For years, video has been living in the branding corner.
Big emotions. Big visuals. Big budgets.
Great for awareness — but often disconnected from what actually makes a product sell, scale, and retain users.
That’s a mistake.
Because today, video is one of the most powerful product tools you can use — not just a branding asset. And companies that understand this are quietly winning.
Let’s break that myth once and for all.
The old view: Video as a “Top-of-Funnel only” asset
Traditionally, video was treated as:
▸ A brand film for the homepage
▸ A campaign asset for social media
▸ A glossy explainer no one updated after launch
In other words: video = awareness.
Once the user clicked “Start free trial,” video disappeared — replaced by text-heavy onboarding, static help centers, and PDFs nobody reads.
But user behavior has changed. Radically.
The new reality: Users expect video to explain the product
Today’s users don’t want to figure things out.
They want to see the product in action — fast.
Think about your own behavior:
▸ You watch Looms instead of reading long emails
▸ You search YouTube before opening documentation
▸ You trust products more when you see real UI, not stock visuals
This is where video becomes a product tool, not a branding accessory.
Video as a product tool: What does that actually mean?
Using video as a product tool means:
▸ Helping users understand value faster
▸ Reducing friction across the user journey
▸ Supporting activation, adoption, and retention
▸ Answering questions before support tickets exist
It’s not about being cinematic.
It’s about being useful, clear, and strategic.
Where video impacts the product lifecycle (beyond branding)
1. Product Marketing & Positioning
Short product videos can:
▸ Clarify what the product actually does
▸ Show differentiation in seconds
▸ Reduce cognitive load on landing pages
A strong product video answers:
“Is this for me?”
“Can this solve my problem?”
“Is it easy to use?”
Much faster than text ever will.
2. Sales enablement
Sales teams don’t need more PDFs.
They need:
▸ Personalized demo snippets
▸ Feature-specific videos
▸ Short walkthroughs tailored to industries or use cases
Product videos help sales teams:
▸ Shorten sales cycles
▸ Explain complex workflows visually
▸ Stay consistent without repeating the same demo 20 times
This is video working as part of the product ecosystem, not marketing fluff.
3. Onboarding & Activation
This is where video really shines.
Instead of:
▸ Long onboarding emails
▸ Overwhelming tooltips
▸ Dense help articles
Use:
▸ Short feature walkthroughs
▸ Contextual videos triggered inside the product
▸ “First success” videos focused on one clear action
Result?
▸ Faster time-to-value
▸ Higher activation rates
▸ Less frustration, fewer drop-offs
4. Customer Support & Retention
Every support ticket is a signal.
Many of them exist because:
▸ The product wasn’t explained clearly
▸ The user missed a key feature
▸ The workflow wasn’t intuitive enough
Product videos can:
▸ Reduce repetitive support questions
▸ Improve self-service
▸ Increase feature adoption over time
Retention isn’t just about features.
It’s about how confident users feel using them.
Branding vs Product Video: It’s not either/or
Let’s be clear:
Branding still matters.
But branding without product clarity is just noise.
The strongest companies don’t choose between branding and product video — they connect them.
Brand sets the tone.
Product video delivers the proof.
When users understand the product, trust follows naturally.
Why video is critical for Product-Led Growth (PLG)
If your strategy is product-led, video is not optional.
In PLG:
▸ The product is the salesperson
▸ The user explores before talking to anyone
▸ First impressions happen inside the tool
Video supports PLG by:
▸ Guiding users without hand-holding
▸ Explaining value at the exact moment it’s needed
▸ Scaling education without scaling headcount
This is video as infrastructure, not decoration.
Common mistakes companies make with product video
Let’s call them out 👀
-
Overproducing instead of being clear
→ Fancy visuals don’t compensate for unclear messaging. -
Talking about features, not outcomes
→ Users care about what changes for them. -
Creating one video and calling it a strategy
→ Product video should evolve with the product. -
Separating video from product teams
→ Video works best when product, marketing, and UX collaborate.
What a strong product video strategy looks like
A solid product video strategy is:
▸ Modular (short, focused videos)
▸ Embedded across the user journey
▸ Aligned with product releases
▸ Designed for clarity, not ego
▸ Measured by adoption, not views
It’s not about “going viral.”
It’s about making the product easier to use and easier to love.
Final thought: Video is part of the product experience
The companies that win don’t ask:
“Do we need more video content?”
They ask:
“Where does video reduce friction in our product?”
Because in modern SaaS and digital products, video is not just communication.
It’s part of the experience.
And treating it that way changes everything.
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