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Show, Don't Tell

🀫 SDT #85 - The Tour Before The Tour


Read Time: 4.2 minutes

Welcome to our 86th edition of Show, Don't Tell. A newsletter to help you build REMARKABLE interactive demos...3 tips at a time.

This week we:

  1. Let them decide whether to click or just watch​
  2. Make the first tour the shallow one, on purpose
  3. Follow one job all the way to payday

Let's get after it...

Supported By:

  • Navattic is our favorite interactive demo platform ❀️
  • It's easy to build demos of your product, that feel like the real thing
  • With HTML screen captures, easy editing, lots of sharing options, and powerful analytics
  • ​Try building your first demo for free!​
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Tip #1: Let Them Watch or Let Them Click

Two people are on your product tour page right now. One wants their hands on the wheel. The other would rather be driven around.

Front has a demo for both. They split the ride two ways:

  1. Learn by doing
  2. Learn by watching

One drops you into the interactive tour. The other plays the video. And we’re giving out some DemoDash brownie points for clear labels. You know exactly what happens when you click.

Keep this one in mind, especially if you’re team is debating about video vs interactive demo. The obvious answer is both. And it’s the same answer we’ve given since Edition #14.

​→ Pick your door on Front's tour page​

Tip #2: Open With the Highlight Reel

Wise opens their business demo with a single tour called Highlights. The welcome step lays the whole map out in one sentence:

β€œSee how you can get paid, pay invoices, earn returns, and manage spending, at home and worldwide.”

Five quick points to give you more context before you explore. Once you get to the last step, it hands you off to a deeper set of tours (if you’re interested).

Steal this example because:

  • It answers "what is this thing" and lets you get your bearings
  • Calling it Highlights sets the expectation up front

​→ Take the five-stop lap​

Tip #3 - Demo the Job, Not the Product

Tapcheck picks one job and builds an awesome mobile demo out of it. They open plainly, then run a clear JTBD story.

A shift ends, so you report the hours, and the daily balance updates in the app, ready to transfer. The balance is calculated in real time.

As the employer, you set the max limit. Then it flips sides, and the employee taps transfer and picks the amount. Eleven steps in, somebody has been paid. That's where the CTA finally shows up.

Here’s a few other things you can steal for your next demo:

  • It ends on an outcome instead of a feature (someone got paid)
  • It covers both sides of the workflow, so the employer watches themselves set the rule and the employee watches themselves take the money
  • It's built for the device the job happens on, not a desktop tour squeezed down onto a phone

One thing Jason and I would do to make this better: cast some characters. Something like "Meet Dana. Payroll closed Friday and she needs $200 today.” That will go a long way in telling the full story.

​→ Watch somebody get paid​

Make AI-powered capture edits, without leaving your demo builder

Screen captures are the building blocks of your demo. But capturing screens is only step one. Editing is where the real magic happens.

Thing like removing UI clutter, blurring sensitive data, or updating tables with fresh data. And when something in your UI changes, just update it across all captures in one click.

All of this was possible in the Navattic, but they just made it easier.

Their new In-line editor now brings capture editing, and new AI editing capabilities, directly into your demo builder.

That means you can make edits just by talking to Navattic's Co-pilot. You just click on the thing you want to edit, describe the change you want to make, and boom, it's done.

​→ Take the tour now!​

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Ask the Dash Bros πŸŽ™οΈ

A live, FREE coaching session to help you build better interactive demos (and make them your top marketing asset.)

In these 45-minute coaching sessions, Eric and Jason answer your questions about demo strategy, distribution, sales enablement, and any other challenges you're facing with interactive demos.

The next session is Wednesday, September 23rd at 12PM ET.

​→ Register now - It's 100% Free​

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So that’s it. Our 86th edition of Show, Don’t Tell.

3 useful tips to help you build remarkable interactive demos.

Tune in next Tuesday for more advice from DemoDash.

P.S.

If you know anyone else who would love these tips, please consider sending them this edition so they can subscribe πŸ™
​

​Jason and Eric​
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Show, Don't Tell

Learn how to create remarkable interactive demos that make your SaaS product easy to understand and buy. 3 practical tips and examples every Tuesday.

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