Demo videos + self awareness = 100% attention 🍿

10 ways to make better demo videos—with one little secret (SaaS products, I’m looking at you)

While I’m a big fan of interactive demos, sometimes recorded demos can steal the show.

The best product videos I’ve seen share one simple secret:

🪞 They are self-aware.

From my experience, this is THE single trait of ultra-successful product videos: self-awareness. But what exactly is “self-awareness” in demos?

Watch these 3 exceptional examples:

Webflow:

Self-awareness starts at 0:22

Descript:

Self-awareness starts at 0:24

Walnut:

Self-awareness starts at 0:01

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🧠 How can we make our demo videos self-aware?

10 practical ideas to get your juices flowing:

1. Opening Line: Start with, "Bet you're already thinking of skipping this, right? Well, give us 30 seconds to surprise you."

2. Honest Counter: Display a timer or a progress bar labeled, "Time till the exciting part," and keep it fun.

3. Fake Drama: Be epic or overly dramatic (when you’re just talking about a web app), then break this dissonance, as Webflow did.

4. Behind-the-Scenes Banter: Have a moment where the product presenter turns and asks the camera person, "Do you think they're still watching?"

5. Pop-up Comments: Insert humorous, self-deprecating pop-up comments like, "Yup, this is the boring bit" or "Hold on, the good stuff's coming."

6. Rewards for Watching: Mention, "For those still with us at this point, here's a fun fact or a discount code!"

7. The Right Questions: Ask the viewer, "Ever wonder why these demos feel so long? Us too. Let's change that together."

8. Unexpected Props: Bring in a random item (like a rubber duck or a wizard hat) and say, "Thought this was just another demo? Guess again."

9. End with a Twist: As you wrap up, have someone from the crew walk into the shot and say, "Are we done yet?" Or, surprise the viewer with a sudden, unexpected (but related) product feature.

10. Break the 4th Wall: Include a playful conversation between the narrator and the characters in the demo, just like in the Descript example above.

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TL;DR, nobody really wants to watch a demo. So please, address the elephant in the room, and make a video that screams, "We all hate demos—but watch this."

See you next week ✌️

Tom