Top Use Cases for Interactive Demos
Head of Growth & Product Marketing
Did you know the average Navattic customer uses interactive demos for five different use cases?
As you might guess, websites are the most common use case: nearly 64% of survey respondents had their demo embedded on home or product pages.
Yet our State of the Interactive Product Demo research shows an increase in the use of interactive product demos across the entire GTM funnel, from user training to live demo enablement to sales outreach.
That demand not just for more demos, but for using more kinds of demos, has led to growing momentum for sales demo automation.
That’s why Launchpad was built: To empower sellers to send demos early in the sales process, understand buyer interest, and uncover new stakeholders.
Below, we’ll cover the top 3 use cases to use at each stage of your customer journey — and a bonus one not mentioned in the report.
Top of funnel
At the top of the funnel, demos help generate awareness and educate potential customers.
Traditionally, brands rely on blog content, ebooks, and webinars to do the heavy lifting. Interactive demos perfectly complement these assets, allowing readers to try out your product as they learn about it.
Use case 1: Website call-to-actions
Adding interactive demos to your website offers two main benefits:
- They give your prospects a chance to do their own research without talking to sales.
- They increase your website’s efficiency.
Per product marketer Aston Whiteling: “I'm a firm believer in having all different kinds of content on your website so people can learn about your product in different ways. I made Navattic product tours the website’s ‘crown jewels’ because they are highly engaging and super versatile.”
Greater engagement turns into a higher likelihood of conversion. After inserting interactive demos on 12 pages of the Jellyfish website, Aston saw:
- A 250% increase in visitors interacting with the website (going through Navattic tours)
- A 300% increase in CTA clicks
- A 25% CTR for those CTAs
Want some helpful tips for adding interactive demos to your website?
Read more here: Incorporating Interactive Demos into a Website Redesign
Use case 2: Paid campaigns & social media
Instead of directing traffic to static landing pages, use interactive demos.
Encouraging users to explore your product is much less of a lift than asking them to book a demo or sign up for (and actually use) a free trial. Plus, prospects immediately see product value — which is why interactive demos tend to improve paid ad click-through rates.
FORM, a task management tool for frontline teams, saw a significant lift in CTR from using interactive demos firsthand.
After creating multiple Navattic tours (one for each of their products and capabilities) and launching them on PPC landing pages, the FORM team saw a 33% increase in conversion.
Even better, their “Take a Tour” CTAs decreased their cost per lead by nearly 50%.
But PPC isn’t the only way to promote your tours. Several Navattic customers use Reddit Ads to catch the eye of new buyers.
Cvent encourages Redditors to take a tour of their product, including compelling stats and social proof to push users to act.
Clicking on the ad takes users straight to Cvent’s interactive demo.
In-feed Reddit Ads can work, too.
An ad for Wiz, for example, shows up directly beneath conversations in relevant Reddit threads, nudging lurkers to learn more about the benefits of its cloud security platform.
Want to learn how to add demos to paid ads?
Here are 3 ways to do it with 3 real examples: Ad Best Practices for Product Demos
Use case 3: Event & webinar follow-ups
Your prospects probably aren’t going to re-listen to the webinars you recorded or remember everything you talked about at a conference.
Instead of sending slides, recordings, or boring one-pagers, send them an interactive demo. To maximize your click-through rate, also include:
- Bullet points to remind prospects how your product meets their needs.
- What users should expect to see in your demo.
- Other helpful collateral tailored to their needs.
- A clear call to action.
With Launchpad, you can search for relevant pre-built demos, make some tweaks for the event, and send custom demos as follow-ups. That way, you’re not starting from scratch.
Emily Casaccio at Haloo reuses event follow-up demos (or slight variations) to nurture high-quality leads on social media and over email.
“After events, we repurpose demos and create tons of content from them, like Instagram posts. We even repurpose our event demos by clipping them up and sending them to those curious about our unreleased product. They then get that experiential feel, which has been great.”
You could also try using interactive demos in retargeting ads on Google or LinkedIn, using compliant email addresses you collected or the conference attendee list. An interactive demo ad may be the push they need to learn more about your product and will keep it top of mind.
Don’t forget to keep a close eye on your Navattic’s analytics.
You’ll be able to see what parts of your product resonate most with prospects, giving you more ideas for what to feature in a webinar or conference talk and how to improve your demos over time.
For more conference interactive demo ideas, check out:
6 Tips to Prepare Perfect Conference Software Demos
Customer Show + Tell: Kristen Graves Hoppe: Demos at Conference Booths
Middle of funnel
Prospects at this stage are actively evaluating solutions.
As opposed to other MOFU content, interactive demos provide deeper insights into your product’s capabilities, helping potential customers see how it addresses their specific pain points.
Use case 1: Self-serve sales demo automation
It’s impossible to know what every prospect is looking for in your product.
Even if you ask every prospect the same disco questions, you still may not get the answers you need (and you risk making them repeat the same answers they gave your competitor earlier that week).
Navattic Launchpad can help your reps and SEs uncover what prospects care most about before you jump on a live call, while giving those high-intent leads a taste of your product.
Emily’s team at Haloo, for example, distributes a “monster master demo” to prospects and asks them to go through it before they meet with sales.
“That way, in the sales call, we can say, ‘I see that you spent a lot of time looking at comprehensive search. I would love to talk to you about that.’”
Learn how Launchpad can help you build a more effective and efficient selling motion here: How SE Teams Are Using Navattic
Use case 2: Email nurture campaigns
If you’ve already got someone’s email, chances are they are somewhat interested in your product.
Keep their attention by sending them useful and engaging emails. For example, instead of sending a static case study, send them an interactive walkthrough of a customer’s instance or particular feature.
If you’re nurturing free trialers, try inserting mini-tutorial interactive demos — each with just a few steps — in your emails that push them toward the action you want them to take next.
To incorporate interactive demos in your outbound emails, read: Email Marketing Strategies for Product Demos
Use case 3: Sales outreach & SDR enablement
SDRs can use interactive demos in cold outreach and follow-up emails to stand out and promote engagement.
Austin Blank at Bloomreach says interactive demos have been “an absolute game changer” for his prospecting.
“Never has been sending personalized demos been so easy and fun. Navattic is simply the most seamless way to showcase exactly what product value you are trying to convey to your prospects.”
Plus, if your SDRs use Launchpad, they can pull the interactive demos they want to send straight from the Chrome extension – and personalize them for prospects on the fly.
Per Emily, “Sending demos upfront gives us a much better idea of what to expect from the deal so that the thirty-minute sales call can be laser-focused on actual deal-making rather than trying to figure out who they are, what they're doing, and what they're interested in.”
For more on sales outreach, check out: How to Use Interactive Demos for Sales Leave Behinds
Bottom of funnel
B2B buyers expect a highly tailored buying experience — especially if they’ve already browsed your content, seen an ad or two, and chatted with a BDR.
Interactive demos provide hands-on engagement aligning with their specific needs.
Use Case 1: Personalized sharable sales demos
A case study about a company of a similar size in a similar industry is a good proof point.
An interactive demo that highlights the most relevant features to a prospect’s specific use case? A far more compelling proof point that gives prospects access to your product right away.
Navattic’s Launchpad Chrome Extension makes it easy to find, customize, and share interactive demos.
Instead of Slacking an SE to figure out which demo to send, reps can browse pre-call demos themselves, then drop them straight into prospect emails or LinkedIn DMs.
Mathieu Govoni, an AE at Productboard, shares, “What I appreciate most about Navattic is how easy it is to share interactive product demos. It’s a great way to let prospects experience value early in the sales cycle.”
Learn how to customize your demos to each buyer: How to Personalize Demos for ABM Campaigns
Use Case 2: Demos as a post-call follow-up
Giving your fans a demo to show their colleagues increases your chances of winning over the naysayers — faster.
Sourceday, a modern purchase order management platform, uses Navattic to give product overviews to champions earlier in the sales funnel.
“We are using these demos to enable champions to position the product internally without the need for multiple product demos throughout the sales cycle.”
Navattic’s Launchpad makes this strategy more scalable, allowing your sales team to:
- Pull templated demos from a chrome extension
- Customize them for each prospect.
- Embed them in emails and decks.
On the backend, reps can see where prospects spend the most time — a great place to start their next conversation.
Use Case 3: High-level sandbox
Many buyers insist on getting their own sandbox. But sometimes those demo environments can come with a complex setup, and that doesn’t always leave a great first impression.
With sandbox demos, you can make the process more seamless, using flashing Beacons and Triggers to show prospects exactly what to do and nudge them toward all the aha moments you want them to experience.
Alexander Yant’s team at Slope uses sandbox demos to give users confidence that their product does what they say it does, without making it seem complex.
“Slope is a clinical trial execution platform for research sites, so they know when they need kits, where their kits are, where their samples are, and that everything is getting to where it should be and everyone is communicating.
We use Navattic to show that effectively, providing a tailored demo experience that communicates what we do clearly, especially since it’s pretty novel within the space.”
To make the experience feel even more real, Alex personalizes each demo.
“As soon as somebody comes to us, we can plug in their research site. So they see their name on the page, their title, and their site in the demo environment. It gives it a much more, not only personalized but warmer experience.”
This helps them get the most out of their POC and reduces friction in the decision-making process.
And you’d be surprised by what you can recreate.
Jakub Suchy at HAProxy, for example, has used Navattic plus a mix of AI tools and emulators to build interactive demos of Visual Studio Code, the Windows interface, Mac’s Finder, and other tough-to-replicate command-line interfaces.
Use Case 4: Proof-of-Concept (POC) support
Many buyers insist on getting their own sandbox. But sometimes, those demo environments can come with a complex setup — and that doesn’t always leave a great first impression.
With self-guided demos, you can make the process more seamless, showing prospects exactly what to do and nudging them toward all the aha moments you want them to experience.
This helps them get the most out of their POC and reduces friction in the decision-making process.
And you’d be surprised by what you can recreate.
Jakub Suchy at HAProxy, for example, has used Navattic plus a mix of AI tools and emulators to build interactive demos of Visual Studio Code, the Windows interface, Mac’s Finder, and other tough-to-replicate command-line interfaces.
Alexander Yant at Slope takes interactive demo environments a step further, customizing each demo with personalization variables.
“As soon as somebody comes to us, we can plug in their research site. So they see their name on the page, their title, and their site in the demo environment. It gives it a much more, not only personalized but warmer experience.”
Dive further into POC demo building:
Customer Show + Tell: Jakub Suchy: Demonstrating Technical Interfaces
Customer Show + Tell: Personalized Demo Environments with Alexander Yant
Bonus Use Case: G2 and other review sites
There’s one more use case we think has huge upside: review sites.
Review sites are one of the first places prospects visit in their vendor research. While powerful messaging, screenshots, and positive customer feedback can help influence a buyer’s decision, your review site profiles may not highlight the full scope of what your product can do.
Even videos don’t do your product justice. Plus, they’re tough to maintain — every time you update your product, it costs time and money to produce a new, accurate piece of content.
You can overcome those issues and get prospects’ hands on your product faster by adding Navattic demos to your G2 and TrustRadius profiles.
Inserting interactive demos in your product listings only takes a few steps.
Read our play-by-play: How to add Interactive Demos to G2 and TrustRadius