The ULTIMATE Guide to the Benefits of Video Marketing (with stats to back it up!)

Hey friends! Zoya, our Producer here at MOGRAPHWORKS made a new video a little while ago: The Benefits of Explainer Videos (and 9 reasons your business needs one)!

Video marketing almost seems like a necessity these days: everybody has a video, and you're behind the times if you don't have one. Explainer videos, one of the most common types of video marketing, are the highlight of many a homepage.

But ultimately, the bottom line is what matters. Videos can be beautiful, but what kind of ROI can you expect to see... and is it worth it to make one?

Zoya went through and pulled together all the stats and research on the benefits of explainer videos and video marketing she could find (seriously, she spent like 40 hours researching this, hah!) and made a master document of all the info. They basically break down into 9 areas:

Benefits of Explainer Videos

1. Stats on video marketing

2. Increased dwell time

3. Email marketing improvements

4. Shelf life vs Cost

5. Increased conversion

6. Authority in your industry

7. The perfect pitch

8. SEO impact

9. Success stories

1. STATS!

So there's a ton of amazing stats on explainer and marketing videos. Wyzowl in particular does an incredible "State of Video Marketing Survey" every year and they do impeccable research. Check it out!: Video Marketing Statistics | New Data For 2023

But there's a ton of other research online too. Some of the most interesting is from a study Forbe's conducted of C-level execs and decision makers. The study showed that 60%(!!!) of decision makers will watch a 2-minute video, but will not read 2 minutes of text on that same website!!! Absolutely bonkers... because that's who you need to read your text the most!

Check out the rest of the most pertinent stats:

(click to enlarge images)

2. Dwell Time

Video increases dwell time. That seems pretty simple. People are most likely to stick around if they have something to watch. It goes back to the idea that people just aren't likely to invest time into actually reading text just to figure out if the info is relevant to them; it's better to convey your message with images and video. If you don't capture your visitors in the first few seconds, they're gone. In today's internet where everyone is fighting for your prospect's attention, you better take every advantage you can to keep their attention... especially if you're paying for those clicks! Otherwise, you're just flushing that money away.

3. Email Marketing

I'll save you the whole to-do and just tell you that email marketing is seriously improved when you have video. Any chance to "warm-up" your leads, especially if you're emailing cold, is another win in your corner. I mean, the word "video" alone in a subject line increases opens by a huge margin! That's not even having a video in the darn email! That's how much more likely people are to consume video. Open-to-reply rates go up by 8x when video is used in an email. So you're more likely to actually get a response using video. Hurrah!

4. Shelf life VS cost

Video is actually a really inexpensive form of marketing... because you could be using this video forever if you really wanted to. When you consider the cost per month over the life of the video, it's a pittance compared to adwords or SEO optimization (which you pay for every month!) Let's say you pay $6000 for your video, and let's conservatively say you use the video for 2 years, you're only paying $250 a month. And because animation is so easy to update over time, if you change your branding or logo down the line, you can update the video for about $500 and have it ready to go for another 5 years.

5. Increased conversion

The big one: increased conversion! As we discussed earlier, websites using video have 65% higher conversion rates. If conversion is dependent on a visitor being able to actually understand that the product will benefit them and give them the "shut up and take my money" feeling, then you really need to be disseminating that info to them as easily as possible. They're not going to crawl through a bunch of text and tons of different pages just to find out a product or service isn't the right fit for them. Make it easy on your customer and respect their time! It seriously increases conversion.

6. Authority in your industry

Consumers are going to get their information somewhere. If you don't have the information they need easily accessible and easily digestible, they're going to seek it out on youtube or a competitor's website. You want to present yourself as the authority in your industry, experts who know what they are doing, a trusted source of information on your company... that they feel comfortable purchasing from. We all know that sales is about increasing trust and reducing skepticism. A well-made marketing video leaves the customer thinking "wow, they actually took the time to make a video, they probably actually care about their customer and take the same care and excellence in other parts of their business." It's a subconscious "we do good work" that you get when you see a well-designed website. You don't get a second chance to make a first impression, you know.

7. The perfect pitch

An explainer video is the perfect pitch, every time. And because it is a perfect pitch, it has a ton of other use cases outside of a homepage video. Sales presentations, trade shows, outbound sales, social media, etc etc etc. And remember, they're going to get this information somewhere. Do you want it to be from a competitor or some youtuber? Or would you rather it come from you?

8. Impact on SEO

Google cares about video WAY more than text. It values video more than 50x!!!! higher than text. So if you want to optimize that SEO, you better get a video. Not even considering the fact that more people are likely to watch it, it's just another way to optimize those dollars you spend per-click.

9. Success stories

And finally we have some famous video marketing success stories. Of course, having worked in the industry for almost 20 years, we at MOGRAPHWORKS have our own success stories... one off the top of my head was a focused video marketing effort that lead to over 3 million in closed sales within 3 months for one client. They only paid $25k for their video series. Talk about a great return on investment! But anyway, below are the most famous successes. Crackitt.com has a great post compiling even more of these success stories, and I'd definitely take a look at that: Top Ten Explainer Videos and Why They Are Good | Crackitt

In the meantime, check these out:

In closing: if you don't currently have a video, you really need one.

Or at the very least could seriously benefit from one. As with many types of marketing, it's hard to concretely predict the precise ROI you should expect, but I think it's safe to say that a well-made video is a solid investment that has the potential to knock the roof off your conversion!

If you're considering making a video, we at MOGRAPHWORKS would be happy to help! We provide full-service production with a seamless process that is smooth, stress-less, and (if I may say) fun! We never use templates, don't hire out to to ghost animators, and never leave you hanging. If you're sick of unanswered emails or agencies that make you sit in on dozens of endless calls to a bunch of different people where you repeat yourself over and over, reach out to us! We crush it with our customer service and our long list of happy clients speak to that!

Need an amazing video?

Contact us!

Ghost Animators

What is a ghost animator and why should you, as a client, care?

A ghost animator is just like a ghost writer. A ghost writer is defined on Google as “a person whose job it is to write material for someone else who is the named author.” A ghost animator does the same thing, but for animation.

A client comes to the agency asking to work with a specific animator. They might have worked together before, they might have come recommended to them by a friend or colleague, or perhaps they saw their work and liked it. But the problem with a lot of agencies (especially ones that do “cheaper” work) is that they overload their animators, and they especially overload their good ones.

So, what happens then? Well, the agency will hire a contractor. But they won’t tell you they’re hiring a contractor. And then they tell the animator to manage the job, email the clients, put their name on the video, and pretend that they animated it. So slimy, right?

And the animator is given no choice in the process! They’re especially unhappy, because they now also have to spend time managing contractors, when they’re already overloaded with animation work. And if you’ve ever worked with contractors, you know it can be entirely hit or miss.

They could be great, deliver the project on time, communicate effectively, take instruction, and be honest about their deadlines. Or you could have a contractor that doesn’t deliver the video until two days after their deadline, makes excuses for why they couldn’t do the animation requested, ignores and doesn’t reply to emails, and takes on too many projects at once and pretends that they’re working only on yours… it’s apparently just taking 3 times longer than it should.

It just seems so incredibly rare to get a good contractor, and it is so incredibly frustrating when you get a bad one. It completely throws a wrench into your project. You’d think an agency would be able to differentiate a good contractor from a bad one. And yet…

One of the final straws that pushed us into starting MOGRAPHWORKS was when we were working at a top explainer video agency. We were already working on two rush projects with incredibly tight deadlines. Every minute counted, we were working nights and weekends to get these videos out on time for our clients. Then production asks us to take on another rush project. We say “no, absolutely not, my schedule is so tight it’s not possible.” They say “okay, understood” and let us get back at it.

They then message us 30 minutes later. “We’ll hire contractors for those videos, but you have to manage them.” Oh goodness. But we stayed optimistic. It became significantly harder to stay optimistic when we found out that our agency had never worked with this contractor before. It seemed like a pretty big risk to take on an important video with an incredibly tight deadline. And we really didn’t like the idea of having to put our name on the work done by an unvetted contractor.

The contractor sounded shaky on the initial phone and didn't respond to most emails or phone calls throughout the week. He accidentally let it slip at one point that he'd actually never worked on a video of this type before. We brought up our concerns, but we were told it was too late to find another contractor. So, is it any surprise that this contractor didn’t deliver on Friday? And didn’t deliver on Saturday? He was told the absolute latest the video could be delivered to make the client’s presentation and still have time for the client’s revision was by noon on Monday and he still delivered it at 6PM. It was sub-par and riddled with errors. We ended up getting the project file and fixing what we could before sending it to the client. It was a mess and incredibly stressful.

The worst part, though, was knowing that the client thought this was our work. It hurt, because the client specifically requested us because we had worked so well together before. They gave us great feedback and were really happy with the previous video we had animated for them. So, what’s the point of having us be the “face” of the video, if they’re going to receive a sub-par video anyway? It just hurts our reputation, and the company’s reputation. And even more so, this nonsense “managing” takes away from our other projects that we already don’t have enough time for.

It’s not often talked about, but at so many of these agencies that charge lower prices in an attempt to compete with overseas animators, their profit line depends on speed. They need to get these videos out super-fast to make the low price they charge profitable. The animators are already stretched paper thin, and the quality suffers.

Taking more time to “manage” a project is a nightmare. You’re not really managing anyway. You’re not given revision power if the contractor sends back a video that isn’t up to par. You can’t ask for changes to make it up to your standards. They call it management, but it’s really just using your face, your image, and your work to give the company credibility.

And it’s incredibly unfair for the animator to be forced to put their name on work that they didn’t create. If you’re like us, you take pride in the quality of your work. You want to be happy with every project you sign your name to.

What happens if a ghost animator delivers a terrible video, the managing animator has no ability to ask for changes, and is forced to send it to a client? Then the client gets a terrible image of that animator, and if the animator ever leaves that agency and happens to encounter that client again in another setting, that could cost them a job. It would be very easy for the former client to say “Oh, I worked with that animator, and he delivered really bad work.” It’s not fair for agencies to do this to their clients or to their animators.

Agencies do it because they doubt the client would be happy and at ease with an unvetted contractor working on their video. And they shouldn’t be happy or at ease about it!

It’s an entirely ineffective process and a bad use of resources. A better way to go about it would to just be honest. Tell the client that their preferred animator is busy and cannot animate the video but will manage the project. But let them actually manage. Let them have revision power.

Or perhaps they should stop overloading their animators and taking on more projects than they have animators for! Be honest with clients. These agencies tell every client that they are the priority. But every client cannot be a priority at once! If everyone is the priority, then nobody is the priority, and everyone’s video suffers. It’s crummy to tell a client that their video has been in the works for the last two weeks, but then deliver a product that was clearly made in two days.

So be aware of ghost animators. Confirm with your agency that they’re not using a ghost animator. And if you get the feeling they are because the videos don’t appear to be of the same quality that you’ve been used to from that animator, you can know they’re lying to you.