Share your product demo video and I will help you improve it

Very much so! I have three main apps: Shoot Pro Webcam, Beat Sheet and Video Pencil (and really the fourth is Video Pencil Camera). MRR is around $2-4K at the moment.

For what it is, this feels pretty solid to me. It's clear and brief, given its purpose. I like that there is audio for all the keypresses and sound effects, and everything goes in nice and quick (did you use a script to drive the interface, do a good performance, or is it all in the editing?).

I'd skip the dashboard introduction at the end, if this is intended to be part of a playlist. But if you do expect people to discover these videos ad-hoc, you might want to briefly state what problem Picktime solves, and what it is, at the start of every video.

A better microphone would add the next level of polish.

No offence if not, but was this made with one of those AI video avatar services? It's oddly stilted, with a touch of the uncanny valley... The voiceover feels a little weird ("Imagine being able to navigate the usual........... Audience............ Acquisition.........").

I'd recommend starting from a voiceover that flows naturally and then editing the video to fit, rather than inserting huge spaces between words to make the audio fit the video.

In fact I think all the strangeness in this video comes from doing this the wrong way round.

If you're really wedded to this timing, you could fix it by adding more sound effects (e.g. "as it requires"....ding..."effort"....ding...."time").

But if you let the voiceover drive the edit instead of letting the video space it out, you'll have something much punchier and easier to digest.

I would probably just create a commented demo with Loom. Fast & easy.

How would you imagine demonstrating this product in a video? Would you have an abstract explanation using motion graphics or would you use screen recordings to show how it is used from a developer's perspective?

Motion graphics are pretty time-consuming and could be expensive to outsource, but I'm not sure they're really be necessary for your target audience to understand your offering.

So I feel like the bulk of the work would be in coming up with the right example data for screen recordings and being able to reset to a known state for multiple takes as you try to get a perfect recording.

I worry about outsourcing the edit because you're quite dependent on the editor understanding the web development concepts behind the product.

Then it's a decision about whether you want to record a voiceover or use titles and captions to drive the narrative. Again, I worry about outsourcing a voiceover to somebody on fiverrr in case they don't understand the technical concepts well enough to say them convincingly!

Rather than a general introduction video, you might get more milage by creating different videos demonstrating workflows with different integrations, for example "How to send form data from your static website into Google Sheets", with separate videos for AirTable etc... You could almost get away with a silent video attached to a blog post.

Personally I'd suggest using Apple's Screenshot app to record a screencast and then learning to edit and add titles using the free version of DaVinci Resolve.

I think you'd struggle to get decent results by outsourcing the video production of something so specific and technical.

Definitely good to create an emotional journey but I would try to get to the problem statement sooner. Something like "are you a victim of your own success, overwhelmed by brand partnership requests?" before moving on with your own story. Just so that the viewer can immediately tell whether you have anything to offer them. Otherwise they may fall off before they even find out what sort of offering you have!

You have loads of great looking footage that isn't directly tied to the voiceover so you have lots of flexibility to tighten this up. I would suggest doing another couple of drafts of the script to cut out as much as you can before re-recording.

I'm glad you show the software being used. It's important people know what they're getting. But maybe keep it a bit more high-level for this intro video and break out how-tos and feature guides into shorter videos that can be collected into a playlist and used for customer help and support.

Think about whether the first few seconds of your video will stop your target audience from quickly scrolling past it. Once you have their attention, you can slow down.

This is really nice. (I was thinking about building something like this yesterday so it's nice to see it done so well!) The value proposition is immediately evident and the graphics do a great job detailing the quality of your work. The captions add impact and will work well on mobile screens.

In answer to your question, the difference between live production and other techniques really comes down to the amount of effort required.

Shooting a live demo is much easier than editing something from various sources of raw footage and/or creating a lot of motion graphics.

But live video has a very different feel. Live-streamed content will tend to run long and requires a certain amount of up-front trust from your viewers, so it's not necessarily the first thing you would do when looking for an audience.

If you don't live stream, you can still use streaming software to throw together a product demo very quickly if you want to validate your idea before investing too much time in a more polished video. This is my preferred approach these days and the reason I have been creating tools like Beat Sheet.

...this is amazing. Love that you're always looking to do one better! Cheers

I think this is really nicely done.

However, if you're not wedded to the music then that's a huge problem as it drives the whole edit! If you're editing to a beat you really need to settle on the music first.

I don't think you need to change anything, but if you do, maybe try to make it a bit friendlier for small screens? The desktop interface will be hard to see on a phone screen.

But yeah, don't overthink it - this is more than ready to ship in my opinion.

Sales-wise, you’re following the right structure - leading with the problem and explaining your solution with a clear call to action.

Visually I think everything is clearly explained. Your motion graphics tell the story well. I think it was smart to bake in the subtitles.

The main thing I’d focus on is the audio.

Compared to other videos, it’s quiet! There are many ways to boost the volume in software - there might be a check box that brings everything up to a “normal” volume, or you might need to use an audio compressor. Let me know what editing software you use and I can be more specific.

The voiceover sounds a little echoey. You can either install acoustic panels or have a few cushions and blankets around to absorb audio reflections.

Or, both audio issues might be solvable by simply moving closer to the microphone! Here’s a quick post I wrote on microphone technique.

Beyond this, you could look into royalty free music libraries if you want to add a bit of background music. You could add some subtle sound effects to highlight clicks and other actions within the video demos.

Audio is a funny thing because if you do a good job, nobody will notice!

First thing I notice is the heavy noise reduction - makes your voice sound a bit fluffy. What kind of microphone are you using? Do you have access to a quiet environment for recording?

I can't tell if you're working from a script. Your delivery is clear and natural so hats off if so, but it not, the next thing I'd work on is writing a script to create a much tighter presentation.

I found that the web page did a better job of explaining your offering than the video and I'm not sure how well this video would work in isolation. I am guessing that the idea is to save the users feeling like checking their site is a chore, so a screencast full of spreadsheet deep-dives doesn't necessarily communicate the message that your offering will make their lives easier.

It's nice to do a deep dive but you should have something a lot shorter available to communicate your value proposition as quickly as possible. A good script structure is 1. state the problem, 2. explain how your solution works, 3. call to action. If you can throw in an emotional story up-front then all the better ("I launched an expensive marketing campaign before realising that the YouTube video on my homepage had been accidentally set to private!").

If you start by thinking about what would look good in a video you can improve the clarity and design of your software. You clearly have a lot of features but from a birds-eye-view, the app could be a bit more appealing. And the more visually useful and appealing your software looks, the easier it will be to record a good-looking screencast of it!

How would you present this if you had Powerpoint and a 10 minute slot? What are the headlines? Focus on these first and foremost. You don't need to mention every single detail - users can discover these details once they trust that you understand their problem and know how to solve it.

If you want to talk about individual features, I would recommend shooting shorter videos that you can put in a playlist. Otherwise you have to record a new video every time you add a new feature to avoid it becoming out of date.

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Tangentially, is your DNS okay? The page takes a long time to load for me (mostly stuck "resolving host").

I like how unassuming and open you are about your offering and your production values seem representative of the early stage your business is at.

Structurally it's pretty good - you introduce yourself and quickly explain what you're doing. But you could be more specific about the problem you're solving and how that problem feels to your target audience before they start using your platform.

You could improve your audio by getting some acoustic foam and/or cushions for your room. Anything that absorbs reflections, especially given that you are quite far away from your microphone. Audio is the first thing you should address before you next record.

Raising your camera up so that the vertical lines in your room are vertical in the frame would mitigate the feeling that we're looking up at you from your laptop. The open door behind you is a little distracting 😅.

But yeah, you seem pretty comfortable on camera, and invested in your offering, so I think this already does the job.

The next level is to work with a tighter script and be more intentional about what you mention and what you don't. How can you represent the value you're offering in the shortest time?