Convince the Software Rollout Target Audience with a Video

Social proof is one of the most effective ways to persuade people. When people see that other people are engaged in a certain activity and gain benefits from it, it motivates them to do that activity too. It is especially persuasive, if people who are engaged in this activity are similar to them because it gives them more confidence that it could work for them personally as well.

To encourage the target audience to use new software I use this knowledge by asking some of the people who already use the software and have gained benefits from it to share their experiences in a video. I find this is a superb practice because seeing colleagues who already use the software and find it really useful gives the target users the necessary confidence to use the software as well.

Here is a structure for such a video that I have found to be really effective:

Introduction of the person sharing the experience
The tasks that the person already have done using the new software
The benefits that they have gained from using the new software
What they recommend to the other users
Finally a statement from them to recommend to the people who are not using the software to start using it

As a result of this communication approach everyone benefits – people who start using the software will gain the benefits from it and the whole company will benefit because the intended business results will be achieved as more people start using the new software and following the related practices.

To your software rollout success!