Including Powerful CTA in your 2D & 3D Animated Video

Are your prospects doing what you expect them to do immediately after watching your 2D or 3D animated video?

The best way to get the most out of your 2D or 3D animated video is to include an effective and powerful Call to action at the end. It’s the point where the viewer already has the essential information and you have to point them to the next step.

It’s all about what you can provide your customers with or what you want them to do next. It can be asking them to take a free trial or persuading them to subscribe, download or buy now. To turn a viewer into a customer, you need an effective CTA. Make sure, though, that it isn’t just another promotional banner and it has to fit well with your script too. A perfect call to action always reflects the marketing and business goals of the brand.

Call to actions can be divided into different types depending on the nature of the product. Most of the 2D and 3D animated videos have an explicit call to action that clearly spells out what you want your viewer to do. They are either purchase-related or subscription actions. While educative 2D and 3D animated videos mostly have informative or implicit calls to action like ‘learn more’, technical products, on the other hand, might ask the viewer to download a free trial.

3 main types of Calls to Action for 2D and 3D animated videos

You have made a beautiful 2D or 3D animated video for your business. Moreover, people like your 2D or 3D animated video enough to watch it all the way till the end. Perfect! Now all you have to do is capitalize by converting your viewers into leads and customers.

2D or 3D animated video is not successful until it has done one simple thing: convert viewers into customers. And the best way to increase your conversion rate is with a great Call to Action (CTA).

Imagine the CTA as the finale of a Broadway show. Finale tends to be big, important and effective. The same is expected from a CTA in your 2D or 3D animated video.

Every 2D or 3D animated video is different, which means that every CTA should be different too. CTAs take many shapes and forms, the three most common in 2D or 3D animated video are:

1. Voiceover CTA
2. Text CTA
3. Clickable CTA

Each CTA method has its strengths and weaknesses.

Type 1: Voiceover CTA

Hopefully your 2D or 3D animated video has a professional voiceover artist talking over all that animation. The CTA at the end of the video, asking viewers to take the next step can be extremely effective, and you should definitely use the same voice as for the rest of your voiceover. People like being addressed by a voice they recognize.

Use a consistent voiceover throughout the 2D or 3D animated video. Don’t switch it up for the CTA. And keep the pace consistent, don’t speed up or slow down.

However, voiceover CTA has some limitations. Many viewers, particularly younger ones, often watch online videos without sound, especially via social media and sites like Facebook. This means that you should consider including text CTAs and caption information (subtitles).

Type 2: Text CTA

Mobile video is becoming more and more popular every day, and this means that text-based 2D or 3D animated video are still very relevant and often used. If your video is focused on text, your CTA should be the same, in a text-heavy video make sure to use a text CTA for maximum results.

Use bold text and try to keep the CTA for the last 15 seconds of your 2D or 3D animated video to convert the most engaged viewers.

Also, if you use a lot of text during your 2D or 3D animated video, you have to make your CTA stand out with a visible text using either larger font size, font type or font color. Your CTA has to be clear and highlighted from the rest of your 2D or 3D animated video.

Finally, make sure that people have enough time to actually read your text CTA. Focus only on the important information like your website, contact info, and the product or service name, and keep it on the screen as long as possible. Keep the CTA on screen for at least 7 seconds. Extend the duration of your 2D or 3D animated video by several seconds if necessary. People will appreciate a few extra seconds to make sure they’ve got the right info.

Type 3: Clickable CTA

The last and most effective type is the clickable or actionable CTA. They come in all shapes and sizes, but typically include a hypertext link or a clickable button that viewers can click to direct them straight to the page you want them to visit next. It is supposed to provide the shortest path to conversion.

But be careful when making clickable links. Test and retest them to make sure the links are still active after any site redesign, update or refresh. Any URL change and a dead link may produce extremely negative experience.

The best way to ensure that viewers get to your landing page is by providing one clear, concise link at the end of the video. No matter what your CTA is, you have to provide a clear link for viewers to click. If it’s a button, make it central, large and colored.

Some of the best and mostly used CTAs are:

• Download now
• Try it for free
• Sign up for a free trial today
• Your free download is just a click away
• Join now
• Mail your order today
• Get it now
• Visit our website
• Call us at…
• Learn More on…

When placed at the right place at the right time, CTAs can actually make a huge impact on your marketing strategy.

Some other types of Calls to Action

A great CTA does not just benefit your business; it can also benefit the user because you are giving them the necessary directions on what they need to do to take advantage of your product or service. If a user watches your 2D or 3D animated video or visits your site, he has two options; to proceed or leave. If they leave, they will have left feeling unsatisfied. Nobody wants that.

Here you can find several more ways you can use CTAs to get better results than just ending your 2D or 3D animated video with your main website address or phone number.

1. Download free e-book, info graphic or video

A free e-book, info graphic or video targeted to the wants and needs of your target customers, or dealing with Q&A, is a great way to build your email list. You can ask for the person’s first name and email address so that you can then follow up with personalized emails. Once the viewer has opted-in, you can then plug their details into emails, written around the features and benefits of your product or service.

2. Download a free chapter of your new book

Books about your industry or based on specific topics of relevance to your target audience are becoming more and more popular as lead generation tools. Your book can contain a special offer to encourage people to work with you, or links to special sales pages with discount offers.

3. Call for a free, or chargeable, consultation

Very popular with service-based businesses, especially where the service is built around the needs of the customer, such as coaching, financial advising, soliciting, recruitment companies, estate agents and so on. The most popular call to action would be the ‘free consultation’, however, charging for a consultation with a specific benefit to the prospective customer may give you better results and improve sales conversions. Legal, financial and other information-based services benefit greatly from these options.

4. Buy your product with a special discount

If you’re selling physical or digital products online, having your 2D or 3D animated video end with a special discount code, to be entered into the shopping cart, can work well on social media.

5. Tripwire offer

A Tripwire offer is also known as a ‘loss leader’. It’s where you charge a small amount of money, for something worth a lot more, to encourage people to progress to the more expensive products or services.

For example, you may offer a 3-hour online training program worth $60 for just $5. Once the viewer buys the program, they are sent to an up-sell page which offers a more expensive advanced program (part II, part III…). Sometimes there is series of 4 or 5 up-sells linked to the original tripwire offer.

6. Attend a presentation

Startups and businesses looking for investors benefit greatly from these CTAs. Their 2D or 3D animated video provides a brief overview of their goals and aims, and then the CTA invites the viewer to contact them in order to attend a presentation where they could learn more about the product or how to get involved with the business. The video acts as a teaser, giving enough information to inspire the viewer to want to find out more about it, and possibly invest in the business.

7. Early-bird tickets to your conference

You can use your 2D or 3D animated video to announce a major event, a book launch, new product presentation, or any kind of a gathering. In such cases, your CTA can be used to create buzz about the forthcoming conference and offer tickets at an ‘early bird’ discount. This way, viewers would feel compelled to use the special offer and grab the opportunity to get the tickets. You could have a main version of the video displayed on the sales page, next to the ‘Buy tickets’ button, and a shorter version of the video to advertise on social media channels pointing to the sales page.