Demo Videos
How to make a demo video that shows your product clearly — what to include, how long it should be, and how to record, edit, and share one with Tella.
What is a demo video?
A demo video is a prerecorded presentation that outlines how your product or service works to a prospective customer. A demo video is usually short and covers the main benefits of your product or service and how much it costs. Demo videos can be prerecorded and published on your website or tailor-made for a prospective customer.
Because the recording is made once and reused, a demo video also removes the need to repeat the same walkthrough on every call. The same recording can sit on a pricing page, go out in a sales email, or answer a question inside a help centre.
Types of demo video
Most demo videos fall into one of a few types, and knowing which one you’re making tells you what to leave out:
- Sales demos are aimed at a prospect who is evaluating you. They lead with the problem, show the two or three moments where your product solves it, and end with a clear next step.
- Product demos show how a specific product or feature works. They stay close to the interface and are usually shared with people who already know who you are.
- Onboarding and support demos are made for existing customers. They answer one question — how do I do this thing — and are best kept to a single task per recording.
- Investor and internal demos show progress rather than teach a workflow, so they favour a short narrative over a click-by-click tour.
A demo video is not the same as a tutorial. A tutorial teaches someone to complete a task from start to finish; a demo shows enough for a viewer to decide whether the product is worth their time.
What to include in a demo video
A demo that holds attention usually follows the same shape:
- Open with the problem, not the interface. One or two sentences on who the video is for and what it will show.
- Show the product doing the job. Work through the flow the way a real user would, rather than touring menus.
- Stay on the two or three moments that matter. Edge cases and settings screens are where demos lose people.
- Say what it costs, or where to find pricing, if the video is aimed at a prospective customer.
- End with one next step — start a trial, book a call, or read the docs. One, not three.
Record your face alongside your screen when you want the demo to feel like a person walking someone through it. A voice and a camera make a walkthrough easier to follow than screen footage on its own.
How to make a demo video
Record
From the Tella recorder, you can record just yourself or share your screen as well. When you press “Start recording,” you’ll get a three-second countdown to prepare. You can record your demo in clips, so no need to feel you have to get it perfect on the first try.
Customise
Once you’ve recorded all your clips, you can customise them in the editor window. With Tella, you can trim clips, rearrange recordings, add subtitles, select custom backgrounds, and apply different layouts for the position of your camera and screen.
Share or Download
When you’re done editing, press “Finish.” You can watch the demo and share it with a link, download it as an MP4 file, or embed it on your website.
How long should a demo video be?
Match the length to where the video is going to be watched. A demo embedded on a landing page or sent cold is competing with everything else in the viewer’s day, so it needs to make its point quickly. A demo sent to someone who has already asked for it can afford to be longer, because the viewer has chosen to watch.
As a rough guide: keep a demo on a website or in a first outreach email short and focused on a single problem, and allow more time for a demo aimed at new sign-ups or existing customers who want the detail. If a demo is running long, the usual fix is not to speed up — it’s to cut a section, or split it into two recordings that each answer one question.
Recording in clips helps here. Because each part of the demo is its own clip, you can drop a section that isn’t earning its place without re-recording the whole thing.
Frequently asked questions
Record the walkthrough, edit it down, and share it. With Tella you record your screen, your camera, or both, and you can record in clips rather than in one take — so a mistake means re-recording one section instead of starting again. Then trim and rearrange the clips, add subtitles, choose a background and layout, and share the result as a link, an MP4 download, or an embed on your site.
Demo videos should give your prospective customers a well-rounded idea of your product or service. But it shouldn’t be stale. Your demo video should intrigue your customer and give them a clear idea of how they could use it. To do this, including all the features and benefits that would be important to a prospective customer.
It depends on the audience. A demo on a website or in a cold email is competing for attention and should stay tight and focused on one problem. A demo someone has asked for — a new sign-up, or an existing customer looking for detail — can run longer, because the viewer has already opted in. If a demo feels long, cut a section or split it into two recordings rather than rushing the delivery.
A demo video is usually for prospective customers, but they’re also used to attract investors, train employees, and help users. Depending on who the demo is for, what’s included in the video will be slightly different.
A tutorial teaches a viewer to complete a task from beginning to end, so it covers the steps in order and doesn’t skip the awkward parts. A demo shows enough of the product for someone to judge whether it’s worth their time, so it stays on the moments that make the case and leaves the rest out.
You should clearly know what you want to cover in your demo video. By no means should you wing it, especially if you have a potential customer on the line. So if a script helps you, then write one. But it’s fine to go through the demo a few times to get a feel for it. With the Tella screen recorder, you don’t have to be perfect every time. You can record your demo in clips and stitch them together afterward.