Are you a comic book fan? Love graphic novels? Storyboard artist might be the career for you.

Storyboard artists work with directors and producers to visually interpret a script or concept by creating a series of illustrated image panels called storyboards — similar to a comic strip. They are the visual translators of a story, and their work becomes the roadmap for production.

It’s a vital role because storyboard artists guide how others perceive the project. All members of a production or development team look at storyboards for reference — which is why the boards’ clarity is so critical. Storyboards also convey the energy and style from which art directors take their cue. The storyboard artist needs to give the look and feel of what will become the finished product, from a character’s gestures and emotions to the production design, while using minimal language. Storyboards are used by directors and producers to put a visual narrative in place that informs other departments — from camera crew to costume design to art direction — what they have to do in the production.

What does a storyboard artist do?

Storyboard artists are essential for many different types of productions — from animation to films, television commercials and ad campaigns, video games, app games, music videos, instructional videos, and more. The storyboard artist enters the picture after a concept or script has been created. The actual storyboard presents the “action” via a series of scenes depicted by individual panels that let filmmakers, marketing and advertising executives, producers, and directors “see” the project before commencing production. Storyboards are also used to give direction during the actual production.

In animation, storyboard artists create the “raw footage” of a project. They birth the vision of a script — pretty cool, right? Storyboard artists take a script and begin visualizing it by making drawings that depict each beat of the story, drawn in sequence on a timeline so that a visual structure is scaffolded to the script’s words and there begins to be something to “watch.”

How do storyboard artists create their work?

There are many different modes of creation — storyboard artists might draw scenes by hand or use computer illustration. Some might sketch in black and white while others produce full-color storyboards. Storyboarders work with a production or team from concept to project completion, sketching scenes during initial meetings and editing scenes as the project progresses.

Sometimes, storyboard artists are given a radioplay — an audio file with stand-in dialogue — so that they can fine-tune the timing to how the episode or project will actually play. Eventually, these illustrated montages are edited together to create a rough draft that is sometimes referred to as the “animatic.”

Methods vary from artist to artist — in many cases, the rest of the development or production team will influence the storyboard artist’s processes. For film or animation projects, the director may affect how a storyboarder renders their scenes. It’s great to have your own style, but flexibility is essential when working with a larger team. And if there is more than one storyboard artist on a team, often the various artists will mimic one another’s styles because the uniformity of the storyboards helps maintain the clarity of the vision.

Here are some key things that storyboard artists have to convey in their storyboards:

• Describe camera movement – Storyboards are a comic book of the finished project and show when the camera pulls back and when a close up is needed.
• Tell the story visually – A storyboard needs to clearly show what is happening, using minimal text. While technical descriptions have a place in the storyboard, the images should convey what is happening.
• Track narrative structure – Time is not linear in most films or animation stories. Storyboards have to make these transitions clear. In video games, a storyboarder may go beyond visualizing scenes as they are likely working on different levels within a game and an element of character design.
• Continuity – Storyboard artists are responsible for the visual continuity of a story.

Where do storyboard artists work?

There are extensive job opportunities for storyboard artists. Because the skillset lends itself to opportunities outside of entertainment, there is an inherent job malleability for those that master this type of illustration. Here are some of the diverse places that employ storyboarders:

• Film studios
• Game development companies
• Animation studios
• Advertising agencies
• Graphic design and marketing agencies
• Architecture firms
• Some governmental agencies

What attributes do you need to succeed as a storyboard artist?

• Excellent Illustration skills. As you might suspect, superb drawing skills are essential. Storyboards need to clearly convey a scene and the emotions and gestures of the characters therein.
• Understanding of cinematography. It’s key to know a bit about cinematography as you will be drawing what the “camera” will see. While video games and animated films aren’t filmed with a camera per se, the imagery still has a point-of-view perspective. What a camera sees and what our eyes see are distinct — you’ll need to know and understand the difference.
• Ability to interpret other people’s ideas. The name of the game is translating scripts and written concepts into a visual form — the ability to discern meaning and texture within the language and bring it to life is the heart of storyboarding.
• Excellent storytelling skills. Storyboard artists are creating visual narratives for the written word, a deep understanding of how to tell a story is vital.

What are the key responsibilities of a storyboard artist?

• Read the script and meet with the director or producer to discuss mood, design, and overall theme.
• Make sketches of crucial scenes in sequence.
• Maintain narrative continuity (aka keeping story details connected)
• Visualize scenes from the camera’s viewpoint; plot character emotions, gestures, angles, overall mood, along with wardrobe or prop requirements in each frame.
• Detail shots and action scenes before shooting so that the production can use the storyboard as a roadmap. You know the adage: measure twice, cut once — storyboards help avoid reshoots and going over budget.
• Amend scenes to reflect changes in the script or comments from the producer or director.

What qualifications do you need as a storyboard artist?

You should have:

• A creative mind
• Excellent illustration skills and the ability to draw and work quickly
• The ability to interpret other people’s ideas
• Superb storytelling skills
• Solid understanding of cinematography, film theory, and production
• In-depth knowledge of human form, gesture, and motion — along with excellent layout and composition skills
• A great sense of timing, sequential drawing, and story editing
• Be able to use computer illustration software *

PRO-TIP: Take art, theatre, cinema, and photography courses. Every element of the creative production process you understand will make you that much more valuable as a storyboard artist.

How much do storyboard artists make?

The average annual salary for storyboard artists is approximately $114,300 and ranges from $85,000 to $149,000.

* The best storyboard software in 2020

• StudioBinder
• Moviestorm
• FrameForge
• ShotPro
• Storyboard Quick
• Storyboard Artist Studio 7
• Toon Boom StoryBoard Pro
• Storyboard Fountain
• Storyboard Composer
• Storyboard That
• FrameForge 4
• Boardo

About the author.
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist — Karina writes, edits, and produces compelling content across multiple platforms — including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties.

As the adage goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” But is it … always? Not when you have many points to get across with conviction, precision, and flair. On the mention of points, a picture is not the main point here, but rather a pivot point. That’s because the number of words attributed to it in the opening sentence serves as the launching pad for a discussion of long-form content.

To begin, what is long-form content? Implicit in its name, it refers to content of ample length, measured in number of words. How many words would that be? This is not an exact science or art. Long-form has a wide wingspan, which starts at around 1,000 words and extends to 2,000 and beyond. Recently, pundits profess a preference for the higher amount and push the end mark to 3,000 words. Rather than quibble over the limits, one thing about the math rings clear. It takes a word count of quadruple digits to weave the sticky web of propositions, arguments, analyses, and more that engage and excite audiences — including Google.

This post explores various facets of this format, from framing it to outlining a variety of its strengths. What it doesn’t do is suggest that long-form is superior to its shorter cousin. In the arena of short- versus long-form content, one does not hold the title of supreme champion. There’s a proper time and place for both short-form and long-form content. Apply each one — or a combination — based on prevailing needs and goals. For example, snippets are easy to process and produce abundant quick clicks. But, many times a smattering of words, however clever, won’t fulfill the objectives and elicit the response you seek. At these junctures, more extensive content is the way to go.

This is to say: long-form content has a definite role in an organization’s digital marketing and communications toolbox. Let us count some of the ways long-form content delivers.

Stimulates interest and informs: Content marketing

Welcome to the fertile fields of courting loyal followers and, in the end, customers, facilitated by content marketing. This is the land of long-form content. First, let’s identify what content marketing is. The Content Marketing Institute defines it. “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Content marketing is subtle, yet substantive. Its mission is not to directly promote an organization, brand, service or slate of products. Instead, it draws upon the power of words — a lot of them — to stoke awareness and gain attention; that, in turn, leads to competitive advantage, sales, and profit. Another way to look at it: content marketing uses a back door approach to generate crowds at the front door and the checkout. It’s a process, but one with a potential worthwhile and enduring payout.

The content marketing playbook is a treasure trove of materials derived from long-form content. This broad category includes articles, blogs, e-books, newsletters, content hubs, research reports, and meaty infographics. Podcasts, videos and webinars are other assets in this class. The members of this league do not give short shrift to a topic. They explore it, highlight key aspects, and offer constructive takeaways to connect with audiences. When readers acknowledge the value, they savor it and come back for more. This creates recognition, relationships, buy-in and, at some point, buying.

How about some statistics to back up these claims? The Content Marketing Institute offers such evidence. Studies on its site show that “content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound [promotional] marketing and costs 62% less.” More? “Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without.” Okay, here’s another. “Content marketing rakes in conversion rates six times higher than other methods [such as traditional marketing].”

All told, content marketing and its long-form enabler should be an integral part of a company’s strategy.

Bolsters perceptions and authority: Thought leadership

A subset of content marketing, thought leadership deserves a section of its own. An effective tactic within this sphere, it works a bit differently and distinctly. Here a spokesperson presents an issue or point of view on something of interest and importance. It may relate to the company, perhaps even tangentially, or to an industry, event, or pattern of consequence. This long-form content is substantial and substantiated with examples, data, and discussion points. It shows the person’s command of what is being conveyed. Ideally, it’s novel and impressive.

Readers appreciate this information; in fact, they may be looking for it. These posts help them understand a development or trend. The insights bestowed connect the dots or explain a rationale. This in-depth content may lead to an aha moment — hmm, that’s why or that’s how!

These articles, blogs, white papers, and other pieces of long-form content build credibility and eminence. The readers’ assessments of the organization and its people rise. This indirect marketing approach offers much capacity to generate success. How much? Recently, Survey Monkey and partners decided to find out. “The 2020 thought leadership report: defining it, using it, and doing it yourself” captured the opinions of 481 marketers via an online questionnaire. And what was the top-line conclusion? Two-thirds deem thought leadership a “top priority” for their firm.

Why did these practitioners rate thought leadership so highly on their to-do list? Because, based on their experience, it increases:

• website traffic by 71%
• lead generation by 62%
• media mentions by 56%
• email subscribers by 54%
• customer relationships by 53%

This feedback alone shows that thought leadership is a hook. What’s more, it works. As such, it behooves an organization to use this long-form content asset.

Conveys attributes and builds brands across all stakeholder groups

Long-form content hits the jackpot for brands. And it accomplishes it on a head-on basis. Aside from the first two strengths cited for this format, not all efforts to position and market a brand need to circle around what truly matters. They can go right to the heart of products, services, categories, and lines — whatever organizations offer. The same applies to the overall brand and what it stands for. Unlike its short counterpart, long-form content presents details to fully explain and elaborate upon a brand. In doing so, it differentiates the entity from others.

This format applies to any moment in time in a brand’s lifetime. It’s the way to go to establish brand identity and ingrain it. Long-form content provides the bandwidth to tell the brand story and feature aspects of it in tangible terms — it delves into the matter rather than scratching the surface. This deep-dive content creates affinities with customers en route to bringing them into the fold for years on end. These pieces anticipate customers’ questions and lay It all out for them. They convey a brand’s essence and then build, build, build upon it.

With the help of Images and videos, long-form content fleshes out brand personality. What else can well-conceived long-form brand-oriented content do in this regard?

• Helps brands stand out
• Shows how they work
• Promotes and persuades
• Cross sells and upsells
• Memorializes them

Of note, brand stakeholders are not all external. Employees are integral within a brand’s framework. Long-form content helps to engage and educate these important internal resources about the brand’s mission and values. Employees serve as brand ambassadors and among the enablers of its success. They need to understand and align with the brand’s essence, purpose, and plans. Long-form content helps take them there.

It requires lots of words and repetition to reach targets and stakeholders in a brand’s vast network. In building brand across multiple channels, long-form content serves as a go-to that goes a long way.

Enhances SEO and pecking order

Do you want your content to register high on Google search results, ideally on the first page? Who doesn’t seek to be among the leaders of this pack? The path to follow: go long.

Long-form content does not automatically come with this guarantee, but it points to this potentially winning principle. A landmark study done by SerpIQ arrived at this conclusion about the benefits of long-form content in attaining attractive SEO ratings. According to its findings, the average content length of the top 10 results was in excess of 2,000 words. This outcome prompts SEO pros, such as SWEOR (Strategy Website Enter the Market Optimize ROI) to note: “longer content produces higher search rankings. Simply put, studies show that longer content dominates page one of search rankings.”

Content quality of long-form is a factor that correlates with high ranking. Make it compelling, comprehensive, and relevant to what audiences seek. Insert lots of prized nuggets adaptable for sharing. Judicious and plentiful use of keywords also points the way to success. But there’s more…

What’s a sure shot way to bolster scores? Links. A recent exhaustive study of 11.8 million Google search results confirmed this concept. If found “Overall link authority (as measured by Ahrefs Domain Rating) strongly correlates with higher rankings.” And “pages with lots of backlinks rank above pages that don’t have as many backlinks. In fact, the #1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2-#10.”

All of this reinforces the use of long-form content to be able to ace the Google algorithm.  What’s the short of it? Long-form content is ripe with SEO benefits.

Supports social media and paid advertising

Long-form content is perfect for mining. When done well, it contains fruit just waiting to be harvested. Pull a quote, statistic, insight for social media purposes. Incorporate a link to the long-form content piece in an email. Insert it on your website, your intranet. It’s all there in those thousand plus words, so cull it – leverage, recycle. Put your long-form content to work. It can do double, triple or whatever dimension duty with little effort. It’s the stuff of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram — you get the drift. By the way, readers who like a long-form piece share it on their own — it’s that easy. They may comment on it as well, which draws even more attention to it and may precipitate a discussion thread. What’s some hard, fast data to confirm this? According to a post on Digital Vault, research from BuzzSumo and Backlinko report that “long-form content results in 56% more social shares.”

Long-form also serves as a platform for paid advertising, such as LinkedIn sponsored content. Again, use long-form content posts as inventory and pull from the rack for many purposes, AKA repurpose. Granted, it likely takes more time, effort, and expense to create these longer pieces. However, they offer ample possibilities to fuel other means of getting your brand front and center. Post, repost, share, reshare; let the content go round and round and maybe even viral!

Pulling all of these bits and pieces together…

Well planned, conceived, and executed long-form content wields a lot of power. Dedicating one thousand or several thousand words to such an effort showers the organizations that use them with a range of benefits. They offer opportunities to flex their marketing and SEO muscle. In doing so, they render a one-two punch, if not more.

To sum this up in a sprinkling of words, long-form content provides:
High Visibility, High Impact, and High Performance

It attracts readers and keeps them engaged and on a site for a longer time rather than a brisk bounce. In this sense, bigger is indeed better. Long-form content is a social media darling. This format enables organizations to, both indirectly and directly, build their reputation and base en route to ringing up sales. It’s the stuff from which videos and podcasts are made. And these lengthy pieces easily lend themselves to being chiseled into shorter posts and to readers (including those outside the organization) sharing them with those in their networks.

This post has offered a top-line view of long-form content. It also provides something else related to this format. In the birthing process of covering this topic, this piece evolved into something quite unexpected. It turned into an example of long-form content in its own right.

About the author.
You name it, she covers it. That’s the can-do attitude Sherry M. Adler brings to the craft of writing. A polished marketing and communications professional, she has a passion for learning and the world at large. She uses it plus the power of words to inform and energize stakeholders of all kinds. And to show how all of this can make a difference, she calls her business WriteResults NY, LLC.

Media planners do exactly what it sounds like they do — plan media buys, but what does that really mean?

Successful ad campaigns are targeted ad campaigns. When you find yourself surfing the web and see ads for brands you are interested in — their placement is orchestrated by (drumroll)…media planners. These specialists are responsible for identifying which media platforms are best for advertising a client’s product or brand. Media planners are the maximizers of an ad campaign’s reach to a client’s target audience — the conduit by which advertising lands in magazines, billboards, websites, television, radio, direct mail, and more.

Media planners produce action plans for advertising campaigns from pre-defined marketing objectives.

WHAT DOES A MEDIA PLANNER DO?

Media planners typically work within advertising or media planning/media buying agencies to maximize the impact of advertising campaigns. Part of the work involves using mathematical formulas to analyze demographic data to determine the best ad placement. Some media planners track their advertising planning performance on the back end, calculating return on investment — or ROI — to ensure they receive good value for their advertising spend.

The three main specialties within media planning are determined by advertising format.

• Traditional advertising includes television, radio, print (from magazines to newspapers and direct mail), and outdoor (think billboards, bus stops, subway platform posters).
• Interactive marketing includes banner ads, web ads, mobile apps, email blasts, native advertising, and social media, among other digital platforms.
• Engagement marketing includes experiential campaigns (which can range from events to immersive environmental concepts), point-of-purchase (like in-store demos), and behavioral marketing (which can span from viral marketing campaigns to street teams).

It’s a changing landscape; agility is vital. To succeed in their jobs, media planners must keep in tune with culture as it ages and changes values. The way people consume media content is in a constant state of flux. Individual channels become more or less relevant and useful at reaching specific demographic groups — which is why media planners need to keep abreast of new forms of advertising and media to ensure that the brands and products they represent maintain a strong position in the marketplace.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MEDIA PLANNER AND A MEDIA BUYER?

Say hello to two of the most important cogs in the great advertising machine: media planners and media buyers. While the two roles are often lumped together, media planning and media buying are distinct; it is likely best to describe their relationship in the mediascape as a symbiotic one as their individual roles experience peak performance when working in tandem. Most media professionals know that an integrated approach to creating, planning, and broadcasting delivers the best ROI for advertising campaigns.

Together, media planners and media buyers connect media strategy elements to an actual media platform. Without them, advertising campaigns would wallow in the darkness of creative obscurity instead of garnering potential consumers’ attention.

Media planners are tasked with figuring out what media platform will be the most effective for a particular campaign. They research the best way to achieve the client’s aims while outlining specific campaign goals and objectives. And they set how the budget should be allocated across the various media platforms chosen.

The primary roles of a media planner include:

• Conducting external market research to assess the lay of the media land for a client’s particular field, looking into how a brand is currently advertising, what their competitors are doing, what inspires and motivates their target audience, and what media channels have been most effective in reaching them.
• Conducting internal market research to uncover what a client’s brand identity really is, what unique value proposition and selling points are, and get a sense from demographic research who the particular customer personality is.
• Setting campaign goals and objectives for what is likely the most essential interface for an advertising campaign. The nexus between what a client hopes to achieve and what media planners believe can be achieved is the crux on which campaigns’ success rests.

Media buyers receive the media strategy from their media planners for an ad campaign — and then ensure that the ads are featured in the most appropriate media channels, as cost-effectively as possible. Successful media buyers possess an intimate understanding of the media landscape and have cultivated and nurtured relationships with media vendors throughout their professional lives.

The primary roles of a media buyer include:

• Cultivating and leveraging contacts is the heart of media buying. Who you know may well trump what you know for successful media buyers — media buyers have to know the right people in the right places.
• Knowing where the space is and how to get it (for a good price) is the name of the media buying game. The right people matter, but they have to be in the right places for a client’s campaign. The goal? Find the perfect space to get the best exposure for a client, yielding the best return for the best price. Phew.
• The ability to tweak and finesse a campaign in motion is also paramount. Once the strategy is handed off from the media planner to the media buyer, it is up to the media buyer to optimize the platforms and channels used to ensure the campaign’s effectiveness across its lifecycle.

YOU NEED THESE ATTRIBUTES AND CHARACTERISTICS TO SUCCEED AT BEING A MEDIA PLANNER

• Excellent research skills. This job is all about assessing the market and media landscape and figuring out the best media platforms for a brand’s products or services.
• A deep understanding of consumer media consumption and marketing is essential for media planners to set the strategy for advertising campaigns.
• A data-first mindset to research and interpret demographic data helps planners ascertain the best action plan for an advertising campaign.
• People skills. A media planner liaises with clients, consumers, cross-functional agency staff, and researchers — being a people person is essential for success.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES OF A MEDIA PLANNER

• Analyze and interpret data and undertake relevant demographic and media platform research for advertising campaigns
• Connect the dots between internal teams, clients, and media buyers
• Perform research and analysis of media landscape using Nielsen, Kantar, iSpot, and other research platforms
• Evaluate and keep up with new media platforms and advertising opportunities
• Utilize web analytics tools to monitor digital campaigns
• Produce strategy briefs for media buyers
• Coordinate, monitor, and evaluate media campaigns and strategies
• Identify and understand target audiences

QUALIFICATIONS

Most media planning professionals hold a bachelor’s degree, with majors in marketing, communications, or public relations. In terms of personality, this is a people person, numbers loving role — you’ll need to like both to succeed. It is useful to have experience in both advertising and media outreach and learn how to utilize media research strategies like Nielsen research tools.

SALARY

The average salary for a media planner in the United States is $72,516.

About the author.
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist — Karina writes, edits, and produces compelling content across multiple platforms — including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties.