How to create product demo videos that engage and convert

Your product is amazing, and it deserves to be showcased in the best possible way to attract potential customers. And what better way to do that than by creating a stunning product demo video?

In today’s digital age, having product demo videos on your company’s website and social media channels is crucial. In fact, research shows that 84% of consumers have made a purchase decision after watching a brand’s video, and nearly 50% of internet users look for product videos before visiting a company’s stores.

So, if you’re not already demo videos for your software and products, you’re missing out on a significant opportunity to attract customers and increase sales. But don’t worry, this article will guide you on how to create engaging product videos and provide examples of some of the best demo videos in the market. Get ready to showcase your product like a pro!

• What is a product demo video?
• How can demo videos benefit your business?
• What should a product demo video include?
• How long should a product demo video be?
• How to create a product demo video
• Where to promote your demo video
• 6 great product demo video examples

What is a product demo video?

A product demo video goes beyond words by vividly illustrating the inner workings of your product, while simultaneously showcasing its unique benefits to captivate your audience. By harnessing the power of visual storytelling, product videos emerge as a highly impactful tool for engaging and converting website visitors. In just one minute of compelling visual content, you can convey a wealth of information about your product that surpasses the effectiveness of a traditional white paper or web page. Embrace the persuasive potential of product demo videos to leave a lasting impression on your viewers and drive meaningful connections with your audience.

How can demo videos benefit your business?

• Build awareness: When your viewers watch your demo videos, they’re more likely to remember your brand. 63% of consumers report that videos helped keep brands top of mind. Your product demo video can also help you distinguish your brand from other similar companies.
• Explain products: Your demo video can guide potential users or customers through every aspect of the product’s functionality. Viewers are more likely to trust your products if they can see them working. 95% of all marketers say that videos have helped users better understand their company’s products or services.
• Increase traffic: Video is increasingly important for SEO, and research shows that a website is 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google if it includes a video. Over 25% of searchers click on the first organic search result they see, so getting on page one and as high as possible will dramatically increase your website traffic. 
• Increase sales: When users trust your products because they’ve seen them working, they’re more likely to make a purchase. Including demo videos allows you to increase your product’s sales considerably.

Given the statistics and video trends we’ve noted, including a product demo video on your company’s landing page or marketing material is a no-brainer.

What should a product demo video include?

Your video promo should include four basic elements: an overview of your product, the solution your product offers, how your product works, and a call-to-action.

Make sure that you have identified your product’s unique value proposition and can communicate it clearly and quickly in your demo video. Why did you make this product? Who is it for? What problems does it solve for your customers, and how does it solve them differently or better than your competition?

The following is a general overview of the structure of your demo video:

• Description: Start with an introduction to your product’s basic functionality and usefulness.
• Solution: Communicate your value proposition. What problems and pain points does your product solve, and how will your customer’s life be better with your product.
• Demonstration: Guide the viewer through your product’s functionality and capabilities.
• Call-to-action: Ask the viewer to act — buy the product, request more information, etc.

How long should a product demo video be?

When creating a product demo video, strive for brevity and clarity. The goal is to effectively convey your product’s value proposition and functionality in two minutes or less. For more in-depth information, consider developing additional educational videos or extended demos to cater to a more engaged audience. However, the initial product demo video should be succinct and engaging, lasting no longer than 2 minutes. By maintaining a concise and focused approach, you can deliver a compelling overview of your product that captures the attention of viewers and drives interest in your offering.

How to create a product demo video

Step 1: Establish the goal of your demo video

A strategic approach is crucial when creating your demo video, beginning with clearly defining your goals. Are you seeking to increase sales or subscriptions, enhance brand awareness, or educate existing users? Pinpointing your video’s primary goal and desired viewer takeaway is essential to crafting highly effective messaging. By identifying the key objectives, you can tailor your content to resonate with your audience on a deeper level and inspire them to take meaningful action. So, take the time to strategize and establish your prioritized goals to create a demo video that delivers exceptional results.

Step 2: Identify your target audience

Defining your target audience for the video stems directly from your goals. Consider whether the viewer has already purchased the product or if the video is aimed at introducing the brand to new viewers. Additionally, assess the audience’s level of engagement with your brand. By addressing these questions, you can gain valuable insights to inform the direction of your video.

For videos targeting new viewers, begin with an engaging introduction to your company and provide a comprehensive overview of the product. On the other hand, if the video is intended for customers who have already made a purchase, consider offering a detailed, step-by-step explanation of how the product works. By tailoring your video to suit the specific needs and familiarity of your intended audience, you can maximize its impact and relevance.

Step 3: Determine your budget

Create a budget and timeline for your video. Do you have thousands of dollars in marketing funds? Or do you need to produce a video for a few hundred dollars or less?

If you are working on a limited budget, you probably won’t be hiring a video production agency or professional motion graphics artists. But you can create effective product demo videos, especially website and software demos, with simple screen recording software. You can even create highly engaging demo videos for free.

Step 4: Write a script for your product demo video

Create a storyboard and write a script for your video. Start with an overarching structure. Divide the video into sections, including the introduction, demonstration, pain points, solution, and call-to-action. Once you have the basic structure, you can start filling in the details with the content.

While writing a script for your demo video, speak directly to your audience. Keep the introduction short and sweet, spend a little more time on the pain points and demonstration, and finally end with a clear call to action. Even if you’re creating a software demo video, you need to conduct a verbal narration to explain what’s happening on-screen.

Step 5: Record your tech demo video

You’ll need a good screen and webcam recorder if you’re producing a software demo video. The screen recording software should record your computer screen to demonstrate the software to your viewers. And the webcam recorder should record the speaker, making the demonstration more engaging and interactive.

ScreenPal is the most reliable and accessible screen and webcam recorder to create engaging tech demo videos. ScreenPal is an extremely simple and free tool that allows you to record up to 15 minutes of videos for free, making it ideal for demo videos. You can essentially create your product demo video for free!

ScreenPal allows you to simultaneously record any part of your computer (or mobile) screen while capturing your webcam’s footage. You can either record the screen or the webcam or both, overlaying one on top of the other. You can also filter out background sounds and use a high-quality microphone for voiceover narrations. 

Here’s a quick overview of ScreenPal’s screen and webcam recorder features:

• Capture any part of your computer screen or your full screen
• Record your webcam and overlay it on the screen capture
• Record voiceover narrations as well as computer audio
• Use drawing tools to annotate, highlight, and bring your viewer’s attention to specific parts of the video
• Zoom in and out to focus on specific areas of your product

Step 6: Edit your product demo video

After recording your video, you need to start the editing process. ScreenPal also includes a built-in video editor, so you can transition seamlessly from recording to editing your video. You can easily trim the recording, remove all awkward pauses, add text and graphics, apply transitions, and add captions to make your videos accessible.

Here’s a quick overview of ScreenPal’s video editor features:

• Choose from dozens of pre-designed animations
• Add narration, music, and sound effects
• Add images, text, shapes, and animations
• Import videos from other devices
• Zoom in/ out of different parts of the video
• Automatically add captions with speech-to-text
• Highlight different areas of the video
• Add stock images and videos from the premium stock library

Where to promote your demo video

You can promote your demo video anywhere you market your product! Consider promoting your videos in the following channels:

• Your website landing pages
• Relevant blog posts
• Social media platforms
• Your YouTube channel
• Email newsletters and marketing
• Other marketing materials

Your product promo video should feature prominently on your website’s homepage and primary landing pages for your product. If you host your video with an ad-free video hosting platform like ScreenPal, you can easily embed your videos on your website. In addition, you can brand and customize your video player, and add CTAs to your videos to guide your viewers to the next step after watching.

Make sure to publish your video on your company’s YouTube channel. Include links in the video description to your product landing page. That way, viewers who find your video on YouTube can visit your website to learn more and purchase. If you create the demo video using ScreenPal, you can directly upload your video to YouTube from the software. 

Use your product demo video in your email marketing. Demo videos are a great way to help new customers get immediate value from your product. Include links to your video in your welcome email or new user onboarding emails. If you have an email newsletter, you can promote your demo video to engage your existing audience.

6 great product demo video examples

Now that you know how to create product demo videos that engage and convert, it’s time for inspiration! The best way to learn how to create videos is by studying masters of the craft. We provide some of our favorite examples below and explain what makes them unique. Please use these examples for inspiration!

Airtable

Airtable‘s project management software allows users to manage and track various projects across different platforms and devices, such as phones, computers, and emails. This Airtable software demo video guides the viewer through multiple case scenarios executed across the computer and smartphone within 2 minutes.

This engaging and interactive video has been produced primarily with a screen recorder and a high-quality microphone. You can create a similar video on a limited or no budget. Airtable is an excellent example of how you don’t need thousands of dollars to create an engaging demo video.

Slack

Slack is a productivity and team collaboration tool that allows different team members to collaborate on projects and facilitate prompt communications. Slack’s videos illustrate how you can use these videos to clear misconceptions and highlight specific features of your products or software.

The Slack product demo video has numerous layers. It includes animated components, live voiceover narrations, webcam footage, and screen captures of the Slack platform. The screenshots and screen captures are presented alongside live-action scenes, making the guided tour even more engaging.

Duolingo

Duolingo is one of the world’s leading language learning apps. It uses gamification to keep users engaged, turning languages into a fun sport. Duolingo’s product demo video accurately captures the app’s fun and simple nature. It includes screen captures of the app alongside simple captions and 2D animations of the Duolingo mascot.

In less than 30 seconds, the Duolingo demo video highlights the app’s primary features and emphasizes its simplicity. When you watch the video, you feel like you can get started immediately after downloading the app. Furthermore, the video can be prepared with a simple screen recorder, making it extremely budget-friendly.

Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon absolutely nails it with their product video for the 3rd generation of Echo Dot. Within one minute, the video takes the viewer through all of Alexa’s primary features, such as voice activation, playing music, and setting reminders or alarms. Of course, Alexa has many more features than these, but this product video only focuses on the most important points.

The Amazon Echo Dot demo video highlights the importance of focus. Instead of taking the viewer through all of the device’s features, which is next to impossible, the video only focused on the most attractive features. That’s important for all product demo videos — understand what your audience truly wants and give it to them.

Grammarly

Grammarly is a digital spelling and grammar tool. It’s a simple software that offers intelligent recommendations to improve your writing, making it read and flow better. Grammarly’s software demo video is engaging and effective because it actively shows the product in action. The live-action scenes are overlaid with screen captures of the software in action, so you know exactly how it works.

Grammarly’s software demo video highlights one key facet of storytelling — show, don’t tell. Instead of simply informing the user of the benefits, the demo video shows how it corrects different texts. Furthermore, by showing us scenes of people working in libraries or walking around, we can see that anyone can use the tool on smartphones. You get a real sense of how the tool works.

Google Translate

Google Translate is the go-to application for anyone needing a quick translation. It features the broadest range of language translations possible, and it’s capable of automatically detecting the language. This Google Translate product demo video shows us how the app works instead of telling us about these features.

The Google Translate software demo video is extremely simple. It features screen captures of the app in action with some rough on-screen drawings to guide our attention. With these simple features, the demo video can maintain the viewer’s attention. This product video is yet another excellent example of simplicity winning the day.

Now that you’ve gone through the best product demo videos on the market, it’s time to create your own. Follow the simple steps mentioned in this article to attract, engage, and convert your viewers today with a video promo.