Since we just finished looking at how to optimize ecommerce product or hero images, I thought we should look at how to get the best demo or explainer video to help sell your service or product. There is no question video marketing is hot, but doing it poorly can hurt your chances at converting visitors.
What proves to be true is that just like in every other media, you have to capture people in the first 8-12 seconds if you want them to stick around for a minute or longer.
This week’s Conversion Rate Optimization challenge:
How would you improve this Quick Tour demo video found on the homepage of UserTesting.com. I won’t tell you any more about them if you don’t know them because the video should do the job of “selling” you.
Watch the explainer video below and let me know in the comments if a) did this make you want to use UserTesting.com on your website b) what would you do to improve this video c) are there any question you have about the service that were not mentioned here?
* I am an advisor to UserTesting.com but am not responsible for their website or marketing efforts. However, they are open to testing great ideas, so please share them.
It’s a great video. My only critique is they didn’t really state the problem clearly right at the front. They showed us people having problems, but didn’t tell me, their potential customer, what benefit I get from them. What the solution to my biggest problem was. They do, just not fast enough?
Agreed. People need to nod in agreement about the problem very early on in any presentation.
I agree with Jim, they later explain the broad range of problems/scenarios you can address. So, shorten up the examples given at the beginning and move into the explanation faster. Next, they have no call to action at the end. Tell viewers where to sign up for a free trial and how quickly they can get started testing.
Really? You want a call to action 🙂
Jim is right, the problem / benefit has not been clearly defined or explained up front.
Brian as well, no call to action at the end
Also, the sequence of the video seems to be out of alignment with the thought sequence of the classic AIDA or other models of selling. The video presented the solution too soon without really framing it by showing some test examples up front. A good test would be to reorder the existing video so that the solution comes in later in the video. more like this. Problem 0:00 – 0:02 > Solution Explanation stating at the 0:56 sec mark, leaving the actual user test to appear much later in the video almost at the end, but before the missing call to action.
I would agree the story structure seems fragmented.
The existing comments. My 2 cents:
* The video is to long. You have 60 of my attention. no more.
* The sequence should be:
– This is your problem
– Here are some other solutions which are worse than what we are going to offer
– We offer X which will solve your problem
– Mention some specific uses (Is your checkout process intuitive? etc)
– Set expectations (most companies discover real issues with just 2-3 feedbacks)
– Here are actual example recordings.
Btw, the best videos I’ve ever seen are by epipheo studios (I have no connection to them).
Ophir
Ah, one of my favorite tools and one of the most engaged teams I have worked with as a customer! Love them!
As much as I love THEM, I think this video isn’t thrilling. I think y’all covered the main points well – I just think as a passionate customer, this didn’t have me nodding my head in excitement.
And the echoing voiceover was distracting…
What’s the goal of this video? If it’s to explain the functionality of the service, you win. I know the stuff you can do because I watched it all. But, if you want people forwarding this to their boss saying, “WE NEED THIS!” I don’t think that’s happening.
Like others said, I just don’t know what problems you solved for me. I know that I can test the functionality and experience of my site, but I don’t know, for example, that the functionality updates I have been asking for at work for months can suddenly jump to the head of the dev queue because with your help I can now “prove” the urgency of the problems to my team. (You can’t argue with a video of a customer…)
The audience here is a specific crowd – marketing and optimization folks. And most often, marketing folks who are also responsible for optimization. It’s not clear to me that you know *me* – it’s like you are talking to anyone. Tell me that you know what I am already doing and the tools I am using to make sure I know what’s happening on my website, and then tell me why I need you, too.
What’s unfortunate is that I think this video puts UserTesting,com in a nice-to-have category when I think it’s a must-have. What problem do I have without you, UserTesting.com? You didn’t say…
But I still love this company… they rock. 🙂
It did make me want to use the service. I do think it could be cut in half. And, also have the URL visible throughout the video. I got the point pretty quickly but had to wait til the end to get the url again. I could have jumped off the vid much earlier with a live link to the URL or at least it shown.
Bonnie keep in mind this is the video embedded on their homepage. It isn’t the one they use for sharing.
The first 55 seconds are golden. Great wide ranging selection of Websites and problems. I especially like the use of a mobile site, and think the use of Amazon gave added credibility around the kinds of companies using their services.
But as other commenters have mentioned, there was no clear definition of the problem and certainly no “agitation” of that problem in terms of the Problem-Agitation-Solution. Nothing along the lines of “what analytics won’t show you…”
And maybe it’s just me, but the next 10 seconds or so of this employs what I call the dreaded Over-Obvious Rhetorical Question. “What if you could…” Hell, why not just make the darn offer in specific terms rather than coyly “building up” to the offer with more vague rhetorical “what if” questions.
Also not so sure the “And just two people in a garage” line is necessary. Are you trying to convince start-ups that they can afford you? Then I think plainly telling people your service starts at $30 would do a better job of that.
Then there’s the 5 step portion of the video, wherein I felt that the video sped past really important persuasive stuff, while also dwelling too long on examples and details that really didn’t deserve the time. For example, the video takes 10 seconds to run through all sorts of scenarios in explaining “Step 1: Select what you want to test.” Frankly, I think the video could streamline that section to save time for “Step 2: choose the tasks.” On Step 2, the video blows right past the idea of task banks and templates, taking less than 4 seconds to barely mention these features, even though those features are HUGELY important for prospective customers new to user testing. Why not spend more time on THAT?
Similarly, the video adds no credibility to the claim, made in Step 3, that one could choose a “samurai warrior from LA.” MORE INFO HERE PLEASE. Tell us how successfully you are able to fullfill these kinds of specific requests and how big your user tester database is. Make me beleive that I really could get a Samurai for a user tester.
Additional areas I would add more emphasis to include: the ability to navigate videos by task and to cut clips of videos out for sharing and inclusion in presentations. These are really attractive features that are just glossed over.
I also think that the last 12-14 seconds of the film are just animated showing off. Cute, but not persuasive. Why not use that time for expanded demonstration of the previously mentioned features.
And if you are going to close strong, why not do so with an Call To Action instead of a tagline?
Thanks for the feedback everyone (and thanks to Bryan for posting the challenge). You made really great points, such as:
– Start with “Problem –> Agitation –> Solution”
– Convince viewers that they “can’t live without” our service (currently we show it as being “nice to have”)
– Have a clear “call to action” at the end
Our video team is already incorporating your input into our next video project — which we’re working on right now — so this is perfect timing to get your feedback. Thank you!