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Rishabh leads the content strategy at Content Beta, a creative video and design agency for Tech & SaaS companies.
As a B2B SaaS business, how would you like to be able to better articulate the greatest features of your SaaS and get more trial users to sign up?
Or improve product usage and reduce high customer churn rate for that matter?
As you might have already guessed, the answer to your prayers is Product Videos—marketing, demo, information, updates, or any other.
If you have never ventured into this territory before, don’t worry.
A competent video production agency can create your SaaS Product Demo videos in less than 2 weeks, at a third of the usual cost.
Now that we are done with our elevator pitch, let us use a bit of humor to lighten the mood. Here it goes:
Did you hear about the really boring demonstration on unmanned aerial vehicles?
The guy droned on for at least an hour.
Jokes apart, we do feel a sense of responsibility to you, our reader, because we think we enticed you somewhat with a catchy (hopefully not ‘click-bitey’) title.
The onus is on us now to deliver the quality information you are here for. Unlike the aforementioned demo guy, this should take less than 10 minutes of your time.
The main difference between the two types is where they are used in the funnel. In terms of usefulness, they complement each other.
| Sr. No. | Product demo video | Explainer video |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Works better in closing sales | Better suited for early conversion/top of the funnel stage |
| 2 | Provides visual assurance about your product. More informative, persuasive, and concise usually shorter than explainer videos | Used to explain complex products and increase brand awareness |
| 3 | Can be created using basic tools as you are targeting people who are familiar with your products | You need professionally produced videos to attract prospects and showcase to them your products in the best possible manner |
| 4 | Typically don’t explain the entire product; only its core features | Explain the entire product and how it helps the consumer |
Takeaway:
Yes, they are very similar, but typically, product demo videos are not meant to educate or motivate but rather to showcase the features of the product.
A marketing funnel typically has 4 stages, with each stage performing a certain task during the customer journey.
| Sr. No. | Stage | Video type | Success metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Awareness | Product marketing | Product demo videos | Repurposed webinar videos | View count |
| 2 | Consideration | Product demo videos | Case study videos | How-to videos | The time leads spend consuming content on your website |
| 3 | Conversion | Customer testimonials | Product-related videos | CTA Click | Meeting requests |
| 4 | Retention | Post-sign-up behavior | How-to videos | Onboarding |
Takeaway:
The Retention stage can be further divided into two stages: Advocacy and Loyalty. Continuing to pay attention to your customers is not only the right thing to do but it might even save you the time and trouble to look for new ones.
To help your customers better understand your products or service and NOT a chance for you to be clever or funny. Try to anticipate what questions your customers or prospects might have and answer them concisely but clearly in the video.
Takeaway:
It is meant to demonstrate the power and flexibility of your software. It is especially useful for prospects who are unfamiliar with your software. Successful demo videos are concise and convey key features clearly.
According to HubSpot:
Takeaway:
If done right, videos can potentially turn leads into paying customers, help build brand awareness, and improve ROI.
You have under 3 minutes to strike oil. If you can’t do that, stop boring. The audience simply stops caring (and watching) beyond this point.
In our study of close to 100 such videos, we found the following video lengths as the most used:
| Sr. No. | Duration | Numbers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Less than a minute | 28 |
| 2 | 1 - 1.5 minutes | 21 |
| 3 | 1.5 - 2 minutes | 17 |
| 4 | 2 - 2.5 minutes | 8 |
| 5 | 2.5 - 3 minutes | 8 |
| 6 | More than 3 minutes | 15 |
Takeaway:
The average length is between 110 and 120 seconds, which probably hits the sweet spot.
Use a clear CTA to gently nudge your viewers to do what you want them to do next. Having an email capture form or a signup form at the end of your video works well too.
Takeaway:
Always use a CTA
In our study of close to 100 such videos, we found the following CTAs (with subtle variations) have been used:
| Sr. No. | Call-to-Action | Numbers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Check out our product | 60 |
| 2 | Request a demo | 21 |
| 3 | SignUp for free trial | 16 |
Takeaway:
This means you do not have to use fancy words. Depending on the video category, use a clear and simple call-to-action.
The study of related statistics makes not only for interesting reading but also provides useful insights on how to incorporate it into your content creation.
Takeaway:
Understand your audience before making certain choices.
Video category: Project Management Products
Duration: A little over 3 minutes.
Video category: HR Products
Duration: 1:27 minutes
Video category: Remote Work Products
Duration: 1:02 minutes
Takeaway:
Hybrid videos lend a human touch to the proceedings and can help certain sections of your audience connect and relate better with your content.
Takeaway:
Even though a good number of businesses seem to favor using them to showcase their products, you can see their potential for use in other areas as well.
We just happen to have a curated list of example product demo videos featuring top SaaS brands like Zendesk, Ahrefs, and HubSpot to name a few.
Video category: Marketing Products
Duration: 30 Seconds
YouTube view count: 2.67 million
Why: Short | simple | informative
Video category: Sales Products
Duration: 1:18 minutes
YouTube view count: 28.7K
Why: Simple graphics | Crisp VO with a touch of humor
Takeaway:
Use them to get inspired and even emulate their style.
A Value Proposition is your business’s ability to meet your customers’ needs at an affordable price and to give them a good reason to choose your products or services.
A well-crafted product demo video has the ability to:
Takeaway:
A product demo video used in conjunction with customer testimonial videos can work wonders for your business. You get the best of both worlds: you not only get to show your customers how your products work but also get them to share their experience of using your products.
Anyone can make a basic product demo video provided they have the right tools to pull it off. The market is choc-a-block with tools of all shapes and sizes and navigating through them and picking the right tool can be as hard as making the videos themselves.
Luckily, we have just the list that not only does the job but does it well:
| Sl. No. | Tool | Functionality | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zubtitle | To add top border lines | Captions | Progress bar | Bootstrapper - $0 | Influencer - $9| Guru - $19 | Agency - $49 |
| 2 | Synthesia | Uses AI to create basic on-screen actor videos | ‘Personal’ plan at $30 per month allows you 10 video credits |
| 3 | Envato Elements | A one-stop-shop for creative assets: Fonts, stock videos, templates, music, sound effects, graphics, presentations, and more | Individual plan at $16.50 per month |
| 4 | Descript | To transcribe audio to text, remove fillers, unwanted parts, and turn the text back to audio | Free | Creator - $12 | Popular | - $24 |
| 5 | Iorad | To create and host tutorials like product documentation using this tutorial builder | Starter - $200 | Pro -$500 | Company - $3200 |
| 6 | Loom | To create videos by integrating webcam and screen footage to make it look like you are presenting on a video call | Starter - $0 | Business - $8 |
| 7 | Vimeo | To host a branded video, embed it, and get analytics on it. Video editors can collaborate with clients and get feedback | Plus - $9 | Pro - $25 | Business - $50 | Premium - $75 |
Takeaway:
The ‘Free’ and ‘Starter’ plans offer limited features. While these tools can be used for making simple videos, they cannot replace professionally made videos.
| Sr. No. | KPI | What you are measuring |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unique Monthly Visitors | Visitors to your website |
| 2 | Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) | The value provided by your customers |
| 3 | Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) | Ad spend vs. money made with ads |
| 4 | Cost Per Acquisition (CAC) | Cost of acquiring a customer |
| 5 | Cost Per Lead | Cost of acquiring a lead |
Takeaway:
KPI is a handy way to track the performance of your business. It enables you to measure what’s working, what’s not, and what’s likely to change in the future.
Video analysis tools help business organizations to differentiate themselves from their competition by providing them with the data that they need to make better marketing decisions, increase retention, reduce churn, and provide a better customer experience.
List of Video Analytics tools:
| Sl. No. | Tool | Features |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vimeo | Google Analytics integration | Stats dashboard | Social stats |
| 2 | Vidalytics | Zapier integration | CRM & email tagging | In video CTAs |
| 3 | Wistia | Viewer history tracking | Video heatmaps | Engagement graphs |
| 4 | Sprout Studio | Total Impressions & Plays | Unique Viewers |Viewer Location |
| 5 | Viralstat | Find trending videos | Track comments, likes, dislikes |
Takeaway:
Your task does not end with creating and promoting videos. In order to truly increase revenue, improve customer satisfaction, and grow your market share, you must continually monitor and tweak your campaigns.
Before we wrap up, it is worth recognizing that Product demo videos help B2B SaaS businesses showcase their brand like no other medium. These videos give potential buyers a feel of the product, features, benefits, and functionality.
Compared to B2B software, consumer software products generally have more traction and tend to reach a higher audience. However, most of the time, the traction is short-lived.
For B2B SaaS to grow and scale, it is imperative to promote and sell the product to a larger audience.
And the best way to do it is, of course, with SaaS Product Demo videos!
A top-quality product demo video can cost as much as $1000 to $3000 per minute. But the ROI can be high and recover the costs quickly. With Content Beta’s transparent pricing, you can get a professional video for $900, deliverable in 12 days.
If your products are not selling as well as you would have hoped for, it’s time to invest in product demos. It is a fantastic way to showcase your solution and bridge the gap between salesperson and buyer. A well-made video can do a far better job of explaining how useful your product is.
Apart from Content Beta, we have been impressed by the following companies and their portfolios:
Yum Yum videos | Demo Duck | Picturelab | Rocketwheel | Casual Films
Often the length is determined by the audience you are catering to. So, it is important to know your audience and purpose. For example, if your audience is tech geeks, don’t spend too much time on a specific feature. If you are targeting the masses, then you might want to go into more detail.
