How to add animation to your marketing team's arsenal by including it in your planning meetings.

Let’s talk about adding animation to your marketing campaigns by including it in your planning meetings.

First, a super quick introduction to why animation and video are important in marketing. It’s an effective way to communicate, grab attention and engage your audience. It’s why visual social apps like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube have taken off. Animation can deliver your message as well as connect to the viewer emotionally making it a much more complete experience.

So why would you want to ignore this? Don’t limit your creativity - this goes beyond animation. When planning a campaign try to think big, think of the unlimited budget solution and then work backwards to find a solution that is plausible. This lets you explore avenues you thought were out of reach and truly impress your clients with unique ideas. There are nearly always ways to create something close to your ‘think big’ idea within your budget and timeframe.

It all starts during the planning stages of a marketing campaign. In these early-stage discussions it’s helpful to ask the questions “Can animation enhance this?” and “What would we do if we had more budget and why?”. Now, animation doesn’t have to be in every campaign (although I think it should but hey, I’m biased.) but it should be considered as an option, it doesn't have to be a full animated video, it could be animated web elements or graphic overlays on live footage. These go a long way in showcasing brand values and creating a more memorable marketing campaign.

But now you’ve decided to animate your social posts to promote your campaign's landing page, who will create the assets? Your current designers may have an interest in motion or be willing to learn the basics - you could even invest in some further training for them. For larger projects, you will want to outsource the work to a freelancer who will have more experience in the field and also be able to answer any questions you may have. As for managing the project, it’s the same skills and workflow for any other campaign. A good freelance motion designer will help with any distribution issues you have and use best practices depending on the platform.

The main takeaway is not to fear the unknown but educate yourself. The technical skills aren’t important (you can hire someone for that). Your knowledge of how to use animation within marketing is. Working with an experienced motion designer is a great way to not only create animations that get results but to learn more about animation in marketing. Learning a little about how motion can be used allows you to be confident with suggesting it and have a clear vision of the output. And remember, animation doesn’t have to be as expensive or time-consuming as you think.

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