How Different Teams at Animoto Use Animoto

At Animoto, we know the power of video, and are passionate about helping our customers use it to their advantage. One way we do this is by using our own product. Seeing Animoto the way our customers do informs our current product strategies, and future endeavors.

In this post, I’ll talk about a few ways the Animoto team uses Animoto to improve, empower, and communicate (and how your brand can follow suit).

Why video?

We’re passionate about video, and believe it has some unique advantages. It’s relevant — in 2018, it’s how people want to consume content. And, it’s memorable. Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. Although there’s a place for graphs and charts, when it comes to retention, there’s very little that does the job as well as video.

The value of using our own product

Incorporating Animoto into our day to day cultivates a deep-rooted and genuine passion for what we do, while fostering open communication within the company. For us, dogfooding, or testing out our product, is about making incremental improvements to our product, marketing, and company culture. It provides us with invaluable feedback and encourages conversation across teams.

Here are some specifics about how our different teams use Animoto and how it benefits and betterfies our company.

Foster confidence

At Animoto, we say video works because we’ve seen it work first hand. And, we believe in showing our customers not only why video works, but how it works.

Since we’re sharing our videos to social media and using them in ads just like our customers, we can give our customers an honest perspective on video best practices, even as the social media landscape undergoes constant change.

As a company that uses video marketing on Facebook, we’re on the frontlines of any recent changes and feel confident providing video updates, like the one below, that add value to our customers. We see the first-hand understanding of our customers’ pain points as a significant advantage.

But how do we make sure our customers’ pain points stay top of mind? There’s a few ways that we continually test and learn about our audience:

• The ads that we use to support our marketing efforts are made with Animoto. Using a couple stock assets (and a quick Boomerang video taken at the office), we created this event RSVP video encouraging customers to tune in to a Facebook live event.

• Video challenges allow our teams to approach our product the way our customers do. The video ad below was created for a Content Team video challenge to promote our Social Video Strategy guide.

• Animoto videos are often included in team presentations or team updates. By repurposing photos and video clips from a prior year, we used this highlight video to get folks excited about our annual company gathering, YETI.

We use these learnings to:

• Gain insight into challenges our customers might face.
• Provide our audience with relevant and valuable social news and updates.
• Share best practices and actionable ways to achieve video marketing success.

Boost company culture and recruiting efforts

At Animoto, we believe our company values and culture are a key factor in our success as a team. Since video is so memorable, it’s a great way for us to individually retain and personally define our company values so we can build a work culture we’re proud of. Plus, as a video company, incorporating video into our day-to-day empowers us to take ownership of the work we do.

In terms of recruiting, video enables us to share our awesome work culture with prospective team members and give them a glimpse of our product. Our People Team regularly uses Animoto videos to bolster their efforts.

Here’s how:

• Our Open Role videos enable us to showcase our company culture on social media. For instance, this LinkedIn video we shared let prospective employees know we’re hiring.

• Our Company Values video in the “About Us” section of our website gives interested applicants a glimpse into what makes our team and workplace unique.

• We use Animoto videos to celebrate wins and share highlights internally (e.g. year-end recaps, awards, and team outings).
• New employees introduce themselves with a video, like this one below, to set the foundation for our video-first work culture.

Cultivate empathy with our customer base

Seeing Animoto the way our customers do helps us implement real-time improvements to our product. Our Mobile Team, for instance, creates Animoto videos regularly and in doing so gets some great insight into the customer journey.

By creating frequent opportunities to use our product, the team develops an intimate understanding of our customers and how they might use Animoto. In addition, anticipating their needs and expectations allows for a stronger, more valuable end product.

Here are some ways the rest of our teams use Animoto:

• We create team update videos that show what teams are working on and encourage open communication across the company.
• We introduce new product features, or launches with — you guessed it — videos, just like this one.

• Prior to releasing a new feature, like a new collection of pre-built storyboards, we use video — a lot — to actively critique and improve the product before it reaches our customers.

Can your brand benefit?

Absolutely. There are few more genuine ways to get an intimate look into the strengths and weaknesses of your product than by trying it for yourself. Using your product informs your understanding of both your product and your target customer.

If you haven’t yet, start creating opportunities to experiment and enhance your product by using it regularly. And, while you’re at it, try sharing your findings with an Animoto video. Video is easy and effective when it comes to communicating both internally and externally. Not to mention, it fosters an informed team that is passionate about what they do.

Need some inspiration? Here are a few ways your team can use Animoto videos at your business:

• Spruce up your presentations with an overview video.
• Keep your team engaged with update videos.
• Elevate your brand with regular marketing videos.
• Share relevant industry news with your audience.
• Repurpose blog or email content with a video.

Does your company use its own product? We’d love to hear about how you incorporate your product into your day-to-day.

Want to create Animoto videos? Join our team, we’re hiring!

Want to learn more about Animoto? Sign up for a free account.