8 of the Best SaaS Explainer Videos to Inspire your Inner Director

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Beat SaaS explainer video paralysis and gain momentum with our top 8 best SaaS explainer video examples.

As a SaaS marketer or founder, you probably know SaaS explainer videos should be a staple of your marketing strategy. And if you don’t have one already, you’ve probably considered creating one.

It’s also possible you’ve faced several difficulties in the planning stage.

You probably faced questions like: How should we make it? Animated video or live-action? What should the core message be? What are the specific features we should highlight? Should the tone be serious or conversational? How long should it be? How do we appeal to our target audience? What should the Call-to-Action be?

While valid, any of these questions could be enough to stop you from getting started with the build.

Luckily, you can beat the paralysis, gain momentum and level up your SaaS video marketing strategy with our top 8 best explainer video examples. Devour them today.

What is a SaaS explainer video?

Before we get into the meat of this article, let’s cross off the basics. What is a SaaS explainer video? A SaaS explainer video is exactly what it sounds like: a video that explains what a SaaS product does. And why you need it.

Sometimes they are called SaaS promo video or SaaS demo videos – but we think SaaS explainer video is the most accurate term.

There is a lot of variety in SaaS video production. And what the final product ends up looking like can vary greatly. However, there are also a lot of fundamental similarities that most of the good ones share.

In our opinion, a great SaaS explainer video:

1) is typically between 15 seconds-90 seconds

2) uses consistent brand symbols throughout

3) clearly emphasises the value of the product to the target audience

4) is simple and to-the-point

5) doesn’t get overly promotional

6) has a clear CTA at the end.

The rest is in the eye of the beholder.

8 stunning SaaS explainer video examples

Here are 8 of what we believe to be the best SaaS explainer videos. You’ll notice have most of the essentials in common, but from there, they all bring something different to the table.

In our list, we provide you links to each video, and explain why we love them.

Notion

Notion is one of the most profitable SaaS productivity tools, and their video marketing tactics are no less impressive.

The chosen explainer video perfectly encapsulates what Notion does, and how it helps the end user. This is done through a perfectly synchronicity between voice-over and platform walk-through.

In our opinion, this video goes a step ahead of other SaaS explainer videos we’ve seen in the way it highlights their very clear and compelling value prop. Essentially, it positions itself as being able to do everything.

It markets itself as a “single home for all your need-to-know and need-to-dos, displayed any way you need to see them.” And the infinite number of uses are demonstrated on the screen.

Where do we sign up?

Figma

Another crowd-pleaser when it comes to animated explainer videos is this one produced by Figma.

The function of their product is very clear right from the beginning: it’s a collaborative design tool that simplifies the often over-complicated creative process. The animation used to explain the product is dynamic, engaging and eye-catching.

And to top it off, the consistent use of Figma’s dynamic brand signifiers and colour schemes throughout the video creates boosts recognition and awareness without feeling forceful.

It’s neat, compelling and does exactly what an explainer video should do: effectively explains the value of the product.

Shopify

Shopify are no strangers to the explainer video art form. They’re true connoisseurs in the space.

This new explainer video by them does a great job of firstly, making it clear who the target audience is (people wanting to start a business or who have an idea for one) and drawing them in with targeted, relevant questions (“got an idea for a business?”).

Then, it proceeds to keep them on their toes by combining live action and animated video. And highlighting the feeling of excitement that comes with using their product (when a user gets their first sale).

It ends with a gentle nudge rather than a forceful push to “power your business” with Shotify “when you’re ready.” In short – it makes you want to sign up for Shopify, without being pushy. In our book, all the boxes are ticked with this one!

Miro

Miro (the company behind the corporate mind-mapping tool) have also built an expertly crafted explainer video. This one has been specifically created to promote features of their product that enhance remote meetings. We hear you asking, “what do they do so well?”

A) They effectively matched the environment (Covid-19 and the reality of more remote employees) and the challenges that arose from it (difficulties with remote meetings and collaboration to concrete features Miro has.)

B) They ran through these features in a dynamic, concise and colourful manner. And they used real screen-shares of the platform to demonstrate how they would be done by a user (e.g. run interactive workshops, time meetings, show agendas, place votes). All appear simple and easy to use.

C) They used music that’s fast-paced, energetic, keeping the user engaged and receptive to information throughout. A job well done!

 

Monday.com

This is one of our favourite explainer videos. It’s a bit longer than many of the examples we’ve chosen (over 2 minutes) but really takes the time to explain and illustrate the need for Monday.com.

Their no-code, low-code software is presented to viewers as the answer to many of their workplace problems. And 3 core reasons are put on the video:

1) let people build their own software

2) easy to adapt, use and scale

3) it makes other software tools better and more efficient.

There’s no question at the end of the video why you would want to use Monday.com. A key sign of an effective explainer video.

And a cherry on top, another thing that’s done really well is the consistent use of brand name, colours, signifiers and logos throughout in a way that isn’t over-the-top or pushy.

Lemlist

Lemlist has delivered what we believe to be one of the best SaaS explainer videos out there. We hear you asking, “why?” Firstly, the approach is simple but effective.

They clearly bridge the problem (difficulties with cold outreach) to the solution/their product (Lemlist). This is summed up as succinctly as possible by the caption “Struggling with cold outreach? Try Lemlist.”

The main actor in the video initially draws the viewer in – she seems kind and approachable, and presents a relatable problem with outreach.

Then, we’re introduced to 2 more actors, both very different people, who have their own problems with outreach. Their stories are interspersed with animations to explain the frustrations they experienced.

Then, the anchor puts them all into the bucket of “being ignored by your prospect,” and expresses empathy, before presenting Lemlist as a way to stop this from happening.

Lemlist is the key to capturing target prospect attention and standing out. Again, this simple but effective approach is all we could ask for from explainer video production. It explains the product in an engaging way.

Slack

Slack provides an A+ animated explainer video that nails the brief on so many levels. We particularly like the synchronicity between the voice over and visual cues used to explain the breakdown of communications that happens when there are too many sources, channels and threads to receive information.

This is effectively displayed by icons falling from the sky and bouncing off each other in a chaotic, haphazard way.

It is in this visual chaos that Slack is introduced as a solution that can address these issues and bring everyone onto the same page. This is illustrated by all the jumbled symbols being unified together into one.

Because fragmentation and unification are concepts that are easy to visually communicate, this approach makes a lot of sense. (And works really well!)

As a side note, the super simple, minimal visual style is great, and the use of Slack’s brand colours in the icons is a subtle way of building brand recognition without being too pushy. Basically – we love it! 5 stars.

Content Studio

This example from Content Studio is everything SaaS product videos should be: 1.15 seconds dedicated to showing off the main functionalities of a SaaS product.

The voice-over is perfectly timed with the platform walk-through and animations – which together serve to demonstrate the value of the key features in a tangible way. And the transitions between the different features are done in a dynamic and seamless manner.

On a more holistic level, the use of consistent brand symbols, colours and typeface throughout create a sense of continuity that makes it easy for the viewer to follow and get on board with the message.

Finally, the strong, direct CTA at the end (sign up for a free 14 day free trial) brings everything together nicely, and makes it very clear what the intended next step is.

Voila! A great SaaS animation video, done in a simple yet compelling way.

Make your own stellar SaaS explainer video

There you have it! Our top 8 examples of SaaS explainer videos that nail it from almost every angle. As you’ll have seen, there’s no singular way of doing one well. Most SaaS explainer videos vary wildly from one to the next.

But, there are some ingredients all of the best explainer videos have, that you can (and should) look to take into your own.

We’d recommend sitting down with your team, agreeing with them exactly what you want to get out of the video (KPIs, goals etc.), nailing down your main message (what do you want to say) and then reviewing these videos to see what kind of style of video you want to shoot for. Then, it’s up to you to bring it to life.

It’s time to hit your SaaS marketing goals by building an exceptional explainer video today.

Have questions about best SaaS explainer videos?

If you have any questions about what makes one of the best SaaS explainer videos, or anything else SaaS video or anything else SaaS marketing related, please get in touch with our experienced team.

At Digital Rhinos, we have years of experience working with SaaS founders and marketers like yourselves to grow their business and we’d be more than happy to share any of our expertise with you. Just book a quick 15 minute discovery call today.

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