SaaS sales demos can make or break your business.
A poorly designed demo will make your business look unprofessional and defer clients from your organization.
However, creating a product demo is a science: companies must include all the correct elements to showcase their demos and maximize conversions.
As an SEO agency, we know how valuable SEO can be in boosting awareness and reach for your product demo. This guide will explore why a vital SaaS demo matters, how to design one, and the role of SEO in your demo.
What We'll Cover:
Importance of a Strong SaaS Demo
A strong SaaS demo is critical to securing conversions and helps companies build credibility and long-lasting relationships. Sales demos also allow organizations to prove their claims while benefiting them and their prospects.
Secures Conversions
The essential advantage of a well-designed SaaS demo is its ability to transform potential customers into paying customers. B2B decision-makers need a lot of purchasing confidence before opting for a solution, and SaaS demos are the perfect way to win these buyers over. Providing a product demo allows your audience to test your services, gain a first-hand understanding of your core features, and identify how your solution can solve their pain points.
According to research by 6sense, B2B buyers only engage with an organization's sales team once they are around 70% through their buying process. In other words, SaaS demos are in the middle to last stages of B2B sales funnels, giving them the power to push potential customers to convert or deter them from your product.
Works for the Company and Customer
A successful demo of your SaaS product benefits you and your customers. It helps your SaaS company develop a deeper relationship and understanding of your target audience. They also allow you to convert decision-makers on the edge and validate specific product features.
Interactive demos give your customers insights into whether your product is the best solution for them. A software demo can shorten the decision-making time in your sales process, as buyers will have the confidence they need to convert. The more information B2B buyers have about a product, the more likely they are to make a strategic decision, and product demos can achieve this for your company.
Builds Credibility and Relationships
Credibility and trust should be every SaaS company's priority. Because B2B buyers are much more difficult to convert than B2C shoppers, organizations must establish trust and notoriety.
B2B buyers make decisions on behalf of their companies －they represent their purchasing decisions, making it imperative for them to opt for a solution that has the key features they need and, most of all, that they trust.
Recent insights by Forrester highlight the power of developing trust and credibility for B2B organizations －buyers are twice as likely (85%) to refer to a product they trust. But how do you build trust through a SaaS product demo?
It's simple; potential customers can practically try your platform to find the relevant features they need and determine how your solution can add value to their organizations.
Proves Your Claims
We've emphasized how careful B2B buyers are. So, it's no surprise that every potential customer doesn't want to hear, "We have the fastest invoicing processing software" or "Our email marketing tool is the best in the game."
Customers want to see these claims.
SaaS product demos are the perfect way to do this. Focus on the value your SaaS product offers and design an interactive demo that reflects your claims and validates your market position.
A successful demo lets you highlight your target audience's pain points and demonstrate how your product can solve them. You can show your customers how your product is the ideal solution for them and drive them to buy.
Saas Demo Strategy: Critical Elements
The primary SaaS demo best practices include keeping it simple, using actual data, focusing on buyer challenges, and leveraging storytelling. Businesses must also include customer success stories, personalize the demo experience, and create engaging content.
Be Simple
B2B prospects don't want lengthy product demos that require them to answer a long list of questions before they test your platform. You also don’t have to blow your SaaS marketing budget to create lots of different content. It's better to deliver interactive product demos that allow potential customers to browse through your platform while you guide them.
This approach gives them a first-hand understanding of your software and how your product features work. Your target audience can convey their pain points to you, and you can specifically showcase solutions and tools that satisfy their needs.
Keep your demo simple and create content emphasizing your value proposition and how this solves your prospect's pain points.
Use Actual Data
SaaS sales demos should avoid walking prospects through different buttons and menus. Instead, they should highlight the features that solve customer problems and validate these solutions with actual data. They should also use customer stories and case studies to show how your product can help prospects through actual data and figures.
The saying "Numbers don't lie" could not be more true for your SaaS demo. Prospects want to see how your solution can help them through quantitative results. For example, when showcasing specific features, you can validate your claims with statements like, "This feature has helped one of our clients increase productivity by 10%".
This strategy for your sales demo is more persuasive for your target audience. It doesn't just show prospects your software, but it explains how it could benefit their businesses and processes.
Focus on Buyer Pain Points
We've mentioned this before in the SaaS demo best practices, and we have to repeat it －focus on your buyers' challenges and points. It would help if you personalized your sales demos to fit each customer's pain points. When B2B customers make a buying decision, this is based on the best solution they find to add real value to their organizations.
To accomplish this, have your sales department research each client and understand their challenges. You can do this through target audience research or directly asking customer segments through surveys. Keeping up with the latest SaaS market growth and trends is equally important. Once your sales rep understands what each customer is looking for in a SaaS, they can showcase specific features and benefits of your software that resonate with them.
Leverage Storytelling
Storytelling, including your SaaS product demo, is critical to your sales process. There's no point in delivering an endless list of features and benefits －you'll quickly overwhelm and confuse your customers. This is where storytelling becomes relevant. Personalized demo content can develop deeper relationships with your customers and enable you to connect with them.
Using a story-based approach, walk prospects through your software in a meaningful way. Your sales process must involve a story about how your software can add value to your prospect's organization.
For example, if your company offers marketing automation software, your story may begin by pinpointing a challenge. Then, guide prospects through how different features can optimize processes and teams to achieve greater efficiency.
Include Customer Success Stories
Customer testimonials and success stories are imperative for your SaaS product demo. B2B customers are more likely to buy after reading a trustworthy review. This is unsurprising because these buyers are responsible for their chosen solutions and need assurance that others have used and benefited from your software.
You can use customer success stories in your product demo by mentioning case studies and reviews relevant to each client. For instance, if your sales team delivers a product demo for a client in the marketing industry, they should mention testimonials and quote actual data for customers in the same sector or facing the same challenges.
Personalize the Experience
Personalizing the experience is a top SaaS demo best practice because your client must be at the forefront of your walkthrough. It's about understanding their internal team infrastructure, market position, and competitive advantage.
Your product demo must approach these factors and show your target audience how your software can add value to different departments and areas of operations. Train your sales teams to gather valuable insights about each client before your tour, and have them deliver a personalized experience that resonates with specific audiences.
Create Engaging Content
High-quality content makes or breaks your demo video. If your visuals are static and outdated, prospects will find staying engaged with your product tour challenging. In other words, they'll need help to focus on the value your software delivers and, instead, will be deterred by low-quality content.
B2B buyers are more likely to choose a provider that delivers relevant content they can consume interactively. This means your product demo should comprise interactive content requiring your target audience to navigate your software for an immersive experience. This approach is much more engaging than static content explaining how your product works and the value it offers.
Remember, the more engaged your customers are, the more likely they will stay invested in your product after the demo.
How SEO Can Enhance Your Demo's Reach
SEO is a fantastic tactic for improving your demo's reach without paying for traffic.
Strategies like keyword research and optimizing on-page elements such as titles and meta descriptions will help you get your demo in front of your target audience. The best part is that a sound SEO campaign enables you to achieve longer-lasting results than channels like paid ads.
At MADX, we provide all the tools organizations need to boost their SaaS demos through SEO. Our team will walk you through a tailored strategy to help you achieve your goals and convert prospects.
Want to learn more about how SEO can skyrocket your demo's reach? Check out our blog on SEO.
Successful SaaS Demo Examples
Here are some noteworthy examples of what makes an effective SaaS demo.
SEMrush
Through simplicity and clarity, SEMrush's product demo breaks down the challenges of driving web traffic and monitoring analytics. This demo comprises simple visuals with lots of whitespace, making it easier for prospects to understand. Combining these illustrations with a clear voice-over, SEMrush delivered a concise product demo highlighting its core features. This platform cuts through the complexities of maintaining a well-performing website.
Key Takeaways:
- Simplified walkthrough and visuals
- There is lots of white space so prospects can focus on the critical information
- A clear voice-over that highlights the product's key features
- Avoids industry jargon and complicated terminology
HubSpot
While HubSpot offers extensive marketing automation tools, the company designed a straightforward product demo that walks prospects through its various features. HubSpot showcased how organizations can use their platforms for different purposes and focused on how the power of automated marketing can boost efficiency. Prospects can find a quick signup form to share their information and a chatbot functionality for personalized support.
Key Takeaways:
- A clear illustration of all HubSpot's tools while keeping it simple and concise
- Personalized chatbot support to improve conversions
- An intuitive signup form for lead generation
- Focus on HubSpot's value proposition and how this impacts its clients
Grammarly
Grammarly is a widely used editing and grammar tool and offers a seamless product demo. The demo focuses on a common challenge － remembering basic grammar rules. This content addresses the everyday need for grammar-free writing and uses graphic overlays of Grammarly's interface to demonstrate how users can navigate this software. Organizations can also learn how to use Grammarly's plugin and find the features they need for automated content optimization.
Key Takeaways:
- Relevant and relatable content
- A more engaging, user-centric approach puts users in the driver's seat
- Clear, attractive visuals and illustrations
- It makes the software accessible and easy to use
Tools for Designing Your SaaS Product Demos
You can use many solutions to design your SaaS product demo.
Walnut, Reprise, and Arcade are the best tools for creating and publishing your sales demo.
Walnut
Walnut simplifies interactive SaaS product demos, making creating tailored tours showcasing your software's feature set effortless. Through its codeless editor, Walnut allows organizations to customize all aspects of their product demos, from text, tools, images, and colors for each prospect.
These capabilities make customization possible, and users can also leverage tools to create templates for specific use cases. In addition, Walnut provides integrated analytics so you can access your product demo performance.
Pros:
- It is easy to create demos without technical expertise
- Demo libraries and template creation simplify this process for sales teams
- Reliable and responsive customer support
Cons:
- The UI could be more intuitive
- Draft demos do not save automatically
- Limited customization tools
Pricing:
- Lite: $9,200 annually
- Pro: $20,000 annually
- Enterprise: Custom Quote
- Startup: Custom Quote
- Custom: Custom Quote
Reprise
Reprise is a comprehensive tool for designing your demo and leveraging robust analytics. Integrating three products, Reprise is an all-in-one solution for live demos, product tours, and demo environments. This platform makes it easy to capture individual screens of your software and customize elements based on each prospect.
However, Reprise's ability to generate product simulations makes it stand out. These capabilities allow SaaS companies to share interactive and engaging product tours instead of static content.
Pros:
- It is easy to learn about this platform and its functions
- Several automated tools are needed to create a product demo quickly
- The company is always accepting feedback and making updates
Cons:
- Limited built-in CSS features
- Limited animation capabilities
Pricing:
- Contact for a quote
Arcade
Arcade uses AI to simplify product demo creation. As users navigate your product, Arcade automatically captures their interactions and designs a unique demo based on each prospect's behavior. This personalization takes personalization to a whole new level, and organizations can also access extensive analytics and reporting to ensure demo videos are impactful.
While Arcade has a slight learning curve, it makes creating and publishing AI demos seamless.
Pros:
- Immense customization capabilities
- Various features to enhance demo videos
- AI voice-over to improve efficiency when creating demo videos
Cons:
- The user interface requires improvement
- There is a slight learning curve when adopting the software
- Limited post-publishing editing options
Pricing:
- Free
- Pro: $38 p/m per user
- Growth: $50 p/m per user
- Enterprise: Custom quote
Create a Conversion-Driven Sales Demo Today
A strong sales demo is imperative for securing conversions and building trust and relationships.
Product demos also allow you to prove your claims while benefiting you and your prospects. To develop a conversion-driven sales demo, organizations should keep it simple, leverage storytelling, include customer success stories, and create engaging content.
Organizations should also personalize the sales demo experience for individual prospects and use actual data.
Want to boost your sales demo and increase conversions? Contact MADX Digital today.
