Ways To Create Interactive Product Demonstrations

Interactive demos should be engaging. But when it's just beacons, guides, and text with product screenshots for 15-20 minutes... ...your buyers mentally check out. The secret is in using pattern interrupts every 3-4 steps in your demo. Here are 9 proven pattern interrupts very few demo creators are using: 1/ Make them type something.  Ask the buyer to fill a text field, search bar, or form before the next step unlocks. Storylane lets you branch paths off that entry, yet hardly anyone uses it. 2/ Put your face on screen.  Record a 10‑second intro, a mid‑demo explainer, or a quick wrap‑up. Too shy? Drop in an AI avatar. Either way, it feels guided and personal, not robotic. 3/ Add a voice‑over.  A tight 15‑25 sec clip can introduce a dashboard, walk through a technical feature, or fire a quick celebration sound when a module is done. Use it sparingly. 4/ Cinematic zoom‑ins.**  Instead of swapping whole screens, zoom straight into the button or chart that matters. Instant emphasis—no extra narration required. 5/ Spotlights.  Animated beacons that pulse until clicked. Perfect for busy UIs where a static arrow gets lost. 6/ Backdrops.  Grey out everything except the element you want them to focus on. Works wonders in feature‑dense products. 7/ Rich tool‑tips & modals.  Mix up beacons, arrows, and media overlays so every cue doesn’t look the same. 8/ Eye‑catching images.  Drop in a quick graphic—even an AI‑generated Ghibli‑style frame—to open or close the demo with flair. 9/ Humor.  A well‑placed meme or “Great job!” GIF after a tricky section keeps energy high and shows there are humans behind the product. (All examples shared in the Storylane demo below) Keep it simple: one interrupt every 3–4 steps, total demo < 10 min. Your buyers finish, remember, and most importantly - book that live call. Try it on your next build. You’ll feel the difference in your demo completion metrics and in the quality of conversations that follow.

Arcade thought traditional product demos and sales pitches were boring. Which is why they designed the concept of “Demo Driven Development” with the mantra “show, don’t tell.” Since launch, over 9,000 teams have adopted Arcade to create interactive and immersive product demos, resulting in over 37,000 demos created globally in 2023 alone. We already know interactive demos work, and in Arcade’s inaugural benchmarks report, we can start to understand how to leverage key elements to maximize engagement. The report analyzed demos with over 100 views and provided the following recommendations: → Include an introduction chapter to boost play rates by 72%. → Build multiple chapters and advanced branching to increase personalization options and relevancy. → Incorporate sound as a vital extra layer of engagement, with demos featuring sound seeing 8% higher play rates. → Strategically place CTAs to facilitate higher interaction and guide users toward the intended outcome (signing up, opting for a trial, etc.). The findings couldn’t be clearer: interactive and visually engaging demos improve user engagement and conversion rates. Read the report to access more data-driven strategies for capturing and retaining customer interest through your demos: https://lnkd.in/g_fdNg3B

Interactive demos are one tool in an ever-expanding arsenal for marketers to teach before selling. Did you know interactive demos have increased in popularity by almost 90% since 2022? Out of a sample size of ~5,000 B2B SaaS websites, 9.26% used some version of a “Product Tour” CTA (Navattic's State of the Interactive Product Demo). Crazy. If you have yet to jump on the interactive demo bandwagon, there is no better time than now. Here are the six steps we used to build our demos: Step 1: Choose your use case Step 2: Collect internal assets Step 3: Create a storyboard Step 4: Build your demo Step 5: Decide to gate vs ungate Step 6: Iterate on your demo Step 1: Choose your use case First, decide how and where you’re going to use your interactive demo. As shown below, the most popular use cases for top-performing demos were: - Website embeds - In-product enablement - Help articles - Feature launches Step 2: Collect internal assets Once you’ve decided on your use case, it’s time to gather internal resources for inspiration for your demo build. Sales calls, customer calls, and frequently used slides or one-pagers are great jumping-off points for demo content. Step 3: Create a storyboard Review the materials you’ve collected and start to form a demo outline. Your goal should be to incorporate 2-4 “aha moments” that are unique to your platform. Once you’ve got a rough sketch, run through it yourself a few times to confirm that the main takeaways from each piece of content match what you’re conveying in the demo. Then, share it across the org. Step 4: Build your demo With your approved outline in hand, it’s time to start building. We found that task batching dramatically decreases the time it takes to create their demos. Some create their demo theme in one go or insert all the CTAs they want to add before filling in the rest of the demo. Step 5: Decide to gate vs ungate Now, you need to know whether you’re asking for users’ emails or leaving your demo ungated. If your goal is lead generation, you may want to gate. But if your goal is education or awareness, you may want to ungate to get as many eyeballs on your product as possible. Step 6: Iterate on your demo Chances are your demo won’t be 100% perfect the first time you publish it — and there is always room for improvement. Happy demo building!

This demo structure won’t work for everyone. But it increased our conversion rate by 57% so steal it if you want. WARNING: dense post ahead We used to think a great demo needed to cover everything. That just made people zone out. So we rebuilt our demo. Now the average one takes 15 minutes, and it outperforms every version we’ve tried. Here’s our EXACT structure (minute by minute): 0:00 - Set the stage (reframe the demo around them, not us) 1/ Recap what they told us in discovery. → “So you’re looking to pull transcripts into your product from Zoom and Google Meet?” 2/ Confirm outcomes. Not features. → “So your goal is speed to market…does that sound right?” Why it works: You earn permission to skip 90% of the product and go deep on the pain that matters. ----- 2:00 - Make it interactive early (get them talking before you start demoing) 1/ Ask them to name the meeting bot. Literally. → “Want to give your bot a name real quick?” 2/ Customize the demo with their name, brand, or use case. Why this works: Now they’re not watching a product. They’re watching their product. ----- 4:00 - Show just enough (curiosity > coverage) 1/ Walk through 3 endpoints: → Create Bot → Get Transcript → Get Recording 2/ Go slow. Circle key parts. Pause often. → “Does this make sense?” Why this works: By showing less, they ask more. Now they’re pulling the demo forward. ----- 10:00 - Qualify without sounding salesy (no “next steps” slide. just conversation.) 1/ Ask soft-close questions → “Do you have any questions on how you’d use this API?” → “Does it all make sense from a technical perspective what you need to do integrate?” → “Does it all make sense from a product perspective what the user experience will be like?” Why this works: This surfaces objections early and builds confidence. No pitch needed. ----- 13:00 - Stop while they want more (end demo early. let them lead the next move.) 1/ Don’t push a timeline. Let them drive. → “Happy to go deeper — what’s most useful from here?” Why it works: People are more likely to lean in when they’re not being sold to. We found they usually ask for a trial or a security doc at this point. ----- Bonus details that really matter: - The bot joins the call in real-time. That moment always lands. - We preload a Postman collection but only walk through 3 endpoints. The other endpoints sit like easter eggs on the side. - We don’t send a follow-up deck. We send the docs and let them give it a go. If you’re demoing to prove how much you’ve built, you’ll lose. We demo to prove how much we’ve understood. This structure won’t work for every product, but the principles should stay the same.