There’s a feel motion graphics or animation brings that’s irreplicable by any other form of content. It’s just catchy, you know, the kind of stuff that keeps people glued to screens for long enough to pass your message.
Reason why brands today dedicate lotta resources to creating animated content – you’ve probably seen the many 2D explainer, whiteboard, and 3D animated videos that have flooded social media and the search engine space over the years.
They’re popular and widespread because they work – videos on landing pages increase conversions by up to 86% per one research by Wordstream.
How do you integrate animation and video into your content development strategy to pick up some of that otherworldly conversion rates? You’ve got three options – hiring a full-time in-house animator, picking an animation agency, or hiring a freelance animator. Let’s go over the three to see what you get with each and which pans out to be the best bargain for your business.
A quick definition of terms
Who’s an in-house animator?
This is a full-time animator hired for the primary goal of creating animated content for your organization.
What’s an animation agency
A business with many animators focused on creating animated content for multiple brands. Animation agencies have sprouted up in their huge numbers the last few years in response to the growing demand for animated content.
Who’s a freelance animator
This is an independent animator who typically works for many brands on a freelance or short-term contract basis. Like animation agencies, there’s been an uptick in the number of freelance animators available for hire these last few years
Freelance animator vs. agency animator vs. in-house animator, which’s best for you?
The short of it is it’s all down to your specific business needs. For the long of it, let’s proceed with comparing all three starting with freelance animators:
What are the advantages of hiring a freelance animator?
You get to pick from a broader and more diverse set of video content developers
Freelance sites host a huge subset of animators and video editors, each with their own style and production peculiarities. If you’re looking for any particular video content style, the best place to start your search is freelance.
If you’re not sure what animation or video editing style you’d prefer, then what better place to whet your appetite than the marketplace that hosts the largest assortment of video content creators.
The huge variety means you’ll most likely not find something that matches your brand voice and style.
Funky or quirky, professional or detailed, on freelance sites, you’re more likely than not to find a freelance animator or video editor who can connect with your brand values to pass your message in the best way possible. Like I already stated, freelancing opens up borders to reach animators and editors in the farthest corners of the world.
Whether you’re searching for an animator who lives in Japan or a niche stop motion artist from the Netherlands, chances are they’ve already set up shop on a popular freelance site.
Freelance animators are affordable
At least more affordable than their in-house or agency counterparts. Part of that affordability is down to the relatively low overhead cost for freelance animators and video editors, but it’s also worth noting that the typical freelance animator/video editor market is populated by relative newbies trying to get their foot down.
Of course, this might mean poorer quality animation or video editing but more on that later.
Relative flexibility
Freelancers can be micromanaged – in fact, I’d wager that with most freelance animators and video editors, you only get the best in terms of how the content resonates with your brand when you micromanage them.
I know, I know, micromanaging is generally something everyone frowns at, but the simple truth is that when you need to achieve specific goals with someone who’s not fully in sync with your business, you really need to ‘get in there.’
The relative flexibility of freelancers also applies to how animation and video editing projects are executed with freelancers. Generally, you’d be able to modify requirements and things like animation styles, script, or audio with freelancers. The same cannot be said for agencies
What are the disadvantages of hiring a freelance animator?
The quality of animation can be poor
Like I noted earlier, freelance sites are stacked full with freelance animators and video editors still learning ropes and trying to put a foot down. If you’re not careful with your freelance hiring process, you might end up with a newbie freelancer or, worse still, someone who’s terrible at what they do.
Obviously, this would mean getting poor video content that might impact conversion or whatever metric you’re chasing and possibly also affect your brand identity.
There’s a palpable lack of professionalism with some freelance animators
It’s not unheard of for a freelance animator to simply pack up shop midway through a project with no prior communication, but that’s the extreme of the unprofessional spectrum.
What you’re more likely to experience are issues ranging from poor communication, missed deadlines, inattention to details, and the likes. Most freelance animators or video editors are artists first before business professionals, and many don’t consider touching up their business professionalism and people skills as they move on with their careers.
You might need other professionals
Very few freelancers provide an a la carte animation or video editing service. What that means is in addition to finding the freelance animator of your choice, you’ll also need to fill the auxiliary roles that make video content alive.
I’m talking a scriptwriter, a voice-over actor, and maybe a storyboard designer if you’re looking to get complicated and detailed with your message.
And that’s not all; you’ll still have to interface these professionals together yourself, which leads to the next point.
Managing freelance animators and video editors can get hectic and fast
Yes, I know you might want to get down, and dirty to ensure your animation or video content is pixel perfect. However, you need to understand that this can pan out to be a full-time preoccupation depending on the crop of animators + other professionals you’re working with.
So think about that when you consider freelance – is there no there way your time would be better spent?
What are the advantages of hiring an animation agency?
The full complement of professionals
Unlike freelance animation sites, animation and video editing agencies house animation and video editing teams, not freelancers. Such teams are ideally populated by the complete array of content developing professionals needed to stage a full animation or produced video.
This takes away the burden of finding and hiring everything from a scriptwriter to a voice-over actor from you. Allowing you more time to focus on other more important aspects of running your business
Agencies are usually staffed by animators and editors with demonstratable expertise
It’s harder to find an animation hack or unskilled video editor in an agency compared to freelance sites, and that’s because they have better and more stringent vetting processes. Reputable agencies have a reputation to protect, and most will go the extra mile to keep saboteurs who can harm this reputation off their platform.
This effectively limits your risk of getting a hack animation or video editing job. Although it’s fair to note that this is not absolute – you can still get poor quality work from agencies, but you’d usually get a refund if you filed a complaint.
Easier to manage
Agencies are easier to manage because they require little to none of the micromanaging you’d have to dish out if you were working with freelance animators or video editors. All you need to do in most cases is provide your requirements, specify a due date, then pay your invoice.
Everything from conceptualization of the animation or video content to the final cut is handled by agency employees and a dedicated project manager.
Agencies allow you to scale with ease
If you needed to put out twenty ad videos on several social media platforms, it’d be hard to find a freelance or in-house animator who could deliver all in the space of, say, two weeks without compromising on quality. Maybe you decide to hire an extra freelancer, but that would require you to spend your valuable time finding, hiring, and retaining freelance animators.
When you’re short on time, animation and video editing agencies provide a turn-key solution for meeting your animated content development needs, regardless of how expensive or complicated they are.
Again, all you need do is specify your requirement and settle the bills – because agencies float multiple professional teams all committed to producing video content, they can scale up easily and fast.
What are the disadvantages of hiring an animation agency?
The best ones are drop-dead expensive
And it’s not exactly because they’re providing the best quality animation or edited content. No, some freelancers produce better quality animation and video edits than agencies. It’s more of the overhead costs they have to offset to keep the agency running (and the cost of weekly CEO trips to Ibiza).
Animation and video editing agencies run like full-fledged businesses. Some lease penthouse office spaces in the middle of New York, and others float obscenely large marketing departments with marketing executives on 150K salaries. You can bet that these costs, no matter how irrelevant they are, will be translated to the end consumer. And by consumer, I’m talking about you.
Agencies might not get into full sync with your brand and brand values
There are certain brand traits, consumer characteristics, or market peculiarities that don’t easily roll off pen to paper as project requirements. And sometimes, these subtleties might be the key differentiator in making your video content stand out from the competition and the noise.
Agency animators, like freelance video content producers, are not in-house, so except you’ve retained an agency for long enough, they might not really catch up on these cues.
Even when they’ve been with you long-term, it’s still possible that for them to miss out on cues – some are so salient and transient that they can only be picked up by someone who’s fully integrated into your business process
Limited flexibility
The professional orientation of animation and video editing agencies tones down the flexibility of working with them, at least when compared to the freelance or in-house option. While the former two might allow you to change the script midway through the production process, agencies provide little room for modifications without extra expenses once the contract is set.
What are the advantages of hiring an in-house animator?
All-round knowledge of your brand
In-house animators and video editors are full-time staff fully integrated into your business and its processes. The impact of this full-time integration is such that the typical in-house animator, over time, gets to have a complete and comprehensive outlook of their company’s brand, values, target market, and every other nuanced underlying trait.
Like I said, in today’s overly saturated business space, sometimes the only thing that might work to give your brand the exposure it needs is a backhand, often sleight optimization of your video content.
Partnering up for strategy formulation
You and your marketing team (if you have one) understand the business. An animator or video editor understands how video content works. With an in-house animator or editor, you get the luxury of involving someone who understands the other end of the divide in your strategy formulation process.
The result is better, more optimized video content that has a better chance of pulling in leads, driving conversions, or securing whatever metric matters to you.
You get an expert most of the time
In-house animator or video editor roles are usually filled by people who are skilled at what they do. I mean, if you’re hiring full-time, you’re not going to cut corners with your vetting and assessment process (something you might likely do with freelancers).
An expert handling your video and animation creating needs means your get expertly created content of the kind that can connect with your brand and drive engagement.
In-house is cost-efficient
When you consider the overall value in-house animators and video editors bring (as content consultants, collaborators, and advisors), they pan out to provide more value for money spent than the other two options.
It’s even better if you have an in-house team staffed with other professionals required for content development to collaborate with your animator or video editor. That just brings the best out of everyone and sets in motion a framework that guarantees the production of only the best video or animated content.
What are the disadvantages of hiring an in-house animator?
It’s expensive
Although you get absolute value for money spent, there’s no arguing the fact that going the in-house route will put a strain on your finances. Remember, if you want the best out of an in-house animator or video editor, you got to partner them up with all the auxiliary professionals they need to churn out premium content.
Sometimes you have to also foot the one-time cost of production equipment, so keep that in mind.
In-house means limited option in terms of style and creative breadth
Any in-house animator or video editor you hire will be insanely skilled at one creative style with limited proficiency in others. That’s normal, and even with freelancers and agency animators, it’s hard to find a truly versatile video content artist.
What you would get with the other routes, however, is the ability to switch animator or editor on a whim without any additional expense. Except you plan on hiring and firing animators every other week (and paying them severance, of course), you cannot replicate this with in-house animators and video editors.
Which should you choose?
What are your needs first of all? If you have them ready, it’s easier to make your pick with the information I’ve provided
For a round-up, you’ll go:
Freelance if you’re on a budget and want utmost flexibility. Remember, except you are careful enough to hire the crème de la creme of freelance animators or video editors, you’ll have to micromanage your way through the whole project
Agency if you wanted top-draw animated or video content that’s guaranteed to smash engagement and conversion metrics. But hiring an agency is not cheap – you’ll pay top dollar for the best ones, the kind that deliver on all the advantages I talked about
In-house if you wanted an animator that can connect with your brand, your values, and objectives on the micro-level. Usually, this is the best bet for any business looking to adopt animated or video content as a long-term content development strategy.
