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Why social media animations are essential to marketers today
People love watching videos and this trend shows no sign of slowing down. While longer explainer videos remain critical, shorter form content that can be consumed on social media plays an equally importantly role in any marketing strategy.
According to experts, video is one of the best tools to take your business to the next level, as on Facebook alone, videos receive 8 billion views a day. Marketing guru and influencer Gary Vaynerchuk summed it up nicely.
The single most important strategy in content marketing today is video. Whether it’s video on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Youtube, the content you need to be thinking about creating and marketing on social for your business is video. Period.
“Gisteo is definitely a game-changer, a true gem in creating awesome
Tamas MozesCEO, Successlab
videos. Stephen and his team is not only a freakin' visual animator, but a genius when it is about creating compelling content.”
Explainer videos vs. social media animations
Although people may share social media videos, they rarely view them multiple times. Explainer videos or other business video productions, on the other hand, are produced to be viewed many times over by teams of buyers or key decision makers. Think of social media animations like paper napkins that are used for a gathering and then tossed away while explainer videos are more like fancy, high-thread count cloth napkins that you bring out over and over for your best guests to use.
Social media videos are deliberately shorter – and much cheaper as you’ll see in the pricing section below. Unlike explainer videos that take weeks to create, we produce social media animations quickly, normally using a few key visuals and simpler animation techniques. They’re a flash of color and movement in an ocean of lifeless posts on social media feeds. They’re part of ongoing conversations between you and your customers and they’re often designed to be part of a series.
How Gisteo can help
While there are no shortage of do-it-yourself tools to create social media animations or social media video content, they can be cumbersome to learn and require a lot of trial and error in order to produce exactly what you’re looking for. Most rely on templates that may restrict you when trying to develop the perfect message and visuals for your audience. Plus, while they may offer a free trial to get started, you’ll need to pay a fee to remove their branding and use yours and the prices normally considerably depending on the monthly volume of videos you’d like to create.
On the other hand, typical agencies charge exorbitant rates for productions like these…with painful revision fees and hidden costs. Gisteo’s social media animations are custom-made to your unique needs and visual preferences. We do all the heavy-lifting so you can focus on growing your business instead of struggling to use cumbersome tools or getting overcharged by an overpriced studio.
A sampling of our social media animations
The samples below use a square format in order to optimize for mobile viewing. We can and do however, create social media animations in landscape format.
Single video
$ 600
1st 30 seconds + $250/each additional 30 second incrementNeed a “one-off” social media animation? We’ve got you covered. Here’s what is included:
- Scriptwriting
- Illustration & animation
- Music & sound effects
- Add optional voice over starting at $150
- Payment: 50% upfront, 50% upon completion
- Average turnaround time: 1-2 weeks
2-5 videos
$ 500/each
1st 30 seconds + $250/each additional 30 second increment (per video)Looking to do more than one? The pricing gets better! Here’s what is included for each:
- Scriptwriting
- Illustration & animation
- Music & sound effects
- Add optional voice over starting at $150 (per video)
- Payment: 50% of project scope upfront, 50% upon completion
- Average turnaround time: 1-2 weeks, per video
6-11 videos
$ 400/each
1st 30 seconds + $250/each additional 30 second increment (per video)Need to do a mini-series of social media animations? Save money with this option. Here’s what is included for each:
- Scriptwriting
- Illustration & animation
- Music & sound effects
- Add optional voice over starting at $150 (per video)
- Payment: 50% of project scope upfront, 50% upon completion
- Average turnaround time: 1-2 weeks, per video
12+ videos
$ 350/each
1st 30 seconds + $250/each additional 30 second increment (per video)A perfect option for developing a consistent series or larger-scale social media content plan. Here’s what is included for each:
- Scriptwriting
- Illustration & animation
- Music & sound effects
- Add optional voice over starting at $150 (per video)
- Payment: 50% of project scope upfront, 50% upon completion
- Average turnaround time: 1-2 weeks, per video
6 tips to creating effective social media animations
1: Go native!
Research has found that native videos perform 10x better on Facebook, LinkedIn and others when compared to YouTube links. That’s because native videos begin to play automatically as you scroll down through your feed, catching peoples’ eye while YouTube videos need to be manually played on an external page.
2: Keep them short and focused
For better engagement, try creating short, bite-size videos focused on one main theme or idea. These types of social media animations are easy to “snack” on, especially since 80% of the social media content is being consumed via mobile devices.
3: Grab their attention in the first few seconds
Unlike a longer explainer video that you might post on Youtube on on your website, you don’t have 30 or 40 seconds to get to the pay-off on social media. People have short attention spans and look for instant gratification so make sure you grab their attention within the first few seconds.
4: Add subtitles and/or text captions
Remember, nearly 85% of social media videos are viewed without sound so subtitles and/or on screen text play an important role. Be sure the subtitles in your social media animations are readable if you’re using a voice over or skip the voice over altogether and build your story exclusively with images, onscreen text/captions and music.
5: Include a Call-to-Action
No matter where you’re posting your social media animation, you should always have a goal for your video. This typically involves user action, whether you’re driving traffic to your site, purchasing a product or sharing your video. Your call to action is your virtual handshake with your viewers so don’t leave it out!
6: Leverage your current assets
If making social media animations seems intimidating, don’t worry. You likely already have more content to work with than you think. Tap into your FAQ page, for instance. If you’ve created infographics in the past, that’s another great source of content for your social media animations. If you have ebooks or whitepapers, consider making a short trailer for them. With a little thinking, you can come up for some great content ideas!
Pricing: social media animations
The table below represents the general pricing parameters for our social media animations. For pricing on our full explainer video productions, click here.