A Go-To Guide to Product Demo [How to Create, Examples, Benefits]

As a new user, it's hard to know what all the options in your product can do or how they fit together. How many options can different users access? What value do these options offer? Which are the best features for a given task?

And the list goes on...

You may have a great product that solves your users' needs. But if you don't make it easy for them to find their way around, they may never realize how much value your product provides.

The best way to make your product fly off the shelf is to showcase it in a way that appeals to your target audience. And a product demo is the most effective way to do that.

But how can you craft a perfect demo that converts new users into paying customers? We've put together an ultimate guide that will help you create an engaging product demo.

Let's create.

What is a Product Demo?

A product demo is a walkthrough of your product to convince prospects of your product’s value. During a product demo you show prospects how they can use key features, the results they can achieve and the overall impact it will have on their business. It isn’t about explaining every feature your product has, but about focusing on the ones that they are keen about.

A well-crafted product demo depicts your product’s value and nudges prospects to buy.

Why is product demo important?

A product demo is important because it is the easiest and most impactful way to showcase the value of your product to prospects. It helps them get familiar with the product, its key features and the results it will deliver.

Who Should Give a Product Demo? 

In most companies, the sales rep delivers the demo. In small companies and early-stage startups, the founder is often running the demo. 

In a startup, one person can wear many hats, and one of them might be playing the demo role. When a startup founder runs the demo, it's different from when a sales rep does it. Either way, the demo is your opportunity to showcase your product and make a compelling case for how it fits into their business. 

How does a Product Demo Differ from Sales Demo?

Sales and product demos have similar purposes as one suggests providing a prospect with a demonstration, and the other suggests doing so with an existing client. 

A key difference is that, unlike a sales demo, no "sales" is involved in a product demo. The purpose of a product demo is to help the viewer learn how to use an already purchased or invested product or service rather than seeing if they can be persuaded to buy it.

On the other hand, the purpose of a sales demonstration is to explain to the customer how a product or service can benefit them. The purpose of the demo is to ensure that customers fully understand how to use a product before committing themselves to buy it.

Also check out: Why invest in interactive product demo?

How To Create a Winning Product Demo?

Providing a product demo is vital to SaaS success. With a demo, potential and current users can explore every aspect of the features on your product, see how they work, and gain relevant information about how they can help achieve their business goals.

Creating a well-designed product demonstration needs meticulous planning, but we know you can handle it!

Here is the 6 step instruction to create a Product demo:

1. Identify the goal 

When you're creating your product demo, you want to understand what kind of impact you want to make on your viewers. 

What action does want them to take after watching your video? 

Common goals include:

• Drive sales
• Grow sales from existing customers 
• Educate your audience 
• Increase brand awareness

Whatever it may be, ensure everyone understands what they're supposed to walk away with after viewing your software demo. 

If the goal is unclear, then there will be a lack of clarity within each stage, and in turn, the user may not meet their expectations with your product.

2. Determine your audience 

If you're introducing new product features to an existing client base or trying to educate first-time customers on what your product offers, you need to understand who your audience is and their needs. 

Having this knowledge will help you craft an engaging demo video right off the bat to make your potential customers feel comfortable handing over some of their hard-earned cash for your products.

3. Decide how you will educate your audience 

Will you tell a story or discuss pain points? Will you use visuals, or will writing suffice? You can explain your features to your users via multiple gateways that include, 

• Interactive product demo: Interactive demos are software demos that allow prospects to interact directly with them, giving them a closer sense of what using your product will be like.
• Product tours: An interactive walkthrough of your product can help your target market understand more about how it works and its many benefits. This method is often used to get leads who are top-of-the-funnel prospects interested in your product.
• Pre-recorded video demo: As the name suggests, sales reps use a pre-recorded video to showcase their product. The goal of the video is to demonstrate the product's value while clearly showing it on the screen. 
• Product presentations: It includes showcasing the product with the old-school method using Powerpoint or Google Slides. 
• Live product demo: It is the simplest way to show your product. A salesperson explains the features of their product to prospects in real-time over a conference call or face-to-face.

Based on your objective, select the best option that suits your needs. But, which is preferable in 2022?

The best performer is an interactive product demo or product tour without any second thought. The reason? Because it allows the users to interact with your product and check whether it suits their needs. 

Thus, if you have a product that caters to your audience's needs, you can taste better conversion rates and have long-term relationships with your customers. 

Recommended: Guide to Product led sales

4. Determine the length 

How much time should your demo take up? A good rule of thumb is that your demo should be between two to five minutes if you plan to do a software demo video. 

And in the case of product tours, five steps would be more than sufficient, as 80% of people skip a tour if it exceeds five steps. 

Thus, keep it simple and actionable by highlighting all the features available. 

5. Define the distribution channel

Once you are ready with your perfect product demo, you can either share them on social media and other platforms or embed them on your website or software. And again, it entirely depends on the objective. 

Here are the tips that aid you in landing up with the perfect distribution channel for your product demo, 

• The best way to make your product visible is to share it on social networks. If it’s a B2B product, you have to select the corresponding social network. The best social networks for B2B marketing are always LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. And don’t forget to link the product demo to the main website. 
• If the product is a live stream, you can share it on Facebook. 
• If you have created your software demo for getting leads, driving traffic from third-party sites would be the best option. 
• If you are going to onboard your new users embedding it on your software is the best option. 
• You can also conduct live webinars. In addition to Q&A sessions, certain webinars may also include extensive demonstrations.

Whatever the case is, Storylane lets you create your interactive product tour and embed/share as per your preference. 

6. Analyze and tweak your demo 

How can you measure the success of your product demo? You can do this by gathering the user behavior with your product demo and tweaking it as per their requirements. 

Based on what your users are doing with your product, Storylane lets you learn and understand their experience as they go through the different features you have developed.

You can then use this information to tweak each user's experience to make them more likely to stay loyal to you over time.

7 Examples of Excellent Product Demo

1. Duolingo

If you have any interest in language learning, you don't need to be told that Duolingo is one of the most popular platforms. 

This enterprise company needs to justify why people should choose it over its competitors and prove that it isn't just hype - or, even better: that it does work!

Learn over 30+ languages for FREE with Duolingo

The demonstration shows an impressive short mini-tour of how things will work if someone starts their learning with Duolingo. This is an ideal way to pull off a demo!

2. Ghostwriter 

Ghostwriter.ai's user onboarding is the easiest thing ever! The platform is so complex, yet the tour makes things look easy. 

With tooltips, a progress bar, and interactive buttons, there's no getting bored of this product tour as you're learning all you need to know about your new software experience. 

On top of that, they have added fun gifs and short copy while its buttons are bold in color - which clearly shows how eye-catching and appealing the walkthrough is!

It's a great example of how you can make your product tour simple yet interactive, turning a complex UI into a cakewalk. 

3. Vieworks

Vieworks has created a well-structured product tour to delight its users when they first land with their accounts. It's the same—old, but with a modern twist. 

They made their tour interactive enough to see all the features without skipping anything with little touches.

This one has a progress bar, highlights essential things on the screen, and combines all these great features with excellent interactivity. 

With the implementation of interactivity and gamification on your software demo, you're sure to see meaningful results that stick with your users as they work through their tasks.

4. TimeSolv 

Some websites have so many features on their pages that users might get confused and even scared. Take the TimeSolv website, for example. It has many buttons with different functions, but there are arrows to show more details. 

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TimeSolv uses short lines of text to overcome this issue because it manages to keep the content accessible to read while still trying to explain as much as possible in such little space.

Thus, create small chunks of text for each little usable component on a screen to ensure no question is left unanswered even though you have a complex UI with multiple features.

5. Grove HR

Grove HR uses a highly interactive, inviting, and easy-to-use product tour method: checklist tracking. Moreover, checklists triggered tours that are 21% more likely to be completed, according to the study conducted by Chameleon. 

By guiding the users through a series of quick, easy steps, Grove HR helps their customers complete the onboarding process in an efficient, helpful way and ensures that it's done right!

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This way, users are good to go while keeping the flow efficient and straightforward. 

So while crafting your onboarding approach, give clear instructions to users with interactivity that make everything faster and more accessible for everyone involved!

6. Evernote 

Evernote onboarding starts with a micro survey to understand the user's requirements. Based on the user convenience, it starts showing their features one by one. 

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To make the user aware of all the features, they are taking the users on a short journey that educates them on how their platform works. 

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On top of that, they also use a checklist that makes the user take action and try out the available features. This makes all their users get the most from their platform. 

The best takeaway is to tailor your software demo to push the user to take action rather than just tapping the 'Next Step' button on your product tour. 

7. Monday 

Monday's onboarding process is similar to Evernote, which starts with a micro survey. Furthermore, they added a help section with tons of videos to educate users on all the features they offer.

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Monday also added its new design elements, such as a progress bar that helps users easily spot the next step they must make while setting up their account.

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The takeaway? Make the demo that makes the user discover all the features at their fingertips. You can also use the animated illustrative hotspot and pop-up images to explain how to take action on your platform. 

Find out: How to use product demos to convert users

Top Benefits of Creating an Awesome Product Demo

You can reap multiple benefits when you have a perfect demo with you. A good demo will show your prospects the product's various features and can help you earn more clients and sales. 

Making a demo is tedious, but it is something that you have to do if you want to grow your business.

Here are some of the benefits of making a perfect demo for your product; 

1. Gain their trust

Demo videos are an excellent way to gain potential customers' trust and understanding. Showing the product in action lets the prospect see how it will help achieve their goal, step-by-step! 

The best way to win over new customers is by showing them the quality of your product, which is why 90% of consumers say that product videos are helpful in the decision-making process when it comes time for purchases. 

That's why building credibility is vital when it comes to selling products. People aren't going to buy from someone if they don't believe in the company's ability or intention to fulfill its promise of value. 

And with the product demo, you can show off the product and its features in a way that makes it easy for people to understand why they need it. You can also show them how easily it works or what results they can expect from using your product or service.

2. Convince more people to buy your product

If you know when you're marketing that leads have a specific need that your product can meet, you can clarify how your product meets those needs without being too wordy or lengthy in your descriptions. 

You can convince potential customers to buy your product with a perfectly tailored software demo. Here is how a demo convinces a potential customer, 

• Product demo provides users a first-hand experience of your product, so there is no need to explain how your product works. A good demo will answer common questions, such as “How do I use this?”. So it eliminates the dilemma with their buying decision. 
• As the demo shows how exactly your product works, it creates a sense of trust in your product and increases the chances of conversions.
• It helps people figure out why to invest in your product. The best thing about a demo is that it can be used to reach a wide audience, especially if you are targeting people who are not tech-savvy.
• People see how their problems can be solved with your product and this will encourage them to use it. 

You're not selling to a customer; you're selling your product. You need to explain how it will make their lives easier, what value it can add, and why they need it. And a perfect product demo exactly does the same and bridges the gap between you and your customer.  

3. Combat the concerns of your customers

When you show your software to a potential customer, you are giving them the chance to see it in action. 

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They will instantly gain insight into how it works. By showing a potential buyer your product works, you are allowing them to see things on their own terms and not just be fed whatever information happens to catch their eye first. 

A product demo lets them explore how your innovation can be used in their world and how seamlessly it helps them solve their problems, thus allowing them to decide.

Challenges of Product Demo 

A product demo is one of the easiest ways to showcase the value of your product to your prospects. However, creating a demo that ticks is not always easy. Here are some of the most common challenges you will face while building product demos:

1. The war between personalization and scalability

In today’s buying space, a buying group typically involves at least 6 members. These groups include direct users of your product, indirect users of your product and the stakeholders. Trying to impress each of these groups through a single demo is difficult, but you can prepare tailored demos for each of them. And that would mean solution engineers spending more time creating tailored demos. This can be avoided by using a demo automation tool like Storylane, using which you can create personalized interactive demos in less than 5 minutes.

2. Delivering maximum value in minimum time

Going on and on about every feature your product has, is going to bore the prospects to death. The key is to figure out what they want and give them that at the earliest. In other words, don’t make them wait for the best part. Convince them of the difference your product will make in their daily processes and its impact on the company’s revenue early on.

Bring prospects closer to purchase with Storylane 

A great product demo will help you qualify leads and turn prospects into customers by focusing on how the product solves problems as a solution. It helps show them why your product meets their needs instead of bombarding them with reasons to buy that only tangentially pertain to what they need. 

Above all, when you create a personalized product demo, people can connect the dots and see how your product can help them. They don't have to read between the lines or guess what you do. You make it clear with a personalized product demo, which allows people to take action—because they know exactly what to do next.

If you want to create a personalized product demo that makes your product slide onto their pocket, check out Storylane 👇

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Using Storylane, it's easy to make a customized product demo that helps people understand how your solution fits into their lives—and why they should take action. Wondering how it helps your business to reap more benefits? Schedule a free demo, and we will take care of all the details of your product demo. What are you waiting for? Get started today!

Q. How do you give a perfect demo?

Here are the steps you should follow to give a perfect product demo:

1. Identify the goal - Decide on the actions you want them to take after the demo.
2. Determine your audience - Tweak your demo to suit different sets of audiences, like new customers and existing ones. 
3. Decide how to educate your audience - Will you tell a story or discuss pain points? Will you use visuals, or will writing suffice?
4. Determine the length - What’s the optimal length of a demo? The rule of thumb is to not bore them to death by talking about every feature your product has.
5. Define the distribution channel - Are you planning to distribute it through social media or embed it on your website?
6. Analyze and tweak your demo - Use demo analytics to track and tweak your demo to better cater to your audience.