, What are the pros of using visual content for digital marketing?

Visual content grabs attention faster

While it is true that people spend a lot of time online these days, the reality is they are constantly being bombarded with information by millions of businesses trying to get their attention. So much that using textual content might simply put you at a disadvantage. To make sure that your business is noticed, you need to leverage innovative visual presentations. This way you will immediately grab attention and get your business the attention it requires.

It is a lot easier to understand

Today, we live in a world where there is just too much information in circulation and every business has a very narrow window to showcase what they are offering to their target audience. To take advantage of that very narrow window of opportunity, you need content that will explain what you are offering as simple and straightforward as possible. Complex information can be better broken down into bits using graphics and animated videos since they are easier to understand and will present clear and concise information almost instantly.

It boosts engagement and conversion

One important rule for effective marketing is to ensure that you are not only putting content out there but you are engaging your potential customers as much as possible.  The goal of every of your marketing efforts is to build an identifiable brand and to ensure conversion. Engaging your audience is one important way to achieve this. People are more likely to interact with visual content more than any other content type which makes it a more effective tool for engagement.

With more visual content on your social media pages and campaigns, you are more likely to get your audience interested in what you do. Adding visuals to your websites and landing pages is will also improve your conversion rates in the long run.

Visuals are more effective for soliciting required user actions

When an action is required, like following a page, subscribing to a channel or even purchasing a product, the best way to get the information across is by using graphics and visuals. Ordinarily, colors elicit varying reactions and can be used to communicate different information. Additional visual tools like animated content, videos and infographics are more likely to get people to click a button than mere texts.

Present the same information in a more interesting way

One of the main advantages of using visuals is the possibility of repurposing content. For example, if you have not been using visual contents for your marketing campaigns before and you intend to start now, you can simply convert all the information you have written before into attractive graphics using detailed and interesting templates. This way written information that will be otherwise drab and uninteresting to people can be made more interesting and relatable by simply converting to visuals.

Target specific social networks

In the world of digital marketing, understanding the dynamics that operate on various social media platforms is important. The truth is, what works on Facebook doesn’t always work on Instagram. For example, a short animated video would work across platforms like Instagram or YouTube. An stunning picture will make your tweets more attractive and catchy. Pictures will also work great for Pinterest and Facebook. For most of these platforms, using text alone will not be able to get you the sort of attention you need. But with visual content, you can easily tailor your campaigns to your audience and direct your information to suit the channels you are targeting. 

Conclusion

From all indications, adding visual content to your ads and marketing campaigns can effectively improve engagement and increase your brand recognition. However, it is important that you get familiar with the various options available and how to effectively make use of each one to get the best results.

Best Explainer Videos

Explainer videos take your business, your product, or a complicated concept, and break it down, describing exactly what it’s about and why people should care. It’s no wonder they’re an essential part of the smart marketer’s toolkit.

The internet has become oversaturated with content as more individuals take on the role of content creator. However, continuously crafting fresh material that’s both valuable and exciting is getting more difficult.

According to research by HubSpot, 55% of people watch a video thoroughly — unlike the worryingly large percentage who skim-read blog posts. And according to Unbounce, just adding a video to a landing page can increase conversion rates by up to 80%.

Creating a killer explainer video for your website, product page, social media campaign, or your granny should be quick and easy. Still, sometimes we all need a little bit of inspiration to get the creative juices flowing. In this post, we’re going to take a look at some of our favorite explainer videos, see why they work, and show you how to put together your own.

Great explainer video examples

What does an awesome explainer video look like? Let’s see a few of our favorites in action.

The simple introduction

Sumo — What is Sumo? Free Tools to Grow Your Traffic & Subscribers

Sumo’s video gets straight to the point. In less than two minutes we learn what Sumo does and how it can help us. The video highlights how easy and quick the software is to use — something important for the target audience of busy entrepreneurs and marketers.

But it doesn’t stop there. The Sumo team drop some big brand names to establish their credibility and end on a strong call to action. A powerful CTA is a must-have, so make sure you add one to the end of your video. Be clear and concise, and only ask the viewer for one thing — otherwise you risk overwhelming them.

But it doesn’t stop there. The Sumo team drop some big brand names to establish their credibility and end on a strong call to action. A powerful CTA is a must-have, so make sure you add one to the end of your video. Be clear and concise, and only ask the viewer for one thing — otherwise you risk overwhelming them.

Sumo — What is Sumo? Free Tools to Grow Your Traffic & Subscribers

Sumo’s video gets straight to the point. In less than two minutes we learn what Sumo does and how it can help us. The video highlights how easy and quick the software is to use — something important for the target audience of busy entrepreneurs and marketers.

But it doesn’t stop there. The Sumo team drop some big brand names to establish their credibility and end on a strong call to action. A powerful CTA is a must-have, so make sure you add one to the end of your video. Be clear and concise, and only ask the viewer for one thing — otherwise you risk overwhelming them.

MediCompare — Compare Health Insurance

A successful explainer video doesn’t need a big budget. MediCompare’s explainer video, made with Biteable, dives right in and tells us exactly what the company is about.

In less than 30 seconds you get a solid idea of what they do and how it’s going to help you. This type of explainer video is great for home and landing pages because it’s quick, clear, and to the point.

Explain who you are — with style

Explain who you are — with style

MediCompare — Compare Health Insurance

A successful explainer video doesn’t need a big budget. MediCompare’s explainer video, made with Biteable, dives right in and tells us exactly what the company is about.

In less than 30 seconds you get a solid idea of what they do and how it’s going to help you. This type of explainer video is great for home and landing pages because it’s quick, clear, and to the point.

Explain who you are — with style

DollarShaveClub.com — Our Blades Are F***ing Great

This explainer video is one of the reasons Dollar Shave Clubexploded on the scene and changed the way many of us buy razor blades. It’s a punchy, fearless intro that captures the spirit of the brand.

It combines irreverence with clarity — by the end of the 90 seconds you know exactly who these guys are, what they do, and whether you want to buy from them.

The concept explanation

The concept explanation

DollarShaveClub.com — Our Blades Are F***ing Great

This explainer video is one of the reasons Dollar Shave Clubexploded on the scene and changed the way many of us buy razor blades. It’s a punchy, fearless intro that captures the spirit of the brand.

It combines irreverence with clarity — by the end of the 90 seconds you know exactly who these guys are, what they do, and whether you want to buy from them.

The concept explanation

HubSpot — What is Artificial Intelligence (or Machine Learning)?

Explainer videos can be about more than telling the world who you are. You can tackle relevant topics that interest your customers.

This in-depth video from HubSpot tackles a big idea, breaks it down, and packages it into an easy-to-understand explainer video.

What are the big must-know topics in your industry? What are your customers desperate to know more about? An explainer video is the perfect way to drop some knowledge and start a conversation.

Video explainer styles

There are a lot of different types of explainer video out there.

For starters, you can choose from different styles like whiteboard videos, live-action videos, screencasts, and animated videos. Then you can add your own flavor with custom typography, audio tracks, voiceovers, and color schemes.

How to Create an Effective Video Ad for You Small Business

Video marketing is a strategy that every small business owner should consider. Not only is this form of marketing effective for increasing sales and brand recognition, but, it’s also preferred by customers.

Depending on your audience, most markets would rather watch an informative video about your company than scroll down a long page of text. Right now, digital video advertising is a top marketing trend, and your small business can get involved by creating an online video ad.

An informative online video advertisement is a great tool for converting interest into sales and growing your brand on the web. Whether that’s on your website, Facebook page, YouTube channel, eNewsletter or any other way that you market to your customers.

How to Make Your Video Ad Effective?

So, how do you create something that will get the job done? Here are five tips to help you create an effective online video ad for your small business.

1. Make the First Few Seconds Count

The beginning of your video is critical. To avoid having potential customers skip your ad or click away, you need to get their attention immediately. Start your video ad with a statement that will spark the interest of those in your target market. Make an effort to hook your audience within the first few seconds by addressing a common problem, asking a relevant question, or by sharing something that makes your brand stand out.
At times, you’ll notice that video ads can be on mute, therefore it’s also important to start your ad with great visuals that encourage viewers to take interest to your video.

2. Highlight What Makes Your Brand Great

Why should viewers be interested in your brand? Answer this question in your video ad by emphasizing what makes your company great at what it does. Tell viewers why your brand is unique and different from others. Share your achievements. Showcase your track record for success. You can even include customer testimonials and positive feedback. The more you highlight the benefits of your company, the more effective your video ad will be.

3. Timing Your Video Ad

Avoid turning your advertisement into a documentary. A majority of the video ads online are 30 seconds or less. Keep this optimal length in mind as you create the script for the video.

That being said, if you are using videos for brand positioning, longer videos can be effective as well. For example, if you’re telling a story about your brand that features a customer or company representative, a longer video would be ideal.

Either way, it’s essential to eliminate unnecessary content, and spread your message as quick as possible to keep viewers watching and engaged.

4. Tell Viewers Why

Your video should tell viewers why they should choose your brand. What is it that makes your products or services, “the right choice”? Whether it’s a great value, unlimited warranty, or patented technology for creating a unique product, you need to give viewers a reason to go with your company. It’s important to emphasize this when planning and filming your online video ad.

5. Use a Call to Action

The goal of every advertisement is to encourage people to take some sort of action. Your advertisement should be no different. The call to action (CTA) can either be filmed, or added through graphics and text.

Ideally, it’s best to include the CTA at the end of the video. For example, to show viewers how they can visit your website for more info, sign up for a discount, or purchase your products and services.

What to Consider When Creating a Video Ad

Now you understand how to create a response to your video ad – what else do you need to consider in the creative process? Here are a few additional tips to keep in mind when creating an online video ad for your small business.

• Solve a Problem – What problem is your business solving? How are you doing so? A good video ad will highlight a problem, and show viewers how it will be solved by the brand.

• Use a Script – It’s essential to have a well put together plan before creating content in any format, especially when it comes to video. Don’t try to wing it! Create a script for your video ad that includes the important components mentioned above. After doing so, get it reviewed by friends, family, and those with a good understanding of your brand. Feedback is extremely valuable for making the necessary adjustments.

• Choose a Platform – Once you’ve produced and edited your video ad, it’s important to upload the content to a quality platform. Video hosting issues are the last thing you want. At the moment, YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook are the most popular and reliable choices for uploading video content. You can use all three options to extend the reach of your video.

• Get Creative – Online viewers are used to seeing commercials online and clicking away. Choose a unique format or style that allows your brand to promote itself while appealing to your target market. The more creative you get, the more your video will stand out from the content of competitors.

Keep these tips in mind as you plan and create an online video ad for your small business. Whether your goal is to increase sales, or brand recognition, you’ll find video marketing to be an effective strategy.

10 Best Stock Video Sites For Explainer Video Production

Looking for a stock footage to use in your templates?

Stock footage is extra footage, deemed wasteful by businesses, from a marketing campaign. It is often uploaded onto websites that make this footage available for others to use. Some offer a royalty free service while others may charge you a lump sum amount.

Our experts work with stock footage on a daily basis and thus know the ins and outs of the work involved in tailoring them to your business’ marketing campaign. Over the years, we have specialized in the creation of effective, persuasive and captivating explainer videos lasting 60 seconds or more. If you feel like you need to find some stock footage for your campaign before you embark upon the journey of production, here are a few of the most popular websites for finding stock for explainer video production:

• 123RF

If you’re looking for a quick way to create an explainer video and gather stock for promotional video production then 123RF is your go to website. It has a simple search method that gives you groups of clips suited to your needs.

• Adobe Stock

Adobe stock is a website that is very user friendly and interactive. It is also the website you go to for stock footage that is just as affordable as it is economical. Their algorithm is such that they help you find the right footage that satisfies all your requirements and demands.

• BBC Motion Gallery

BBC motion gallery is a website that contains the works from many BBC broadcasters around the world. As such, not only is there an ample amount of footage waiting to be used, but you can also expect HD quality prints to come your way.

• Dissolve

At Dissolve, you can find stock footage that has been recorded with good quality equipment thus resulting in good quality footage as well. You can even find 1080p resolution clips that will make your explainer video look more professional.

• iStock

iStock has one of the most wide range of stock footage available for customers at reduced prices. They even offer flexibility in payment methods; you can choose to but a set or each clip individually.

• Motion Elements

It is considered to be very easy to access and provides royalty free stock footage. Additionally, another factor that makes it so unique is that it sells footage that has been inspired by Asian countries.

• Pond5

Pond5 is website you should go to if you are looking for great quality royalty free stock footage. Their interface is such that if you need to visit again, you can even sort clips our in bookmarks and create groups.

• Shutterstock

Shutterstock is the place to go if you are looking for a specific number, or even one, of stock for promotional video production. The best thing about Shutterstock is the degree of quality it provides its prospective customers with.

• Video Blocks

Video Block is a website that sells stock footage through a subscription model instead of selling it on the basis of a number of clips. This is what makes it so unique; people who need to have a steady and increased access to stock footage will benefit greatly since it’s a small amount of money for maximum utility.

• VideoHive

VideoHive is a website that offers royalty free, affordable, stock footage to its customers. Thus, this is the place to go to if your experience with stock footage is just starting out.

5 Essential Rules of Self-Promotion

Adrian Shaughnessy offers advice on how to make an indelible mark on the design industry.

Self-promotion is one of the trickiest and most elusive skills a designer must acquire. Like learning to ride a bicycle, you have to do it to find out how it's done. It's also something that can't be avoided. As soon as designers emerge from education, they have to be able to promote themselves to prospective employers.

Later, as they enter the freelance world or the world of studio ownership, they have to be able to promote their services to prospective clients. None of this is easy, and for many designers, it's as painful as falling off a bicycle.

It's hardly surprising that self-promotion is problematical. Design schools don't teach it, and few established designers talk about it in public. To make matters worse, we're surrounded by thousands of other designers all frantically self-promoting.

For many of us, promoting ourselves feels like shouting into a wind tunnel. The whole process of self-promotion is made even more difficult by the realization that clients mostly choose designers based on reputation and word of mouth. Yet there's no need for pessimism.

Done properly, it's possible to self-promote in ways that get results. Most of the rules of self-promotion apply equally to finding employment and to finding clients. But in truth, there is really only one rule of self-promotion: if your work is good, you can ignore all the rules; good work is the best and only reliable form of self-promotion. While you are working on that, here are five rules for self-promotion...

01. It's not all about the work

The best self-promotion is often not about your work, it's about the other stuff you do. Back when I ran my studio, we mostly designed record covers. After doing this for a few years, we published a book on contemporary record cover art. It featured some of our own work, but it mostly contained the work of other designers.

It wasn't done as self-promotion, it was done from a love of the subject, but the result was recognition on a scale we hadn't experienced when we merely shouted about our work.

Now, not everyone can publish a book on their chosen subject (although you might be surprised how easy it is to get published if you've got a good idea), but everyone can find ways of adding to the body of knowledge that surrounds their discipline.

As well as telling the world that you've just finished a new brand identity, write a blog post about an issue that interests you (see tips on how to start a blog here). Offer to write for the design press. Start debates. Promote design, not yourself.

02. Face-to-face is best

With the internet, and social media in particular, it's possible to 'speak' to almost anyone. Fancy working for that cool fashion label? Simple, send them a message on Facebook or Twitter. But unless you have something earth-shattering to show them, you will most likely be ignored.

The aim of all self-promotion should be to get face-to-face meetings. If you make meeting people the main focus of your self-promotional activities, the results will be far superior to impersonal online communication. In other words, don't ask for work, ask for a meeting.

03. Don't design for other designers

Most self-promotion looks and reads like everyone else's self-promotion. You only have to look at the majority of designer's websites.

Firstly, many of them 'sound' and look depressingly familiar: the same stock phrases and the same neat piles of business cards and letterheads. But more worryingly, they look as if they are aimed at other designers.

It seems we worry more about what other designers think about our work, rather than what clients might actually want. Run a health check on your website. Is it something a client might respond to, or is it aimed at friends and peers?

04. Clients prefer results to artifacts

It's depressing but nonetheless true that most clients care more about the impact of a piece of work has than the finely crafted details of typography, layout and production.

This is not an argument in favor of abandoning high standards of thinking and execution; rather it is a reminder that outcomes, impact and results are what clients really care about. Make sure when you show work, you also describe its impact.

05. A good reputation speaks volumes

The cultivation of a good reputation is the most important aspect of self-promotion. The winning lottery ticket in self-promotion is when clients, or employers, call you.

Trish Finegan, managing director of leading design studio Spin, has a theory that a client has to see – and be impressed by – three pieces of work before they will consider you.

What this means is that unless your work is seen in the right places and talked about in the right places, you are not going to get that 'can-I-come-and-talk-to-you' call.

So growing a reputation is vital. This means talking to journalists; speaking at conferences; getting your work on blogs; and using all of the dozens of other channels that are open to modern designers.

4 Keys to Creating the Video Ad Your Business Needs

Video marketing pays. Just ask software giant Adobe. After a $540 million acquisition, the company now has two major video production products: Spark and TubeMogul.

Adobe is one of a number of big new players in the video production game, and the company isn't just swinging for the fences with this acquisition but investing in advertising tools that target individual users and the SMB market. Its competitors are, too. According to the market research firm eMarketer, U.S. spending on mobile and desktop video advertising is skyrocketing and was on track to hit $10 billion by the end of 2016. Technology conglomerate Cisco predicted that streaming video would account for approximately 80 percent of internet traffic by  2019.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners can’t afford to ignore stats like these. The reason: Branded video is just as critical an asset as a company website, and perhaps even more important when it comes to reaching and engaging customers.

Why don’t you just tell the whole world?

Unlike your website, which can remain hidden in the depths of the internet for years with only some bot traffic and the occasional visit from a random Slovenian IP address, people will see your video if you want them to. Distributing a message is much easier via video than through other types of media, including your website.

According to a survey conducted by research firm Demand Metric, nearly three-quarters of B2B participating marketers reported that video gave them better conversion rates than any other type of content. On Facebook, the site Socialbakers has written, posting a video will give you, on average, 135 percent more organic reach than a photo.

Moreover, your website can’t target specific customers and conveniently appear as they browse their favorite websites. But, given all the online video distribution platforms available today, your video can.

Related: Why You Need to Start Video Marketing Now

Here’s the catch, though: If you’re going to create a company video and start posting it all over the web, it had better be good. With that in mind, here are four tips for creating that terrific branded video you want the right way.

1. Don’t cut corners. 

Quality is nonnegotiable. Your video is a direct reflection of your brand. Don’t try to skimp on production costs. According to a survey conducted by Accenture Interactive, many people still find video ads intrusive, and low-quality videos -- with ads, or not -- are pretty much unacceptable to consumers.

Fortunately, you can make a high-quality video that’s two to three minutes long, for less than $5,000. Still, try to be flexible with your video budget if you can. A number of factors, including costs associated with equipment, location, licensing and other elements of the production life cycle, could affect the amount you ultimately pay for the finished product.

Like most companies that dive into video production, you’ll probably be champing at the bit to make a sequel after seeing the return on your initial investment.

2. Highlight your bona fides. 

Authenticity is attractive. In video advertising, genuine communication -- not talent -- is what gets people to pay attention.

Take for example Chevrolet’s #DayItForward campaign, which it launched as a video series on Leap Day to promote a positive brand image. The video was a hit, but not for the reasons you might imagine. Yes, it featured a number of actors and celebrities, but it also took them out of the spotlight and leaned on real storytelling rather than acting prowess.

If your video includes interviews with company founders or other members of the team, those need to be natural, sincere conversations. So, avoid writing a rigid script and rehearsing lines over and over. If you do, subjects could end up looking and sounding like robots on camera, or come off as phony. Instead, have the production team conduct a casual interview with you. When your personality naturally shines through, your audience will relate to you more.

3. Think inside the box. 

Don’t spend loads of time and money trying to be the next Dollar Shave Club. Viral videos can certainly lead to sales, but so can videos that achieve a much smaller reach.

The key is to think about your target audience and communicate in a way that they appreciate. “The Glam,” a standard, 30-second spot for L’Oréal Paris La Palette Nude, relied on a traditional story line and TV-grade production quality to introduce audiences to a cosmetic product. The spot resonated among older test audiences especially, who are more used to this type of ad.

Regardless of whom you’re trying to reach, focus on creating a straightforward, high-quality video that can be easily tested and optimized. Better to have a few variations of a good video than to waste months trying to craft the perfect commercial.

4. Show it off. 

Once your video is finished, share it through a variety of channels. Including a video in an email can double or triple click-through rates, and creating space for it on your homepage can increase conversions significantly. Invest some money into paid advertising, too.

Social media platforms make it easier than ever to create an effective video ad campaign. Not sure you can do it? Consider this: In 2014, videos on Facebook were viewed 1 billion times a day. A little more than two years later, that number has grown to 8 billion -- every day.

Given the ever-increasing importance of video in today’s business landscape, quality video ads are as essential as a website for effectively defining your brand’s values, purpose and product. Using these tips and tools, you’ll not only be able to reach your target audiences quickly and easily, but you could also attract customers you didn’t know you were looking for.

Now is the time to get in on the (lights, camera …) action.