Video Production for Startups: Telling Your Story From Day One

The story can be told many ways: some companies might start with slick, animated explainers. Others might opt for shaky handheld recordings that show a founder sitting at a desk late at night. Either way, the camera should show that the company exists and that it has something to say. Here’s how video production for startups should work.

Finding the Right Image

Before pressing record, the question is simple: what do you want people to feel? That is the actual image decision. Some founders will enjoy a clean and minimal style—others, a raw and unfiltered tone. For the second case, there are vintage cameras available today that can create a mood of imperfection. Some would say that’s because the dust on the lens and the grain in the frame match the startup’s chaotic energy.

Style is your strategy. It can send a signal about what kind of company you are and how you want to be remembered. If you say you’re bold but your video looks like a safe corporate ad, the message will most likely break. On the other hand, if you’re saying you’re playful and your video contains no humor whatsoever, then the audience will feel the gap.

The Founder on Screen

Every startup has one figure that people look to. Whoever it is – the technical founder, the designer, the strategist – their face should show up early in the life of the company. Don’t worry about their acting skills, as they only need presence. They simply need to look at the camera as if it were one person and not a crowd.

Investors in particular respond to this. They read decks all day long. But the moment they see the person behind the numbers, that’s when their choice takes a new direction; the belief in the product gets tied to the belief in the person.

A video of a founder explaining the story in their own words can push the first round of funding closer than another round of spreadsheets ever could.

Products That Move

A startup product is usually something new. It’s often something not yet understood by the average viewer. Words can describe it, but words stumble. A good promotional video can show the object moving, working, and being used. A demo that lasts 30 seconds might just as well save 30 minutes of explanation. This is especially true for tech products that solve problems no one knew they had. A quick clip of the product in action removes the distance between idea and reality.

Videos Need Rhythm

Not music alone, but pace. Long cuts of someone speaking can be a little bit heavy on the viewer. Short clips with quick transitions can feel nervous. The startup must choose a rhythm that fits its character. For example, a financial platform may go for steady, slower edits that project stability.

Editing is invisible when you’re doing it right. The viewer feels the energy without thinking about the cut. The danger comes once people believe they can ignore the rhythm. Then the video drags, or it jumps around in a way that makes people instantly want to click away.

Distribution From Day One

The final step is to release the content. A video hidden in a company folder will, of course, have no effect. Video needs to live on websites, inside emails, on social feeds, in presentations, and at trade shows. The same clip can travel across many channels; what matters most is getting it out early.

Startups often believe they’ve got to wait for a marketing department or a public relations plan before they begin to release content. That hesitation costs attention. A short video filmed on day one probably won’t look perfect, but it will start the habit. It will begin as an archive of company history and give outsiders the sense that the company has been active from the very start.

Startups and Video: The Relationship

Now, even though Forbes has recently said how AI video startups are currently racing to capture the market moment, there’s another place where startups and video meet. Video gives a startup the chance to be seen in motion before it’s seen in numbers. The valuation may not yet exist. The financial model might still be sitting in a spreadsheet with missing cells. But a short clip on a landing page can do something the spreadsheet can’t. It can suggest a certain amount of confidence. It can communicate energy. And it can plant the sense that something is already happening.

Startups live by attention. They’ll need customers to try the new product, investors to place money on an idea, and employees to bet their careers on an experiment. Film works as the medium that covers those three layers, all at once. It will let the founder introduce the company without sitting in the room and let the product shine without being present in a store.

Conclusion

A startup story told on video is much stronger than a story hidden in a document. People believe what they see. That’s why video should sit at the core of communication from the first week onward. You’ve got to show the world that the company exists, that the people behind it are real, that the product has life.

The lesson is simple. Start early, speak clearly, let the camera do the rest. Video production for startups should create memory, build trust, and set the tone for growth. From day one, the frame will hold your story in place.

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Product demonstration videos eliminate the need to be continually showing your products and how they work for different groups of audiences. One video can be distributed across various social media networks, email campaigns, and your own website.

Best Product Demo Video Examples

Product demonstration videos have found to be exceptionally effective an improving your website’s conversion and bounce rates. Posting and embedding product demo videos will help drive more users to your website, increasing your sales and revenue. The top companies in the world use product demo videos to showcase their most important products and services in dynamic, engaging, and compelling ways. The following are among the best product demo videos online today.

Keep Content Simple

Keeping a product demonstration video short and to the point will draw the viewer in and enable them to focus on the information and benefits of the product you are showcasing. This short product video for the app Cubeit is powerful in its simplicity and brevity. Viewers are simply shown how easy the app is to work through flowing, elegant visuals in a smooth, appealing flow. There are no voiceovers, no use of technical terminology, no graphic or animated elements that distract the viewer, and soft background music to guide the viewer to the end.

Keep Visuals Simple

Using elaborate, wild imagery to grab the attention of the viewer tends to muddle the message and distract from the information you are delivering. This Duolingo product demonstration video uses basic visuals and smooth motion graphics to show the functions and benefits of their language-learning app. Keeping with only one image at a time on the screen will help viewers to focus and make it easier to remember the product and the solutions it provides.

Show Viewers What They Will Achieve

In this LinkedIn Learning video, “achieve” is the third word in the script. This sets up the viewer to expect to see what they can get out of the product they are about to see. It then goes into the details of how the product works and what the viewer can achieve when they put it to use. Product features are noted, and viewers are shown how the tool will help them reach their goals and find top-quality employees.

Short Videos Pack a Powerful Punch

Before the advent and popularity of the internet, most television and radio commercials were bound by 30- or 60-second limits. Online marketing videos have no such length restrictions, though most video marketers will stick to those guidelines depending on the type of video and its overall goals. Attention spans for online video viewers have never been shorter. The key for product demo videos is to get all of the information you want to include presented in a concise, engaging way. This Groupon video includes a dynamic design that is clear and attractive.

Purchase deals are presented using screenshots and icons to deliver their brand and messaging components in an impactful manner. Shorter videos present just the amount of information viewers will be able to absorb and retain, making it easier to remember how the product works and what benefits they can achieve by purchasing it.

Focusing on the Pain Point

https://youtu.be/RbDpCiAgYfk

One of the main objectives of a product demonstration video is to showcase how your products or services provide solutions for your unique set of problems or needs. Viewers of product demos are more likely to stick around for solutions when the pain point is clearly identified and described. In this product demo video by Zazzle, the pain point is highlighted at the top of the presentation using attention-grabbing animation. The video lays out the frustrations and is involved in creating your own custom goods. A screen recording technique is used to demonstrate how quick and easy it is to create a t-shirt through Zazzle while a voiceover explains the convenient shipping procedures.

Tell a Story

You can draw audiences into your product demonstration video by sharing the origin story of the business that will typically include the pain points that spawned the need for your products and services. Take viewers on the journey taken to get to the point where your business can provide solutions for the same problems and needs you had that drove you to create your product. As this video for Peloton fitness bikes progresses, viewers are experiencing the features and benefits along with the subjects in the video, making them more likely to continue on with the purchasing process.

To Voiceover…

Product videos are excellent vehicles to break down complex processes and concepts into easy-to-understand video content. The digital marketing department at HootSuite realized that a scripted voiceover to explain the complicated functionality of their media organization site. They keep the graphics and animation to a bare minimum, allowing the visual representation of how their site works with the overlay of a warm voiceover to guide viewers through the process. For voiceover-driven videos, the inclusion of captions or subtitles will help viewers absorb all of the information and make it just as effective when viewers turn the sound off.

…Or Not to Voiceover

Professional voiceover artists make a good living providing audio text to marketing videos of all kinds. This video for Cambridge Sound is a great example of a product demo video that is just as effective without voiceover. Important information is provided through smooth, slick motion graphics and text animations that draw the viewer into the content and have them become emotionally invested. Smooth music complements the visuals and keeps the narrative moving. In today’s mobile society, more people are viewing online videos without the sound, making this video, and others like it, just as effective with the volume down.

Use of Humor

Humor is a great communication tool to keep viewers of product demo videos interested, engaged, and entertained. Even the name of the product in this video is funny, and the video carries the humorous line throughout. Nosefrida the Snotsucker establishes right at the top that their product deals with gross materials that come out of your baby’s nose. They play on the “ick” factor and tie in the disgusting, yet the humorous activity of cleaning out your baby’s nose with the serious issue that their product solves.

Attention Getter

While on the topic of human bodily functions and the materials that come from them, it is worth noting the interesting way this PhoneSoap product demonstration gets the viewer’s attention. The video begins with a standard look at the global impact of mobile technology has had in the world before taking a sharp turn with ominous music and the declaration that your mobile phone has “got poo poo on it!” The video goes onto explain how much bacteria and other potentially harmful materials are on the average cell phone before providing the solution with PhoneSoap.

Live-Action

The animation is a powerful visual stimulation widely used in all types of marketing videos, but something seeing real people in real-life situations is more effective at drawing viewers in. This Seaforce product demo for a billing tool application shows you real-life people dealing with the very problems and circumstances Seaforce has solutions for, making it more credible and authentic. It showcases the pain point before it shows people actually using and benefiting from the solutions the product provides.

Use Cases Provide Powerful Testimonials

https://youtu.be/83Vpt5fZZZs

There are many ways to include powerful testimonial-type video content without putting a satisfied customer in front of the camera. In this Shopify video demo, you see three various contexts and applications for the shopping app, online purchases, in-person sales, and retail sales. This allows the viewer to put themselves into the appropriate situation for their circumstances and shows the company to be flexible and versatile.

Why Choose Us?

At Coldea Productions, teams of video production professionals have years of experience with a wide variety of marketing video types and styles. We will work with you to determine the best product demo videos that will provide your potential customers with the information they need to make a well-informed purchasing decision. From animation and motion graphics to live-action video content, we will create the most effective product demo video that will increase your brand awareness and present your business as a trusted industry leader and valuable resource for existing and potential customers.

Contact Us

Coldea Productions is a full-service video production house with the talent, experience, skills, and creativity necessary to produce the best product demo videos that will generate high volumes of website traffic and help to increase your sales. Contact a knowledgeable representative for complete information and a free estimate on our services today.

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