Video Animations—Why Should You Make Them?

Video Animations—Why Should You Make Them?

utworzone przez | | BUSINESS, COMMUNICATION

Are you creating a new product on the market? Is it a novelty, an innovation that will require additional work from you, such as explaining the opportunities it offers? Or maybe you already see that this solution needs more education for the audience than you thought at the beginning? I have a proposal for you: make an animated video that translates the functionality of the project you have created!

I have been communicating new technological solutions for over twelve years. From experience, I know that one of the biggest challenges in creating innovative products is finding an idea of how to talk about their capabilities effectively and efficiently. What tools should be used to translate this into a better understanding of technology?

When we create new products, we always have to teach users how to use them and show what the solution can improve in their daily business and life.

When creating new products at the beginning, it is worth assuming that we will have to become the largest educator on this solution. The more understandable and easier it will be to use, the faster it will become your showcase.

 

The Power of Video Animation

The interest in video materials is growing, and it is also visible in our country. According to Nielsen data, in 2022 a statistical pole watches video content, including linear television,   for 4 hours and 59 minutes a day, 46 minutes of which are spent watching video streaming in various forms.

The popularity of video content translates into advertising expenses. As predicted by Zenith (Publicis Media), the increase in global spending on online video advertising will be sustained, with a growth forecast of 6.9% in 2022 and 5.6% in 2023.

The use of video and streaming content is increasing, and we should not be surprised. The pandemic had a huge impact on the use of video and content made available via streaming. Of course, it is also significant that we live in a fast-paced world, and people do not want to spend more time than is necessary to understand how the solution works. Therefore, one of the ideas for an effective and eye-catching presentation of your offer, services, or technological solutions may be a video in the form of a cartoon.

Such a video has several advantages:

  • You don’t have to hire actors or think about a film set.
  • By referring to abstractions, visualizations, and comparisons to present your products more simply, you will explain their functionality.
  • It is easier to smuggle in visualizations and colors that can build associations with your brand.

Does such a video animation also have drawbacks? Obviously:

  • You don’t put real faces in them.
  • If the company wants a very „serious” image, it will not be a good communication tool. It can be seen as too casual.

Now the Question Is: Where Can I Use Such a Video? Isn’t YouTube Enough?

A video can often turn out to be better than a presentation to a potential customer. In the email, you send not only information about the product, but also a link to the animation. Thanks to this, the customer does not have to spend valuable time analyzing how your solution works. He watches the video and can quickly understand what product you are coming to him with.

What Can You Gain From Video Animation?

In sale:
  • A chance for a much faster signing of the contract. You take away the need to explain the operation of a product or service.
  • Time! There are no more explanations and conversations, or they are much shorter.
  • Scale. You can send many more such emails for informational purposes.
 On your website:
  • The Internet user who enters your website will be able to understand more quickly where he was directed, what you offer, and how this product works.
During conferences or webinars:
  • It is easier and more effective to show a video that doesn’t require the participants to listen carefully and gives dynamic animation a chance to increase their attention and thus remember the brand.
At meetings with a potential investor:
  • The film can help give a fuller understanding of the company, its goals, and its vision.

I hope that I have convinced you to think about animation for your company’s communication. If you are interested in such material, contact me! Below you will find some of our productions.

 

How Do You Build a Community Around a Brand to Sell More?

How Do You Build a Community Around a Brand to Sell More?

utworzone przez | | COMMUNICATION

I’ve always believed in groups. It’s in groups where important, interesting, and sometimes intriguing topics are discussed. I trusted that there was strength behind them, and looking at how the modern business looks today, I was not wrong.

When we look at the best-performing companies, especially those directing their offer to individual customers, we notice that they all strive to build a community around their products.

Through various activities, they try to attract and keep us as long as possible. Why? To put it bluntly—building a community pays off! In this material, I will tell you why and give you tips on what to remember when you create your own.

To Build a Community Means to Spend Time on It

A lot of time, actually. It won’t happen overnight, just like you won’t make a friend overnight. And often, building such friendly relationships within the community is aimed in this direction.

Looking at various brands, we will see that they are largely addressed to women. For what reason? There are a lot of factors behind this, but the key here seems to be the need to build bonds, to belong. Women, more often than men, admit that they like and want to be part of a group. Of course, that doesn’t mean men do not also.

When we look at groups on Facebook, we will immediately notice how many women’s organizations are there. They allow you to talk, exchange opinions, and share your thoughts. This is how women establish real relationships: by talking. The more intimate and difficult the topics are, the stronger the bond between the women is formed.

The need for bonding is one of the four needs that make the economy work in this way and not in another. It is worth taking it into account when creating your communication campaigns.

How to Build a Community Around the Brand

Observing various communities, I noticed that two models of their design can be distinguished.

The first is based on the personal branding of the leader.

The second gathers others around common topics.

Jak budować społeczność wokół marki by sprzedawać więcej

How is the First Model Created?

Here, the first place is taken by the leader. A person who, with charisma, passion, and commitment, convinces others of what they believe, and what is important to them.

Such a person strongly emphasizes their values, and over time begins to gather around themselves people who are similar. Such a person can inspire and educate them.

This model is also associated with our search for a “role model,” someone you can refer to or whose example you can follow. Sometimes such a person is a point of reference – „Yes, I want to be like them!”

You can read about how to work on your personal branding to build a community here and here.

The more reliable, coherent, and interesting a role model seems, the more they will attract others. The disadvantage of such a model of community building is the so-called „human factor.” For one thing, knowing that others look at what a person does and the risk of a setback does not always help. For another thing, you need to sense the moment when it no longer matters who is a leading model in a given project. Suddenly, the project can begin to live its own life and have a chance to survive even without the person behind them.

The next step is to recognize the needs of the emerging community, understanding their motivation and concerns. Then, we are only one small step away from creating a product, i.e., trying to monetize and scale our values.

You can make money from speeches, meetings, and consultations—however, only the scale gives real development opportunities. Look at the influencers. They are not limited to creating materials in their social media channels, but they market products that they first present to the communities they create, and they are usually the first tester and buyer of new products and then become their ambassador. Clothes, books, restaurants, cosmetics, jewelry. There’s a lot of it. The longer I look at it, the more I wonder what makes the product successful.

For me, a brilliant example of such a strategy is Anna Lewandowska, who leads her community like a pro. In the National Court Register, I found information about six companies she is involved in. But she has a lot more products. What is very striking is the consistency and complementarity of what she introduces to the market; here we have snacks, a cafe, a sports center, trips, sports camps, a training app, clothes and accessories for children, and cosmetics. No wonder that in 2021, Wprost magazine valued her assets at 231 million PLN.

It’s safe to assume that her marriage helped her. It certainly gave a completely different start. But there are a lot of well-known soccer players’ wives who have not achieved such business success. In my opinion, they do not build communities around themselves as effectively as Anna does. Her financial results speak for themselves.

Jak budować społeczność wokół marki by sprzedawać więcej

The Second Model

The second model of community building does not focus directly on a man who, like the sun, attracts others to orbit him. It’s the topic and issues relevant to the selected group that are important here.

This approach will work very well in B2B. The key is to define the problems of the group people are interested in and prepare a product that will respond to them.

It can be an event you organize, a book, an ebook, or anything you think is best for the situation.

We created one of these communities for Hubraum; you can find the details here.

The topic of how to build, develop, and create products around the community is particularly close to my heart, which is why I will certainly talk about it more here. If you think it would be useful for your company, contact me. I will try to help you.

 

How to Prepare for Participation in Trade Fairs?

How to Prepare for Participation in Trade Fairs?

utworzone przez | | BUSINESS, COMMUNICATION

Finally, the opportunity to participate in fairs and conferences is back. Forecasts indicate that in 2022 there will be a gradual return to the economic state before the pandemic, and the market will grow steadily in the coming years.

Trade fairs are always a unique opportunity to show the world what we do on a daily basis, present the methods of our work, and pass on our experience to others. It is also an opportunity to acquire new customers and business partners. So how do you prepare for participation in the fair and make the most of this time? The most important thing is to choose an event, including the decision whether to come to one in Poland or go abroad. If you want to go to a different country, you should first know whether the company is ready to show up in international markets. There are more questions regarding the choice of the fair. I encourage you to do your homework and answer them.

The level of satisfaction – for both image and financial – depends on how much time you devote to preparing the answers. Below, I’ve shared my checklist, which will help you in deciding on participation and choosing the right trade fair:

  1. Are we ready to acquire new customers?
  2. Can the team going to the fair tell about the technical aspects of the product? Do they understand the technology, and can they present its business application?
  3. Can the team talk about the product not only in Polish but also in English? How about other languages? (For example, if we decide to go to a fair in Italy, you can be sure that the talks will begin in Italian.)
  4. Do we have an idea for a booth arrangement? Stands and roll-ups alone may not be enough to stand out. They often act as a deterrent and do not attract attention at all.
  5. Do we have any idea how to attract people who don’t know us to the booth? What’s going to happen in it?
  6. Have we informed customers and business partners that we will be at the event? Perhaps it will be an opportunity to meet and expand cooperation.
  7. Have we defined success rates? How will we know that participation in the event was successful? (Believing that inquiries will start coming is not enough. Define precisely how many queries you would like, and then calculate how much they actually cost you to obtain).
  8. Does marketing cooperate with sales well enough that people working there can communicate information about companies interested in a partnership?
  9. Have we chosen people who will contact new customers?

Fairs? The Team Is Key!

The fair is first and foremost a meeting of person to person. And although the location of your booth and the idea for the arrangement is extremely important, the team that will go to represent the company will be the most important factor.

Even the best location and the most creative presentation will not give as much as a brave and personable team. Why? Specialists who are too shy to approach and talk to a stranger and encourage them to visit your booth will not do much.

What is the perfect set of personality traits for the fair? You should decide on people who are communicative, curious, and cheerful, who like people and talking to them. Participation in the event should be good fun for them, not torture. The above questions also clearly indicate that you should be represented at the fair by people who know technology well, as well as those who understand business.

During the event, there will certainly be a lot of fans of technology and fans of the most complex solutions. But there will also be people who will be oriented towards business and its development. Not everyone combines knowledge in both areas, so it is worth choosing people who will complement each other in this area.

Conferences and Events Accompanying the Fair

The fair is a real holiday for the industry. Under one roof, you can meet the companies that create it, as well as listen to interesting speeches and take part in workshops or discussion panels. I wrote about how to prepare for the latter in Discussion Panels: How to Use Their Potential.

The conference is often a great opportunity to share the conclusions of implementation, observations, or lessons learned. This is when you have a chance to invite potential customers who visit your stand and encourage them to get to know your work better. It is worth choosing a person who will present the company from its best possible angle. Ideally, they would be trained in public speaking and would feel comfortable in this role.

Jak przygotować się do udziału w targach

If more people participate in the event, it is worth dividing your team, taking into account the diversity of the audience. One person could join a workshop with an interesting topic, someone else might want to see what the competition will talk about, and a third representative can visit individual stands and look for partners.

Of course, roles can be assigned on the spot. However, planning and deciding who does what and when will allow you to control the team at the booth. You’ll avoid a situation where suddenly there’s no one around.

The fair may prove to be a very good sales and promotional tool. The keys to success are adequate preparation for participation, planning how you will show up and what you will say, and knowing how you will stand out. The better you plan all communication before the event, the more satisfied you will be with the work, during, and after.

Effective E-commerce Communication in the Media, Step by Step

Effective E-commerce Communication in the Media, Step by Step

utworzone przez | | COMMUNICATION

You create your store or solution for e-commerce. You decide for hours what it will be and what great results it will bring. Finally, there is the desired publication of the product on the web and… nothing.

The solution, which costs you so much time and energy, suddenly does not find much interest. What is going on? A basic mistake in the communication of e-commerce solutions may be the lack of a prepared strategy, i.e., the language of benefits for potential customers, as well as a marketing and PR plan.

If you are developing and operating in the e-commerce industry and directing your solutions to B2B customers, this article is for you.

Is E-commerce Communication a Difficult Art?

When you start working on communicating your products, ask yourself what you want to achieve and how you will know that you have achieved your goal. Maybe you need this communication to find an investor, increase sales, or just be aware of the market. Why is this so important? I know many entrepreneurs who wanted the media to write about them. Then there were articles in the press, statements on the radio, and sometimes even appearances on TV. But when I asked during the meetings how the development of the company was going, the answer indicated that it was only average.

And that’s where you have to ask yourself, “Why is this event happening?” The first thing we should remember is that communication does not bring results right away. It is building the company’s image and educating potential customers, to whom we explain what our product is used for, who it is addressed to, and what problem it solves. Yes, it is often the case that someone reads an article about us and immediately writes that they are interested in cooperation because that is what they needed. However, it usually takes more time for the scale of activities to produce results.

Another thing is to define measures that will allow you to determine whether the communication brings the expected results. There are often situations where entrepreneurs are so excited about the fact that the media is interested in their activities that they forget about the purpose of communication. They focus mainly on the number of publications in the media.

Such a measure may be, among others, increased traffic on the website, inquiries about the possibility of testing your solution, or an invitation to cooperation.

Where Can I Find Customers for the E-commerce Industry?

Once you’ve set your goals, the next step is to prepare the appropriate list of media you want to appear in. But that’s not it. Also prepare a list of events and other places where you can talk about your project. And here is a small hint: if you offer your services to business customers, the media channels that are worth appearing in are, among others: Forbes, My Company, E-commerce Magazine, or Money.pl. There are, of course, many more. Your choice should depend on which of them your target group reads and what kind of service or product you offer.

Once you know what media is right for your business, there’s an analysis of what you’ve already written about the industry you’re in. Maybe the competition’s already there. If so, see how their solution was presented, what was the focus of the article, and what drew journalists’ attention. This is a very important analysis, which leads us to the next point.

Skuteczna komunikacja e-commerce w mediach krok po kroku

What Do I Want to Talk About?

You’ll probably answer: “About the product.” However, I will say right away that in the case of cooperation with journalists, it is not so simple. If you only want to talk about what you do, you can be sure that they will direct you to the advertising department immediately. Your success depends largely on your specific knowledge of the needs of journalists.

How to find journalists interested in e-commerce?

If you want to start an adventure with company communication yourself, after choosing the media and analyzing how they write about the topic you are interested in, learn who is the author of these texts. Usually, the articles are signed with their name, and under the text, you can often find the contact details of a journalist.

There is one goal: you want to show yourself and your company in e-commerce or technology, and you can do it in several different ways.

Press Releases

These are materials most often presenting a current situation, implementation, the introduction of new functionality, etc. Such content is usually sent to a wider group of selected journalists dealing with the related subject matter.

What exactly can press releases be about? They can talk about opening new offices and hiring a large number of employees, personnel changes in senior positions of companies, gaining significant funds, interesting partnerships, international expansion, important industry events, or new implementations in the field of e-commerce.

Reports and Studies

Data, analyses, and numbers – there what are constantly needed in the world of media. If your technology allows you to create a report showing a change in the world of e-commerce that not everyone is aware of yet, then this should be used. You can also count on the interest of journalists if you show the purchasing behavior of a selected group of customers, supporting it with an interesting analysis.

Generalities, phrases such as “it seems to us” or “probably,” are neither interesting nor do they add anything. Materials that actually present how your business is developing will gain significant media interest.

Dedicated Content

The media is constantly looking for experts who can share their knowledge and practical approach, show certain trends, and present these through the eyes of the practitioner. Sometimes there are also published columns showing the directions of development that you notice and that can help others in the business. This is what articles, statements, and studies are dedicated to.

I would add two additional categories to these, which I discuss below.

  1. The approach from the general to the detailed. This assumes that you present how, for example, artificial intelligence changes our purchasing behavior. You talk about the directions of development and present what is associated with such changes. Very rarely will you be able to talk about your product. The “detail” I am thinking of at this point is signing you with your name and the name of the company you represent.
  2. Approach from detailed to general—the media, especially that which specializes in a given subject, is very fond of case studies. By presenting an implementation, you have a chance to present your knowledge and experience and the technology you work with. You must keep the figures and conclusions in mind. It is best that they show the bright and dark sides of a specific implementation, and talk about what you would do differently next time and what advice you would give yourself for subsequent such situations, etc.
  3.  
Follow-up

A day, maybe two, after sending the material, it is good to contact journalists to whom we sent press releases or reports. Every day, they receive hundreds of emails from other entities, similarly willing to show their work. The better the relationships you have with them, the faster and easier it will be to develop cooperation. However, this takes time.

Every stick always has two ends. This means that a journalist may also want something from you, e.g., a statement or comment on the topic they are interested in. I don’t advise you to delay answering because if you do, there will be someone else to take your place. I also advise against rushing media workers. Too much intrusive contact could turn on you. The topic that you propose may not be attractive for a journalist at a given moment, but it could be after some time. Unfortunately, the editorial rules are absolute, and you have to comply with them. However, if you urgently need to publish, consider commercial activities and pay for publishing the article.

Skuteczna komunikacja e-commerce w mediach krok po kroku

When Do I Start Communicating in E-commerce?

What is the best time to start product communication? The answer will probably not please you, because it cannot be precisely defined. It depends on the type of solution you offer, how much competition you have in this area, whether the media has already written about it, and the level of advancement of your project.

Cooperation with the media in e-commerce is a demanding task, but it gives significant opportunities for business development. It requires a thorough analysis of the industry and knowledge of the specifics of journalists’ work and time. Such work allows for building lasting relationships with the media, which will then result in recognition and the building of a stable, reliable brand.

The most important questions you should ask yourself before starting communication are:
  1. Whom am I talking to?
  2. When should I start communicating?
  3. Where should I appear with my message (which media, events, etc.)?
  4. How should I talk about my product?
  5. Why is the product worth attention?
  6. What will the reader gain from using our product?
The article was published in the E-commerce Magazine April-May 2019 No. 2 (5) / 2019