Drive Business Growth with Engaging SaaS Explainer Videos

Do you want to grow your software-as-a-service (SaaS) business? Look no further than SaaS explainer videos. These short, engaging videos explain what a SaaS product does and why viewers should use it, and use visuals, characters, and narration to showcase features and benefits in an easy-to-digest way.

Over the past decade, SaaS explainer videos have become popular among B2B companies. With catchy animation and messaging, your video can capture attention in a competitive space.

Discover what explainer videos are.

What is a SaaS Explainer Video?

A SaaS explainer video is a short, engaging video designed to explain how a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product works, its benefits, and how it can solve specific customer problems. These videos are typically used by SaaS companies as a powerful marketing tool to quickly communicate the value of their software solutions in a clear, concise manner.

Benefits of Using a SaaS Explainer Video

A SaaS explainer video offers multiple advantages for companies promoting their products and engaging with their target audience. These short-form videos can help increase conversions and provide a cost-effective, high-impact marketing solution for SaaS product demos and visually showcasing complex software concepts.

An explainer video is valuable across many aspects of SaaS customer acquisition:

• Boost website conversions and move prospects down the funnel by visually depicting how your software helps customers and the value it provides through an animated product demo video.
• Use visual storytelling to communicate complex SaaS product offerings and workflows that are traditionally harder to convey through walls of dense text alone.
• Rapidly build brand awareness by creating more shareable and “snackable” content to showcase your SaaS offerings across social channels.
• Achieve greater reach with visually catchy and emotionally engaging product demo videos that are fun to watch and pass on.

Creating an explainer video is undoubtedly one of the most versatile solutions for SaaS companies looking to boost website conversions, compellingly explain their product, build brand recognition, and disseminate their core value prop to the broadest audience possible.

Key Differentiators: Types of SaaS Explainer Videos

When creating an animated explainer video for your SaaS product, there are a few main animation styles and formats to consider: 2D animation, 3D animation, and motion graphics. Choosing the right visual style can optimize viewer engagement and understanding of your software.

• 2D animation uses two-dimensional vector images and graphics. This allows a versatile and scalable format to demonstrate SaaS product concepts and workflows.
• 3D animation renders more realistic environments and interfaces that mimic tangible objects. This style can work well if you need to showcase physical product features.
• Motion graphics leverage typography, shapes, transitions, and digital effects. This style is well-suited for showcasing flow diagrams of SaaS processes.

Some key factors that dictate what animation style makes the most impact on your SaaS demo video:

• Complexity of your software’s features and functionality
• Importance of conveying realistic product textures and details
• Aligning the video style to your brand personality and storytelling

For example, 3D animation helps if you break apart a piece of physical hardware to showcase capabilities. At the same time, clean and scalable 2D formats work well to map out SaaS workflows in an engaging way.

How Do SaaS Explainer Videos Drive Company Growth?

SaaS explainer videos play a pivotal role in driving company growth by serving as highly effective marketing and sales tools. These videos offer a compelling way to communicate the value of SaaS products, which leads to increased brand awareness, higher conversion rates, and ultimately, business expansion. Here’s how SaaS explainer videos help accelerate company growth:

1. Increase in Website Traffic

SaaS explainer videos can significantly boost website traffic. Video content is highly favored by search engines, and a well-optimized explainer video can rank on platforms like Google and YouTube, driving more visitors to a company’s site. Additionally, videos are highly shareable on social media, amplifying organic reach and bringing in new potential leads.

2. Higher Conversion Rates

Explainer videos help simplify complex SaaS products by showcasing the most important features and benefits, making it easier for prospective customers to understand and appreciate the value the product offers. As a result, viewers are more likely to convert into paying customers, leading to higher conversion rates. Studies show that including a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by up to 80%.

3. Faster Sales Cycles

SaaS explainer videos shorten the sales cycle by educating prospects early in their buyer journey. By clearly addressing pain points and demonstrating how the software provides a solution, potential customers gain a better understanding of the product, reducing the time needed to close a sale. This helps SaaS companies acquire customers faster and at a lower cost.

4. Better Customer Retention

When users have a clear understanding of how to use the product and its benefits, they are more likely to be satisfied, leading to better customer retention. SaaS explainer videos can also be used as onboarding tools, helping new customers quickly familiarize themselves with the software, reducing churn.

5. Enhanced Brand Visibility and Awareness

A memorable and engaging explainer video can go viral or gain significant traction on social media and other platforms, greatly increasing brand visibility. This heightened awareness helps SaaS companies expand their reach to new audiences, fueling growth through an expanded customer base.

6. Improved User Education

Well-crafted SaaS explainer videos effectively educate users about the product’s features, use cases, and value propositions. A better-informed audience is more likely to trust the brand and see it as an authority in the field, making it easier for the company to position itself as a leader in the market.

7. Scalability of Marketing Efforts

SaaS explainer videos offer a scalable marketing solution. Once created, these videos can be used across multiple platforms—company websites, social media, email campaigns, and paid ads—without additional production costs. This cost-effective scalability allows businesses to reach larger audiences without constantly increasing marketing spend.

8. Support for Customer Success Initiatives

By using explainer videos to assist in customer onboarding and troubleshooting, SaaS companies can reduce support tickets and customer service interactions. This not only improves the overall customer experience but also allows the company to allocate resources more efficiently, supporting growth initiatives.

9. Higher Engagement with Mobile Users

Explainer videos are mobile-friendly and cater to the growing audience of mobile users. As more consumers use their phones to discover new products and services, having engaging video content ensures that SaaS companies capture this audience effectively, leading to further growth opportunities.

Elements of an Impactful SaaS Explainer Video

Bringing an explainer video to life takes careful planning and execution across production stages. Investing in each step will ensure your SaaS video communicates your brand story:

Crafting a Video Storyboard

• Map out visual sequences showcasing product workflows, characters, and messaging.
• Outline key scenes relevant to understanding your SaaS software.
• Align the story arc to the core messages you want viewers to retain.

Writing an Engaging Script

• Seamlessly move between explanatory details and entertaining hooks.
• Maintain consistent SaaS branding and personality in narration.
• Enable the voiceover to guide the viewer through key video scenes smoothly.

Animating with SaaS Video Experts

• Partner with experienced animators to infuse visual interest.
• Translate scenes into expertly designed graphics and sequences.
• Distinguish your SaaS product video from lifeless slides.

Matching Brand Storytelling Elements

• Incorporate existing brand assets like logo, colors, and mascots.
• Boost consistency across videos and marketing materials.
• Leverage styles to reinforce retention of your unique SaaS.

Investing in high-quality animation and visual storytelling engages viewers on an emotional level that plain text cannot achieve. Work with the pros at Digital Brew to showcase your distinct SaaS brand and offerings. As an Emmy award-winning explainer video company, we are known for closely collaborating with clients through each explainer video production step. After presenting initial concepts, our team refines scripts and storyboards based on your feedback to better capture your brand’s essence and product messaging for the highest viewer engagement.

Learn more about the explainer video process.

Promoting Your SaaS Explainer Video

Once your polished SaaS promo video is complete, distribution and promotion are key to achieving maximum impact. Leveraging various platforms expands your reach and drives more traffic back to your site.

Website Embedding

• Host natively on-site pages like Home, About Us, and Pricing.
• Include on product pages to boost conversion rates.
• Embed in blog posts and case studies related to your software.

Social Media Promotion

• Share on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
• Use captions and hashtags to help content be discovered.
• Run as video ads to retain viewer attention over text/image ads.

Backlink Building for SEO

• Post on industry blogs, podcasts, and award sites.
• Utilize rich schema markup so it indexes appropriately.
• Embed on case studies highlighting client success with SaaS.

The expertise doesn’t stop once your SaaS video is finished. Digital Brew provides additional resources to amplify your video marketing success. These include access to educational series on optimization best practices, social media accelerator kits, strategic consulting sessions, future design asset access, and subtitles for accessibility. With this full suite of promotional materials included, Digital Brew ensures you have the tools to convert viewers into engaged customers.

How Can SaaS Companies Use Explainer Videos Strategically?

SaaS companies can leverage explainer videos strategically to amplify their marketing efforts, improve customer engagement, and enhance their sales process. By using explainer videos at key stages of the customer journey, SaaS companies can maximize their impact and drive better business results. Here’s how SaaS companies can use these videos effectively:

1. As a Top-of-Funnel Lead Generation Tool

SaaS companies can place explainer videos on landing pages, social media platforms, and paid advertising channels to capture attention from potential customers. These videos serve as a concise introduction to the product, drawing in top-of-funnel leads who may not yet be familiar with the software. A well-placed explainer video in ads or on social media can drive higher engagement, increase website traffic, and generate new leads.

2. Improving Conversion Rates on Landing Pages

By embedding explainer videos on key landing pages, SaaS companies can quickly communicate the core benefits of their product, leading to higher conversion rates. Videos can be used to supplement text-heavy landing pages, making it easier for visitors to understand the offering without having to read through lengthy content. Since videos can increase landing page conversions by up to 80%, they are essential for improving lead acquisition efforts.

3. Enhancing Email Marketing Campaigns

Explainer videos can be incorporated into email marketing campaigns to improve click-through and conversion rates. SaaS companies can send personalized email campaigns with a video link to introduce the product or explain new features to prospects or existing customers. Video in email is highly effective, with studies showing that emails containing videos can lead to a 300% higher click-through rate.

4. Driving User Engagement Through Social Media

Sharing SaaS explainer videos across social media channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook allows companies to reach a broad audience. These platforms are ideal for spreading the word about a new software feature or solution. Short, engaging explainer videos are likely to get shared, increasing the company’s organic reach and generating more awareness for the product.

5. Accelerating the Sales Process

Explainer videos are valuable assets for SaaS sales teams. They can be used during sales presentations, product demos, or follow-up communications to educate prospects on how the software works and how it can solve their pain points. By addressing key objections and providing a clear understanding of the software’s value, these videos help prospects make quicker purchasing decisions, thereby speeding up the sales cycle.

6. Streamlining Customer Onboarding

SaaS explainer videos can be used to improve the customer onboarding process. When customers sign up for the product, explainer videos can walk them through the setup process and help them understand how to use the software effectively. This reduces the learning curve, minimizes customer frustration, and increases product adoption rates. Onboarding videos also save time for support teams by reducing the number of help requests.

7. Providing Product Updates and Feature Announcements

Explainer videos are an excellent way to communicate updates and new features to existing customers. Instead of sending long, technical emails, SaaS companies can use short videos to demonstrate how new features work and how they will benefit users. This keeps customers engaged and ensures they are always informed about the latest developments.

8. Nurturing Leads with Drip Campaigns

For leads that require more time to convert, SaaS companies can use explainer videos in drip marketing campaigns. These videos can be sent periodically to educate leads about different aspects of the software, answer common questions, or showcase customer success stories. This keeps the product top-of-mind while gradually building trust and convincing prospects to move further down the funnel.

9. Supporting Customer Success and Retention

Explainer videos can also be used post-sale to support customer success initiatives. SaaS companies can create a library of how-to videos, tutorials, and troubleshooting guides that help customers get the most out of the product. This ensures that customers continue to find value in the software, leading to higher satisfaction rates, better retention, and reduced churn.

10. Boosting SEO and Organic Traffic

By uploading explainer videos to YouTube and other video hosting platforms, SaaS companies can boost their SEO rankings. Video content is highly favored by search engines, and having an explainer video can improve a company’s visibility in search results. When paired with keyword-rich titles and descriptions, these videos can drive organic traffic to the website and improve the company’s search engine ranking over time.

Case Studies: SaaS Explainer Video Examples

Digital Brew’s award-winning animation has fueled successful explainer videos for various SaaS companies. These real-world examples showcase brands finding tangible growth with custom animated content.

Specific Digital Brew SaaS product videos include:

HHAeXchange – Improved Sales Enablement

• Needed a way to communicate complex healthcare software concisely.
• Digital Brew created short, engaging videos highlighting key features.
• Videos helped train reps and close more sales opportunities.
• Explainer videos drove $70k in new opportunities and 25% higher conversions.

“I have worked with a lot of other vendors. There’s really no comparison. It’s effortless with Digital Brew. They handle everything and always deliver an amazing final product.” – Kaitlin Olcott, Director of Marketing

Merlin Guides – Stronger Customer Engagement and Brand Messaging

• Required differentiation in crowded B2B space.
• Blend of motion graphics and live video content.
• Helped attract better engineering talent.
• Aligned and elevated overall brand perception.

“Communication is really clear. Timelines are really clear. We felt like [Digital Brew] was willing and excited to go the extra mile across the board, so that was really exciting for us.” – Merlin Guide

Freshly Brewed SaaS Explainer Videos with Digital Brew

When it comes to producing SaaS explainer videos that move the needle for your business, you need a specialized agency combining animation expertise with a marketing-first mindset. That agency is Digital Brew.

Unlike other video companies, Digital Brew’s priority is achieving your KPIs—not just making pretty pictures. With an in-house team of artists, animators, and writers shaped by a data-driven growth focus, Digital Brew creates custom 2D, 3D, and live-action explainer videos tailored to your goals.

Our blend of Emmy award-winning technical excellence and results-driven strategy is why:

• 93% of clients agreed videos increased product comprehension.
• 83% saw improved website traffic.
• 75% witnessed sales boosts.
• 86.7% achieved strong ROI.

Digital Brew also stands out with our support long after completing your SaaS video. This includes access to educational series on optimization tactics, social media launch kits, personal consulting, and future design asset access so you can repurpose vector art. We produce digital content that sparks action while educating you on connecting those videos to broader initiatives.

Ready to elevate your SaaS marketing with the help of specialist video brewers steeping messenger, medium, and outcomes in perfect harmony? Contact our team today to get the conversation started. Let’s brew this.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the process for a SaaS explainer video production one-time project?

For a one-time SaaS explainer video, the process typically involves identifying goals, crafting a script and storyboard, animation production, and follow-up promotion. Expect multiple revisions to finalize a video.

Should my SaaS explainer video be animated or live-action?

Animation provides flexibility to demonstrate software concepts visually, while live action can be limited. Evaluate your budget, needs, and audience. Some SaaS companies use a hybrid approach with animation and snippets of actual footage.

How can I maximize the impact of my SaaS explainer video?

Promote natively on your homepage, product pages, and all social channels. Send directly to prospects—Repurpose clips for ads. Add to your sales playbooks. Email subscribers and embed in blogs—nurture video viewers through the conversion funnel for maximum ROI.

What types of SaaS explainer videos are most effective?

SaaS explainer videos, including animated, live-action, product demos, customer testimonials, and tutorials, are highly effective for simplifying complex software, building trust, and increasing conversions. Animated videos are ideal for introducing features, while live-action creates emotional connections. Product demos and tutorials help with onboarding and customer education, while testimonial videos build credibility. Using the right type of video strategically helps SaaS companies enhance their marketing, drive conversions, and improve customer retention.

Are there specific platforms to host my SaaS explainer video?

You can host your SaaS explainer video on several platforms for maximum impact. YouTube is ideal for reach and embedding on your website, while Vimeo offers higher quality and privacy control. Wistia and Vidyard provide advanced analytics and lead-capture tools for businesses. Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram are excellent for engagement, and embedding the video on your website enhances conversions. Using a mix of these platforms helps maximize visibility, performance, and lead generation.