How to Record Feature Announcement and Onboarding Videos for Your SaaS
A feature announcement and an onboarding video fail in opposite ways. The announcement re-teaches the whole product to people who already use it. The onboarding video assumes they already know where the buttons are. Record two files.
Both can be made in DoDemo, on Mac or Windows, with the project staying on your machine until you export.
The feature announcement
The viewer has an account. They opened your email or your changelog because something new shipped. They do not need the origin story, and they do not need a tour of screens they used yesterday.
Script:
- Name the new result in one sentence. "You can send the weekly report without exporting a CSV."
- Start in the place they already know.
- Click the new control.
- Hold on the result.
- Say where to try it. One path.
Keep it inside one to three minutes. People who already pay you will watch a short proof. They will not watch a re-onboarding. The length ranges, from Wistia's 2026 report, are in how long a demo should be.
In DoDemo, capture the window, hide the recorder, and let the zoom follow that new click. Delete any zoom that landed on an old menu. Smooth the cursor. Add captions, because changelog embeds are often muted. Export MP4.
Put the file in the email and in the product, next to the control you just showed. If the video and the button disagree, fix the video.
The onboarding video
The viewer just signed up. They need one success, not a map.
Record a separate file per step. "Create the first project." "Invite one teammate." "Send the first report." Each file starts on an empty or sample account and ends on a visible done state.
A single ten-minute orientation feels complete to the person who recorded it and unfinished to the person who had to pause it. Short files can sit on the empty state they describe. The viewer watches the step they are on.
Use the same recorder settings. Window capture. One zoom on the result of that step. Captions on. A last line that matches the button on that screen, such as "Create the project."
Do not mention every later feature. The second success is the second video, and they should meet it after the first one worked.
What the two files share
They share a clean account, sample data with no real customer names, and a cursor that goes to the control and clicks it. They share DoDemo's automatic zoom as a first pass you then trim.
They do not share a script. Write each one with the five-line template. The viewer line is different, so the task is different.
Free exports include a watermark. If these videos live inside your product or on your homepage, Pro removes it. Plans are on the pricing page.
Download DoDemo and record the announcement first if something just shipped. Record the first onboarding step if new users are getting stuck before they see a result. Do not try to make one file do both.