Tips on Creating a Video Marketing Strategy for SaaS
Software as a Service (SaaS) products are one of the most tricky ones to promote for many reasons. The main one is that they need an explanation to potential buyers, and due to their innovativeness, SaaS’s value might not be apparent to audiences that hear about it for the first time. The second reason is SaaS’s non-material nature.
Explainer and promo videos are tools to boost SaaS marketing by providing users with digestible content featuring product functionality and advantages. In this article, Blue Carrot, a SaaS video production studio, shares its tips for promoting IT products with 3D and 2D animation to help you save your marketing budget and avoid mistakes.
What makes a good video marketing strategy for SaaS
SaaS products are often innovative and complicated. Moreover, they are non-material, which makes presenting them to potential buyers even more complex.
To explain and sell SaaS solutions, one needs to develop a sales funnel, which includes stages such as Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Loyalty. Considering that, compared to other content formats, video works best for audience reach, involvement, and loyalty, the Blue Carrot team advises you to leverage this format in your marketing strategy.
Each sales funnel stage has its specific goals, which is why the videos or other content you use at them may differ. However, if your marketing budget is limited or you want to experiment with videos first at a smaller scale, focus on the first sales funnel stage, such as Awareness.
SaaS companies typically use two types of videos at this stage: promo and e-learning videos. The difference between them is that promo materials are often targeted at showing how users can benefit from buying a particular SaaS solution here and now.
Educational materials are part of a more complicated content marketing strategy where companies are trying to teach potential customers to resolve issues and mention their product as one of the ways to make it easier.
SaaS videos are rarely featuring actors or real-life scenes captured with a camera. Whiteboard animation, 2D cartoons, 3D, and cutout motion graphics are much more typical for videos of this kind. Companies need something to show on the screen since their solutions are non-visible—Motion graphics enable them to explain their solutions using visual metaphors and storytelling. Enjoy some prominent examples of SaaS animation to understand its advantages better.
Promo, e-learning, and explainer video for SaaS. What’s the difference?
Typically, one or two types of video formats are used in marketing campaigns to sell SaaS solutions. To help you choose a format that will work in your case, we’d like to describe each:
Promo video. This content type is often associated with classic video advertising. However, in the case of SaaS, it might be less straightforward and emotional than video ads we are used to seeing online.
Promo videos for SaaS are short and sometimes launched in series or versions (different versions for different audiences). They describe SaaS advantages and the results of applying them. An essential aspect of SaaS promos is their call to action: to register, start a free trial, subscribe, or purchase a plan at a special price.
E-learning video. Educational content for SaaS is an excellent way to form a loyal community to which you can soon sell your solution and rely on its social media support while launching content on social media.
E-learning videos are problem-focused. Some may directly explain how a specific SaaS product can resolve a client’s issues; others are dedicated to side aspects of improving one’s business and contain brand or product integration in a less obvious form. Educational series are also suitable for marketing innovative startups where your solution needs a detailed explanation.
Another example of e-learning videos for SaaS and educational onboarding series for employees and clients.
Explainer video. You can use this flexible format at different sales funnel stages and campaigns for diverse audiences.
The idea behind SaaS video explainers is to promote tech solutions by explaining them in detail. This explanation often starts with an overview of a typical client’s issue, a description of how a SaaS product works, and why it can be helpful here. In the final part of an explainer, users learn more about their opportunities with SaaS (like less time spent on mundane business processes and more on creativity).
Explainer videos often follow brand books and become content that strengthens your marketing campaigns.
7 Tips on SaaS Video Production to Boost Sales
#1 Set marketing goals, be precise
If you don’t have a goal, you can’t decide on a message for your SaaS video, its length, artistic technique to use, or platforms on which to share it. Your goal might be to test whether your product interests a specific audience, as well as to collect feedback, create a contact base of potential early adopters, and sell your solution with a discount.
Remember that your marketing goal should drive the complexity of your future video. And remember that sometimes it is better to start with low-budget artistic techniques such as whiteboarding.
#2 Try video explainers to save costs
Another way to save your SaaS marketing budget is to opt for an explainer video. This format is highly flexible and can work as promo and e-learning content. And what’s more, animated explainers can be repurposed and used for various sales funnel stages and channels.
For example, you can post a condensed version of your explainer on social media instead of classic ads, use it in your onboarding email campaign, and publish an extended version on your website.
#3 Team up with a creative team keen on SaaS
Suppose it’s your first time leveraging video in your content marketing strategy. In that case, the best thing is to find a reliable production studio to avoid common mistakes on your way. Any SaaS products are hard to explain and advertise; however, companies whose portfolios are complete of similar cases will most likely deal with your task faster and produce a video doomed to success.
While choosing a SaaS video production studio, consider its portfolio, references, whether it is a full-cycle company (this option is better), rates, and workflow. Professional awards and average video production time are also important.
#4 Get involved in production and study results
SaaS video production typically includes the following stages:
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Strategy meeting and scripting;
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Storyboarding and voiceover casting;
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Style-framing and illustrating;
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Motion designing.
Even though you might not be experienced in video production, your instant involvement in the process means you provide a creative team with feedback and valuable insights about your product or customers. It helps prevent costly mistakes in later production stages and improves video quality.
When your SaaS video is ready, and you start using it as a part of your marketing strategy, try to measure its efficiency by analyzing various parameters concerning SEO, audience reach, sales, and reactions.
#5 Add user-generated content (UGC) to SaaS videos
Users are more loyal to you and your content if they see themselves in it. The simplest way to achieve this goal is to turn a prototype of your target audience representative into the central figure of a story. However, it’s not the only option. You can also quote in your video content generated by your audiences.
The approach works well for social media campaigns but is not limited to them. For example, you can leverage social media trends in your SaaS video by referring to certain TikTok or Instagram challenges your target users participate in.
Note that there should be a clear connection between your product and the online trend users are following. For example, using sports-themed UGC in your videos is a good idea if your product serves gyms or sportswear manufacturers.
#6 Engage with subscribers and influencers to help videos go viral
Any marketer dreams of a campaign video going viral to reach their marketing goals faster and at lower budgets. Working with influencers and loyal social media subscribers to boost your content soon after its publication is a strategy that will take your SaaS promo campaign to the next level.
How can one choose influencers to cooperate with, especially while promoting SaaS startups? The team at Blue Carrot advises you to start with one or two niche opinion leaders from the tech sphere and several micro-influencers focused on innovations or fields of your target audience businesses (like HoReCa, finance, online education, etc.). Also, ensure your loyal audience on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or LinkedIn awaits your new video. For this, post teasers and engage with them for several days before the video campaign launch.
#7 Automate your video marketing
Automation means scaling your marketing efforts at low costs; that’s why it is always a good idea to leverage tools that help you to post SaaS content simultaneously on several platforms (omnichannel approach), work with influencers, study analytics, and semi-automate marketing-driven decisions for your campaigns.
Examples include HubSpot CRM for omnichannel marketing, Sprout Social for social listening, and CreatorIQ or Collabstr for influencer marketing.
Final thoughts
Animated video is one of the best ways to explain and sell SaaS solutions in 2024. Moreover, video can help boost SEO, strengthen your brand, and make your audiences take targeted actions, be it product purchases, website visits, or spreading information about your solution among colleagues.
SaaS videos should have a clear goal and a reliable studio to produce them effectively. In addition, you should be ready to get involved in creative processes and measure the results of using your video on social media, blogs, websites, or other channels to make your following videos even more effective.
