Most demos feel like…well…demos. You know you're clicking through a simulation.
But not with Spot AI.
They used an HTML capture of what looks like their in-app video library. And it is shockingly real.
There's security footage playing in the video embed. The side panel library looks and feels like YouTube. It had Jason clicking through it thinking "wait, is this actually live?"
It's not. But that's the point.
The more your demo feels like the real product, the easier it is for prospects to picture themselves using it. Spot AI didn't try to simplify or sanitize the experience. They just captured what their product actually looks like and let it speak for itself.
The biggest mistake people make with interactive demos isn't in the build.
It's that they build something great, put it in some corner of their website, and then wonder why it's not doing anything.
Zenhub isn’t putting baby in the corner, oh no. Their demo is impossible to miss.
There’s a button in the nav that drops you straight into the platform tour
It's in the hero, sitting right next to "Start for Free"
As you scroll down the homepage, there's an entire block dedicated to promoting it
On their feature pages they have "Get it for free" and "Try a demo" right next to each other
The demo isn't a side asset. It's a core part of how they convert people.
We've talked about this a lot, like Appcues in Edition #42 and even Lattice in Edition #54. If your demo isn't getting traffic, you probably didn't build a bad demo.
A Brand Manager at a restaurant chain and a Brand Manager at a bank have the same title. But their day-to-day, their problems, and what they need from software? Completely different.
Soci is going after three verticals: Brand, Property, and Financial Services.
Instead of building one generic demo and hoping it resonates with everyone, they built industry-specific paths. And here's the cool part…at the very start of the demo, they ask you to pick your industry. Then it routes you down a path tailored specifically for that world.
It's the same idea as Lucidya's persona-based demos from Edition #43, but applied to industries instead of job functions.
And depending on your situation, it might be even more powerful. Because when someone in financial services sees their compliance workflows instead of a restaurant's loyalty program…it clicks.
Most companies know they have different buyers. They just don't always build for them.
I haven't met a sales engineer who doesn't conduct the same demo multiple times per week. According to Navattic, 94% of sales engineers report spending time conducting repetitive demos.
Time that could be better spent acting as strategic advisors on complex, high-value opportunities.
This data comes from Navattic's State of Demo Automation Report, where they analyzed 40k+ demos and surveyed 70+ SEs to discover how demo automation is impacting sales cycles, and what best practices make a real difference.
One best practice that is clearly a game changer, is demo personalization.
Navattic found that demos had a 48% increase in view rate when they were personalized to the buyer or company they were being sent to.
In Navattic, you can easily personalize your demos in a couple of ways:
Interest demos - This is where you present your buyers with an intro step, asking them to select the features or capabilities they're most interested in. You can then tailor their demo to the things that matter most.
User / account properties - this is where you use the data you've collected through demo forms to personalize the copy or even your app for a specific buyer or account.
The best part — Navattic makes it easy to do both of these without any complex coding, letting YOU create a personalized demo experience that wows your buyer and leads to better demo engagement.
If you want more best practices like this and some pretty compelling stats to help you build a case for demo automation, check out the report below.
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, Feb 18th at 12PM ET.