Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

Can a single piece of software make all the difference when it comes to promoting your business?

The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is a resounding yes – and while many people would expect that piece of software to be something entirely focused on marketing, they’d be wrong. Adobe’s After Effects holds the key to unlocking a huge amount of value for your marketing efforts.

Interesting in finding out how? We’ll look at 6 key areas where some skillful After Effects use will give your brand an incredible competitive edge…

It makes marketing memorable

Image: Minna Picture’s Kinetic Typography template proving that even the simplest message is more effectively delivered with animation

Do you ever find yourself watching an animation or video without really understanding why? If the answer’s no, you’re in a tiny minority.

Our eyes are drawn to movement. From an evolutionary point of view, it’s what’s kept us alive for so long – but in the data-packed 21^st Century, it’s a sure-fire (and low effort) way to gather a lot of information quickly. An animated video has the potential to offer us a huge amount more information quickly, especially versus text or still images.

We process moving images 60,000 times faster than static words on a page – and we recall the information we capture more readily too, in fact, animation is proven to be 58% more memorable than static text or images alone. The great news is, you don’t even have to innovate enormously if you’re used to simply creating words – as this Colorful Kinetic Typography After Effects Template by Minna Picture proves.

The result? An exceptional After Effects video makes your brand engaging and memorable.

It’s an investment that keeps giving

When you use After Effects to create an incredible animation, slideshow or promo video you’ve done a lot of hard work that you’re never going to need to repeat – no matter which audience or campaign you’re working on.

For instance:

You’re working on rolling out your services in the US – but there’s a lucrative market in the UK too. Instead of going back to the drawing board, you swap out what’s US specific, drop in some UK information and bingo – you’re done. That’s a serious amount of hassle saved when you compare it to the work required to adjust or reshoot video.

Working with templates that you’ve adjusted to suit your needs makes absolute sense – from a branding point of view – and from a financial standpoint.

Transcend your demographic

Image: Enchanted Studios’ Watercolor slideshow template has beautiful mass appeal

The kind of marketing videos you’ll create in After Effects will make for compelling viewing – and compelling viewing (especially with auto-play switched on in people’s social media feeds) gets your product, service or message in front of a wide variety of eyes.

Take a look at Enchanted Studios’ Watercolor slideshow template. It’s got a hypnotic quality that you’ll enjoy watching unfold, regardless of the brand it carries.

When you use great looking templates like these, people will watch and engage with your marketing, even if they’re not your intended audience. As a result, your message spreads further and wider…

After Effects Templates really do make you look great

Image: A still from Enchanted Studios’ visually spectacular Double Exposure Parallax Titles Template

The beautiful thing about beautiful templates is that they look, well… beautiful.

Who’s to say whether you’ve commissioned the project yourself, or adapted something off the shelf? No one – so for a relatively small amount of money, you’re creating something that looks out of this world.

The result?

You look more professional, more polished, more premium, more desirable… and all the other differentiators that will stand your service head-and-shoulders over that of your competitors. I’d defy anyone to look at a video created with Enchanted’s Double Exposure Parallax Titles template and consider it anything but a high-budget bespoke project. There are very few other marketing approaches that will offer that kind of value for such a small outlay…

Animations and Motion Graphics keep people engaged

When people land on a page that’s got an animation, slideshow, animated infographic or marketing video, they stick around – and that’s a good thing for a number of reasons.

Firstly, they’re engaging with your brand. If they’re engaging, they’re far more likely to share your content, recommend your service, recall your brand – and so on.

Secondly, they’re more likely to part with their money. In fact, conversions go up by as much as 75% if you’ve got an e-commerce store and people have video to watch. Clearly, it’s got to be the right video – but nonetheless, there’s a definite correlation you can lever to your advantage.

And – if you’re still not convinced, video helps with your search engine rankings. Perhaps not directly – but, when people land on your page, Google knows how long they spend there before they ‘bounce’ or click-away to elsewhere. The longer they stay, the more relevant Google deems your page against the search that person’s performed to get there.

Animated video grabs (and keeps) your attention

Image: Anastasia Designs’ Auto Show Glitch template is a masterclass is grabbing and holding audience attention

When we’re engaging with online media, we’re looking for quick gratification. If something doesn’t pique our interest in the first 10 seconds, we’re very quick to click away. However, if we have the sense something is animated, we’re hooked within 1/10^th of a second.

After Effects videos offer something special in this regard – you can immediately roll out the sensory stimulus – with this Auto Show Glitch Promo template from Anastasia Designs being a perfect example of that. Grab people’s attention early, hold them for 10 seconds – and you’re leaving a lasting impression that’ll see your brand, product and name spreading like wildfire…

After Effects Articles

• Motion Tracking Tutorials for After Effects

• How to Import and Apply LUTs in After Effects

• How to Reset After Effects Preferences Settings

• Adobe Introduces Project Rush, Cross-Platform Video Editor