A featured contribution from Leadership Perspectives, a curated forum for enterprise technology leaders, nominated by our subscribers and vetted by the CIOApplications Editorial Board.

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The Role of Video in Tech Product Marketing Communications

Video is the fastest growing medium and for good reason. Video outperforms other communications for interest, engagement, education, retention, and where it counts in performance. You want the message to get across? Video is the most effective way to communicate any message: viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10% when reading that same message in text. You want new prospects to engage with your brand? 83% of marketers say video generates leads, and 87% report that video usage has boosted traffic to their websites. Are you looking for a positive ROI? 90% of video marketers report a positive ROI. Even better, the majority of sales people say that video shortens the sales cycle.

Convinced that video is important? Now onto the main topic at hand: the role of video in tech product marketing communications. When thinking about external communications, a straightforward approach is to map out video on the marketing funnel.

Top of Funnel (ToFu): In the top of funnel, marketing objectives are typically focused on a combination of awareness, interest, and high level education. Your prospective customers are likely gathering their list of requirements and the potential vendors / brands to do business with. Your goals should be high video view counts and engagement. Focus your video on the specific problems or challenges that your buyer may be experiencing. You can also offer up high level industry trends to draw your audience in. And any brand messaging can be kept at a higher, more aspirational level. These videos often do best as short 0:60 second videos (ranging from 0:30 to 0:90 seconds).

Middle of Funnel (MoFu): In the middle of funnel, now that you have established some reach and interest, buyers are moving along their journey to finding a solution. It’s best to lead with a combination of education and higher impact messages about your product and value proposition. Your goals should be penetration of multiple videos and watch time. This is where you want your How It Works video (example) or Product Highlights video (example). You can also lean into educational thought leadership videos (example). While all the trends say to keep videos short, this is your opportunity for longer 0:90 second videos (typically ranging from 1 to 2 minutes).

Bottom of Funnel (BoFu): For the bottom of funnel, buyers are becoming more advanced as they understand their challenges, have identified potential solutions, and are weighing their options. Your goal here is to overcome any final objections and compel prospects to conversion via sign-up, SQL or sale. To help overcome those objections, the most obvious BoFu video is a customer testimonial. For prospective clients, it’s really helpful to see testimonials from established customers; 97% of B2B customers say that testimonials are the most reliable type of content. Testimonials make for versatile content that works on social media, in sales emails, or on landing pages, where testimonials can increase sales conversions by 54%. Where you can, feature testimonials that note specific product details that satisfy consumer needs or and note a specific pain point. The great thing about testimonials, in part, is they don’t come directly from your team. The use of real people outside of your company establishes trust, especially when you feature them in a video.

Post-Purchase Funnel (PPFu):

For those who have mastered the traditional marketing funnel, you can also use video in the post purchase funnel (PPFu) for onboarding and ongoing client communications. A smooth client onboarding process is an important step toward retaining clients and making sure that your customers are getting the most out of your products and services. During the onboarding process, you can use video to show your clients the ins-and-outs of your product and show them how to leverage the product for their benefit. Effectively demonstrating product features is a great way to ensure client satisfaction and to minimize hands-on service. Of course, video messaging is only one part of your client onboarding workflow. If your onboarding process is underdeveloped, video will make the process even more confusing. Make sure to use video at appropriate moments and in ways that will actively help, rather than overwhelm, your client.

Final Thoughts On Your Video Strategy

There are so many opportunities to leverage video in marketing communications. If you are in the early days of video and just getting started with video, most tech companies start with video for product introductions, product highlights, and product updates. One of the big reasons why video is so successful is that it is multisensory. You can watch a product demo on-screen while a narrator discusses the features of the product that your company chooses to harp on. This gives the viewer a more in-depth understanding of the product and keeps the viewer engaged throughout the video. Your product is designed to make life easier for your clients, and that’s what video communications achieves as well. It’s also an effective way for grabbing a consumer’s attention; in fact, video messaging is the preferred method of learning about a product for 72% of consumers. And 84% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a video.

Video outperforms other communications for interest, engagement, education, retention, and where it counts in performance


Closing out, we are still in the early days of the video revolution as video is expected to grow 40% annually for the next 5 years. Map out your desired portfolio of videos, and start building them out. And if our team at CROOW can ever be of assistance, just reach out.

Credits: the stats provided were sourced from Insivia, Wyzowl, This Moment, Impact, Top Notch Cinema, and Vidyard.

The articles from these contributors are based on their personal expertise and viewpoints, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their employers or affiliated organizations.