10 Steps for Creating Product Demo Videos

10 Steps for Creating Product Demo Videos

Converting leads into customers is getting increasingly difficult. Most of the sales business is done online, where users are flooded with hundreds of brands, products, and offers whenever they start searching for something to buy.

What makes the problem even more significant is the fact that consumers cannot see, feel, and test your products. This is precisely where product demos step in to help you win over new customers. According to the report, 70% of marketers say videos help them to increase conversion rates.

how to create product demo

Source: Oberlo.com

Videos give you the opportunity to show products in action and inspire potential buyers with compelling stories. In this article, we will explain to you how product demos work and show you some of the best examples. Let’s take a look!

 

Product Demo: What is it and How it Works? 

Before we delve deeper into the concept, we need to define it and explain its major features. By definition, a product demo represents a video demonstration of how your product works in real life.

Although it may sound simple, the truth is that it’s not so easy to produce an appealing product demo and make it look great in the eyes of typical consumers. First of all, you need to know exactly how your audience feels and behaves. You have to figure out their interests and make a demo that perfectly aligns with their expectations.

At the same time, you should follow the core principles of video creation. There are lots of tactics that you need to take into account here, but the most important rules are these:

 

  1. Analyze the target audience

The way you shoot a video depends on the peculiarities of the target audience. Who are your customers? Do you know their interests, personal preferences, location, age, gender, income, and so on? Every little detail can help you to make quality content and create product demos that resonate with the expectations of your target group.

product demo

Source: Pointvisible.com

 

  1. Set the Budget

You probably understand that shooting a product demo can turn out to be an expensive project. This is why you need to set the budget well in advance and plan the costs accordingly. After all, you don’t have to hire professional directors or actors to help you out if you can create a nice animation.

 

  1. Choose the Best Format

Product demos come in different formats, so it’s up to you to decide which one suits your needs and fits the budget. Classic product demos present the item from every point of view, which resembles real-life pre-shopping experience. On the other hand, you can make product unpacking videos, how-to demos, tutorials, and animations.

 

  1. Write a Script

Shooting an excellent video without a good video script is almost impossible. You need to create a plan of work, choose the right style, come up with a compelling story, and be careful not to exceed the budget.

 

  1. Start Strongly

Average spectators expect you to impress them instantly, so make sure to start strongly. You need to give them the motive to keep watching your demo all the way until the end, but this is possible only if you show creativity within the first 10 to 15 seconds of the clip.

 

  1. Keep it as Short as Possible

We know that your product is great and has tons of valuable features, but it doesn’t give you the right to shoot a 10-minute demo. Modern users have a short attention span, and you must keep the video as concise as possible. Studies reveal that 56% of all videos published in recent years are less than 2 minutes long. More than 75% of people watch videos for up to two minutes, but the numbers drop drastically for anything more than that.

product demo video

Source: Wistia.com

 

  1. Avoid Information Abundance

This tip goes hand in hand with the previous one. Namely, you don’t want to bombard watchers with thousands of more or less relevant information. Instead, you need to concentrate on the basic features of your product and avoid information abundance. It will help your audience to remember more details and realize what makes the product so useful.

 

  1. Clarify the Message

This tip goes hand in hand with the previous one. Namely, you must clarify the message and make the entire video revolve around it. If your goal is to display product features, concentrate on its major benefits. If your goal is to sell, present the purchasing options. Whatever your goal might be, you need to make it clear and lead your audience to the call to action (CTA).

 

  1. Add a CTA

Speaking of CTAs, the purpose of product demos is to drive engagement and convince users to test or buy your product. For this reason, it is mandatory to add a CTA button and tell users what to do upon watching. It’s the only way to inspire potential customers to take action and drive fresh conversions.

promotional demo video

Source: ConversionXL

 

  1. Don’t Forget to Brand the Content

This tip may seem a little too obvious, but many creators forget to insert branded visuals to promote their businesses. A simple element such as the logo can make the video more memorable and make an excellent long-term impact on the target audience.

 

7 Examples of Convincing Product Demos

 

  1. Starting Strongly – Phone Soap

We explained why it was essential to start your video strongly, so here’s a great example that shows you how to do it most effectively. It’s the Phone Soap product demo, a clip showing the easiest way to keep a smartphone clean.

 

What makes this opening so interesting? 

Well, it’s the fact that the narrator talks about the importance of mobile phones only to change the discourse after 10 seconds and start explaining how dirty mobile phones actually are. It gives this demo a brand new direction and surprises viewers, so they can hardly resist watching the rest of the video.

If you want to do the same thing, you need to think of a plot twist with a similar dose of magnetic impact.

  1. Showing the Product in Action – Salesforce

The next thing you can do is show the product in action like Salesforce did in their demo. A typical user is eager to see how something works in a real-life environment, which is why a lot of marketers choose to shoot such videos.

What separates this clip from the crowd of similar demos is the fact that it’s simple and funny at moments. Salesforce is not bombarding viewers with irrelevant information but instead highlighting the practical functions that make customers’ life more comfortable. The combination of educational content and role-playing entertainment is always a good idea when you want to present products in action.

 

  1. Explaining Product Features – Shopify

Shopify takes a different approach while explaining the basic product features. They avoid conversations because it’s enough to let the video play and pair it with short textual inserts. Such an approach works perfectly in the case of Shopify mobile app as it’s able to cover almost every important detail in less than 100 seconds.

This product demo can teach you a big lesson – videos don’t have to be complicated to inspire the target audience. On the contrary, the “less is more” doctrine can get the job done just as effectively if you can write a simple user-centered script

 

  1. Solving Problems – Zazzle 

Do you know why people buy products or services? If you don’t, the answer is easy – they do it because they use products or services to solve practical everyday problems. Video marketers know this very well, and so they use another interesting tactic while creating product demos – they present the problem and then show how customers can solve it.

Zazzle gives us the perfect example of a problem-solving product demo. They tell people how difficult it used to be to design and print a t-shirt, but then they explain how their online tool makes the process simple, quick, and affordable. This tactic has earned Zazzle thousands of views, dozens of positive reactions, and a whole bunch of new customers.

 

  1. Augmenting Videos With Music – Apple

If you want to make a product demo look like an MTV hit, you might as well learn from Apple. One of the world’s largest smartphone production companies created a dynamic product demo for iPhone X that looks like a miniature music video.

Music makes a secret sauce in this video. Apple takes advantage of brand popularity to focus on user experience by adding music and eliminating textual content almost completely. Attractive soundtrack does a great job augmenting short scenes, so the only thing left for a viewer is to sit back and enjoy this 86-second product demo.

 

  1. Using the Power of Arguments – Akro Valve

Sometimes the only way to win over new customers is to keep things conservative and use the power of arguments. The data-driven approach is widespread among B2B companies because their representatives care about the results only.

In such circumstances, you need to provide potential clients with data-rich videos that precisely explain the purpose of your products or services. Akro Valve used this technique to create a simple but highly informative video demonstration. 

After watching this video, users can understand pretty much all they need to know about flow control, which means that the demo fulfills its purpose successfully.

 

  1. Using the Power of Animations – Headspace 

Although industry leaders tend to avoid animations, Headspace proves how powerful and entertaining a simple animation can be. This product demo has all it takes – it is short, informative, funny, dynamic, and engaging. 

 

What we love about animations like this one is the fact that you don’t need to spend a fortune making them, while the results remain the same. After all, who says you need to hire professional actors and experienced video producers? Animations are just as productive if you think of a good script.

 

Conclusion

Creating product demos can help you to raise brand awareness, generate new leads, and drive more conversions in the long run. But to shoot a good piece of content, you need to understand the basic principles of video production. In this post, we discussed the fundamental rules of making a product demo and showed you some of the best examples that you could look up to. 


Peter Hill is a writing expert. He is a socially active person, likes traveling and photo/video editing. He finds himself in writing for a famous paper writing service called Superior Papers.

 

 

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