Tip #1: Stop Thinking “Take a Tour” is a Cannibal
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The CTA debate is real. For years, "Book a Demo" was king. Followed by "Start Free Trial." Then came "Take a Tour." And now every marketing team is arguing about which one cannibalizes the other.
Here's the truth: they're all right. Different buyers want different things, and forcing everyone down the same path means you're always leaving someone behind.
Ramp must have said “enough already.”
When you click their main "See a Demo" CTA, instead of dropping you into a single experience, it takes you to a page where you pick your own adventure.
Want to book time with sales? Done.
Prefer a self-guided interactive tour? Go for it.
In the mood to browse 5 short product videos? They’ve got that too.
What we love about this is:
it respects that every buyer is in a different stage of their journey
it takes the pressure off the sales team to be the only conversion lever
it gives your interactive demo a seat at the table… right next to the "book a call" option
The best CTA isn't the one you like best. It's the one your buyer actually wants to click.
We've talked about off-ramps before. Mixpanel (Edition #11) and Vertice (Edition #5) paused their tour midway trying to get you to convert.
But for many software buyers… that's too much, too soon. Asking them to schedule a call at that exact moment can feel like proposing on the first date.
Samsara did one of the more thoughtful off-ramp we've seen. Their off-ramp CTA takes you to their pricing page.
If you think about it, that’s probably the next logical step for a buyer who just saw the product in action. “Let’s figure out if this fits my budget” not "let me talk to someone.”
But don’t worry, they don't abandon sales altogether. Right in the tooltip copy, it says "connect with us now" and gets hyperlinked to their Book a Demo page. So the buyer who is ready can still get there. And the buyer who isn't doesn't feel pushed.
When you're picking your off-ramp CTA, ask yourself what question the buyer has right after this moment. If the answer is "can I afford it?" take them to pricing.
Jason and I have been using "Start Tour" as the first-step CTA for a while now. It's clear, it's action-oriented, and it beats the heck out of a generic "Next" or "Get Started."
But SimplePractice gave us something worth adding to the toolbelt.
Instead of a directive, their demos open with a question. For example…their Documentation demo doesn't say "Start Tour." It says: "How will I get set up and stay organized?"
Read that again. It's not telling you what to do. It's voicing the exact thought you already had when you clicked into the demo.
There's something quietly powerful about this.
When a CTA mirrors a question the buyer is already asking themselves, it doesn't feel like a prompt… it feels like a conversation.
Think about it like the difference between a doctor saying "let me show you your test results" versus "what's been bothering you?" One is transactional. The other makes you feel heard.
So if you have an interactive demo, ook at your demo's first step CTA and ask whether it's a command or a conversation.
If it's just "Start Tour" then that's fine. But try framing it as the question your buyer is already thinking and run an A/B test.
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.