7 tips for better interactive product demos

When it comes to showcasing your product or platform through a demo, capturing the attention and interest of your audience is paramount. A well-executed demo can effectively communicate the value proposition of your offering and leave a lasting impression. In this blog post, we will explore six key tips to make your product demo stand out and drive meaningful engagement.

1. Explain the value proposition, not what they're clicking on.

Let your platform speak for itself and focus on the value your platform brings to the table. Payble does this really well, using the opportunity to explain why recurring payments for council rates are better for councils and for ratepayers.

"The dashboard shows status icons" doesn't add anything, the viewer can see that. vs. "Your team will have a shared view of task status helping them coordinate outbound campaigns more effectively".

This captures a value proposition that solves a problem and uses the platform to demonstrate how it achieves that.

2. Edit, edit, edit

Like writing good quality content, or perfecting an outbound email, keeping your demo concise and focused is important. If your demo is over 10 steps, make sure each of those steps is important.

If you really can't cut it down...

3. Insert chapter breaks between large concepts

If you have a long demo and a complex application, use overlays to transition between larger concepts and portions of your application without making the viewer click through value-less navigation steps.

You can also incorporate lead capture between these concepts so that you give a little bit of value, get their details, then give them more value.

4. Invite people to explore where appropriate

One of the best things about interactive product demos is the ability to scroll around and discover more depth during a walkthrough than a video.

A great opportunity for this is when you have a list of template options on the screen, a dashboard with graphs below the fold, or a page with lots of inputs.

It's as simple as adding "Have a scroll around and check out the page before proceeding" to your annotation.

5. Utilise the highlight feature to draw attention to the right things

You don't need to use highlights everywhere, because it reduces discoverability. As mentioned, you might want to allow people to scroll around and view a page in more detail before moving on, skip the highlight in this situation.

6. Be upfront. Explain what they will learn/experience throughout the demo

This gives the viewer something to be curious about, and explains why they should check the demo out.

Some copy I've used for this: "By the end of this demo, you'll understand how you can achieve a 360º view of your business services and critical processes using X".

7. Get started, don't let perfect be the enemy of good

HowdyGo makes it so easy to create a demo, you can have a great first draft in 10 minutes. Once you've started to get a feel for the process it'll be easier to apply the tips I've mentioned above. So don't stress, just capture something and edit/re-record as necessary.

Conclusion

By implementing these six tips, you can enhance the effectiveness of your product demos, leaving a lasting impact on your audience. Remember to prioritize the value proposition, keep your demo concise and focused, use chapter breaks and lead capture strategically, invite exploration, leverage highlights selectively, and set clear expectations. Empower your product demos to engage, inform, and captivate your audience, ultimately driving greater interest and adoption of your offering.

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