Unlocking sales growth for the original screen recording + capture tool by celebrating an unseen niche audience

Snagit by TechSmith is the OG screen recording and capture tool, and quickly rose to relative ubiquity since its launch in 1990. But in the decades since, the screen capture software space has become increasingly crowded, with built-in proprietary OS tools from Microsoft and Apple, browser extensions, and even Cmd-Shift-3 or the good ole PrtScn key all competing for daily use. 

And on top of that, most people who’ve heard of Snagit still think of it as “just a screenshot tool,” when it now does so, so much more. 

Resurrecting a Previously Lucrative Audience

Screen recordings have become essential for modern technical writers drafting software and process documentation, how-to instructions, user guides, and more. TechSmith knew that customers like them had been a strong revenue driver in the past, but they hadn’t marketed to technical writers, specifically, in ages. 

Could paid media effectively change legacy product assumptions and increase awareness, purchases, and free trial installations at scale from this niche segment?

Navigating a Business Model Changeover

TechSmith was also at a crossroads when it came to how Snagit was sold: they’d just launched annual subscriptions for the software vs. their prior approach of selling lifetime licenses. We needed to pique tech writer’s interest in subscriptions for a product that, up until then, had been known as a one-and-done buy.

We began with our target audience: conducting stakeholder interviews, diving into desk research, and becoming the all-around experts on these communication experts. They speak fluent “engineer,” and are pros at translating that for novice and expert users. But, they struggled with getting recognition internally for documentation that has to keep up with relentless process or product updates and innovations. And externally: no one thinks about how well-written a manual is or how easy-to-follow those API setup instructions were. They just complain about the bad ones (good luck putting together your IKEA furniture). 

Technical writers can be overlooked, and their often gloriously “mundane” work is largely unseen or unread. They aren’t really acknowledged for their efforts, but the work they do is vital to end users, troubleshooters, and business operations, alike. 

So, we thought Snagit should change this. Our campaign would focus on giving these unseen heroes an overdue spotlight by honoring their underappreciated work with museum-like reverence. And, we’d demonstrate that using Snagit is the best way for technical writers to create their own masterpieces.

We distilled our insights into a two-pronged campaign strategically designed to span a technical writer’s entire buyer journey:

• Brand messaging that reintroduced Snagit to the audience by acknowledging their challenges and pain points, and celebrating their work in: the “Documentation Hall of Fame.” 
• Demand messaging that focused on product education that would change misconceptions about Snagit being a one-trick pony, showing that it’s so much more than a snipping tool. We’d highlight game-changing new features and promo codes to incentivize subscription purchases over one-time license purchases during the gradual model changeover.

Knowing how nuanced this audience was, we developed intersectional targeting, layering attributes beyond just job titles and using tools like Versium to enrich and expand reach on platforms with less granular native targeting.

We initially launched the campaign on YouTube, Meta, and LinkedIn, quickly honing-in on what audiences, messaging, and creative converted best, while continuously optimizing to maximize spend efficiency. After several weeks of learnings, we expanded our reach, testing several new channels, including Reddit, Madhive (CTV), and Spotify. 

Throughout, we proactively refined and adjusted spend allocation and channel strategy based on performance insights. Optimizations included strategies like dayparting, testimonial-driven video ads, “Redditized” ads that felt germain to the platform’s culture, targeting niche subreddits, running audio-only ads vs. video ads on Spotify, focused retargeting on YouTube, and many other refinements.

Ad creative underwent exhaustive, rapid-fire A/B testing throughout the life of the campaign, exploring various formats, visuals, messaging, animation, and video. We also experimented with running promo code assets against non-discounted ones (surprisingly, most people still paid full price). And, after the initial ads began collecting positive comments from the technical writers seeing them, we even created a successful new UGC campaign simply featuring that earned social proof.

Tactical elements over the course of the full pilot campaign included:

• Multi-Channel Paid Media Management
  • Initial launch on YouTube, Meta, and LinkedIn
  • Subsequent testing and launches: Reddit, Spotify, Madhive (CTV)
• Intersectional Audience Targeting + Refinement:
  • Layering job titles with functions, interests, seniority, and predictive/lookalike audiences
  • Versium audience enrichment
  • Shifting to attribute-driven targeting for broader reach within the technical writer segment
• Campaign Creative Production + Iterative Testing:
  • Video, animated GIF, and static assets celebrating technical writers
  • Developed UGC-driven campaign from positive comments left on initial ads
  • Performance improvement through A/B testing including formats, messaging, and visuals
• Dedicated Landing Page Strategy with UX/CRO:
  • Creation of 3 landing pages catering to different user intents (product education, building trust, competitor comparisons).
  • Ongoing UX + conversion rate optimization (CRO) improvements to pages.

Our multichannel approach led to more than 3,000 purchases of various TechSmith software, and uncovered a crucial finding: that Snagit was a “gateway drug.” Folks who engaged with our campaign would more often than not bundle Snagit with other more expensive software. The pilot’s halo effect of driving purchases of other products demonstrated to TechSmith that there was a broader cross-selling opportunity to generate revenue beyond standalone Snagit sales. 

The “Documentation Hall of Fame” campaign proved that technical writers were a valuable segment, drove 1,100+ Snagit purchases (42% higher than the re-forecasted goal), and reduced cost per acquisition by 31%.