How do you make interesting videos when your product is boring or highly technical?

Make videos about your buyer’s problem, not your product. Nobody wants a video about reconciliation software, but finance leads will watch one about the three mistakes that make month-end close take two weeks. A “boring” product almost always sits next to an expensive, frustrating problem, and that problem is where the interesting videos are.

Why product videos underperform

At any given moment, most of your future customers aren’t shopping. Professor John Dawes at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute estimates that only around 5% of B2B buyers are in the market in a given quarter, because companies tend to switch providers every few years. Feature videos only speak to that small group. Everyone else scrolls past.

Problem-led videos reach the other 95%. They’re useful today, so people watch them, and they leave your name in the viewer’s memory for when the need arrives. LinkedIn’s 2024 research with Edelman found that 75% of decision-makers said a piece of thought leadership had led them to research a product or service they weren’t already considering. Useful content creates demand that a demo can’t.

Five angles that work for unglamorous products

1. The costly mistake. “The spreadsheet error that cost a client six figures” beats any feature tour.
2. The before and after. Show what the process looked like before it was fixed and after, with real numbers if you have them.
3. The insider explanation. Explain something your buyers deal with every day but don’t fully understand, like why a compliance rule exists.
4. The myth. Correct a belief your industry repeats that you know is wrong.
5. The decision guide. “How to choose between X and Y” attracts people who are close to buying.

Making technical topics watchable

• One idea per video. If it needs a diagram with eight boxes, it’s three videos.
• Use real examples. Specific numbers and scenarios beat abstract explanations.
• Show, don’t describe. A screen recording or a quick whiteboard sketch beats a minute of talking about a workflow.
• Open with the consequence. Start with what goes wrong, then explain why.

The myth-buster and the mistake breakdown are covered in more detail in short-form video formats for founders. Turning one subject into a recurring segment also works well in technical niches: see how to turn founder expertise into a video series.

Where your best topics come from

Your sales calls are a goldmine. Every question a prospect asks twice is a video. Every objection is a video. Every “wait, I didn’t know that” moment on a demo is a video. Keep a running list for a month and you’ll have more ideas than you can film.

Turning expertise into watchable clips, every week

Founders of technical companies rarely lack things to say. The hard part is shaping it into short, watchable pieces week after week. The DIY approach is a monthly session where you answer ten real prospect questions on camera, about a minute each.

If you want help with the shaping, Dopameme turns founders’ technical knowledge into short-form scripts and edited videos, pulling hooks from the problems buyers actually describe. The principle is the same either way: lead with the problem, and the product will come up naturally.

Bottom line

There are no boring products, only videos pointed at the wrong thing. Make content about your buyer’s costly problems, common mistakes and big decisions, because most buyers aren’t shopping yet and useful content is what they’ll remember. Mine your sales calls for topics, keep each video to one idea and show the problem instead of describing it.

Sources: Ehrenberg-Bass Institute: 95% of B2B buyers are not in the market for your products; LinkedIn: B2B thought leadership research from LinkedIn and Edelman.