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Video tutorials are the best way of showcasing your software or saas.
But do your video tutorials live up to their full potential?
If done right, video tutorials can do all of that for you.
Think of video tutorials as your 24/7 sales & support reps. Always working for you.
The good news: You don’t need to be a video or marketing pro. You don’t even need expensive gear. (Here’s a short refresher on the benefits of video marketing.)
There’s only one thing you need to get right. And unfortunately, most of the software video tutorials I’m watching still don’t get that.
That one thing is scripting your video tutorial so your potential customers can see the benefits your software has for them. For their company. For their life. As vivid as possible. Throughout the whole tutorial.
Follow the 3-step-formula I’m sharing with you in this post, and your tutorial videos will not only get the views and attention they deserve. They will attract a flood of new leads and sign-ups.
And don’t forget to download the checklist on how to create kissass video tutorials I’ve created for you:
Video tutorials should educate your customer. Show him what your software or service does. How it works. And I agree.
But that doesn’t mean that the tutorial should be all about your product. Or its features. Or your company.
I’ll be blunt: Your customers aren’t interested in your software or its features at all. They didn’t wake up in the morning, thinking „oh my god, I need to have that“.
All your customers care about is themselves. They want to know what’s in it for them. How your software helps them solve the big problems they’re facing. How your service helps them get where they want.
Let me give you a real-life example, actually from last week. It’s a different industry but proves the point perfectly.
Last week, I got brackets. Yes, I’m not 15 anymore, but I finally decided to do it. Why?
I was walking by a dental clinic. I couldn’t help but stop and watch the video they were showing in their clinic windows.
It was nothing else than a video tutorial (or explainer video) targeted at potential customers.
So what on earth made me stop and get brackets after years of indecision?
In short, the video didn’t put brackets front and center. Instead, there was one simple message:
Get that powerful smile.
That’s how the video began. That’s how the video ended. And that’s the message that was repeated throughout the video.
There were some technical details mixed in (i.e. the educational part of the tutorial video), but the main message was „Get that powerful smile“.
This dental clinic had struck a chord. I went in. With my trained marketer’s eyes, I discovered posters, brochures, all with that same powerful message.
When I finally signed my treatment plan, I couldn’t help but laugh (in more than one way) when reading the name of the dental clinic for the first time:
Smile.
Yes, the dental clinic’s name is „Smile“. They just nailed it.
They did everything right. They knew it’s not about their product or service. They understood it’s only about their customers and what results they can achieve for themselves or what pain they can take away.
Or would anyone face the hassle of wearing brackets for years, having problems eating, looking weird, without having that great end result in mind? That powerful smile?
Your customers are interested in the final results they can achieve. Your product is a pure means to get them there.
And if they could get the same results without you, without the hassle of migrating and implementing your software, they’d be even happier.
Let that sink in for a moment. Every single time you communicate with your customer (in marketing, sales, support, wherever), it’s never about you, never about your product.
It’s about your customer, his problems, his goals.
Step back. I know it’s hard because we are all in love with our own products. They’re our babies. We think about them every day. We improve them, add new features. We wanna show the world how great they are.
But when you’re walking in your customers’ shoes, the perspective shifts.
That means you should really know your potential customers, their needs, their challenges, what they aspire to. In marketing speech, that’s knowing your „buyer persona“ or „avatar“.
If you don’t have one (or several) already, I recommend you create a first draft sooner than later. To get you started, check out Neil Patel’s guide on “How to Create and Reinforce Your Buyer Personas“.
Basically, you’re answering the following questions, as illustrated by Accelerated Consulting Group:
When you have a clear picture of your customer, you can start communicating and connecting with them on a whole new level.
In the next step, I’ll show you how can translate all the crazy features of your software or service into benefits.
Benefits that will capture the interest of potential customers and make them sign up for your trial.
Now that you’ve seen the power of benefits to attract and convert your customers, how do you find those benefits?
Once you’ve got all the information, it’s actually quite easy. First, you need to know two areas by heart:
I’ll dive deeper into both areas later. And the benefits?
Benefits arise when a feature meets one (or several) customer needs.
The following illustration from LeaderSpeak puts it in a nutshell:
Let’s look at an example first.
Example Product: Business/productivity software
Latest feature: Drag-and-drop throughout the software, so users can manually re-arrange any list
Sounds rather boring, right?
Well, if you make a video tutorial „How to use drag-and-drop in business software X“, probably nobody is gonna watch it. Except maybe your hardcore fans.
Let’s have a closer look at the feature:
When looking at your features, try to be as specific and detailed as possible.
Now let’s match the feature with your customer’s needs, problems and challenges. We were talking about a business/productivity software, right?
Are you seeing what I’m driving at?
The new drag-and-drop feature enables your customers to move the most important tasks and projects to the top of their lists. There are loads of benefits hidden for your users and potential customers:
These are real, tangible benefits!
With these benefits in mind, the feature will definitely make your customers’ lives easier. Improve their productivity. Avoid missed projects deadlines.
You see: By matching the feature with the customer’s needs, we’ve discovered several clear benefits.
Stick that formula to your monitor: Feature + Need = Benefit
And that video tutorial? How about naming it „How to get the important things done first with software X“.
Now your (potential) customers can immediately see what’s in it for them. And those who are feeling that pain right now, they’re gonna watch it. Some of them will sign up for a trial. And some of these will become happy new customers. The benefits of video marketing are endless.
In the end, it’s not just about an intriguing name for the tutorial video, that makes people click and watch it.
It’s about weaving those benefits into your tutorial video from the very start to the end.
So how do you do that? Let me show you in the final step 3.
And don’t forget to download the checklist on how to create kissass video tutorials
With the benefits clear ahead of us, let’s put these to work.
Our goal is to attract (potential) customers to watch our tutorial, ideally until the very end. That gives us all the time we need to show benefits and features, and build trust and connection.
So instead of chasing the potential customers away with boring details about the feature, start off the video tutorial by painting a vivid picture of the benefits.
Then back them up immediately with a short summary of the feature. Why?
Because if you keep „drooling“ over the benefits, it sounds like empty promises.
That’s why in the end, benefits and features go best together. It’s like the perfect couple. Here’s the formula:
Motivate with benefits, immediately back up with features.
How about an example? Just go back to the beginning of this very blog post and read the first few paragraphs again.
Here they are again. I’ve marked feature-specific parts in blue and benefits in green. And as a bonus, I’ve marked the objections in red. Yes, the intro should even handle objections!
Video tutorials are the best way of showcasing your Software or SaaS solution. Or almost any product or service.
But do your video tutorials live up to their full potential?
And with full potential, I mean:
If done right, video tutorials can do all of that for you.
Think of video tutorials as your 24/7 sales & support reps. Always working for you.
The good news: You don’t need to be a video or marketing pro. You don’t even need expensive gear.
There’s only one thing you need to get right. And unfortunately, most of the software video tutorials I’m watching still don’t get that.
That one thing is scripting your video tutorial so your potential customers can see the benefits your software has for them. For their company. For their life. As vivid as possible. Throughout the whole tutorial.
Follow the 3-step-formula I’m sharing with you in this post, and your tutorial videos will not only get the views and attention they deserve. They will attract a flood of new leads and sign-ups.
[…]
Take this as a sample script, and adapt it to your specific needs and tone.
Then again, throughout your whole tutorial, mix in and repeat the benefits to keep your viewer engaged and motivated.
Here’s another example from this very post (end of step 2). Again motivating benefits in green:
[…]
And that video tutorial? How about naming it „How to get the important things done first with software X“.
Now your (potential) customers can immediately see what’s in it for them. And those who are feeling that pain right now, they’re gonna watch it. Some of them will sign up for a trial. And some of these will become happy new customers.
But it’s not just about an intriguing name for the tutorial video, that makes people click and watch it.
[…]
The same goes when you make the end of your video tutorial: Wrap things up repeating again all the benefits.
And make your potential customers take action with a clear CTA (Call-To-Action):
If you’re already a customer, try out [feature] now.
And if you aren’t, sign up now for your free trial and get [benefits].
That’s a neat trick to speak to your existing customers as well as to your potential customers at the same time.
Not that difficult after all, right?
So do your homework, get to know the pains and challenges of your customers as well as your features.
And then use the benefit + feature formula to create engaging video tutorials that attract and convert a flood of new customers and delight your existing ones.
How do you structure your tutorial videos for biggest impact and success?
Leave me a comment below!
