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Content marketing is extremely powerful. And when paired with video, it really shines.
But it’s not always easy to come up with new ideas for your videos, especially if you’re doing them in-house (as you should do with all of your content marketing).
Do you need inspiration for your next video?
In this post, we’ve compiled the best video marketing examples from the SaaS & software industry.
Don’t be fooled: SaaS & software marketing is a real challenge.
But all the video marketing ideas you’ll find in this post are not only well executed – they are as informative as they are fun to watch.
Spoiler alert: Jump to the bonus section at the very end. The creative marketing videos down there will blow your mind and make you laugh really hard!
Hero videos are usually placed in the most prominent spot of your homepage: Right at the start and above the fold.
Their task is to quickly answer all the important questions:
And they should intrigue the potential customers and start building trust and rapport.
Freshbooks is accounting software for small businesses, made easy. Their hero video “Intro to FreshBooks – Accounting for the Non-Accountant” already has 380,627 views as of March 30, 2018 – and certainly doubles as a video ad:
The Freshbooks video is great and incorporates several video marketing best practices:
This hero video is no longer online, as Zendesk’s campaign already dates back a few years. Zendesk used the video as animated background for their homepage with the call-to-action button playing it in a pop-over.
Don’t miss out on watching it – it’s super fun:
The video is based on the fact that most people already know that Zendesk is a cloud-based customer service software. So they focus purely on pain points and benefits.
Instead of stating plain facts and figures, they’re using a real-life analogy (the relationship of a husband and wife) to showcase how Zendesk helps the relationship of a company with his client.
Being a very successful campaign, you can still find a landing page where they kept the video online (although the landing page features a toned-down, not so funny version than the former homepage).
This classic explainer video improved Crazy Egg’s sign-ups dramatically:
According to its creator Demo Duck, “it helped Crazy Egg increase conversion rates by 64% and generate an additional $21,000 in monthly revenue”. You can find background information and more details on the positive impact of the video in this case study.
With this explainer video, Groove increased its conversion rate by 11%:
There’s even a blog post “How We Created a Product Explainer Video That Actually Got People to Buy”, in which Groove’s founder Alex Turnbull explains in great detail all the steps they’ve taken, including scripts, storyboarding, etc.
If you want to dive deeper into explainer videos, there’s a great blog post by online marketing guru Neil Patel with “The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Killer Explainer Video”. And this infographic gives you a quick overview.
Video testimonials can also serve as hero videos – letting one of your successful clients speak on your behalf about the advantages and benefits of your product:
In my opinion, Groove has created the perfect hero testimonial video. It’s short (only 59 seconds), intriguing, informative and tells the customer’s story in a transformative and fun way.
This – basic – video tutorial shows how Basecamp works and what it’s like to organize your projects and teams in one place:
Notice that – although being a tutorial – the video starts by addressing the customer’s pain points, and only then moves on to the solution.
With the presenter being present during the screencast, Basecamp manages to connect and build trust and rapport.
Basecamp has even created a whole learning section on its website with loads of 2-minute tutorials.
HubSpot has taken the idea of video tutorials to a whole new level and created the HubSpot Academy, bundling their huge amount of tutorial videos into (free) online courses.
This creates even more value for their customers.
Disclaimer: That video was created by me. It’s directly integrated into the first-user-experience and automatically plays after a user has logged into Deals & Projects for the very first time:
It not only serves as a friendly welcome but gives the first-time user orientation and tips where to start and what steps to take.
The power lies in the seamless integration. It’s not blocking the user from exploring the app.
Again, Basecamp uses super short, to-the-point tutorial videos right inside their project management app. These videos are accessible via short help links all over the app:
These videos come right to the point, there’s no introduction at all. They’re meant to get users started quickly, thus enabling them to use and reap the benefits of the platform.
This video ad is my absolute favorite. If you’ll only watch one video from this post, it should be this one. I don’t want to spoil your experience, so click to watch it now, and then continue reading:
This video is about project management software. Sounds boring, right?
It’s amazing how intriguing, fun, and engaging this super short video is. In fact, it’s only 32 seconds!
It takes the software – and does show and explain the essential part of it quite in depth – while creating incredible emotion. The title of the video ad already hints at that: “What using monday.com feels like”.
The reward? 2,310,073 million views as of March 30, 2018.
Here’s a more traditional form of a video ad, aimed at the middle/end of the funnel within the buyers’ journey. It’s short, informative and to the point:
Please don’t be intimidated by some of the rather crazy videos that I’ve been showing to you in this post. With a well-written script and a neat and to-the-point visualization, you can get very far.
As promised above, here comes the really fun part. If you’ve made it until here, do not leave without watching the two following videos!
The most recent campaign from ClickFunnels was launched at the beginning of 2018. The video is titled “This Gold Digger Got Rich Painting Nude Squirrels – ClickFunnels”:
Would you have thought that explaining software can be so much fun?
And to finish of my list of the best video marketing examples, here’s the classic from DollarShaveClub.com, in case you don’t know the video yet:
This video “DollarShaveClub.com – Our Blades Are F***ing Great” went viral and got over 25 million views!
Fun fact: The founder of DollarShaveClub.com was a stand-up comedian before he founded his company.
And here, you’ve got the even funnier video ad for his second product: “Let’s Talk About #2 | Dollar Shave Club”:
Video is a powerful tool. The video marketing ideas above demonstrate how flexible, engaging and fun your marketing can be.
So when you’re planning your next SaaS & software marketing strategy, how about including some video?
Let me know what you think – and what you’re up to – in the comments below.
