Any product or service is essentially made to solve a problem and make people’s lives easier and better. From improving your health, looking and performing your best, to gaining more financial security, having the newest app, and upgrading your day-to-day life, they all strive to make our lives better. So, your 2D & 3D animated video needs to explain how your product or service can improve the lives your target audience. As the first step, you have to understand and recognize the needs of your audience. The script should be written from the perspective of the target audience. The more time you spend understanding the people you’re talking to, the better and more authentic the story you can narrate to them. So before you start making your 2D & 3D animated video, make sure to learn everything you need to know about your target audience and their needs. In the first 10 seconds of your video, you expose your target audience and their problems. This allows you to quickly engage the right viewers and compel them to watch all the way through to the end.
Understanding the Business
To truly present your business and convey the message, 2D & 3D animated video must be thoroughly researched and carefully designed before production. It is crucial to work with people who have great business experience and who can achieve the full potential with your 2D & 3D animated video. A professional production company must be able to combine business and art in order to represent your product. Knowledge of various industries, services, competitors, and understanding of business models makes all the difference. All of these elements go into creating an effective and high-quality 2D & 3D animated video.
Your Target Audience as the Main Character
The main character has to be designed to represent an appropriate audience. Custom animated characters generate great empathy and trust in your brand. If they are well-crafted and address the right target audience, you are on the right way. So, before even beginning to write the script, try answering these questions about your target audience:
- Who is the target audience?
- Are they male or female?
- How old are they?
- Are they single, married, widowed, or divorced?
- What is their education level?
- Where do they live?
- How much money do they make?
- Where do they work?
- Where do they go when they’re not at work?
- What is their tone? Casual? Professional?
These questions help you identify your audience and create a script that targets the relevant aspects of their lives: what makes them happy, sad, calm, and more importantly – what causes the problems that you’re offering the solution for. Write what your audience needs to know, not what you want to tell them.
Frame characters that are cute and lovable. Make the character interesting with a brief and comical or light-hearted introduction. This helps your viewer relate to the story.
Script Structure that Grabs Attention
2D & 3D animated video script needs to have a beginning, middle and an end. Instead of naming the steps ‘beginning’, ‘middle’ and ‘end’, we’ll refer to them as the What, How and Why of your business.
The Beginning or What is the Problem?
This is introductory part, the moment when the problem is presented. This is the problem that your company solves for the target audience. At this stage, your product shouldn’t be shown or even be named. Remember that this part should only focus on your audience and their problems. Establishing your audience’s problem at the beginning of the video will grab the viewers’ attention and reduce their drop off.
A good way to open is with a shocking statement. Start with something that is intended to grab your target audience’s attention immediately. Then, explain why the problem is a big deal. You should tell your target audience why it is something they can’t or shouldn’t ignore. Next, present the problem in its worst version. Explain to the viewers that it is or could be a lot worse than they think. Especially if it’s something that makes them put their head in the sand or if they just don’t realize how big of a problem it is for them (Ex: But that’s not the end of the problem… it actually gets worse!). Hit them hard on an emotional level.
All these are done in order to build the perfect stage to introduce your product or service.
The Middle or How Your Company can Solve The Problem
Now you need to explain how your company can help solve the issue. It is the time to show directly how your product/service can help your audience. The choice of words for this part is very crucial as it presents the product to the viewer for the first time. Your product or service appears to save the day and make their dreams come true (Ex: But luckily for you, now there’s a solution). The voice-over explains how the service works and the colorful animations work the magic.
One of the most common mistakes a script writer makes is to poorly handle the features with the benefits. It’s not enough to merely present a list of features and consider it a done deal, both features and benefits are equally important for an effective 2D & 3D animated video. But, it should be noted that in the end, it is the benefits that make you stand out from the rest of the competition and give you the advantage for converting customers. So make sure to highlight the key points that make your offer different and better, and showcase the benefits of the product rather than just list the features.
The End or Why Your Audience Should Choose Your Company
Explaining how your product or service solves your audience’s problem is not enough, because competition is out there and many companies are offering their solutions. If you’ve followed the previous steps in the animated video creation process, your audience should already be engaged and aware that you can help them at this point. Now it’s time to convince them that your product is the most suitable or that you are the best provider. To make things clear, this final part of the video needs to directly deal with your company or brand. You can use testimonials, statistics, screenshots of results, before and after pictures, etc.
The ultimate goal of a 2D & 3D animated video is to motivate the viewers to take action i.e. to convert them into customers or leads. This is referred to as Call-to-Action (CTA).
Whether to purchase your product or service, subscribe to an email list, download an eBook or share the video on social media, your 2D & 3D animated video’s viewers should feel inspired to take action after watching. So don’t forget to add a compelling call-to-action at the end of your script. You don’t beat around the bush here. You tell them what to do, where to do it, and how to do it very succinctly.
Some clear CTA are “download now”, “for more information click here”, “subscribe today”, “share on social media “or “try a free demo’’. Choose the best one for your target audience. Don’t make multiple calls-to-action in the same video! Make only one, and make sure it’s straightforward and clear.
You can also offer them specific reasons to act now as People may want your solution, but they still often postpone the decision. One of the easiest ways to get someone off the mark is to offer bonuses or discounts.
How long should the script be?
We believe that between 60 and 90 seconds is the optimal 2D & 3D animated video length. This is enough time for any business to explain everything they need to say without boring the audience. 160 written words represent one minute of video.
Don’t Do It Alone
Marketers have different opinions when it comes to the writing of a script. Some recommend having an insider write the entire script, while others suggest outsourcing the job. Since both have their benefits, we suggest a combination of the two. An employee of the company will have the expertise and knowledge of the product, but they may not know how to present this information in the best possible way. This is where hiring a professional scriptwriter gives results. The employee of the company provides the professional scriptwriter with a Video Brief. It helps the writer get all the necessary information and form an idea about the tone, key words in your industry, UCP, what the issues are that the product addresses, what are the features, what are the benefits, what are the differentiation with your competition, if there’s anything that absolutely must be included or excluded from the video… Let your scriptwriter know a little more about the project itself, like the purpose of the video or where the video will be displayed (at a conference, on a landing page, etc.). Also include video features you’d like to implement, like a call to action or something specific.
Business Storytelling
Business storytelling is taking over the world and no organization remains untouched. In today’s era of technology and social media, you need to step up your game and create an engaging story that will captivate your audiences and make your company stand out among the rest.
We all know that most people shiver with distaste at the mention of advertising. After all, so many technological changes today are dedicated to avoiding it. It’s a post-advertising age, and you need to give a strong reason to your viewers that you earned their attention and that they should watch your commercial. How can you achieve that?
You tell them a story!
Everyone loves a good story, and they easily remember what made them laugh, moments of excitement and the joy of discovering something new. So, when a story is told with all these emotions, people will remember that story, your story.
Why is business storytelling so important?
Storytelling combines the emotional aspect with the business idea. Nowadays, people don’t buy products, they buy stories. With a compelling narrative you help change the perspective of the viewer in favor of your company. With an emotional response, your viewers will be more confident and determined to use your service. A well-crafted narrative is entertaining and informative at the same time.
Your story should be personalized and have the power to inspire the audience. It’s not just about making people aware of your product or brand, you must provoke a thought process and evoke emotions. A great storyline goes a long way, before they even realize it, your viewers will learn about your service or product and have fun along the way. Use your story to differentiate your business from the rest.
Customize your characters
Take a customized approach to your storytelling and you can make your audience feel really appreciated and spoken to. If a viewer can connect with your story then they are more likely to interact with your business. This is where you can really make the difference between getting seen and really getting noticed.
Present a scenario that your customers can relate to, include characters they can identify with. Implement your audience’s life challenges, habits and characteristics into your script and every word will resonate with the viewers. Highlight the disparity between what the consumer needs and their current position, and then offer a solution to their problem.
A character in your story can also represent your business, portraying it in a professional and likeable way. Your company could be the fun and intelligible guy with all the answers in your story.
Storytelling Influences People’s Actions
It is often the description or a thumbnail that gets people to click on your 2D & 3D animated video. Then, if you keep the story engaging and interesting enough, they will want to know more and ACT on your call to action.
People Like to Share Stories
Finally, people love to share stories they enjoy. If they made them smile, wonder, laugh or learn something new, you can rest assured your 2D & 3D animated video will get shared and watched much more. Video storytelling can be and should be fun, engaging and interesting. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box and come up with interesting stories that will keep your audience fascinated and leave them with a long lasting impression of your company.
The most popular business stories
There are many stories you should be telling your prospects and customers. The mostly used are:
- How was your business started? (The founder’s story)
- How was your product or service discovered? (The discovery story)
- The problem you solve and how you solve it (The solution-based story)
- How are you different from your competitors?
- How can customers get the most out of your product or service? (Tutorials)
Some final tips
- Don’t try to put everything about your product/service in a single 2D & 3D animated video, make sure you have just enough to grab your audience and quickly explain how you can solve their problem.
- Don’t make it too long (remember the 90-second rule!)
- Write in plain English, it’s better to be clear than to risk being misunderstood.
OK, you realized that you need script for your 2D & 3D animated video. Now what?
