Introduction
If you're a B2B SaaS startup, providing your customers with explainer videos isn't just an option - it's a necessity. You might wonder why you should invest in SaaS video production when product documentation already exists.
Well, studies show that visuals can boost learning by up to 400%, meaning that SaaS explainer videos help developers and decision-makers grasp your product's value. The easier they understand it, the faster they convert.
But what exactly are SaaS explainer videos? Explainer videos visually demonstrate product functionality and integrations, offering a simplified, engaging alternative to text-based product documentation. Nevertheless, producing high-quality, engaging explainer videos demands more than just product knowledge.
It takes expertise to simplify a complex B2B SaaS product based on the target audience's needs, such as streamlining CI/CD setup, their interest in automation efficiency, and their understanding of YAML configurations and API authentication, ensuring the explainer video is both engaging and practical.
Not just that, it also includes effective scripting, recording, and editing techniques. This is why partnering with a professional explainer video production company can make all the difference, saving you time to focus on product development.
This article discusses what goes on behind the SaaS video production process of delivering high-quality videos that ensure clarity, engagement, and adoption. It also highlights why explainer video production can be a better option than just creating product documentation or conventional blogs.
What Goes Behind Your B2B SaaS Video Production?
Creating a SaaS explainer video demands both product understanding as well as expertise in commercial video production. This production process includes several stages that ensure the final video comes out professional and effective. Here's the process of SaaS video production:
1. Product Research and Hands-on
It is crucial to develop a deep understanding of core functionalities, integrations, and value proposition of the B2B SaaS product before creating its explainer video. Therefore, in this first SaaS video production stage, the developer goes through the existing how-to guide of the product.
Then, they prepare notes highlighting the requirements, such as access to the workspace and cloud provider with necessary permissions - admin level, owner, and read/write permissions. The notes also include the reasons why the product should be used and how it makes a difference from the traditional methods.
2. Script Writing
The developer prepares a script using tools like Final Draft for the SaaS explainer video and ensures that it includes an intro, outro, and main part or body. The intro includes information about what will be discussed in the video, why the product is important, and how its use can be better than traditional methods. Additionally, it mentions the requirements to carry out the process and if the end-user needs to follow any other guide before performing the steps demonstrated in the video.
The body of the script is a detailed explanation of the process, which is close to the existing how-to guides so that the end user is not confused. The last section, the outro, includes suggestions from the developer regarding the possible uses of the integration.
3. Studio Setup
Since the developer is also visible during the screen recording process, a professional background is set up. It is ensured that the camera is set up at the appropriate angle and focuses on the developer, eliminating the blurriness. A good quality mic is used that does not record any background noise.
4. Record Testing
Record testing is done to ensure that the SaaS explainer video being recorded is up to the standard. This helps save time and fix possible recording issues, such as background noise, blurriness, and camera angle.
5. Recording
The developer records the SaaS explainer video and utilizes the prepared script while demonstrating the features of the product. It is ensured that each and every step is clearly visible and not too quick for a new user to understand. Each button clicked, and the value entered is shown and explained. Also, each step, including the account setup, is shown directly in the video, avoiding the use of any pre-existing resources.
Here’s an example where one of Infrasity's developers is explaining how to connect an AWS network with a developer workspace.
Once recorded, the raw footage is checked to identify if it's technically correct and has all the necessary content with clear voiceover and visibility. If there are some issues that cannot be resolved through editing, the video is recorded again.
6. Editing
The recorded video then goes to the editor, who creates the final output in approximately 5 to 6 hours. They ensure that the intro, body, and outro of the SaaS explainer video are aligned. Additionally, the silent pauses, background noise, errors, and long waits are fixed.
Any sensitive information, such as passwords, is masked, and relevant infographics, motion graphics, and transitions are added to the video. Also, the video is edited in a way that aligns with the color theme of the SaaS company.
7. Internal Review
Once the explainer video is edited, the internal team of developers and designers will review it. They review it using the following key parameters:
- If the video is easy to grasp and covers all the crucial points
- If it is of high quality, and
- If it is technically correct
8. Customer's Review
Once the internal team approves the video, it is sent off to the SaaS company. The stakeholders review it and let the SaaS explainer video agency know if they want any changes or edits. The agency then incorporates the feedback and provides the company with the updated video.
So, the SaaS video production includes product research, hands-on script writing, studio setup, recording, editing, and review from the internal team and the customer. If you think you need a partner to work on the explainer video production, you can collaborate with Infrasity - a B2B video production Agency, specialized in creating SaaS product videos for engineers.
Now, technical product documentation holds its importance; however, if you want to drive maximum product adoption, you should start investing into SaaS video production.
Why SaaS Explainer Videos Can Be a Better Option Than Just Product Documentation?
Explainer videos are much more impactful than just product docs, and here are the reasons behind it:
1. Simplification of Complex Concepts
Product documentation provides comprehensive instructions to developers, detailing a feature of the product. However, understanding theoretical instructions can be challenging without practical visualization. This is where SaaS explainer videos become invaluable, allowing developers to see the B2B SaaS product demonstration, thereby simplifying complex concepts.
Additionally, Wyzowl's Statistics show that 98% of people prefer watching explainer videos to learn more about a product. This highlights that a 2-minute video can be productive than text-based explanations in PDFs.
For instance, Slack, a B2B company in the space of chats and communication, invests in SaaS video production to demonstrate its platform's functionalities. These videos visually showcase features like channel organization and integrations, enabling developers to grasp practical applications more effectively than through text-based documentation alone.
2. Better Concept Retention
Suppose you're a DevOps engineer setting up a CI/CD pipeline integration with GitHub Actions for a new B2B SaaS automation platform. You need to learn how to configure the YAML workflow, set up authentication, and automate deployments. You have two options:
Option 1: Read a 10-page technical guide detailing workflow syntax, secret management, and CLI commands.
Option 2: Watch a 2-minute SaaS explainer video demonstrating repository setup, YAML creation, and real-time deployment execution step by step.
Which one do you think you'd remember better?
People tend to retain technical concepts better when presented visually. It improves their memory recall compared to textual information. According to a study, 95% of the participants could retain video-based information, and only 10% could recall textual one. Therefore, there is a high chance that you will remember the process much better through explainer videos.
3. Better Engagement
SaaS explainer videos increase engagement because they are more conversational and visually dynamic than product documentation. While both formats are one-way communication, the video's visual and auditory elements help capture their attention quickly.
Statistics indicate that 85% of B2B marketers find videos highly useful in capturing the attention of target audiences. For instance, visual product demonstrations, along with voiceovers and motion graphics, can keep them engaged and minimize the information overload in product documentation. This helps increase watch time and encourages interaction as the customers can understand complex products in a simplified manner.
4. Accelerated Customer Acquisition
Product information can be delivered in various formats, but the ultimate goal of B2B SaaS companies is to convert prospects into customers. 65% of the population falls under the visual learner category, meaning that explainer videos help communicate product value better.
Explainer videos offer a clear and visual representation of your product's features, such as how it integrates with existing workflows, automates tasks, or improves efficiency. It builds credibility as the process is explained by a developer, assuring that the information is technically correct. Instead of relying on just product documentation, potential customers can see the product in action, reinforcing that what is promised is what actually exists.
For instance, Dropbox created a SaaS explainer video on its functionality, leading to a 10% increase in conversion rates and acquiring 10 million new customers, generating an additional $48 million in revenue.
5. Reduced Customer Support and Enhanced Product Adoption
Product adoption depends on how fast developers can understand and utilize the product. The clear instructions in explainer videos allow customers to easily understand how to use the product until they operate it independently. Product documentation might become less captivating than videos since videos demonstrate real-time operations while illustrating everything with visual elements and verbal explanations to reduce user misunderstandings.
Statistics indicate that 77% of SaaS companies say video content decreases support tickets so their customer support team can handle essential queries before handling standard requests repeatedly. Additionally, self-paced learning empowers users to learn at their convenience, reducing onboarding time and accelerating product adoption.
6. Improves SEO
You've invented a great B2B SaaS product, but without visibility, it won't reach your target customers. The addition of explainer videos to your content boosts SEO performance, which leads to better product discovery. The longer viewers stay on a page due to video content, the more search engines consider your content valuable.
They also reduce bounce rates, as customers stay to watch the short SaaS explainer video rather than leaving immediately because they might plan on reading the product doc later. Search engines give greater importance to video content because they enhance the probability of user clicks. Your search rankings combined with website traffic will improve when you embed a well-optimized explainer video either on your website or YouTube platform.
These are the reasons why you should prioritize SaaS video production over just working on product documentation. They help simplify complex SaaS products, leading to increased customer acquisition and product adoption.
Conclusion
Explainer videos play a significant role in engaging target customers as they explain how a complex B2B SaaS product can be used in different ways. The developers can understand the product's features better with visuals than just product documentation. These videos improve the customer acquisition process and enhance product adoption as they build credibility.
Nevertheless, creating these videos requires expertise in SaaS video production apart from technical knowledge. It includes in-depth product research, recording, and editing. Thus, partnering with a b2b video production agency like Infrasity can be a good decision as they ensure the video is professional and persuasive.
FAQs
1. What is the Difference Between a Promotional Video and an Explainer Video?
A promotional video presents the company's services with their products alongside major events and business news. On the other hand, the explainer video shows customers how to use the SaaS product.
2. What is the Ideal Length of an Explainer Video?
The ideal length of a B2B SaaS explainer video is up to 2 minutes.
3. Why Should I Get My B2B SaaS Explainer Video Made With Infrasity?
Infrasity, a video production agency, has a team of developers and editors specializing in creating B2B SaaS explainer videos. They have partnered with early-stage startups in the space of infrastructure engineering like Kubiya.ai, Devzero.io, and Firefly and provided professional explainer videos.