When building online Flash or video demos, many organizations lose sight of their main goal – making it easier for customers to understand and buy their product. Web marketing and design expert Stephanie Diamond says organizations need to avoid these seven key mistakes in order to ensure their marketing demo remains powerful sales tools.

1. Don’t skimp on sound. Silent software product demos with complex interface screens, complete with cursors that point in several directions and screens that change without explanation, are confusing, and may suggest to your user that the product is harder to use than it really is. Spend the money to add audio, Diamond says.

2. Keep it short. Approximately 3 minutes is about right, and anything more runs the risk of losing the visitor's interest, regardless of how engaging the demo may be.

3. Don’t hide pricing. Make sure pricing is shown right after the demo ends, and end the demo next to a "buy now" or "more information" button. If you don't have confidence in your pricing, then you have a bigger problem than Web site design, she says.

4. Don’t forget to collect sales leads. One of the reasons for creating a demo is to capture the attention of viewers browsing a site. If they are interested in viewing a product demo, get their email address and request permission to send them a targeted newsletter, specific information or a special discount. If they give you permission, you have taken the first step in opening a valuable dialogue with them.

5. Avoid ostentatious graphics. Web site visitors have passed the stage of being impressed with animation for its own sake. A splash screen that booms out the name of the product to great fanfare is a waste of time and money. Animated splash screens can be used effectively, but many times they are gratuitous and/or meaningless.

6. Don’t waste time on corporate info. Customers need to know that the company is reliable, and has a quality product, but this should be done on the Web site in the main, and not in a 3 minute presentation, Diamond says. Don't spend valuable demo time on lots of corporate information.

7. Squeeze the most from your demo investment. A demo can be repurposed in a hundred different ways to make it a more worthwhile investment, yet so many companies ignore this benefit, Diamond says. When writing demo scripts, think about the different audiences you can target with small changes. You can take the same script and add a section that targets resellers. With a change to some of the graphics, you have a demo that will be useful for the next annual business meeting. A few different changes and it's useful for the company's international market. When you create several versions at once, the cost of the changes is minimal.

Diamond is founder of Digital Media Works, an Internet marketing firm. For more information, visit her Web site here.