Back in the day, I used to love to be called up to the blackboard in school. Not because I knew the answer or wanted to show off my artistic skills, but because it helped me to think and communicate on my feet. Years later, whether I was selling ideas to my co-workers or products to potential inbound marketing clients, there was no better tool than a flip chart or whiteboard to close the deal. Why? Because words and images are twice as powerful together as they are apart. Now that nearly everything we do has an online component, why wouldn't we take advantage of the same communication tool'whiteboard videos'to tell our stories and explain complicated subjects?
The Power of Whiteboard Story Telling
We've all sat through countless boring presentations'usually after lunch in a darkened room staring at a bunch of bullet points on a Powerpoint slide. And most of us have snoozed blissfully until the lights come back up. When is this not the case? When the meeting is actually interesting and engaging.
When we're brain storming or planning new ways of getting things done, someone is usually scribbling sketches and flowcharts on the whiteboard. Things get even more interesting when more than one person adds to the graphical story and explains their ideas. There are scientific reasons for this. One professional development pro put it this way, ''unless our words, concepts, ideas are hooked onto an image, they will go in one ear, sail through the brain, and go out the other ear. Words are processed by our short-term memory'. Images, on the other hand, go directly into long-term memory where they are indelibly etched.' The advantages of using a whiteboard boil down to:
- Using both visual and audio information together to get attention
- Showing the relationships in time and space between components in a process
- Developing a story over time and pausing to reflect at each 'chapter'
- Involving both author and audience to expand the vision and gain both understanding and buy-in
- Direct impact on sales effectiveness ' i.e. whiteboard selling
Translating Whiteboard Sessions to the Internet
Whiteboards have become progressively more sophisticated in recent years. There are interactive, digital whiteboards that enable you to save and broadcast live sessions. You can buy special paint to turn any wall or other surface into a whiteboard. Your entire office can be one big whiteboard if you choose. Until recently, what's been missing is the ability to shrink the power of whiteboard storytelling into a short, YouTube-ready video. Well, that's available now, too*. If you Google 'video scribing' or 'whiteboard animation' you'll find some of the key players. In essence, the process involves developing your 'story' into a script that fits the optimal profile of a successful video, about 90 seconds to 3 minutes in length, and professionally done to engage the audience. The 'scribers' then draw your story on a whiteboard, capture the session, edit and apply a voice narrative to produce the video.
Using Video Whiteboards for Content Marketing
When we first became aware of whiteboard video scribing, our inbound marketers started dreaming up all kinds of content marketing and strategic uses for ourselves and for our clients, including:
- Telling your brand story'how you became who you are and why people should buy from you
- Showing how your products or services work and why they're different
- Discussing industry trends and forecasting the future
- Understanding your buyers, their behavior and decision making process
- Developing your internal sales and marketing processes
The list goes on indefinitely. Where are we going with this? I think this technology will explode in popularity and use in the next few years. Why? Because these whiteboard videos are mesmerizing, they're different, and they really work to develop a compelling story. Stay tuned for some whiteboard videos here on our site and blog.
Video courtesy of Dr. Susan Weinschenk and Human Factors International
*Disclosure: TruScribe is a client of Kuno Creative
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