The Power of an Effective Product Demo Video
No Matter What Product or Service You're Pitching, Product Demo Videos Are the Best Way to Close the Sale.
Product demo videos are one of the most effective tools for persuading customers and closing a sale. Of course, that isn’t surprising—product demonstrations have been around for many, many years.
Long before YouTube and product demo videos were a thing, silver-tongued pitchmen were gathering crowds and performing live product demonstrations. For example, the traveling medicine shows of the Old West. Or the door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen of the 1950s.
Here’s How It Works
Remember Ronco? If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, you probably saw an early form of product demo videos—TV ads for Ronco products like the Veg-O-Matic, Mr. Microphone and the Pocket Fisherman.
Those commercials all featured the voice of company CEO Ron Popeil touting product features, and using memorable catchphrases like “Just set it and forget it” and “Here’s how it works.”
Product Demo Videos
Of course, production values today are a lot better than they were in the 70s and 80s. High quality product demo videos can be created inexpensively, with no need for a large crew or truckloads of equipment.
Recently, we produced the product demo shown above for Sionic’s new Pay-by-Bank service. It’s a mobile payment solution that instantly transfers funds from consumers to merchants.
We shot the video in a Midtown Atlanta restaurant, Sams of San Francisco, right after the lunch crowd cleared out.
That’s Sionic Account Specialist Charles Jackson on camera (an impressive performance—he can read a teleprompter like a pro) and company CMO Cedric Brown holding the boom mic.
We started off filming the full script and audio, then moved closer to the counter for various B Roll shots of the Pay-by-Bank app, and the CODE Pay merchant app.
The entire production only took a few hours. Honestly, we could have finished faster, but had to stop several times for late lunch customers picking up orders.
Product Video Effectiveness
So why go to the trouble and expense of creating product demo videos? Is it worth it?
Based on the latest industry statistics, YES!
According to HubSpot, video is the #1 content type used by marketers to sell products and services.
73% of all U.S. adults are more likely to purchase after watching a product video online.
30% of the top-performing landing pages include video content.
According to Internet Retailer, including a video on a landing page increases likelihood of purchase by 85%.
And according to Wyzowl, 66% of consumers prefer watching a video to reading about a product or service.
About the Author:
Harry Hayes is the owner and executive producer at Content Puppy Productions, a corporate video production agency based in Charlotte. Before starting Content Puppy, he spent 20+ years as an advertising writer and creative director.
