How An Animation Video Could Be A Good Investment For Your Care Business

[00:00]

Kim Emson, Kim Emson Animates: …perhaps for an explainer video you might want to animate it, but if you did want more of a brand video that included some of your team members, that could be live action.

Cameron: Hi, I'm Cameron from Smooth Digital [Smooth Digital, now Prosperwell], and welcome to Tea with Tobi, the show where we ask and answer the questions that are playing on the minds of care sector business leaders. This week's episode is sponsored by everyLIFE, and we'd like to thank Google for letting us use their podcasting studio. So, as always, to kick off the show, I'm going to start with a few words from our marketing strategy director, Tobi Alli-Usman.

Tobi Alli-Usman: Cameron, I love the introduction. I just want to give some background for those of you who are new to the show. Tea with Tobi is a resource we want the care sector to use. Taking a couple of steps back, our ultimate aim is to help care homes and home care businesses maximise their ability to provide the very best care in their local communities. When it comes to growth, we know you have challenges, but we want this to be the place where we discuss those challenges, and some of the solutions, to help grow your business and move it forward. So on that note, I'd like to present our guest, Kim Emson.

Kim: Thanks for having me.

Cameron: No problem. Kim, before we get into the meat of the podcast, can you give everyone a very brief background on who you are and your area of expertise in the care sector?

Kim: Sure. I'm an animator, so I make animated video. Not only do I make it, but I actually help my clients extend their reach using animation, really using it to bring results, depending on what kind of results they want. So I try to step it up a level from just creating the content. I've been working in the healthcare sector since about 2015. I've done work for home care, but also for other areas of healthcare, and healthcare and lifestyle apps as well.

Why care businesses should use video

Cameron: Brilliant. So I'll let Tobi take it away with the question.

Tobi: Let's jump straight into it. It's 2020 now. Why is it important that businesses use video?

[02:01]

Kim: I think a lot of people are aware that video helps keep them on Google's radar, along with other benefits, and they probably enjoy watching videos themselves, so some people are a little bit aware of video. But perhaps they're still only scratching the surface and not realising the true potential of video. They've got the chance to really drive traffic, they've got the chance to really help convert web visitors, and they've got the chance to really build an audience and put themselves out there as an authority in their area of care. And there's the continuing trend of growth on YouTube and other video platforms. The number of video uploads to YouTube increases by something like 100% every year, so that's the way everything's going. If you don't get involved as soon as you can, you're going to have a lot of catching up to do.

Tobi: I think we totally agree. Let's give some stats. We had a little look beforehand, and Social Media Today says that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, which is very powerful. And 82% of all consumer internet traffic will come from online video by 2022. So really, you want to be on it.

Kim: Yes, that's huge.

Animation or live action?

Tobi: So why should a business consider animated video over and above live action, for example?

Kim: OK, so obviously I do video animation, so I'm very biased. I don't do any kind of live-action video where I'm filming people on camera. But they're two different mediums, really, with different advantages over each other. I'm certainly not saying one is better than the other, just horses for courses, so it's up to you.

Some of the things I'd say are an advantage of animation will be something that a live-action video has a contrasting benefit for. Within healthcare, you often want to keep a degree of anonymity. You can do that by creating more generic animated characters, or even by using the real voices of service users and animating them. That keeps the anonymity, but it also keeps it very personal and specific to your business, because you're using the voices of your team or your service users.

[06:01]

With live action, on the other hand, you're including the actual carers and team members, which might be important to some people, to see who it is and get to know some of the people who might be taking care of their relative. So that can be important too. It depends on what you want. Also, how well do you come across on camera? Not everyone is comfortable in front of the camera, so if that's not working for you, animation could be a good alternative.

And you could certainly mix it up and use a bit of both. For some elements, perhaps an explainer video, you might want to animate it, but if you wanted more of a brand video that included some of your team members, that could be live action. There are other ways around it too, to be honest. I've used photographs of team members and animated them, a bit like those Christmas elf animations, but much classier.

So those are some of the differences, but I'd also say that I think animation handles very sensitive subjects better than live action. If you're dealing with things that are really difficult, like dementia, which can be so heartbreaking and very sensitive for some people, or mental health as well, I think animation works really well. It has a softness to it that maybe live action doesn't.

Ways to use video in a care business

Tobi: A softness in the message. That's a good point you've touched on. What would be a couple of examples? Let's say there's a care business listening to this right now, and they're thinking, actually, we really do need to incorporate video a bit more, we haven't really got many videos. Can you give a couple of examples of how a care home or home care business could use animation and video?

Kim: Yes, sure. I just mentioned one of them, the explainer video, and there are explainer videos all over YouTube, so most people will have a rough idea of what I mean. You can have an explainer video that helps explain your service to your prospects, and that will definitely help convert people from prospects into customers, because they understand more about the service and more about your business. People can only buy from what they know and understand, can't they? So certainly an explainer video.

Another thing that's key for care homes and home care is recruitment of your team members, so animation could be helpful in a recruitment context, perhaps helping you attract and retain more quality team members who stay around for a lot longer. You could also use animation to help attract lots of new customers as part of your advertising strategy or campaign. If you're already doing Google Ads, you can add video ads on YouTube, and to your Facebook ads, so you can certainly use it to attract people as well.

Another element that's closely related to an explainer video is an onboarding video. There may be things the family, or the service user, needs to know and understand once they actually become a customer, so it will really help with your customer service and save time. That could be an important element people aren't thinking about, because they're focused on making the sale, and then they have to explain that specific bit every time. So that could really help streamline your business and save you time. So those are four different uses.

[10:00]

Tobi: I remember something slightly different. When I was going go-karting, before the session started, we had to go for our safety instructions. There were probably about 20 of us in the room, and they said, "All right, we're going to go through the safety instructions," and they played a video. The video was animated. They walked out of the room and came back when it was done. Imagine that person having to give the safety instructions every half an hour with loads of people coming through. Video is a great way to say the same message over and over, in a visually engaging way.

Getting maximum exposure for your videos

So let's say this company took the advice and they've got three videos created. What are some of the best ways to get maximum exposure for those videos?

Kim: OK, cool, this is a really good question, and it's why I said when I introduced myself that I like to hand-hold and help people really extend their reach using video. Some people think, "Great, I've made a video, and now floods of people are going to come and watch it and then come to my website." It doesn't quite work like that anymore. Maybe it did ten years ago, but not now, because there's so much noise and content out there. As long as you understand the different types of video, where you can place them and how to make them work for you, you'll be fine. But I think there's sometimes a bit of a misunderstanding there.

An explainer video is awesome on a landing page on your website, and it will help convert existing visitors into customers. But if you put that same video out on social media, yes, some people will see it, but you might wonder why it's not bringing in lots of new leads. That's because an explainer video is often quite long, so it needs someone who's already quite invested in researching your company and is much closer to making a decision. There are alternative ways to use your explainer video more proactively. You can email the link to people who have been making enquiries, because they're a bit more warmed up. You can also use lots of video content with your existing email subscribers, to help move them along a sales funnel, or just to keep them engaged and informed with content that shows you're the authority in what you do.

[13:00]

Tobi: Let me just chime in a little, because we do marketing as well. Some people may know about the YouTube ads called TrueView ads, the five seconds before someone watches a YouTube video. That's a great way to get out there. And you mentioned Facebook and Instagram. Do you know the minimum, two minutes?

Kim: No, that's the maximum. It's up to a maximum of 20.

Tobi: But yes, like you said, these videos are assets. Once you've created them, get them out there, whether it's in email signatures or on landing pages.

Kim: Yes, and those in-stream ads are grossly underused at the moment, so if you wanted to do that as a strategy, you could really get yourself out there. I think a lot of people are still doing Google Ads without video, or doing Facebook ads, and not necessarily focusing on the in-stream video you can do on YouTube. I think that's grossly underused, and I think 2020 is when we'll see people using it more.

Tobi: So just quickly, if someone has any questions, or once they introduce video, how can they reach you?

Kim: Probably the best way to find me is on either LinkedIn or Facebook. I'm very active on LinkedIn, and my Facebook page is Kim Emson Animates. It does what it says on the tin. I share loads of content on those two channels, giving lots of advice and tips on using animation, so you can certainly connect with me there. I've also got a little Facebook group that focuses on supporting businesses with their animation marketing.

Tobi: And email, if people prefer email?

Kim: Let's not forget email. It's kim@kimemsonanimates.com.

Cameron: OK, well, thanks very much, Kim. We'll put all the information and any resources in the show notes, and thanks, everyone, for watching or listening to another episode of Tea with Tobi.

Kim: Thank you.