Top 5 Ways to Increase Demo Bookings

Will it work for us?

That's the number one question that runs through your buyer's mind when they evaluate your product. And there's only one way to show them it will - through a demo.

But getting them to sign up for a demo through your website is not easy. One wrong move, and your prospect leaves you for your competitor.

And that's why we've compiled this list of 5 best ways to increase demo bookings on your website. We have also included tips from expert product marketers to ensure you have everything to boost your demo signup page conversions.

Before we zero in on that, let's address the most basic question,

What Is Demo Booking?

A demo booking is placed when your prospect asks for a live demonstration of your product to better understand how it suits their unique needs, workflows and goals. They can book a demo through a demo signup page in exchange for their email addresses, job roles, and industry details. 

During a demo, your account executive and or the presales team shows the ropes of your product and explains how potential clients can achieve specific results using your product.

5 ways to increase demo bookings on your website

Just because you’ve embedded a lead form on your pricing page or feature pages, doesn’t mean that visitors will naturally sign up for a demo. You have to coax visitors in a smart manner towards signing up. Here are 5 ways to increase the chances of your prospect booking a demo when they visit your website:

1. Offer Interactive Product Demos on Home Pages

Buyers have a lot of options to pick from. But are they ready to go through a 14-day-long trial? In most cases, no. They'll only sign up for a demo if they think your product meets their needs. And your duty is to convince them of it at the earliest, through interactive demos.

Interactive demos give your buyers a taste of your product and convince them to book a live demo without the workload of going through a trial. In fact, 87.7% sellers noticed an improvement in their online sales after adding interactive videos to their website. Josaih B, content marketing manager at Fulcrum shared that the interactive demo video he placed on their website which allowed visitors to experience the product by themselves resulted in 32,000+ impressions, over 280 hours of watch time, and a whopping 400+ leads. 

When you first show your product in action, prospects get to decide if the product is best for them. And thus, only those with high buying intent would book a live demo, making it easier for you to close them.

Clari, the revenue platform, offers its website visitors an interactive demo right on their website. 

The interactive demo ends with a pop-up asking visitors if they would love to sign up for a live demo. 

Also, check out: A complete guide to product demo

2. Optimize Copy and Visuals for Conversion

Here's a fact - if you want more signups, don't hide your demo CTAs. Add one on the hero section and another one towards the end of your landing page. This ensures that no matter how they scroll, your prospects never miss it.

Gong, the revenue intelligence platform, places its demo button in multiple, easily accessible places, including at the header, the middle and footer of their landing page.

CTA at the header: 

CTA at the footer:

Use easy-to-understand demo button CTAs for better conversion.

"People coming to your homepage for the first time will probably give you a few seconds to grab their attention, and your CTA must be obvious, trustworthy, quick, and easy to execute," says Paul Gordon, founder of Mypresences in Databox's blog on increasing free trial signups.

That means CTAs like 'Book a Demo' or 'Get a Demo' are better than something creative but misleading. Hubspot's demo call-to-action is the perfect example of this.

It's not always the demo button, sometimes, it is a timely pop-up asking prospects if they want help that does the trick. Nudging them with a live chat option this way is especially effective if they've spent some time on your website.

Outreach, the sales execution platform's live chat, appears asking if you want help from their sales team every time you enter their website.

3. Test and reiterate the lead capture form to avoid drop-offs

What makes every demo-ready prospect regret their decision to check out a demo and bounce off the website? A demo signup form with multiple fields asking prospects every single detail about their business. Yes, the more complex your forms are, the higher the chances of your potential customers leaving for your competitors and, thus, fewer conversions.

So, ask only the most basic details through your demo signup forms, like their email address. Hint: Mention in the field that they type in their work address. That way you can at least bring down the number of fields to two. In fact, for each field you eliminate, your conversion rate goes up by 50%, according to a study by Hubspot.

On top of that, pay attention to your demo signup page copy and design. The copy should be scannable and clearly explain why they should sign up. List out the main benefits of your product and add logos and software marketplace reviews for social proof.

And finally, a disclaimer - take all these tips with a grain of salt unless you have tested it out yourself. A/B testing is the only way to determine what's driving conversions or hurting them. Hence, constantly test each element of your demo forms and tweak it based on the results to avoid drop-offs.

Customer.io's demo landing page asks for basic details, lists out benefits, and has customer logos to establish its credibility.

4. Optimize BOFU pages for conversion

If the demo page is the final destination of your prospect's journey, bottom of the funnel (BOFU) pages are the milestones they should cross to get there. And they won't care about getting to the demo page if going through your BOFU pages feels like a chore. 

To avoid this, optimize each of your BOFU pages for better conversion. Here's how:

• Home Page 

If you lose your prospects here, you lose them forever. So, always ensure your home page is captivating enough to nudge them to check out other BOFU pages or, in the best scenario, book a demo directly. This includes streamlining everything from the page load speed, UI, white space, brand colors, fonts to the copy.

Wix's landing page is the perfect example of this. It has:

• Great user interface (UI)
• A perfect balance of negative space and design elements
• Usage of complementary colors, and just 2 primary colors
• Great contrast of white against blue
• Copy is short, and inclusive of their main value proposition - that is anyone can build a website.

• Top Feature Pages

Here's a cardinal rule- never ward them off with jargon-heavy feature pages. Stress on the difference your product will make in your prospect's current process and not on the nuances of every feature. And like any other page, focus on striking the right balance between white space and design elements.

Next, decide on the number of pages you need depending on the complexity of your product. For instance, if it is a simple tool with a single use case, you can explain all your features on one page. On the other hand, use multiple pages if it is a complex one with multiple use cases. The end goal is to make your prospect aware of the results your product can deliver in the most lucid way.

Airtable's feature pages are a good example as they have:

• Creates a visual hierarchy by using extra large fonts in the title.
• A clear navigation bar, ‘Home> product> Interface Designer’ to keep the reader in loop about where they’re at all times.

• Pricing Page

Your prospective customers crossed the home page milestone, visited the feature pages, and are headed towards your pricing page before signing up for a demo. And the question is will your pricing page make the cut? Definitely, yes, if you follow the following optimization tips:

• Name your plans to make them memorable.
• Use the technique of anchoring, where you bring an expensive pricing tier to make another tier look affordable.
• List out only the key features to make sure the page is scannable.

Squarespace's pricing page is the best example of this. They have highlighted the USD 23 version as “Best Value”.

• Competitor Comparison Pages

A word of caution, a competitor comparison page is not a place to boast at length about your product or take a jibe at your competitors. And when visiting this page, your prospect wants to know one thing - 'is your product better suited for them than your competitor's?" The best way to convince them about this is through a clean UI and engaging copy.

Here are some tips to optimize your competitor comparison pages:

• Define your unique selling proposition (USP) and focus your narrative around that.
• Focus only on the most important product features to ensure you are not confusing the prospect.
• Establish a clear distinction between your ideal customer persona and your competitor's.
• Use software marketplace reviews and customer testimonials to base your claims.

Hotjar's page comparing Hotjar with Crazy Egg is an example of a well-optimized and engaging competitor comparison page.

5. Optimize ABM Campaigns to Increase Signups

Fully optimized BOFU pages drive your conversion rates. But that doesn't mean every prospect who visits your landing page ends up signing up for a demo. It also doesn't mean that you lost them forever. You can recapture them and eventually nudge them towards a demo through targeted account-based marketing (ABM)campaigns. Here's how:

• Use sales intelligence tools like ZoomInfo to collect details about potential buyers (accounts here) who visit your BOFU pages.
• Send personalized content, like webinars, case studies, etc., to selected prospects from an account to warm them up.
• You can also run targeted ads for them to ensure you stay on top of their minds.

By optimizing your ABM campaigns this way, you give yourself a second chance to get seen by prospects and get a demo booked.

Check out the best interactive product demo softwares

3 Expert Tips to Increase Demo Sign-ups

We asked expert product marketers in the industry for tips to increase demo sign-ups. Here are the insider tips they shared:‍

1. Make it easy for prospects to sign up for a demo 

If your demo sign-up seems like a treasure hunt that begins with locating the demo button followed by filling out a multi-step form, prospects are going to bounce faster than you think. Krithika Raj, Product Marketer at Klenty, agrees.

"Don't confuse prospects. Keep it simple. Your CTAs should be precise, tell prospects exactly what you want them to do. Keeping the CTA button bright and easy to spot helps, too."

2. Place Your Pricing and Feature Pages at Easily Accessible Locations

Pricing and the feature pages are the two main BOFU pages that drive buyers towards a demo. Keeping them at easily accessible locations along with your demo sign-up button helps drive conversion, according to Karan Chaudary, Product Marketer at Beaconstac. 

"Most SaaS user journeys have the pricing page as the near-to-end point, so ensuring that your pricing page is highlighted well enough in the CTAs along with the "Book Demo" button is vital. This ensures that the user is compelled enough with your pricing and features so that they are urged to book a demo,” he says.

3. Create Enough BOFU Content to Cater to a Wider Audience

If you’ve multiple use cases, make it a point to put it all out there. Create specific BOFU pages to target each use case. In other words, don’t give buyers a chance to wonder, “It worked for them. But will it work for me?” Gowthami Vasu, CRO at Klenty, concurs.

“On-page conversion can be very volatile. So, it’s important to create as much BoFu content as possible so it caters to as many visitors as possible. For example, keep creating customer stories and case studies to back up what your product is solving so more people can align and understand why they have to buy your product,” she says.