There's a bunch of screen video recorders out there so we're going to
investigate 3 of the most commonly mentioned (Loom, Vidyard, Cloudapp),
install them, try them out and give our thoughts on each one. We'll include
use cases, key differences between them and anything uniquely interesting.
A typical default use of any video screen recorder would be to hit record,
talk and save it.
The subsequent video would show your face in the bottom left and allow a quick
sharing of the video as a link.
Below is a screenshot of the video landing page that is generated every time
you do a recording.
Within Loom they uniquely also allow for responding with your own video. Here
is a screenshot of the original video's landing page.
Below I reply to that original video with comments and a new video. It's a
video conversation I guess.
Previously Loom had 4 pricing options and they've simplified it to 3.
Loom is definitely the one product we hear about the most as customers ask us
to record "Loom" videos to help explain our own features.
What are the typical use cases Loom mentions and how might we need them?
For team Alignment
"Harness the flexibility of asynchronous video to accelerate team
communication and boost productivity."
Reading this I'm quite surprised we don't use this internally yet.
We slack, we whatsapp, we email and we use Quicktime or something similar to
record video.
Why on earth are we not using Loom? It would be faster to record and talk than
type everything out.
Maybe it's just habit? Once we start using Loom we might use it a lot for team
comms. Also, with remote work, it's a little friendlier to record vids and
send them.
For sales
"Record over a website, presentation, or professional profile to put a human
touch on your targeted outreach."
We send automated emails but not yet one-to-one personalised videos unless
specifically requested.
We do record generic videos for explaining the product but these are higher
production value type vids. However I have noticed that simple Loom type vids
can be better for more natural walk throughs which I sometimes prefer.
“On outreach in particular, prospects respond well to the human element of
Loom. They get to hear a real person communicating with them, but they’re not
obliged to pick up the phone, which is very powerful.”
The above makes a lot of sense. Just like live chat is a convenience so is
video communication. Again, this is a habit we need to pick up.
Also, as they have tracking and measuring built in we could check the ROI of
making and sending these videos and that's one great advantage we have not
considered.
For customer support
“My teammates and I love using Loom! It has saved us hundreds of hours by
creating informative video tutorials instead of long emails and 1:1 trainings
with customers.”
We currently used saved replies to answer many chats. The saved replies link
to documents which themselves may contain videos.
We don't do one to one videos on the fly. It's partly because Upscope
co-browsing itself is a visual tool for customer support but also we associate
making videos with a lot of effort and the idea of doing it on the fly is odd.
However, for creating video tutorials to be used by lots of people, this makes
sense.
Loom mentions "Ultrafast uploads and share links copied to your clipboard
let you get your message across seamlessly." Yes, this is definitely a
factor. Ideally we'd want to hit a button to record, choose a window or tab,
record it and then send the link in seconds. Speed is a big factor.
Also mentioned is "Add links to help articles and additional resources right
in your video." which is perfect for when we want to also explain another
feature which is typically the next likely feature they'll encounter.
There's also internal sharing of the video. We often need to loop in the
engineering team and it would make sense to simply record the damn session we
already underwent with a customer rather than asking the engineering team to
replicate it. I'm feeling more and more stupid in not using something like
Loom.
For onboarding team mates
Loom mentions onboarding "agents" almost as an afterthought in the customer
support use case but I figured I should separate this out as it applies to all
team mates.
They mention "Record onboarding training so new hires can learn the
ins-and-outs and get up to speed on their own."
When more than half the team is remote this is now a separate section all by
itself. The amount of effort we put into documentation these days is only
going up and it should just be videos but the documentation habit is hard to
break.
We need 100s of videos. We need a video library. Does not matter if they are
rough around the edges, they just need to be done. It might take days to do
them but it will take weeks to write out documentation.
For engineering
The use cases loom mentions are demo what you build, record your feedback,
crush bugs.
I used Quicktime to record what I had built back in Jan/Feb. It creates a
video which is 200mb+ in size which take an age to add to Slack. If someone
else asks for the vid in another channel then it takes another age to add it
to that channel. I may be doing something wrong but all in all a 200mb vid
shared that way feels dumb.
Also, I asked for feedback via Slack and really it should be directly within
the video or next to it. If they can add comments that way that would actually
be better. I don't need to chase through the threads.
For design
"Talk to your vision and showcase your design by recording your screen, camera
or both."
When we re-designed Upscope our team members included websites they found
inspirational and sent them across to the designers.
The process roughly worked but I'm thinking it would have been faster to open
a website, record what I liked about it and then published that link. It would
certainly be faster to get a list of say 10 websites and run through them all
saying what I liked, rather than listing down those websites with notes under
them.
However, the notes are faster to read through and check back through but now I
can see that loom has a transcription service in beta. Interesting!
For marketing
"Help customers get the most out of your product with informative videos that
showcase new features."
I've seen some very fast growing startups use very simple Loom videos to
showcase their features. They are simple, not particularly polished and so
they come across as natural. Maybe that's a good way to go where you both save
time and money and also put across something that is more human than a
manicured advert.
I'm not certain though. I don't like vids that start "hey guys, how's it
going..." and I really dislike it when I do that myself. It's just a
self-conscious reaction for me. I want it to go fast and get to the point.
Editing matters BUT if the person is an expert in using it and is naturally to
the point then the simple Loom type unedited video works.
"Loom has a full range of customizable features to let your audience to
react, comment, and take action effortlessly."
I don't know how much we'd want people reacting or engaging with some
marketing content as the purpose is to convey information and not necessarily
act as a point of communications.
“Loom, with the little face bubble in the corner is so powerful. It works so
much better than traditional formats, where an audio track runs over animation
or a slide show. Having a real face in the corner adds personality and brings
the storytelling to life.”
The face in the corner does change things. A voice in the background keeps my
head thinking about what the person looks like and what expression they're
making when they're talking and I guess the face in the corner alleviates
that.
For product management
This use is not that clear to me but that's because product management is
something we do as co-founders without actually having read product management
books or through using product management tools.
I guess one use case is showing which features I like on another website and
then showing how we are currently doing that same features. Definitely a habit
to form.
Actually, thinking about it, I'd like a Loom 'product clippings' service where
I record small snippets and it goes into the clippings file for future
reference. When we come to re-building a feature for flow we can use that
clippings library for reference.
What's the killer Loom feature(s) that might push us towards them?
Besides being one of the most popular tools they appear to have a new set of
features in development on their new.loom.com page
including closed captions, transcriptions, removal of filler words and they're
looking to catch up on integrations.
The Loom brand is appealing.
Go to Loom.com
I installed both Loom and Vidyard to have a look at the differences.
They both have the same recording features but it looks like Vidyard moved
faster on the Salesforce / Hubspot / Marketo type integrations and has pricing
to reflect that.
When creating a video Loom appears to have more options to add comments and to
reply with a video. Vidyard's share page did not allow that. Maybe it's in the
settings but certainly by default it does not allow it.
The use cases listed by Vidyard are not done by department but by sector. Many
of the landing pages are very similar. I'll list a few of the interesting
sectors we had not considered as a use case which have added detail.
Auto-sales
"Vidyard makes it easy for dealerships and sales reps to connect with clients
through the power of personal video – no expertise required!"
We had a few auto-industry CRM providers use HelloScreen Co-Browsing and so we
looked into the industry a little. There are some dealerships that have used
co-browsing + video to do live walk throughs of their website with customers.
This is another way to communicate the same thing but not live in this case.
In some ways I'd prefer this. Does anybody really want to talk live with the
car sales guy? I'd rather ask questions and get an overview via video and then
have time to think.
Teaching
I guess there is a use case here during and after the pandemic shift to remote
teaching.
"Vidyard enables teachers to create and share videos with students and each
other". This could just as well be said of Loom which has a different
engagement model for each video and allows replies and comments.
That said, both of them could be used to create and send lessons, explain
ideas, generate an entire repeatable course.
At Upscope we've got to create a repeatable onboarding course for new
employees to understand how co-browsing works so I can see the benefits of
creating and lining up multiple videos in a lesson format.
B2C sales video solution
This might be a key part of Vidyard's solution where they allow you to send
personalised videos to consumers by "weaving in individual viewer data, like
a user’s name or company."
This is where the analytics part of the software becomes important. I've
seen plenty of tools out there which generate videos that can be embedded or
linkedin into emails sent to consumers but the analytics are essential.
How many clicked through to watch the video? How many watched it all the way?
At what point are most of them stopping?
This then allows us to make changes and refine the video until we've got
something we can trust to communicate effectively.
Vidyard's integrations with software like Salesforce also means they're able
to share the video data to the next step in their sales or marketing process.
They really are more 'enterprisey' I feel.
CloudApp has both an extension and a desktop app. (Turns out Loom and Vidyard
also have desktop apps but CloudApp seems to promote it more)
The extension functions much the same way as Loom and Vidyard. The desktop app
allows for creation of .gifs and editing of videos and of course has the
shortcut built right into the desktop rather than just the browser bar.
One thing I liked is that they have templates including one that adds a 'Book
a meeting' button to the bottom of the shared video page.
There are also the support, bug report and announcement templates. The Support
one then links to your help section, the bug report one links to 'view issue'
etc. This makes things just a little easier in creating a mini-landing page
with a clear call to action.
Their pricing is closer to that of Loom though the free plan screen recording
is 90 seconds vs Loom's 5 minutes. This one feature is looming large over
CloudApp haha. oh god. sorry.
In terms of integrations there is a large list of integrations but I don't see
Salesforce mentioned.
The desktop app
I've tested out creating a gif, taking a screenshot, doing an annotated
screenshot. It's fast and effective. The gif takes the most time to generate
but that's barely 20 seconds depending on the length of the recording. It then
loops it when you're watching - which I guess is what a gif is for :)
I do see a video explaining how creating a gif and adding it to Slack via the
integration is very useful. That makes sense if they have a desktop app which
is easy to use and then embed with. It would likely save us time in explaining
things or even just having some fun.
It says the following regarding the mac app "By using the hotkey of your
choice, you can take a screenshot and post it directly in the Slack app".
Sounds good!
They also have a trim cut type feature built into the desktop app as you can
see below.
I believe Loom and Vidyard both have such a feature. I guess I mostly work in
the browser but I've noticed that I sometimes forget to use extensions but the
CloudApp desktop app puts the icon right there and I'm less likely to forget
that.
Use cases
CloudApp mentions almost the exact same use cases as Loom. Interesting how
Loom and CloudApp do it by department and Vidyard goes by a select group of
industries.
The workflows mentioned on the right are more like landing pages as part of a
content marketing plan rather than specific use cases. Still, that's a good
structure for future features - video relays specifically built for remote
work? Video for CX whereby customer support can record and tag customer issues
which are distributed depending on how many record the same type of video?
Hard to say what the app might be but the visual communication side has a lot
further to go.
Conclusions
We have a bias towards Loom because it's the first brand we came across that
many of our customers already use. That makes it tempting. They're building a
good set of new features and might come out with some
surprising stuff in the future.
Vidyard looks like the service we'd use for email marketing and especially
because it has a Salesforce integration which our current and upcoming new
sales hires will enjoy as well as our marketing team.
CloudApp is now on my machine and I'm tempted to use it because of the gifs
and simplicity of clicking on the convenient desktop icon. However, Loom and
Vidyard also have desktop apps. In terms of website design I think CloudApp is
behind Loom and Vidyard but in terms of core 'video screen recording' features
they seem to be on the same level.
We might use Loom as a team and I was tempted to keep CloudApp running on my
desktop now that I have it installed but as Loom has a desktop app as well I
might switch it out. CloudApp has a 90 second limit on vids for the free trial
compared to Loom so that's another factor for switching. Vidyard looks like
the solution we'd embed into current marketing emails and future cold emails
but not just yet.
