If your team is considering a PLG (Product-led Growth) strategy this year, an interactive product demo is a great way to start. Generally, PLG motion requires a detailed process to build a freemium or free-trail model. However, if B2B product marketers adopt interactive product demos as part of their marketing funnel, teams don't need to go through hard processes for PLG motion.
In 2023, PLG motion will dominate the SaaS marketing strategy and according to prodcutled.com more than 50% of SaaS companies have already invested in PLG motion for next year.
Infographics, powerpoint presentations and explainer videos, often only tell part of your story. This is where it helps to be familiar with interactive demo solutions.
Getting to know Interactive Product Demos
An interactive product demo is a self-served product demo in which prospects can experience product UI and features. The most significant benefit of interactive product demos is that the product marketing and sales team can onboard prospects and drive them to the "Aha" moment without a long sales cycle.
Product marketers also should consider what types of interactive product demos should utilize to help their prospects drive "Aha" moment. Interactive product demos allow the product marketing and sales team to understand user behavior, such as the points that prospects spend most of the time, and provide a personalized sale process with this data.
Now that we've covered the benefits and reasons you might want to consider an interactive product demo. Let's dive into how to get started as well as some considerations you might want to explore before moving forward.
How to Utilize Interactive Product Demos
Know your audience
Before building an interactive product demo, you need to understand the audience. Is your target audience tech-savvy? Are they familiar with specific user experiences? You will need to understand what type of interface they are familiar with and consider how to deliver a product experience. Suppose the users are familiar with complex user interfaces. In that case, they will quickly understand without additional UI patterns, but if they are non-technical users, you might need some extra elements on the product demo.
Define the purpose of the demo
Interactive product demos are for discovery funnels or lead nurtures for product marketers. The sales team can use product demos to showcase product features for prospects. The customer success team uses it to help the onboarding process. Is the intent of your product demo to show core features to everyone? Or Is your product demo for assisting customers in comprehending your product better? Each team has a different purpose for each demo, and it is the main thing you should consider.
User Flow
The user flow of the interactive product demo will be different based on the goal of the product demo itself and user behaviors. Once you define the purpose of the demo, you will need to think about the optimal user flow for the product demo. Product demos for product marketers will help achieve qualified marketing leads. The sales team would like to close more sales, and the customer success team would like to provide the best onboarding experience.
Don't design a Demo; design an experience
Before implementing interactive product demos, product marketers and the sales team should brainstorm how to demonstrate the product and drive prospects to the AHA moment. Start validating the selling point that users reach their AHA moment and create a storyboard that tells the product story effectively.
Website and landing page
Embedding interactive demos is a crucial product marketing strategy as PLG motion. Let website visitors try the product features and UI and feel the product realistically. It also will help PLG motion for some products or service which is complex or hard to build free trial or freemium model.
‘Request a Demo’ vs ‘See a Demo’
If embedding the website is unsuitable for the team, then add an interactive demo in the sales cycle. Traditional (aka. painful and lengthy) sales process requires prospects to schedule a meeting or discovery call and wait 5-6 days to see the demo. They already feel exhausted before having a real-time experience. Skip the CTA ‘Request a demo’ and provide ‘See a Demo’ to reduce this tiresome process. Once prospects sign up, the sales team can email the interactive demo or activate interactive demos themselves.
A strategic plan using interactive content
You might think B2B interactive content marketing should be different from B2C, however, B2B interactive content is also for human interaction. Of course, they might have a longer journey than B2C buyers, marketers should keep in mind that B2B buyers also need fun experiences during their journey. Instead of a run of the mill infographic or 7 minutes long explainer video, provide interactive content even on a small point.
Long story short prospects today have much higher expectations for product demo experiences. They no longer want to schedule a time later that week to attend a live demo where they are forced to speak to a salesperson. Instead, they want to be able to join a demo at a time that's convenient for them without having to speak to anyone (yet still have the option to chat live if a question arises). In addition, prospects want to be engaged and entertained throughout the experience.
Switching to an interactive demo might seem like a tall order but it's actually easier than you think. While there may be interactive demo tools available, often the time it takes to build these demos is not. If you need support engaging your customers Tacpoint is here to help by offering simple, high impact demos that could be self-served.
Either way don't let scattered demos cost you clients. 2023 is the year to deliver better and more memorable demo experience that engage customers and help you close more deals. Want to learn more about interactive product demos? Check out Tacpoint's interactive demo solutions.
