Demonstration videos are becoming increasingly popular online, for a wide variety of reasons. Here we take a look at the key benefits of Demonstration Videos and examine why your business should be using them.
What is a demonstration video?
A demonstration video is exactly what it says: a video that demonstrates a product or service, with the aim of increasing leads and sales for your business. It’s a highly effective marketing tool, which is why it’s becoming an essential part of every business’s digital marketing mix.
81 percent of businesses report having increased sales as a result of their demonstration videos. So why are they so effective, and what benefits can they offer for your business?
Demonstrate how your products work
This is the first and most important point of demonstration videos – they show potential customers that your product works, by showing them how to use it. This may sound pretty obvious, but these days consumers do a lot of research online before they purchase a product, as they want to make sure they are purchasing something that will solve the problem they have searched for online. A demonstration video is a great way of showing them in simple steps how your product is capable of doing this.
Capturing vision of software in action
Four out of five consumers state that they find product demonstration videos helpful, with almost 50 percent now searching for videos related to a product online before they have even visited a store. Online consumers are also 64 percent more likely to purchase a product after watching a video about it than those who haven’t watched the video.
Product demonstration videos are also extremely effective for B2B sales, as businesses also want to make sure they’re spending their money on something that is actually going to solve a problem and increase productivity at work. For example, this video (from a set we produced for Merchant Suite) demonstrates step by step how the software can make it easier, faster and more secure for businesses to take payments over the phone.
Demonstration Video Example from Rockmans Creative Media on Vimeo.
Inform consumers in a memorable and enjoyable way
The key to audience engagement is to provide them with information in a way that they understand and enjoy. Video is the ideal medium for this as it offers so many ways of presenting information, including filmed images, voiceovers and graphics, enabling you to make difficult concepts simple and enable your audience to identify with your brand and its products.
Four times as many consumers would prefer to watch a video about a product than to read about it – and this is also true for 59 percent of business executives. This makes demonstration videos ideal for marketing to a wide variety of consumers and businesses.
People are also much more likely to remember details about your product if they have watched a video about it, as viewers remember, on average, 95 percent of the information they see in a video, compared to just 10 percent of what they read in written text.
Create trust in your brand
Product demonstration videos are a great way of convincing audiences that your brand is trustworthy and the products you sell actually do what you say they do. People have become so saturated with advertising these days that they are reluctant to believe claims made by brands about their own products. By watching a demonstration video, they can see for themselves that the product works. They can also watch every step so they can learn how to use the product and be satisfied that they could manage this themselves at home. Finally, a demonstration video offers them visual proof that the result is the one they want and expect, enabling them to make an informed and confident purchase decision.
It says a lot that 90 percent of consumers now report that online product videos help them decide what to buy.
Sony FS7 camera capturing over the shoulder vision
Sell to existing customers
Product demonstration videos aren’t just useful when it comes to attracting new customers – they can also be a great way of increasing your offering for existing ones, too. Your existing customers already trust your brand, so they’ll be more likely to buy from you if you’re offering a product that solves another one of their problems.
You can use product demonstration videos to make your existing customers aware of your new products in several ways: by sharing them on your social media pages, uploading them to your brand’s YouTube channel or sending them to your subscription list via email. It’s worth mentioning that including the word ‘video’ in the subject line of an email increases its open rate by 19 percent and its click-through rate by 65 percent – a great way to get more of your existing customers interested in something new you’re offering.
Reach a wider audience
In the past, a major problem for businesses has been getting their products seen by people outside their immediate area. The time and cost of having sales reps demonstrating their products in different parts of the country have often been prohibitive – international audiences were completely out of reach.
The beauty of a demonstration video is that it can literally be seen by anyone in the world who has an internet connection, instantly offering you a hugely expanded potential customer base. They can also watch your video multiple times if they feel there’s anything they missed the first time around – something that simply isn’t possible with a live demonstration.
Even if your company does still employ sales reps to do live demonstrations in your local or regional area, a video can be the ideal training tool to teach new staff the best ways to demonstrate the product. It can highlight all the features that they should be drawing attention to, and give hints of useful things to say to get the key messages across to consumers.
Director, Cameraman and Actor working on Demonstration videos
Sell without selling
Perhaps the biggest advantage of a product demonstration video is that it doesn’t feel like a sales pitch. As consumers actively seek out videos to help them make purchase decisions, they will be encouraged by what they see as useful information, rather than being discouraged by feeling as if they are being given the ‘hard sell’.
If you would like more information about product demonstration videos, and why it’s important to have them professionally produced, please get in touch, and we’ll be happy to help.
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