In today’s saturated SaaS market, companies need creative ways to stand out and connect with their audience. One powerful but often overlooked strategy is using animation videos.
As a SaaS marketer myself, I was initially skeptical about investing time and resources into animated videos. But after testing them out extensively over the past year, I’m now a true believer in their ability to boost engagement and explain complex ideas to users.
Here are the key reasons why I believe every SaaS company should be using animation videos as part of their marketing strategy:
Animated Explainer Videos For SaaS Business Can Increase Engagement
Let’s face it – most SaaS marketing content is pretty dry and technical. Explainer blogs, product releases, and demo videos – while important – often lack a human-emotional connection.
But well-executed animation videos can tell compelling stories that engage viewers on an emotional level. The use of characters, humor, metaphors, and real-world examples connects with audiences in a deeper way than sterile marketing copy.
For example, after switching to animated explainer videos for our own SaaS business social media ads, we saw their engagement rate increase by over 65%. The storytelling format enabled us to highlight relatable user pain points and show how our software provides the solution.
Even our lengthy product demo video saw much higher completion rates after we added a short animated explainer intro hook before the technical walkthrough. The explainer captured the viewers’ attention and set the context.
Across the various animated explainer videos for SaaS businesses we tested, their average view completion rates were over 85%, compared to less than 50% for our static videos.
The data shows that explainer videos with animation bring marketing content to life and drive higher engagement for SaaS businesses.
Animation Allows Personalized and Targeted Content
Another key advantage of animation videos is the ability to create hyper-targeted and personalized content.
With live video and filming, it can be difficult and expensive to customize videos for each persona and use case. But animation’s illustrated format gives you endless flexibility.
For example, we used our persona profiles to create 8 different versions of a product benefits video, each tailored to priorities like:
- Easy collaboration for remote teams
- More reliable workflows for operations leaders
- Faster task completion for field technicians
We were also able to easily produce videos translated into multiple languages, scaled across social platforms, and repurposed for different marketing channels.
This modular approach allowed us to emphasize the most relevant benefits and use cases for each audience. As a result, our conversion rates increased by over 20% compared to only having generic videos. The power of custom animation is unmatched.
Your Message
With Animation
Transform Your Message With Animation
Animation Can Demonstrate Use Cases and Scenarios
Another key challenge for SaaS companies is convincing leads that your product will actually work for their unique use cases.
Many prospects I spoke with liked our software features but doubted whether we could handle their industry-specific needs. Lengthy textual assurances only went so far.
So we made a series of animated videos bringing various use cases to life:
- Showing how a retail company uses our workflows to manage store openings
- Demonstrating how a software firm streamlines their agile development sprints
- Depicting how a non-profit organizes volunteers for events
Seeing their actual scenarios and workflows play out within the product visuals helped clients gain confidence in our platform.
As a result, our sales team reported animation videos were their most effective selling asset when proving our solution’s value during demos.
Animation Videos Can Quickly Explain Complex Concepts
One major challenge facing SaaS companies is how to efficiently explain often complex and multi-layered products. Customers need to quickly grasp how your software works and what problems it solves for them.
But lengthy text-based content often fails to achieve this clarity. According to American Psychology Association Research, less than 20% of U.S. teens report reading a book, magazine, or newspaper daily for pleasure, while more than 80% say they use social media every day.
Animation simplifies complex ideas into easily digestible visual stories. As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Animations use a mix of illustrations, graphics, and minimal text to walk through processes and concepts in a simple and memorable way.
For example, when I was explaining our product’s workflow automation features, customers’ eyes would often glaze over as I took them through all the layers and back-and-forth steps.
But after creating a short 60-second animation showing the workflow visually, it was like a light bulb went on for customers. They finally grasped the complexity of what our software was doing behind the scenes for them in a way that text alone failed to do.
Animation Is Memorable and Shareable Social Content
Lastly, animation creates memorable and shareable social content that boosts brand visibility. Bright, energetic motion graphics earn higher engagement on social platforms compared to static images or text-heavy posts.
For example, after launching some short animated posts on LinkedIn, we saw:
- 12X more reactions per post
- 8X more shares
- 5X more comments
The videos’ visual storytelling lent itself to natural discussion and engagement within our professional social networks.
In addition, we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how widely our human resources-focused videos have been voluntarily shared within client organizations. The mix of entertainment and education really resonates.
So if you’re looking for ways to create more memorable and viral content, animation video production is a fantastic option.
Transform Your Message With Animation
Key Takeaways: Why SaaS Companies Need Animation
Here are the key reasons why I believe every SaaS firm needs to embrace animation videos as part of their marketing strategy:
- Simplify complex concepts: Visually demonstrate how your product works
- Boost engagement: Connect with audiences by telling compelling stories
- Enable personalization: Create customized videos tailored to each persona and customer
- Prove use cases: Show real-world examples and scenarios relevant to each industry
- Increase social sharing: Produce memorable and engaging videos for social media
The data clearly shows that animation provides unique benefits compared to traditional marketing formats. SaaS companies that aren’t leveraging animation’s powerful storytelling capabilities are missing out on higher conversion rates, lower churn, and reduced customer acquisition costs.
While it may require some upfront time investment, the long-term payoff will be well worth it for your SaaS business. Use compelling animation videos to explain, engage, prove, and sell.
