Tip: What should be in your Battle of the Apps Demo video?

Many developers often are challenged in creating their demo video for their app. If this sounds like you, this tip will be useful so you can creating a powerful video that results in more customer acquisitions. If not, then you’ll have a quick checklist that you have it right.

Recorded videos and even audio can be a bit intimidating -- I get it. We all want to put our best foot forward and leave a great first impression to viewers. I have good news for you – it doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, most small businesses are okay with casual, simple videos versus a high-dollar professional production. Substance matters in a video, not so much form, so here are some solid tips to improve your demonstration video.

1. HAVE A PLAN FOR WHAT YOU WANT TO COVER

Like a good film, a demo video should have a story you want to tell. While the app is probably very useful or interesting, you should tell a story about its beginnings, its founders and even some of your challenges. It doesn’t have be very specific, just a little bit of the background for why you created your app. Even if you don’t think it’s a flashy (or grungy) start in a garage, people are interested in humble or scrappy starts behind apps.

Plan for the time you have allotted. For Battle of the Apps, you have four minutes to work with. You can always do shorter, but no longer than four minutes. In that four minutes, you need to be conscientious that you have limited time and should put the most important takeaways first.

In that video, show, not tell. The more you can demonstrate your points visually, the less you have to explain with audio. And for what can’t be demonstrated, make it snappy and simple for people to understand.

2. CREATE A SHORT PRESENTATION AND/OR SCREENCAST

If you’re camera-shy, no problem. Even if you love the camera, with four minutes (or less) to spare, you need to get to the good stuff right away. A good way to tell a story and show your app off is to use a simple presentation. Avoid using boring/cliché clip art. Don’t load up your slides with more than a few sentences of text or more than six bullet points. You do have a lot of flexibility to get your points across, but be realistic that you’re not Steven Spielberg.

I recommend splitting your video into two parts: first three minutes of slides and the last minute to be a screencast demo.

3. USE GOOD-QUALITY AUDIO

You don’t need to go to a music studio to get great sound for your video. Avoid using the internal laptop microphone if you can since the sound appears thin and tinny. A Blue Snowball or other condenser mic (via USB, even), will work just fine for narrating a video. Have a cup of room-temperature water nearby so you can take sips without changing the pitch of your voice. (When you drink cold water, your voice changes a bit and you often have to compensate to normalize your voice.)

If you don’t have access to a condenser mic, don’t laugh, but see if you can record the audio in a walk-in closet or other small room. Avoid echos or other noises like air conditioners, fans or people. With less cubic footage in the room, the sound will be tighter and not pick up other outside noises. Avoid recording near a window in case ambulances, trains or even planes interrupt your demo.

If you have difficulty (like I do) narrating your demo while doing a screencast, no problem. Do the demo out loud to yourself a couple times and get the pace and the substance. Then afterward, you can use an audio recorder like Audacity to lay down your narrator track. Then use a program like iMovie or Camtasia to put your narrator track with the video. Plan to do several takes to get the right one. Don’t beat yourself up for a few “Uh’s and Um’s” – you’re human and this is a new app. Be patient and you’ll get the right cut. If you mess up, pause give yourself a couple seconds of silence and resume. This will help you when you edit the breaks and cuts later so you’re not mincing words in the video editor.

4. GET TO THE MEAT, SAVE THE DETAILS FOR LATER.

As far as content goes, here’s what I recommend for a format:

- Your Name, Name of Apps – Hi, I’m Jane with AcmeApp.”

- What the app does – “It generates leads from your blog.”

- Parallel example of existing known apps – “We’re the Mint for Bloggers”

- Who the app benefits – “It benefits realtors, landlords and property managers.”

- Qualify the audience – “It’s ideal for those with more than 10 properties and manage multiple blogs.”

- Key Benefits – “This app tracks your performance of your blog traffic, popular pages and delivers you recommendations. It increases your leads and sales while keeping costs low. It helps you save time in manually pulling stats for reports.”

- Proprietary Features – “We developed a unique method of tracking leads and sales from the moment people land on your site, to the moment they become a customer. Unlike Google Analytics, we track the entire sales funnel and offer proven recommendations.”

- Show the App – “It’s easy to get started. Simply log into AcmeApp, add your Infusionsoft credentials, click here, choose that, drag this, drag that … and you’re done. Just follow the recommendations so you can [restate your benefits, support them].”

- Conclude with a Call to Action – “ Get started today by visiting acmeapp.com and create your free account or click the “Get the App” button on the Infusionsoft Marketplace. Since we’re just launching, our service is half-price for a limited time. Visit acmeapp.com for more information!”

I know that looks like a lot. Four minutes goes by quick, but it will get your key points across in the shortest amount of time possible. Leave the details, feature lists and other non-critical information for the website. The goal is to build intrigue, quick understanding and desire for your app. Much like a car commercial on TV, you don’t need to list all the features the car has, just enough to build interest and get people to the website.

When you apply these tips in your video, you will have a more qualified buyer, a more educated customer and help the judges quickly determine if you are a finalist for Battle of the Apps.

Good luck and don’t sweat the small stuff! :)