How Slack are killing it with video content throughout the user journey: Video Marketing Examples #2

^{Obligatory disclaimer: This isn't an ad or sponsored content. We simply wanted to share this analysis with you as a great, recent example of video marketing.}

Like many businesses, it's been a kinda rocky year for Slack, by their own high standards. But their growth trends to this point have been stellar. Slack was launched in August 2013, and by February 2015, they were picking up a whopping 10,000 new active users per week. That growth continued to soar, and by June 2019 was valued at more than $20 billion.

As things hopefully return to normal over the coming months, we fully expect to see that growth continue to accelerate.

So what role does video and animation play in Slack’s not-so-overnight success story?

Let's take a look...

Home page

Like any app or software tool, understanding is absolutely key. Anyone landing on the Slack website needs to understand what’s on offer, quickly, or you can guarantee they’ll leave.

And while Slack don’t have a central explainer video on their home page, the site is positively swimming with motion thanks to the use of animated graphics.

This is a subtle way to make it clear what Slack is and how it works - without getting bogged down into too much detail.

There’s a lesson here - even if you don’t want to use traditional video on your home page, animated graphics can be a great way to:

a) catch the eye and break up the ‘scroll’ of your audience, and

b) give some pretty clear cues about what your product or service does, and who it’s for.

Check out how well the context of the messages compliments the messaging of the page in general: it’s clear that this is a powerful, chat-style communication tool for business teams, and it’s also clear that the interface is slick and easy-to-use. Much of the functionality is shown, rather than explained, meaning that - without even really thinking about it - you immediately know that you can share messages, files, react with emojis, create spaces for particular projects and teams - all with about 100 words of copy.

This commitment to animated graphics is consistent across the website, and it really makes things pop.

Demo Content

Again, anyone involved in SaaS marketing will appreciate the value of audience understanding in reaching a positive sales outcome.

Interestingly, Slack’s ‘animated graphic’ approach is also used for demonstrating the inner workings of the product. There’s a full ‘Demo’ page which looks like it’s been truly painstakingly created - but rather than using a screen recorded video, it uses scrollable graphics, demonstrating the UX and putting motion at the very core of the user-led experience. This can be digested at the user’s own pace, back and forth.

Testimonials and social proof

Another factor that’s impossible to overstate in importance is social proof - and the role it plays in developing trust and credibility, influencing purchase decisions. Who wants to get stung by a software tool that promises the world only to let you down?

That’s why we’re big advocates of testimonial videos, and you’ll find these in abundance on Slack’s ‘Customer Stories’ section, like this one for food delivery giant Deliveroo…

It’s all good and well saying you can do X, Y and Z - but what’s much more powerful is showing real-life people talking about how you’ve actually done it for them.

If you haven't already invested heavily in case studies and testimonials, this should be a priority area for you in late 2020/early 2021. Check out our Testimonials page here.

Informational content and webinars

It’s clear that Slack are committed to supporting users and adding value to their audience. Their website features a wealth of webinar content designed to answer pertinent questions and help users get more out of the product.

Now, we know: webinars are heavy-duty, intensive pieces of content to create - generally running in the region of an hour-long - but that can really pay off when it comes to reaching new audiences and establishing yourself as a trusted, thought leader in your niche. (We’ve written about some of our experiences with webinars here.)

Why not consider putting together a webinar as one of your marketing tactics for Q1 2021? It gives you plenty of time to plan things out and execute.

External promotion

Looking beyond the Slack website at some of their ads and promos, we can see a great variety of content and themes.

From shorter promotional videos which 'give you the gist' of Slack in 30 secs while also giving a clear depiction of why that matters right now (i.e. it makes remote work easier and keeps teams connected!), short videos that introduce individual features, through to longer introductory content, like this video featuring CEO Stewart Butterfield explaining what Slack is (and features a great mix of live action and animation.)

Slack External Promo

Slack: The Verdict

What’s clear from even spending a few minutes interacting with the Slack brand is the extent to which they use video and motion graphics as tools to support the whole user journey.

Video is used as a promotional tool - telling short compelling stories that encapsulate what Slack is, who it’s for and why it’s of benefit to the target audience. These videos are shared on YouTube, and presumably as part of social media ad campaigns to reach the ‘right’ audience with the ‘right’ message, raising awareness and driving web traffic.

Educational, instructional content that demonstrates how to achieve powerful things within their product serves a dual purpose - building and developing initial audience understanding to help generate signups and more productive sales conversations - but also as a powerful tool post-sale, helping users get the absolute maximum value out of the product, making them likely to succeed, enjoy value, stay around and refer the product to others.

Testimonial videos on page offer living proof that Slack gets results. They basically scream ‘Trust us! We won’t let you down!’ In a B2B space this is just invaluable, and the more you can get this story through, the better.

And in the background, the team are clearly busting a gut on informational, educational content like webinars which are heavy duty - but ultimately seek to reach, educate and support audiences helping raise brand awareness, establish thought leadership and build Slack’s standing in the hearts and minds of both would-be and existing users.

If any of this inspired you to start with some video content creation of your own, simply reply to this email: we’d love to help! Click below or simply reply to this email to get in touch.

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