A product demo or short introduction can help visitors understand your business. Getting a recording ready to publish is usually the harder part. VidTL is a browser-based editor for trimming footage, adding captions, and cleaning up audio.
Start with the recording you have
A video does not need a studio setup to be useful. A phone or screen recording can show a product, explain a service, or answer a question customers keep asking.
Watch the recording once before editing. Note where it starts late, pauses too long, gets hard to hear, or needs a caption. Then fix those parts. You can use the VidTL editor in your browser.
Where to use it on your site
- Homepage: Introduce the person behind the business or show what the product does.
- Service page: Walk through the steps a customer will take.
- Product page: Show the item in use or answer a common question.
- Article: Demonstrate a step that is easier to show than describe.
Keep the written information on the page too. Visitors may prefer to read, or they may not be able to play the video.
Make one short video first
Pick one page and record an answer to a real customer question. A 60 to 90 second introduction is enough to start. Say who you help, what you do, and what someone should do next.
Trim the beginning and end, remove pauses that slow the answer down, and add captions. Preview the result on a phone before adding it to the page.
Add captions
Captions let people follow along when they cannot turn on sound. Check the words after generating them, especially names, prices, and technical terms.
VidTL has a guide to adding captions if you need the steps.
Trim long pauses
People pause while recording. Cut the stretches that make the finished video feel slow, but leave enough space for a sentence to land naturally. VidTL’s silence removal guide shows one way to do it.
Check the audio
If one speaker is much louder than another, adjust the levels before publishing. Listen with headphones as well as your laptop speakers. The audio levels guide covers that edit.
A simple editing order
- Choose the page and write a few talking points.
- Record on a phone, webcam, or screen recorder.
- Cut the beginning, ending, and unnecessary pauses.
- Add captions and check the text.
- Adjust audio or brightness if the recording needs it.
- Export the video, add it to the page, and check it on a phone.
For another edit, VidTL also has guides to combining clips and adjusting brightness.
Ideas for your first video
- Show how a product works.
- Explain what happens after a customer gets in touch.
- Answer the question you hear most often.
- Introduce a class, service, or member of your team.
Start with the question you can answer clearly. Edit only what gets in the way of that answer, then put the video where visitors will find it.