At PowToon, we’re always brainstorming ways to benefit our users. Our most recent idea was to reveal how people – just like you – use PowToon to boost their businesses.
Let’s look at:
- How a real-life PayPal employee used PowToon to astound his bosses!
- How some users – even those without any prior design or animation skills – can use Powtoons to double website opt-ins and massively increase customer engagement
But first! We are about to move out of PowToon’s free beta phase and I wanted to thank you for joining us on the journey so far…
When we started PowToon in January 2012 we had a dream…a dream born out of a huge frustration: Everywhere we looked there were these amazing 90 second animated presentations, but there was no way of creating them yourself.
To get a professional-looking result, you had to either spend $5,000-$15,000 on an animation studio, or take your chances with an outsourcer who would “only” charge you $2,500 and after weeks of production you could still not change anything without his help.
We were very frustrated by this and saw that lots of businesses and marketers were crying out for a solution. Our dream was to create a DIY product that would allow anyone to achieve professional results with hardly any extra effort over and above a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation.
One of our co-founders, Oren (aka. Dr. Osm in the below Powtoon), offered his award-winning animation and design skills to the effort – and our mission became to extract and bottle these skills. This resulted in a ridiculously user-friendly software that allows anyone (even me!) to create super professional animated presentations.
No joke. Check out this Powtoon. I made it myself (said as if praising a 5 year old)! But seriously, I’m so proud of this because it embodies our dream – to allow anyone to make professional-looking animated presentations, an impossibility before PowToon… (by the way, if you’re wondering about the voiceover – a professional voice over guy costs $20 in our marketplace)
Bottling Awesomeness
[Blog Post: How we came to create PowToon]
My only request to the team was for the final product to be super simple, functionally, and to allow anyone to achieve professional-looking results. Today we have over 42,000 user generated Powtoons! And people are using them to achieve astounding results. Below are some examples of how people are using PowToon to further their businesses and careers:
How People use PowToon to get their client’s attention
1. Live presentations: bring the WOW-Factor to your presentations
I recently received an urgent email from the innovations department of PayPal. When I replied, I got the type of reception usually reserved for royalty. Turns out one of their executives had signed up as a PowToon beta tester and had used it to present to his bosses. Their reaction?
“HOW DID YOU DO THAT? WHERE DID THAT HAND COME FROM? – WOW!”
The boss wanted to give his entire organization access to PowToon right there and then!
Using PowToon in a live sales environment is guaranteed to grab the prospect’s attention. All that’s left is to close the deal.
2. Website Landing Pages pointing to Opt-Ins:
Double your opt-in rates on landing pages Ryan Deiss (a gifted marketer and obsessive split tester) tested landing pages a million ways from Sunday and he found that a cartoon style message doubles opt-ins compared to just written text. Look what Chris Bloor is doing to get customers to watch and listen.
3. Startup pitches
PowToon is great for really getting your message across in 90 seconds or less and making it look professional without the associated cost. Countless start-ups are opting for PowToon Awesomeness to convert their elevator pitch into visual stories.
4. Animated CVs
To grab a potential employer’s attention, do what Kjeld did…Oh, and you should also know that this one can be reused as a template. Just integrate your unique bio!
5. Websites: Training users how to use your site
Train users on how to work with your website or app in a fun and stylish way–like in the following clip.
6. Teachers: Flipping Classrooms – Musical Instruments
This lesson deals with musical instruments. Not bad for a first Powtoon, is it?
7. Campaigning: California 2012 Proposition Voter Guide
8. Recipes: Let’s bake a lemon cake
Powtoons make cake recipes far more interesting! (By the way: LOVE THE ACCENT)
9. Jokes, Fun and Nonsense
This Powtoon won first place in the PowOlympics! Entries had to feature instructions for a new sport people wanted to see in the next Olympics.
10. Music Videos
Add visuals to a song to create cool music videos.
Please take a moment to share how you used PowToon in your business in the comments below.
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