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Welcome to our Quarter Century (25th) edition of Show, Don't Tell. A newsletter to help you build REMARKABLE interactive demos...3 tips at a time.

This week we:

1. Add one gate to rule them all
2. Customize our hero section
3. Don’t beat around the bush

Let's get after it...

Supported By: We are Navattic fanatics. We had the idea for this newsletter after hundreds of hours spent building Navattic demos for our past companies and current clients. We love making remarkable interactive demos, and want to share helpful tips and examples so you can too. A huge thanks to Navattic for helping make this a reality. If you want to create a better experience for your buyers, go check them out. They have a free plan you can start using today! ​→ Try Navattic​

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Tip #1 - If You Must Gate, Do It Once

Our stance on gating demos is simple: don’t do it UNLESS you absolutely have to. That goes double for demo centers. It's like paying a cover charge at every bar in Vegas

But Samsara found the least annoying way to do it. They put one gate over the entire experience instead of making you fill out forms for every single demo.

Why you need to copy this:

• No friction jumping between different tours once you're in
• It respects that people want to explore multiple demos in one session

If you absolutely have to gate your demos (and honestly, we get why sometimes you do), at least make it feel like you're unlocking a vault of good stuff instead of paying tolls at every turn.

One form, access to everything. Done.

​→ Check out the One and Only Gate​

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Tip #2 - Lead With the Goods

Fun fact: Jason and I take hero sections very seriously. Especially when we find a completely new way to do them.

Adaptive took a big swing with their new hero, and honestly? I think they hit a home run.

Instead of the boring "copy on the left, static screenshot on the right" layout that everyone uses, they went with a vivid product image and one clear CTA: "Take the Self-Guided Tour."

The whole thing screams "this is what you get" before you even read a word.

You might want to give this a try because:

• The product is the star, not the copy
• It shows confidence in what they've built
• It wastes no time getting to the ah-ha moment

This reminds me of OrgaNice giving their demo nearly half their homepage real estate back in Edition #4. When your product looks good, why hide it amongst a sea of text?

It’s a bold move, Cotton. But this one totally pays off.

​→ Feast your eyes on this beauty​

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Tip #3 - Cut the Bullsh*t Openers

Most of us are selling complicated technology and therefore talk about it like it's, well…complicated.

Checkr reminded me (and hopefully all of you) that our job is to take complex ideas and make them seem simple. This goes for the screens we pick, all the way down to the copy that we write.

Checkr started their demo with "Let's run a background check!"

That's it. No "Let's see how Checkr helps you increase operational efficiency while reducing compliance overhead through our innovative solution." Just straight-up "here's what we're gonna do."

Why this directness hits so hard:

• I knew exactly what I was about to see
• It feels authentic instead of manufactured

Full disclosure, I'm a tired of seeing demo intros that sound like they were written by a buzzword generator.

More companies should shoot straight like this instead of trying to impress a prospect on the other side.

​→ Cut through the BS​

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Make every screen look like it was captured today! 🗓️ You want your interactive demo to feel current, right? With everything fresh, like you just captured it yesterday? But that's hard when you have dashboards with last year's date on them! 😬 Not anymore! Navattic's "AI Up-to-date" feature will automatically detect date fields in your captures and keep them up-to-date for you. So that capture you grabbed last May will always look like it was captured today 🗓️ Try it out now! Click "Edit" on any screen capture then "Magic Editors" then "Up-to-date"

Don’t have time to build remarkable Navattic demos? We do. ​DemoDash is an agency 100% focused on making interactive demos your top product marketing asset. We’ll map your story, build your tours, and help you measure the impact. ​→ Learn more at demodash.agency​

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So that’s it. Our 25th 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.

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P.S.

If you know anyone else who would love these tips, please consider sending them this edition so they can subscribe 🙏
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​Jason and Eric​
​Say hi on LinkedIn!