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Show, Don't Tell

🤫 Show, Don't Tell #64 - Your demo has sensitive data. Now what?


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Welcome to our 64th edition of Show, Don't Tell. A newsletter to help you build REMARKABLE interactive demos...3 tips at a time.

This week we're:

  1. Using customer data without exposing our customers
  2. Capturing demand at every step of our demo
  3. Stacking our demos one-by-one

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: Need to Hide Something?

You've got perfect screens, with real data, and a polished UI. But somewhere in there is a customer name, an email address, or a piece of information that has no business being in a public demo.

So you swap it out for something fake. Maybe it’s a Figma mockup. Or maybe it’s a messy product instance. But suddenly the demo feels less ... real.

That’s why Roo used the blur feature to mask the sensitive bits. The result is a demo that still feels realistic.

It's one of those things that seems obvious in hindsight. You don't have to show real customer data in order to create a demo that feels polished. Blur handles it for you.

If you've been putting off building a demo because your screens contain customer data, this simple approach could be your solution.

​→ See how Roo uses blur to get the best of both worlds​

Tip #2: Let Your CTA Hang Around

Azuga uses blur on their customers' faces, which is a nice touch. But that's not the tip.

We were clicking through their demo, genuinely enjoying it, not thinking about what came next. And then our eyes drifted up to the top of the screen.

There’s a bright lime green "Book a Live Demo" CTA sitting right there in the sticky bar, following us through every single step. My eyes couldn’t miss it.

By the time I noticed a sticky bar, I was on step 6. I’ve definitely seen enough to be curious. If I was a real prospect, I might have hit that "ah-ha" moment. So right at their peak of interest, there's a CTA waiting for them without making anyone hunt for it.

We talked about Guru's sticky "Book a Demo" bar back in Edition #7. Azuga is the same idea but this one is impossible to miss.

If you care about demand capture, this is a low-effort, high-return addition to any demo.

​→ See the sticky bar that's driving more conversions​

Tip #3: Reconsider Your Thumbnail Layout

We’ve shown a lot of demo centers. Most organize their tours as thumbnails in a grid.

Hello Retail went a different direction. They built their demo center under the resources tab and stacked all five demos on top of each other. It looks like they’ve got one per product area, each embedded at ~80% width with lead-in copy explaining what it covers and why it matters.

Because of that embed structure, every single demo looks big. Important. Like something you're supposed to click on.

We saw Rally UXR do something similar back in Edition #38. It gives demos massive screen space so the product becomes the main attraction instead of competing with surrounding content.

If your product has distinct use cases and you've been squishing them all into a thumbnail grid, this layout is worth trying.

​→ See how Hello Retail made every demo feel important​

Multi-flow demos, now on easy mode.

Navattic recently launched their new demo builder and it’s a MAJOR upgrade to the way we build and edit demos.

One of our favorite features: editing multiple demo flows from one screen 🔥

Until now, if you had a demo with multiple flows, you needed to edit each flow separately — bouncing back and forth between different editor screens. That was, frankly, a pain.

Not anymore!

Steps, Captures, Flows, Checklists, Mobile settings, and Themes are now accessible from a single building view.

Now, you can see all of your flows in collapsable containers in the left sidebar of the demo builder. From there, you can edit any step, create new flows, or move steps between flows.

When it comes to building complex, multi-flow demos, every workflow improvement makes a big difference. And this one doesn’t disappoint.

If you haven’t built your first demo on Navattic’s new demo builder, go check it out now!

​​→ Check out Navattic’s new demo builder​

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Ask the Dash Bros 🎙️

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, Apr 22nd at 12PM ET.

​→ Register now - It's 100% Free​

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So that’s it. Our 64th 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 🙏
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​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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