Marketers turn to animated videos, graphics, and GIFs for new ways to grab their audience’s attention. Indeed, when viewing a page, a person first pays attention to illustrations and even earlier to moving elements. It’s also a positive indicator for search robots to rank your website better. According to statistics, a front page with a content-related video is 53 times more discoverable by Google.
However, videos take more time to load, so store owners should know how to optimize images in Magento and other graphic and media content. Despite this drawback, animation emphasizes the individuality of the company and engages the user more than text.
The animation is also easier to remember because it is bright and associative. And if you find the right keys for your audience, you can gain a positive first impression.
With animation, you can:
• Demonstrate an assortment of goods or a unique feature
• Entertain subscribers
• Reinforce the primary message or call to action
In this article, we will touch upon eight main ways how animation can leverage your online sales and increase conversions. We’ll also gladly share examples of how renowned companies are already using animation to their advantage.
8 Ways to Use Animations for Boosting Online Sales
1. GIFs in email marketing
GIFs owe their reawakened popularity to social media. It is much easier to express your thoughts through laconic and often funny GIFs than writing a detailed commentary. Sometimes GIFs look much more appropriate and more explicit than words. However, the use of GIFs isn’t limited to social media. Now, with the same success, they are exploring new territories, for example, email marketing. The main rule is that animation should help, not harm. A person spends about 10-15 seconds reading a letter, so you need to emphasize important points and not overload attention during this time. An eyewear and contacts company, Warby Parker, added some humor and animation to the text of the letter. They create a bond with a customer by humanizing the brand with a funny GIF and telling, “We do that too. We are people just like you. We know your problems, and we can solve them”.
2. E-cards to build loyalty
Holidays are an additional way to remind the client about your company, offer discounts, and show attention. Also, you can send a letter with a selection of gift ideas. Such letters are useful because choosing gifts for friends and family can sometimes be a disaster. To please everyone, you need to order goods in different online stores and then run around the city and pick up boxes. Thus, you make your client’s life easier and increase their loyalty. Another way to connect with your clients is to congratulate them via email personally and suggest buying something for themselves. Many people are waiting for promo codes and discounts to pamper themselves and buy what they have wanted for a long time. Animations and GIFs in e-cards can convey a festive mood. For example, Bath & Body Works created pre-Christmas magic in their animated message by talking about themselves in a fairy-tale format and offering themed products.
3. Animated website to make waiting easier
Animations can solve several specific problems on a website. One of them is filling when the user needs to wait for the page to load. Looking at a static page isn’t as interesting as looking at a beautiful animation. As a result, those users who could leave the site remain on it, increasing conversion. Also, animation greets and creates the desired mood. For example, background videos can perform this task. Such videos are great for storytelling. They can quickly tell a story or show how a product works without many pictures and text. Animations make the site more user-friendly and optimize interactions with the web page. A carousel is much more convenient than a long list of captioned images. Animated menus can provide more information about a product. Thus, the user doesn’t need to scroll. To illustrate my point, Vans often animates above-the-fold elements such as the main picture in the header area.
4. Whiteboard animations as a way to simplify complex notions
Imagine a video with a white background, and someone draws on it and explains something simultaneously. These videos are called whiteboard animations. In this video, the storyteller simulates drawing on a whiteboard in front of the camera. At first, these videos were created using real whiteboards and markers, but now they have been replaced by more effective computer graphics. How are such videos good for your business? They simplify information for the viewer to understand and remember, including your marketing message. Imitating a process of writing on a board, you can communicate complex ideas and promote educational content based on your products and services. They also come in handy in cases where you need to cover a large amount of information in a short time. You can record a video or use some webinar software to share this type of computer graphics. Whiteboard animations are best for companies offering high-tech products or services. For example, in the screenshot below, you can see a case of the IT company CloudBolt Software which turned an advertisement for its cloud management platform into an online lesson.
5. Animation on social media channels
Animations and short videos on social media convey information more vividly than static posts. At the same time, you can pack more details into it, and it doesn’t overload the page. Where you need several photographs for a complete picture, the animation will tell everything in seconds. Animated ads and posts get more attention. It is because they cause and indicate a variety of emotions. For example, serious ones if we talk about business, or funny ones if you want to entertain. The animation will suit any content policy. No matter what you tell the subscribers, GIFs will liven up the feed and focus on what matters most. Gucci always strives to entertain its fans and provide helpful information. They animated one of their posts to advise on a daily makeup routine.
6. Presenting infographics in a digestible way
Animated infographics are another way to make complex information pleasant. Most often, we see infographics in the form of diagrams, flowcharts, tables, and maps. Sometimes they contain so much data that the picture can be very long, and the user has to scroll down for a long time. Animation turns a boring presentation of data into a coherent story or narrates beautifully and illustratively. With it, you can tell about your successes, show sales statistics, or the path of a product. In the example below, Danone employs animation to raise an issue of children with an inborn error of metabolism. In addition, they tell that its brand Nutricia supports people with IEMs.
7. Evoke positive emotions
When clients open an online store, they are looking not only for a particular product or service but also for emotions and impressions. Just offering a product isn’t enough now. Instead, marketers need to evoke the right emotions in customers to create an internal connection. A person can do things under the influence of emotions that he would never do in a normal state. Emotions in sales are an indispensable tool for motivating a client to buy. If you fill the client with positive emotions, tell how you can solve his problems, then the client will purchase. Even if he didn’t intend to. The screenshot below demonstrates how Tortillaland utilizes its animated video. They generate pleasant customer emotions and show that their product is natural and without preservatives.
8. Tell about the company in a promotional video
Animations are used not only by B2C but also by B2B companies. Usually, it is a business associated with innovation, high technology, and products, the essence of which is difficult to explain in a nutshell. Often these products are related to the Internet: IT startups, online services, etc. Tell about your company and mission in an explanatory or promotional video. Today, they are seriously affecting the growth of the customer base. Typically, these videos are less than 5 minutes long and describe what the company does or how the product works. It draws attention to the viewer’s pain points and explains how a product/process can become a solution. For example, Olark offers live chat software for customer support. They show in their video how to track leads, drive sales, and increase conversions using the product. Companies can customize the Olark chatbox on their website, use analytics about visitors and interactions, and integrate it seamlessly with popular customer management software.
Use Animations to Grow Your Online Sales
We are used to thinking that video content is something for entertainment, such as TikTok or music videos. But it’s already much more than that. eCommerce marketers are actively applying animated videos and GIFs in their strategies to drive traffic and generate leads. The possibilities for using animation are endless, but the main goal is to keep the audience hooked and get the results you want. Want to increase your brand awareness? Introduce a new product? Boost conversions? Animation can come in hand as it’s one of the most powerful tools for engaging with audiences in today’s digital age. Growth Hackers is one of the best growth hacking agencies out there. We can help your business with email marketing, paid aids, social medias, web design, SEO, and more. Consult with us here are Growth Hackers if you want to work with an agency that knows how to use animation to grow online sales.
Kate Parish
I am the chief marketing officer at Onilab with over eight years of experience in Digital Marketing in the sphere of eCommerce web development. I always aspire to broaden my competency in line with cutting-edge global trends. My primary areas of professional interest include SEO, branding, PPC, SMM, Magento 2 migration, and online retail in general.
