Screen Capture Videos: The Ultimate Software Training & Demonstration Tool

If you've ever watched a video that shows somebodies computer screen as they demonstrate how to do something or the capabilities of a certain piece of software they are known as a screen capture videos. They are quite possibly the ultimate software training and demonstration tool as they allow you to see exactly what you would see if you were going through the process yourself. Would you rather read a 2,000 word instruction manual or simply watch a 2 minute video that shows you exactly how to do something so you can follow along? The majority of people tend to go with the second option.

The problem is most people aren't taught how to set up these kind of videos at school, it's not something that you would come across until you really need to know how. That gives you an advantage if you learn how to make these videos and can guide people through the process of something. Whether you are selling software or teaching something you can get your point across in the half the time and in a way that accelerates the learning process.

To get started all you need to do is pick up some screen capture software. I've personally used Camtasia Studio (you can get a free trial), Easy Video Suite and a few others that don't deserve a mention. Both of these solutions work great with the main difference being that Easy Video Suite manages the whole process for you from recording through to hosting it on the web and even tracking and analytics once your videos are live, where as Camtasia Studio is more of a fully featured screen capture software solution with advanced editing options but a steeper learning curve as you need to manage the full process and host the results yourself.

Once you've mastered the process it is easy to create short demonstration videos and tutorials for pretty much anything you can do on your computer. Here are a few ideas to get you creative juices flowing:

• Software Demonstration – Are you selling software or SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)? Increase conversions by showing people how your software works before they buy access.
• Video Marketing – You can create and publish video tours of your websites and digital products to social media sites and blogs to expose a wider audience to your offering.
• Customer Support – If people are having issues with any part of your product or service, often a quick video can help you to clear things up and if you're not sharing personal details you might even be able to reuse the video for marketing purposes.
• Training Videos – Create videos that teach people how to  do something very specific (like how to build a membership site for example ;) ) and then you can sell access to those videos online.

After creating your screen-capture video, the next step is to get them to rank. Discover the hacks to ranking your videos on Google in this post.