Carmen Alicia Coto — March 15, 2017 
Are you familiar with whiteboard animation videos?
If not, this is a process in which a story is told using drawings on a whiteboard. The artist draws in front of the camera (or at least it looks like it!), and records themselves during the process.
Now that you’ve heard of them, let me tell you something else: whiteboard animation videos are a great tool. The possibilities are almost endless! Above all, it is a great educational tool because it simplifies a complex message and makes it engaging and entertaining. It also works the other way around by making a boring topic really interesting.
A great whiteboard video has to follow some rules though, so keep reading – I’ve got 10 tips to create the best whiteboard animation explainer video for your business!
1. Use the power of storytelling
Nobody can resist a well told story. As human beings, we live for stories, we can’t help but be attracted to them. Use this power of attraction, and, instead of just trying to make a sale, tell a story – present your content using storytelling.
Remember, for this to succeed, your story has to be focused around your audience and their problems, not on your product’s features. Focus the story around your target audience, and you will catch their attention and develop empathy.
2. Create animated characters
Characters are the thread that keeps your story together – they are what give it continuity. Your characters should be representations of your audience, your ideal buyer personas, this will help them identify with you.
Animated characters add a personal approach, making your video engaging and memorable.
3. Keep it traditional
What makes a traditional whiteboard video? Three basic things: the white background, the continuous black drawing and the hand. You’ll be reading about all of these things in a minute, but remember – these are the basic characteristics of whiteboard animation videos.
This is what gives it a recognizable style, and even though you’re allowed to add some personal details, you should keep things traditional.
4. Personal details: Add some color! (But not too much)
So, yes, I just told you that your whiteboard video must be black and white and that you should keep things traditional. But it’s a great thing to innovate! Don’t get crazy, though, be careful – this is not about making a colorful video, it’s about using small hints of color to accentuate important parts of the message you want to deliver.
Pro Tip: If you’re going to use a color, use your brand color. Add it to some key spots to make your brand present during your video. Look at this example, this is a custom whiteboard video made by Yum Yum Videos for Spigit Pairwise:
5. Remember the drawing hand
The point of a whiteboard video is that there is an artist drawing your story in real time. You can be doing this the traditional way, or using technology and design tools to make it look like it’s being drawn, but there is one thing that cannot change – the drawing hand itself.
I’ve said it before but I’ll tell you again – if you have no hand, it’s not a whiteboard video. The whole point of this is to be (or appear to be) hand drawn, and this is why the drawing hand must always appear.
6. Use emotional references
Whiteboard animated videos have the possibility to deliver a complex message in a simple way, you know that. But, well, the thing about simple methods is that they can be whatever you want them to be – Happy, light, funny, and also nostalgic, empathetic and emotional.
Use your audience’s emotions in your favor (you see? Storytelling is so powerful!), this can be done by adding elements to the story that will bring back the ‘good old days’ (like references to classic movies!) to make your video much more memorable. Appeal to your audience’s emotions to generate identification.
7. Remember interconnected drawings
A well done whiteboard video will always keep your audience interested, because they will always be wondering what comes next. Why? Because they are watching how the story is being drawn, how it takes shape, so it will keep the spark of interest in your viewers, creating anticipation.
Whiteboard videos imply a continuous and interconnected drawing, not individual ones. Of course, you’ll probably have to clean the whiteboard sometimes, but try to do this as few times as possible, because it could break the story into too many pieces, making you lose your audience’s attention.
Actually, this is one of the reasons why you should go digital with whiteboard videos – of course it will look so much more professional, but it also lets you have a canvas as big as you’d like – so instead of erasing your drawing all the time, all of the drawings interconnect with each other.
8. Make it educational
Drawings, stories, relatable characters and an interesting subject – this is the recipe for success. Actually, it’s the recipe for good entertainment, and it’s known that, when people are having fun, they will learn anything faster and deeper. This is why whiteboard videos are such a powerful learning tool.
Look at this video by AsapSCIENCE, even though they use a lot of colors, the educational potential of it is great:
In 2012, Dr. Richard Wiseman conducted a study in which he made a video of himself speaking, and then he made a whiteboard video using the exact same audio. He asked the viewers some questions to test their memory, and see which one of the videos was better for learning.
He found out that because of the animation, there was a 15% rise in memory when the viewers recalled the video. (In one of the experiments, it was more than a 22% memory increase!)
And why is this? “Simply because people are more engaged in the process,” said Dr. Wiseman.
9. Always read your script out loud
Did you write what you want to say to your viewers? Is your script done? Read it out loud.
The purpose of the script in a whiteboard animated video is to sound as if it’s being said directly to your viewers. It must sound natural, and reading it out loud will help you be sure that the voice inflection, speed and emphasis on certain words are as natural as possible.
10. Find the best possible whiteboard animated video service available
Last, but not least, rule number one is that your content must always be of the best quality, or else your credibility will suffer.
There are great teams out there that will turn your complex topic into the best whiteboard animated video, complimenting your idea perfectly!
Wrap
Whiteboard animated videos are a fantastic tool. If you’re not using them yet – and your audience is not fully understanding what you want to say to them – you should definitely give this a try!
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