If your company is looking to showcase a product or service, having a video demo puts you at a significant advantage. We’ll explore in this article how a video demo creates buzz, saves time and connects and engages your target audience.

What is a product demo video?

A product demo video is fast becoming a critical part of the sales process of B2B and B2C companies. With these videos, you have a tangible opportunity to demonstrate the value of your product to a prospective customer.

However, they aren’t all creative equals. An uninspiring product demo can slow down close rates. Conversely, high-class product demos have the potential to rocket sales.

In essence, the demo often means the difference between closing a deal and losing a prospect. A great demo lets your prospects understand how your solution truly solves their pain points and enables them to become more successful in their job.

As Geoffrey James explains in, Give a Great Product Demo: 5 Rules, “There is almost nothing more powerful than a great product demonstration.

When done correctly, a demo allows the customer to see and feel how things will be better if they buy (and worse if they don’t).”

So, if you’re looking into why a product demo video might be the right marketing choice for your product, here’s the guide for you.

Key benefits of video demo for companies

1. Create a buzz around a new/product service

If you want to see the trend moving towards product demo videos, have a peek at Amazon. An increasing number of products have demo videos these days and they allow their product to stand out from others on the search page. There’s a big difference in the appeal that can be garnered between an image and text and video. Suddenly, you have music and movement to gather attention and keep it.

Your brand might be excited about releasing a new product and product demos allow your audience to feel that buzz. Whether you’re making this product demo in-house or with professionals, lighting, sound, even animation can help to give an insight into the key features and value that will positively impact your customers.

2. Evergreen

Although product demos are an expense upfront, their potential reach is great. Post on your social, use in ads, create a link in your email newsletter, upload to YouTube. If you’re going down the traditional route, the same video can be repurposed for TV.

3. Less intrusive

Rather than convincing people through words, a product demo lets your product speak for itself. Ultimately, this lets the customer decide for themselves if the product is suitable for their needs. Non-intrusive marketing means viewers are more likely to click into your CTA and explore the product.

4. Refine, recreate, reap the rewards

With product demos, you can track analytics to see how viewers engaged with your video. At what point did they click through, or conversely, at what point did they lose interest? There is no such thing as the perfect video, but over time there is huge potential with video analytics to refine content so it reaches your target audience and speaks to them.

5. Help your sales team

Running a sales team is costly. What with salary, commission and travel expenses, it can add up. Giving your sales team video content that they can send out before a meeting saves time, which reduces expenses for the business.

6. Solve your customer’s problem

Here is the crux of product demos. It is the core reason behind why so many businesses choose to create demos. Customers are short on time and if you can convince them in a quick video that your product will solve their problem, you’re setting your product up for success. When a customer sees a product in action, it’s far easier for them to see themselves seeing its benefits. Try to avoid filling the video with your business’ values and mission— this is the time to focus on the customer’s needs and wants and address them directly.

7. Combat concerns

To piggyback on the last point, this is also your chance to address why the viewer may be reticent to commit to your product. Research the potential barriers to purchase, and work with your video production team to ease these concerns. If the price is high, you need to showcase how your product is superior to competitors, for example.

8. Let your brand’s personality shine

If you’d like to learn more on how to achieve this, our previous article Top Product Demo Examples in 2022 gives plenty of food for thought. We’ve also included a list of definable goals for an outstanding product demo.

Need an epic product demo video?

Although anyone can create a product demo video, this doesn’t mean that anyone can create a video that will make an impact. Top video production agencies don’t get there by chance. Understanding people, inviting viewers in with compelling stories and compiling expertise, talent and marketing knowledge gives your video the best chance of succeeding.

Let expert storytellers with years of video production experience, a healthy dollop of creativity and expertise create your next product demo video.

Give your product the video marketing it deserves by getting in touch with us at VideoWorks London today!

You can also connect with our sister companies, VideoWorks Dublin, VideoWorks Cardiff and VideoWorks Belfast.

The post Key benefits of Product Demo Videos for Companies appeared first on Video Production London - VideoWorks.

Product demos are not news. It’s an age-old method of introducing customers to a brand’s products in the hopes that it will convince them to purchase. So, how do we convince a customer with a product demo? What constitutes an outstanding product demo? And crucially, how can we stand out from competitors?

We’ll be giving you definable goals to apply to your product demo so that you can move viewers through the funnel to close sales. After that, we’ve got product demo examples to inspire your next video!

Definable goals for an outstanding product demo

1. Settle on your audience

Who is your audience? Before creating a product demo, you need to be clear on who they are including their lifestyle, habits, goals and pain points. There’s no point in creating a sleek, stylish video if it doesn’t resonate with your target audience. Too many businesses skip over this step and are left scratching their heads when their campaign doesn’t achieve the expected impact.

Take time to draft and refine your target audience.

2. Create tangible value

If your target audience views the product demo and doesn’t want to reach into the screen for your brand’s product, then it’s not doing its job. Again, it’s why point one is so crucial. Knowing the ins and outs of your target audience mean you can creatively design a demo that makes this product feel like it’s already missing from their life.

3. Creativity

It doesn’t matter who you’re selling to, there is always room— and need— for creativity. Expecting incredible results with hum-drum videos will leave you frustrated with your brand’s video marketing. Focusing too much on the features and specs of a product won’t inspire your audience. Create an entertaining product demo, and you’ll extend reach and build a brand connection with viewers.

3. A beginning, middle and end

Great product demos tell a story. Why? Because that’s how we as humans make sense of the world. Land viewers into the world of your brand and product with a grabbing introduction, The middle of the demo is when you can showcase product features and benefits. The finale is how you’re going to create enough intrigue to create sales, which leads us onto…

4. Call to action

Seal the deal. Give them a clear calling on where to go next. You’d be surprised how many product demos just fade into the ether. As Robert Riefstahl expresses in a Forbes article, “ You need to stick the landing in your demo like a gymnast does at the end of an Olympic routine.”

5. In-house or agency?

The temptation to cut costs here is understandable, everyone has a camera stuck to the back of their phone today. Generic copyright free music is but a download button away. Even apps on the phone means you can cut and edit a video in a couple of minutes. What can go wrong?

Although anyone can create a product demo video, this doesn’t mean that anyone can create a video that will make an impact. Top video production agencies don’t get there by chance. Understanding people, inviting viewers in with compelling stories and compiling expertise, talent and marketing knowledge gives your video the best chance of succeeding.

Five Epic Product Demos

We’ve cherry-picked four product demo video examples that are “best in class”. So whether you’re looking

1. Headspace

This product demo is truly evergreen. Looking at the Youtube stats, the video has 18 million views over the last four years. Headspace, the mindfulness app, is known for its calming whimsical animations. The voiceover is calm and centred, the sound effects bright and cheerful. That’s what Headspace embodies. It’s not a serious app, but a relaxing, upbeat and helpful one. The viewer can clearly see the brand’s values and how Grammarly’s features will positively impact their life.

2. Turbo

Turbo is one of our own clients. If you’re looking to simplify concepts and stop the scroll with memorable imagery, animation is the way to go. Another bonus to this format is it’s far easier to organise, requires a smaller team and so, is often more affordable than live video production. Of course, there is still the need for creative professionals, software and time. Saying that the overall costs tend to undercut live video production.

Find more ways to use animation in your video marketing strategy.

3. Grammarly

This Grammarly product demo is completely geared towards the struggles of college students. “Grammarly means better results”— what student doesn’t want a software package designed to tidy up their assignments?

Take note of the call to action, it’s clear, persuasive and a no-brainer “Try for free today”. Here’s exactly what we’ve been discussing; if you know your customers inside and out, you’re far more likely to create a video that excites them.
This video posted in August 2021 has over 158 million views. They’ve segmented their audience in their product demos which is really helpful if you’re investing in paid promotion. They have completely different styles and tones for their product demo geared towards working professionals. This might be something to think about for your brand if you’re trying to appeal to a fairly broad audience base.

Need an epic product demo video?

Let expert storytellers with years of video production experience, a healthy dollop of creativity and expertise to create your next product demo video.

Give your product the video marketing it deserves by getting in touch with us at VideoWorks London today!

You can also connect with our sister companies, VideoWorks Dublin and VideoWorks Belfast.

The post Top Product Demo Examples in 2022 appeared first on Video Production London - VideoWorks.

Instagram isn’t an impossible platform to gain traction in– although it can certainly feel that way without the right tactics. If you follow and commit to these steps in 2021, you will experience growth in your reach and engagement.

Let’s get into it!

There is no “beating the algorithm”

This term is mentioned by social media gurus about as frequently as it rains on the streets of London, but it just isn’t true.

Yes, there is an algorithm. Its job is to provide users with content they will enjoy so they stay longer on the platform and watch more ads.

That’s it.

It’s not out to get business accounts or show your post to only 10% of followers unless you pay to boost it.

Saying that, although we can’t beat the algorithm into submission with a stick – we can use the algorithm in our favour. We have to be focused and tuned in to what our audience is seeking. That means recording weekly stats and analysing what had your followers commenting, liking sharing. Monitoring which posts increased your brand’s reach. Analyse your competitors – observe when their account is experiencing a spike in growth and find out why.

The better your content engages your audience, the more the algorithm will push it out.

Engaging

Before even discussing how to create quality content for your brand – here’s a trick that so many businesses miss. They don’t do the engagement work.

Time each week needs to be committed to reaching out – it’s rare for posts to go viral and a business to gain thousands of followers overnight. However, although the rate of growth is slower this way, it’s much more steady and reliable. Take the time to comment, like and share content from those with a potential interest in your brand. Be genuine and try to make comments at least five words in length.

Here is what other articles won’t share; they want content marketing to appear very glamorous and feed-focused.

However, the behind the scenes graft, such as engagement, that will make your posted content far better received. You’ve done the work, built and maintained the community, and these people are far more likely to interact with your content.

Create snappy video content

Instagram rushed out its additional video features – reel, guides, and IGTV– to keep followers who are migrating to TikTok. With each update, functionality improves, and marketers are getting more of an insight into how people are using these features. We’ll look at the four main video formats with tips on how to make an impact:

Reels

Use the tools available in the Reels uploading process:

• add text (do this!),
• music (also unless speaking, throw a song in the background),
• filters and effects.

That being said, creating a reel is simple – it’s making an engaging one that’s the trick. The key is to find content that’s sparking conversion on social. Create a unique slant adds value and entertainment. Also, showcase the exciting parts of your business, offer sneak peeks of secret projects.

Feed Video

While a reel is set in portrait mode (1920px x 1080 px), feed video’s have the square dimnesions (1080px x 1080px) that’s classic to Instagram. Keep this in mind before shooting, as you might find it impossible to fit your video neatly into the frame.

• No need to use the whole minute – in fact, it’s better if you don’t. A Hubspot study revealed that feed videos that received the most comments averaged 26 seconds. Our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text, making people scroll quickly through Instagram. Try shortening your videos to fit users’ expectations – less is more.
• Set a cover image – it’s easy to forget and is one of the last steps. You can do so while writing your caption. People will scroll right past the cover image if it’s a random, blurred frame from the middle of your video.

Stories

Stories are becoming more and more essential to a business. Some key elements to weave into your strategy:

• Consistency– it’s okay to take days off (you can announce the day before that you’re going for a #digitaldetox) but try to post 4-5 days a week and create a story arc on those days…
• Story arc– rather than posting random images throughout the day, instead post a couple of subsequent posts that tell a story. This method is far better for story retention and feels more experiential and meaningful for the viewer.

IGTV

IGTV has the lowest engagement and views compared to the above features, and it’s no wonder why. Social media users are consistently looking for short, snappy, shareable content. HOWEVER, there is one exception: Lives, ESPECIALLY Lives with guests. These are great for exposure as both your audience and the guest’s followers can tune in and watch– you can also save this to your IGTV.

Research your competitors’ strategies

Not just what competitors are positing, but also how often and what times. Inspect their captions, how they reply to comments, who’s liking and engaging with their posts.

This doesn’t mean to copy-cat everything your competitors are doing – that way, your brand will always be one step behind and also would detract from your own brand identity. Instead, be a critic – what’s working well for them and what isn’t. That helps to take the guesswork out of what will perform for your business on the platform.

Captions

Here’s your chance to encourage participation, and communicate a compelling CTA (call to action) is the path to engagement,

Get your comments section busy by exploring a topic that matters to your audience. Value their input– respond to comments with thought rather than just planting in a few love hearts.

User-generated Content

Make user-generated content a pillar of your content marketing.

Why?

UGC has a 4.5% higher conversion rate on Instagram.

Create exciting campaigns and giveaways to get your followers involved. Request that they tag your account and maybe use a specific hashtag to gain reach for your brand. Be sure to reshare this content! You have a strong testimonial at your disposal here.

With so many brands vying for Instagrammers time, the fact they made the time to create content for your brand shows that they trust and align with your business.

If you’d like to create video content that is expertly crafted and tells a strong story – you can contact us at Videoworks here.

The post How to Create an Instagram Content Marketing Strategy 2021 appeared first on Video Production London - VideoWorks.

We’ve done many, many testimonial videos for our clients over the years. In this article, we’re going to share how to create the best testimonial video for your budget.

Why video testimonials are a good idea

• Testimonials make for a great story – hearing someone’s experience of your business is a brilliant idea and not just for creating a level of trust. When done right, testimonial videos are entertaining as the customer tells their story, which leads us onto…
• Testimonials are evergreen – these are incredible assets to have that you can share around your online presence. You can also gather a lot of valuable content out of a single testimonial.
• They are cost-effective – unlike a high-end, underwater content shoot, you don’t need a whole lot of fancy equipment. We’ll be getting into what you will need further on in this article.
• They offer behind the scenes – there’s such a saturation of brands, and consumers don’t necessarily buy the cheapest or the best product anymore. Yes, they’re looking for high-quality, but are also searching for personality. If they enjoy your content, if they can connect with your business, they’re far more likely to become loyal supporters. 86 per cent of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support (Stackla, 2019).

Top Tips for Creating an Excellent Testimonial Video

Before recording day

Here are tasks that are great to do in advance of shooting so that everything runs smoothly.

Get clear on the video’s tone

We’re mentioning this before shoot day because it’s key to having brand consistency online.

Is your brand humorous? Natural? A bit cheeky?

Even if you’re a B2B brand, there has to be more to your brand’s tone than ‘professional’. Once confident in the feelings you want to invoke in your audience from this video, then the next steps will be much easier to create.

Write a script

Collaborate with your customer about what aspects of the customer relationship you want to focus on.

As you’ve got the tone nailed, communicate with your customer how they can help bring this to life. For example, if your content often feels unscripted to the users, encourage your customer to make full use of their own personality– to smile, laugh and crack a joke!

Choose a Testimonial video format

There are a couple of formats you can consider. Each option will provide a different feel to the testimonial. The first is known as the talking head style. Typically, we’re shooting from the chest up. This is used so much in journalism because it portrays a sense of truth, reliability and professionalism.

Next, you have conversational interviews, and these instantly set a more casual tone. Note that even the type of chairs you sit in, straight back versus a couch, can be used for tone setting. The more welcoming the set, the better chance your audience will connect with the message.

Remote interviews are obviously handy if you and your client aren’t in easy reach of each other location-wise. Having a video production company create up a set in your client’s base saves time and prevents having to travel. In the end, you’ll have a high-quality testimonial video to have on hand.

The Set-Up

1. Camera

What sort of shooting equipment do you need?

You can use a smartphone camera if you’re tight on budget. The newer smartphones specifically are delivering higher quality footage. However, what you might struggle with is a shaky end-product. A mid- to high-range DSLR and tripod will produce a sleeker finish.

The last thing you want is to ask a customer of yours to come in and spend half a day recording just to realise that the footage isn’t usable.

For a professional and engaging finish, consider going with a video production company. They’ll have all the equipment and expertise to pull in the viewer. Stopping the scroll is an art form, and takes more skill than meets the eye. If you have the budget, outsourcing video testimonials enhances the look and feel of the finished product.

2. Sound

There’s nothing better than nice crisp audio. Research published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society found that low-quality audio made people perceive the quality of a video overall as much lower. So how can we ensure high-quality audio? Using a lapel microphone, also known as a lavalier microphone, helps pick up the speaker’s voice. If you’ve got the budget or already own one, shotgun mics also work well in this scenario.

3. Lighting

Natural light, or a recreation of it, is often what suits this style of video. Softbox lights are wonderful for creating diffused light that is flattering and appealing to the eye. You can also sit the speaker facing a window and shooting with natural light, although it will be a little more unpredictable, and you have to contend with clouds.

4. Warming up to the camera

The first take won’t be the one that makes the final cut. That means that you need to set time aside for multiple takes, allowing the customer to relax and get used to the lens and lights.

5. Add graphics and text

Of course, this doesn’t have to be done but overlaying your testimonial with text has a few benefits. Captions make it easier to catch and keep your audience’s attention. View time increases by 12 per cent when videos have captions. Many people dip into their phones during the workday and will keep the volume on mute while accessing their favourite social media apps. Graphics are another really effective method of holding attention and also an opportunity to strengthen brand recognition.

6. Editing

Editing isn’t just snapping the snippets of footage together. Using techniques such as colour grading and transitions throughout the conversation helps to create a standout video that engages the viewer.

Also adding music, whether as an intro or outro or an ambient instrumental throughout the testimonial is a great way again to connect with the audience and invoke the desired feelings you want out of the testimonial.

Testimonials make a business trustworthy, having a video format makes them more engaging. They help your audience discover your brand and what makes it unique. Crucially, people can envision themselves availing of products or services. You can get in touch with us here at Videoworks if you’d like to collaborate on your next testimonial video.

The post How to Make an Incredible Testimonial Video appeared first on Video Production London - VideoWorks.

Here at VideoWorks, we are interested in our business and other businesses. One of the perks of the job is that we are able to enter other businesses and see how they work. From that vantage, we have seen how video has helping to improve businesses! Internal messaging within a business can be complicated and getting everyone on the same page almost impossible. Video production can do this and that’s why training videos are a growth area for us.

Every company worth their salt needs a professional development strategy. Producing a video or a series of videos to help your employee’s professional development or inform them about big changes to their workplaces (we won’t mention Brexit) is a fantastic way of informing them in a visual manner. Since the alternative would be face-to-face meetings, video production to share important information to employees is cost-effective. 

Training video production is also such a fantastic tool because employees are more likely to remember and respond to the training delivered via video. The videos can also be accessed whenever the employees need to and can be re-watched in the workplace or at home. One of the great benefits is that so much training is theoretical but video production and dramatisation can transform the theoretical into reality and multiple types of scenarios and examples can unfold to illustrate an important point.

If incorporating a trainer into the video, it is far cheaper to film the trainer an distribute internally than for the trainer to visit the various locations a business might have. INstead of on-going training costs, a video would require a once-off payment. Get in touch with London’s leading video production provider now for a competitive training video quote!

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