Be Like Yoda: How to make your customer the hero of your animated videos..

Be Like Yoda.

How to make your customer the hero of your animated videos.

Animated video can be a great storytelling tool. The key is understanding how to structure things. Your customers should be placed at the centre of your stories when creating animated videos – they are the Luke Skywalker of your story; the hero! As such, you should be more like Yoda; the wise master who guides the hero and helps Luke solve his critical problems.

Does this mean you should move to a remote swamp and learn the power of the force? Well, you can, but it’s not essential. Instead, to be more like Yoda, you have to focus on your customers and create animated video stories that target their pain points and provide solutions.

How can you do this? Well, it starts with the structure of your video script and framing it around the customer. We’ll provide you with some key points, but we’d first like to discuss why animated videos are perfect for this kind of storytelling:

What makes animated videos so great for storytelling?

In general, videos are an excellent way to help tell a story and get some points across. They’re easier for people to digest, and they’re more visually appealing than written content. With animated videos, you can visually tell your story however you like. You can use imagery to get your points across and make everything clear.

Yes, this is true for live-action video as well – but animations pose a couple of clear benefits:

• No restrictions on actors: most of the time, you only need a handful of actors to provide voiceovers for your animated video. By comparison, you may need an entire team of actors – and background staff – to shoot something in live-action. Not only is this more expensive, but it’s hard to find all the actors you need.
• No locations required: by using video software, you can shoot an animated video without needing to go to multiple locations. For live-action shoots, you may need to travel around to different studios or places, which is inconvenient.
• Perfect for visually explaining things: an animated video is kind of like an infographic that’s come to life. You can use animations and text to show stats, explain workflows, and talk about concepts. It’s the easiest format for explaining things to customers in a way that’s easy for them to understand.

You see, animated videos have plenty of advantages. Now, let’s talk about structuring your video script to help tell a compelling and engaging story!

What’s the perfect script structure?

No matter what you’re trying to sell – or who you’re selling to – the best animated marketing videos will follow this script structure:

Hero/Customer Pain Points

If we go back to the Yoda and Luke Skywalker analogy, your script must start with the pain points for the hero – which is the customer, not you! Now, unless you’re selling something extremely strange and specific, I doubt your customer’s pain points will be to do with understanding the force and how to take on a Sith Lord so they can save their friends and the galaxy.

Instead, their problems will vary depending on what market your business is in. This is where your market research is extremely useful. When you research your target market, you should think about all the potential struggles they face. Then, you consider the solution to the issue. As a result, you solve the pain points.

So, that’s the first thing to think about; customer pain points, your solution, and how it solves their biggest problems. An excellent way to start an animated video is by grabbing the viewers attention by addressing these issues and telling them that you can solve them.

How The Customer Can Use The Solution

After you’ve done your best Yoda impression and explained how you can solve their problems, you need to explain to the customers how they can use your solution. Essentially, you have to describe how your solution can be used.

This is a key aspect of your script as you should’ve already lured them in by addressing their painful areas. Now, it’s all about keeping them hooked and showing your solution in action. Try and focus on how easy it is for them to use it, and how seamlessly they can implement your solution into their day-to-day lives.

How The Customer’s Life Will Change Thanks To Your Solution

Explaining how they can use your solution is critical, but you also need to go one step further and explain how their life will change.

This is the perfect way of rounding off a video and concluding it. In essence, you’re basically listing off and demonstrating the effects and benefits of your service. Tell them how their life will improve with your solution. You can use graphics to display charts or stats – let them visually see the impact your service will have on them. If they have some way of quantifying the effect, then it increases the chances of your customers being interested in buying what you have to offer.

Call To Action

Naturally, every video needs to end with a call to action. This is why you focus on how the customer’s life will change. Straight after showing them the benefits of your service, you hit them with a call to action that encourages them to get in touch with you or sign up to your service.

Calls to action can vary depending on where you place your video. If it’s on your website, then have a proper call to action button or form below the video. Use the video to direct people below, where they can fill in the form or click a button and be taken to a different contact page.

Conclusion: Be like Yoda

In summary; animated videos are excellent marketing tools for modern businesses. They are perfect for telling stories and addressing the needs of your customers. The key thing to remember is that you have to play the role of Yoda. Don’t make your animated videos all about your business; but the customer (the hero) as the focal point. Consider their biggest problems, then provide a solution for them. Explain how your solution works and how they will benefit from it. Conclude with a call to action, and you should see more leads from your animated video content.