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Show, Don't Tell

🤫 Show, Don't Tell #77 - 'Book a demo' is going away


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Welcome to our 77th edition of Show, Don't Tell. A newsletter to help you build REMARKABLE interactive demos...3 tips at a time.

This week, we found:

  1. a demo center that tells first-timers exactly where to start
  2. a little pop-up that ends the fight between "video or live demo?"
  3. the industry-standard nav button one company deleted on purpose

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!

Tip #1: Help The Newbies Get Started

Picture landing on a demo center with a dozen tours staring back at you. Where do you even start? I know I usually just... close the tab.

Birdie (great name btw) doesn't leave you guessing.

Their "how it works" page opens with "New to Birdie? Start here," then walks you through three tours. They set the stage showing you how to plan person-centered care, build weekly rotas, and improve quality BEFORE handing you the full library.

It's also a mix of video and interactive demos, which we love.

If you have a demo center or are thinking about building one, then take a look because:

  • First-timers get a guided on-ramp instead of a wall of thumbnails
  • Anyone who's been here before can skip straight to the full library
  • It sorts your skimmers, dippers, and divers

We flagged the "where the heck do I start?" problem all the way back in Edition #42. Glad to see Birdie bring it back around with their own twist.

See how Birdie greets a first-timer

Tip #2: Let Them Choose Their Format

Click any CTA and you brace yourself to get dumped into a fixed thing. Could be a form, a demo, or another page altogether. And if you click "see how it works," then you’re probably expecting either a video, an interactive demo… or worse case… a demo form.

Instead, Atlan hits you with a tiny pop-up: "How would you like to explore Atlan? Watch a video, or see it live."

And then, you pick. All the ask for is your email.

Like Tip #1 with Birdie, some buyers want to lean back and watch, some want to take it for a spin. It’s fair to say that 99% of the CTAs we see lead you to one, or the other.

Atlan just... doesn't. And by doing so, they end the internal tug-of-war between the self-serve tour and the gated demo.

Go click "see how it works" and pick your own way in

Tip #3 - Put the Tour Where the Demo Button Used to Be

Speaking of CTAs…

Scroll to the top of almost any B2B site and you'll find "Request a demo." For 20 years, it's been the standard. It's literally everywhere.

But every once in a while you’ll find someone going against the grain.

Enter: AlertMedia.

In its place sits "Virtual tour." They pulled the most-copied CTA in software and handed that prime real estate to an interactive demo.

And if you check the rest of their homepage, it's product from the very first scroll. Product, product, product, all the way down.

Nobody walks in and says "let's rip out the demo button" on a hunch. Somebody owns that website data, watched which path converts, and MADE the tour the new front door.

This one clearly wasn't a whim.

See what's living in AlertMedia's nav

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!

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, September 23rd at 12PM ET.

→ Register now - It's 100% Free

So that’s it. Our 77th 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 🙏

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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