How To Make A Product Demo Video With No Equipment

Product demo videos are there to answer the one question every website visitor is thinking: 

‍How does this thing really work? 🤔

It’s an intimidating question to answer when you’ve been head-down coding or selling to customers one-on-one. And that’s why product demo videos are helpful in any software business.

But many businesses miss out because they feel like creating demo videos takes a lot of work. 

Here’s the good news: A product demo video doesn’t require a master’s degree in video-making. It doesn’t even need a week-long demo video training course!

‍You can create a professional video from the comfort of your office chair without even touching camera equipment. 

In this post, we’ll cover the following: 

• What a product demo video does
• Why product demo videos are so effective at sales 
• How to write a product demo video script
• How to record your screen for demo videos 
• What tools to use for product demo videos
• Three amazing product demo videos

What’s the purpose of product demo videos? 

Your product demo video is there to do two things: 

1. Show your customers what your product looks like when it’s used by someone like them (secondly, illustrate that it’s easy to use for a beginner). 
2. Give customers the proof they need that your product meets their needs. 

And the ultimate end goal of product demo videos? 

It’s to get their email, phone number, demo call booking, or trial activation.

Product demo videos can help you: 

• Increase interest in your product. You show customers what they’re signing up for. This helps to boost client engagement and can boost conversion rates. 
• Save time on sales. With a product demo video, you and your team don’t have to handle demonstrations via email or video call.‍
• Minimize support requests. It takes away confusion and addresses the client’s expectations.

Four steps to create a product demo video with no equipment

With a little creativity and the help of some state-of-the-art software, you can quickly create a product demo video that has people thinking “I need this.”

Step #1: Quickly write a script with a template

It’s easiest to use a template to explain your product. The video below is a great example for teaching software.

And here's a template you can use:

Hello and welcome to [your company name].

In this video, we will show how to achieve [result your customer wants to most acheive]. We’ll also cover [secondary value proposition or pain killer]. 

Over the next [how long your video is], you will learn how to: 

• [Task one]
• [Task two]
• [Task three]

First, [tell users the first step after signing up. Quickly move to complete the first task walking through what needs to be done to achieve results.]

[Continue with additional tasks.]

[Link the final task with the initial value proposition or result you mentioned at the start of the video].

[Show users how to sign up, purchase, or contact your team. Make it clear what happens next.]

Step #2: Skip the expensive software, use an online video maker tool 

Some video editing programs look like something out of the Matrix. Understanding the terminology alone is a skill… Let alone making the actual video.  

Talk about a steep learning curve. 

Software like Adobe Premiere Pro wasn’t made for marketers and businesses. It was made for the film industry. Make things easier on yourself by using a more approachable (but no less effective) video-making tool or app.

Our solution Synthesia is what’s called a text-to-video tool. That means it can literally create a full video from just a script. (Scroll to the end of this post for a link to our free interactive product demo 😉). 

You can turn your script into speech with different voices and languages, record your screen, choose an avatar, customize templates, and even edit the video automatically.

There are other tools out there to help you with things like 2D and whiteboard animation, such as Powtoon.

Step #3: Record your screen to demonstrate tasks

A screen recorder is a feature that allows you to capture what’s happening on your computer screen. Because the viewer can follow every click you make, screen recordings are particularly helpful when creating a tech demo video. 

Different screen recording programs (such as ScreenRec) have other parameters for capturing your screen, like recording the entire screen, a specific window, or a customized screen area.

While you can do a product demo video in one take, it’s often easier to record multiple short videos and edit them together.

Step #4: Add a human AI presenter to create an engaging demo video

We’ve heard a lot of reasons why you wouldn’t want to record yourself for a video: 

• Sitting in front of a giant camera feels uncomfortable.
• The equipment is expensive and a hassle to set up.
• It takes you multiple takes and a ton of time.
• Your speech is riddled with um’s and ahh’s.
• Videos come out looking homemade and not professional. 

Human AI presenters help you make videos way faster. With none of the downsides. 

Give your demo videos a face using a digital avatar — a photo-realistic digital representation of an actual human. In Synthesia, choose one of the 65+ presenters. Every avatar is unique, with different hairstyles, ethnicities, clothes, and more.

3 Great product demo video examples

1. Product Demo Video: Yoast SEO for Shopify

Yoast is a search engine optimization plug-in for Wordpress to help websites to rank better on search engines.

Why Yoast’s product demo video on SEO for Shopify works:

• The demo video introduces the topic through a presenter, which establishes a human connection.
• The presenter identifies how the product will benefit the target audience.
• The big title cards coincide with YouTube’s chapter functionality.
• The switch between the presenter and screen recording makes it feel like  a one-on-one demonstration.

2. Product Demo Video: ProofHub

ProofHub is a project planning tool for teams to work together on tasks, communicate, share files, generate reports, and keep track of projects and progress.

ProofHub is a great example of a product demo video because:

• It has a quick 15-second introduction of what the product can do.
• It showcases the “first look”, of the interface the potential user will work with.
• How the product demo video illustrates what you will learn with title cards at the beginning of each new section.
• It goes into the details of each feature with real life examples, leaving no room for confusion.

3. Product Demo Video: Toggl Track

Toggl Track is an online time tracking tool calculating the time spent on different platforms, with detailed insights to assist with optimizing a business’ workflow.

Why Toggl Track has a good product demo video:

• Starts and ends with where the software can be found by viewers.
• Quickly introduces the mobile app before moving on to the desktop app.
• Uses YouTube’s chapter feature for easy following and rewatching.
• It shows how the app works alongside other platforms with a demonstration. 

Ready to create product demo videos?

Demo videos are an excellent way to showcase your product or service in a concise and engaging manner.

And now that you know how to create one without any fancy software or expensive equipment, there’s no excuse not to get started on making your own. 

When you’re ready to try your hand at making a demo video yourself, check out this free interactive product demo for Synthesia. It’ll help you create professional-looking videos in no time.