Video marketing has become a staple for SaaS companies—from targeting prospects to creating brand awareness and sharing their stories, to even making important announcements.
Why is it so effective?
The answer is simple: people love video. A whopping 88% of customers would like to see more videos from brands.
Marketers throughout the industry are making the most of it. In a study by Wyzowl, 92% of marketers say that video is a critical part of their marketing strategy.
But…
SaaS marketing isn't like marketing DTC products where you can market broadly to customers:
- There is no physical product to display
- Your solution is constantly evolving with every update
- You need to convince your customers to commit to a repeating purchase
- You need to keep them convinced so they keep their subscription
It's not enough to just create videos, put them on your social channels, and expect results.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't use video to market your SaaS product.
The real question is: How do you create and execute a video marketing strategy that drives results for your SaaS business?
We're about to show you strategies and tactics you can start implementing today to get an increase in signups, sales, and retention in your SaaS business.
In this article, we’ll show you:
- What makes SaaS video marketing different from plain old product marketing
- The steps to take to create an effective video marketing strategy for your SaaS product
- The best types of videos for SaaS marketing
What Makes SaaS Video Marketing Different?
Complexity
SaaS products usually help solve complex problems and hidden pain points.
Sometimes you’ll find that potential users might not even know they have a problem. In other cases, they are unable to clearly explain the problem they have or the type of solution they expect.
Learning to use SaaS products, integrating them into existing workflows, and getting organizational buy-in is also a big challenge for potential clients.
Often, the more complex the solution, the more difficult it is to convey its value—particularly to users or stakeholders in non-technical roles.
This complexity makes it difficult for SaaS marketers to tell compelling stories and educate prospective customers.
One way to increase your video marketing ROI is to use vide0-based challenge funnels to introduce your product or solution in small, manageable pieces.
No Physical Product
In atoms-world product marketing, you can always include live-action product videos. These help give viewers a good idea of the actual item they're buying.
But in bits-world SaaS products, there's no physical product to show. At a gut level, people want to get a sense of what it might feel like to own something before buying it.
There are ways to recreate the experience of using your SaaS product, but it's not as simple as taking a day to shoot some product videos for your social media posts and ads.
Recurring purchase
Implied in the SaaS model is that customers need to "repurchase" the product every month (or every year).
Some physical products are sold on a subscription basis, but most of the time they're bought through stand-alone purchases.
This difference means a few things.
- First, many buyers see this as a big commitment. It might seem like a small amount to spend up front, but over time this investment adds up (especially considering their internal switching costs).
- Second, the lifetime value (LTV) of each customer starts to get significant over time.
- Third, it makes it easy for them to cancel their subscription. If your SaaS video marketing overpromises while your actual software under delivers, you can easily lose new customers.
This combination of high LTV, high switching costs, AND low barrier to exit means you need to produce marketing and sales material that will:
- Convince prospects to sign-up and/or switch to your product, and
- Stay subscribed over the long term.
In our opinion, having a thorough library that has a demo video for each of your product's highest value use cases and your audience's pain points will have the greatest impact. A well-executed product demo and screencast strategy can increase sales, and improve customer loyalty and customer retention.
How Is SaaS Video Marketing Similar to Traditional Video Marketing?
There is one way that SaaS video marketing is similar to product marketing–whether you're marketing to individuals, to B2B and B2C companies, or even governments and NGOs.
In every case, you're selling to real people.
If you look behind the scenes of any organization's buying processes, you'll find that the final purchase decision always comes down to a human being saying "Yes!" or "No...".
And what's ultimately behind that decision: Emotion!
After all, businesses are people too (more on that here).
So just like with any marketing, you want to go beyond showing off your SaaS products features and use cases. Always include benefits and outcomes in your SaaS marketing videos.
This also means that even the busiest executives and the driest technical professionals browse social media in their down time.
Tailoring your SaaS video marketing to each social media platform–whether it's YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn–will have a big impact.
Creating an effective SaaS video marketing strategy
We've gone into this in-depth in other posts, so we won't go into too much detail here.
First, please please please take the time to understand your target customers and audience.
Talk to your sales teams and your customer support reps. They'll give you the best idea of the actual issues and features that are the most important to your customers.
Pay attention to industry trends, competitors, influencers, and online communities. They might give you obvious yet important insights, or even ideas about what the market is missing and how you can position yourself to fill that gap.
Map these into customer and audience personas so you have a reference for what would appeal to your target audience.
Second, analyze your video sales funnel and customer journey.
What aspects of your SaaS product will be most effective at each stage of your sales funnel? When should you be more features-oriented and when should you be more outcomes-oriented?
Lastly, distribute your video content.
You need to do more than just put your videos up on a landing or social media page and wait. These are assets that need to be leveraged for maximum impact.
Share your SaaS videos on your socials and email newsletter, reach out to influencers and superusers that would be interested, consider promoting them through paid channels, and repurpose your content to create even more leverage.
Five Best Video Types for SaaS Video Marketing
Explainer Videos
Explainer videos are brief marketing videos that explain your product, brand, or concept. They're perfect for breaking down even the most complex tools and products.
A study revealed that explainer videos are the most common video type created by brands and have wide adoption by users. In a study, about 96% say they've relied on explainer videos to learn more about a product, with 88% being persuaded to buy it.
In this explainer video for SparkMotion, we showed how the benefits of their solution throughout the video, without getting lost in the details of how it actually works:
Product Demo Videos
Product demo videos are similar to explainer videos in that they showcase key features and benefits of the product or service. Here you get to provide them with a real-time experience of your software, leaving no room for doubts or confusion in your audience's minds.
In this product demo video we made for Logility, we aimed to get a good balance between showing the viewer the product's features and interface without getting too deep into the details, while also getting the viewer excited with an exciting soundtrack:
How-to Videos: Tutorials, guides, and FAQs
Tutorials and how-to videos are the best way to show users the details of how to use your software.
As a SaaS company, what's in it for you?
By creating tutorial videos, you can:
- Demonstrate your expertise while positioning your software as the perfect solution
- Increase brand awareness
- Attract the right audience and lead
- Build credibility and position your brand as an authority in your niche
FAQ videos are also good to include in your SaaS company's online video content. They're a low-effort way to clearly show how to deal with your customers' most common pain points.
Social Media Videos
These are light-hearted videos that give users a sneak peek into your company culture, brand values, and behind-the-scenes activities. The goal is to enable customers to experience the brand and the people behind the product.
With massive audiences on social platforms, you could:
- Boost your SaaS marketing efforts and expand your reach
- Interact with the relevant audience on the right platform and grow your brand.
- Build long-lasting relationships that lead to repeat purchases and brand loyalty.
Human Connection Videos: Testimonial videos, case studies, expert interviews
If you're looking to convince prospects to buy your software, customer testimonial videos can provide an additional push. They add an extra element of persuasion, swaying purchase decisions in your favor.
According to a study by Wyzowl, 95% of people say reviews influence their purchase decisions. In the same survey, 2 out of 3 people say they'd be more likely to buy after watching video testimonials demonstrating how a company, product, or service helped someone like them.
Case studies, customer testimonials, and expert interviews further establish your brand as a thought-leader and inspire buyers' trust.
This video we made for Contently helps them humanize their brand, and give the viewer the feeling that they'll be working and supporting real people.
Get To Work: Use Video To Boost Your SaaS Marketing Efforts
There's no doubt that videos are valuable in your SaaS company's marketing toolkit. If you follow the tips we've shared above, you can extract lots of value from your video and take your SaaS business to the next level.
However, creating a top-notch video marketing strategy and content yourself can seem daunting. If you need a little help, Rocketwheel has got you covered.
We’re glad to help your SaaS video marketing efforts hit your sales goals. You don't need to go through the hassles of scriptwriting, production, editing, and more.
We have a team of video production experts and marketing professionals that can bring your ideas to life. Even if you're out of ideas, our team has every creative resource you need to create one that puts your SaaS brand in the driver's seat for success.
