If you’ll ask any SaaS marketer how SaaS video marketing differs from other businesses, the answer will be the same — SaaS video marketing is comparatively very challenging.
If you’ve landed upon this blog, you must be wondering the same thing.
This brings us to the question – Why is it so?
Why is SaaS video marketing more challenging? Why is it different from other video marketing strategies?
Don’t worry! By the conclusion of this blog, you’ll be clear about the significant differences between SaaS marketing and other types of marketing.
So, let’s dive in!
Why Is Saas Video Marketing Different?
- It’s not a one-time sale with SaaS
When you buy a mobile phone, you only need to pay once and that’s it. You won’t have to pay again after some time. But, with SaaS businesses, the customers have to constantly pay at a constant interval —monthly, annually, bi-annually, etc.
It is a constant effort to make customers pay again and again, which makes SaaS video marketing very different from other marketing. SaaS businesses need to create multiple videos for each product —from explainers to educational videos. Therefore, SaaS businesses often hire the best company for saas animation videos to create videos.
SaaS video marketing has to regularly promote the value and benefits of the service to motivate customers to update their subscriptions, every time.
- Free products are good for SaaS businesses
How often have you seen businesses give free products? A few samples at retail stores are common. But have you seen Apple give out free iPhones or Samsung giving free TVs to promote sales?
Never heard of that, have you?
That’s because free products for these types of businesses are a direct road to losses.
But, this is where SaaS marketing is different. While free products can be harmful to other marketers, free trials for SaaS are very advantageous. By offering free trials, SaaS businesses can attract a vast customer share.
Free trials are one of the most proven strategies of customer acquisition for SaaS businesses. Through the freemium model, you’re letting customers test out some features of your SaaS product. And if the customers found it useful, they’ll sign up for the subscription.
Furthermore, customers easily sign up for free trials. So, highlighting free subscriptions in your videos can make a significant difference to the conversion rate.
- The sales cycle is relatively short
SaaS can have an incredibly short sales cycle. Typically when customers want a SaaS, they want it right away. The process is fairly quick — they’ll conduct online research, compare features and prices, check reviews, discuss with friends, watch demos, and sign up for the service.
Yes, this could happen over a period of days. But, it usually happens in a matter of hours. Whereas, the sales cycle of other products is very long. Some B2B sales cycles can take years. But for SaaS, the time period is relatively short.
Why is it so short? The buyer is already aware of the problem. Furthermore, the online accessibility of SaaS encourages quick purchasing decisions. In the ever-changing world of technology, most customers sign up for a SaaS if it meets their current needs.
While SaaS subscriptions aren’t always impulsed purchases, they don’t always rely on a lengthy back and forth. To be effective, your SaaS video marketing efforts should have an instant attraction and reach a large number of users.
Though, some SaaS products could take time as long as 1 month when the cost goes up and it involved a board of directors to finalize the deal.
- Customers are long term
Purchasing a product or even an application is usually a one-time thing. For example, suppose you’re purchasing a phone. You won’t be buying a new phone for many years unless an abnormal scenario occurs. And even if you purchase a new phone, it will be an upgraded model.
But with SaaS business, customers are signing up for the long run. Approximately, 80% of your revenue comes from existing customers. That is why retention is critical for SaaS marketers more than others.
It’s easier to acquire customers for SaaS businesses through attractive videos. But it’s not easy to retain customers after a subscription ends. Customers can easily switch to a brand offering the same service at a cheaper price.
Therefore, a major part of your SaaS video marketing strategies should be focused on retention. This is where SaaS explainer videos can help. Explainer videos can highlight how the SaaS can help customers. The biggest benefit of a SaaS explainer video for your business is that it can help you retain customers.
Here’s how you can focus your marketing on customer retention –
- Make customer onboarding a priority.
- Interact with viewers regularly.
- Provide extensive customer support through videos.
- Create educational videos related to your SaaS product.
- Optimize pricing for existing customers.
- You’re selling a service, not a product
The biggest difference between SaaS marketing and other marketing is that —there’s no physical product in SaaS.
Normally, other marketing strategies are focused on product features, appearance, and usability. But, in SaaS marketing, the focus is on how the service helps customers and what it does.
Not sure what I mean? Let’s understand this using examples.
Here’s a promotional video for Apple’s new MacBook Air –
The new MacBook Air | Supercharged by M2 | Apple
You can see that the video is completely centered around its features. The video highlights that the laptop is light and thin has a magical keyboard and a 1080 p camera.
It doesn’t have to touch upon why these features are beneficial to the customers.
But, SaaS marketing videos cannot highlight the feature of their product. Instead, they accentuate the benefits the SaaS can provide to customers.
How? Let’s understand through this promotional video created for Google Cloud –
Google Cloud Machine Learning
You can see how easily the narrator was able to motivate customers to try the service, without even showing the software. Instead, the narrator talked about the pain points of the customer and how Google Cloud’s machine learning can ease it.
- It’s hard to make complex services seem engaging
With other B2C and B2B businesses, it is easier to attract and engage the audience with amazing visuals of a product. But with SaaS marketing, the lack of physical existence can make it hard to engage customers.
In addition, the customers aren’t well-versed with the technicalities of your SaaS. Therefore, your products can seem otherworldly to them.
That is why SaaS businesses majorly use video marketing to engage customers.
- Constant customer support is vital
As we’ve already seen —your customers aren’t experts in the niche. Customers need videos and modules to learn how the product works even before purchasing. That is why they constantly need support from your side to understand the SaaS better.
In addition, SaaS software is updated regularly. The new updates can be confusing to the users. This leads them to reach out to customer service more often than other businesses. Therefore, with SaaS businesses customer support should be provided 24/7.
Many businesses include customer support videos in their SaaS marketing strategies.
Whereas with other products, customer support is touched upon after acquisition. For example, you’re not going to check customer support videos before purchasing a TV. But, you might need to contact customer support before purchasing a SaaS.
Conclusion
The business model and even the product of SaaS businesses are very different from others. With SaaS, the same software is being sold regularly to the same customer. Therefore, SaaS marketers have to continuously win over the same clients through new ways.
Author Bio
Komal Kokate is the Co-Founder and CEO of MotionGility, an Explainer Video Company. With a keen eye for creativity, she is an expert in video marketing. While delivering high results to clients, she loves exploring the market and the latest marketing trends in the B2B industry. Connect with her on Facebook and LinkedIn.