I’m a big fan of mobile games.
I’m a bigger fan of paid mobile games that can be downloaded for free and the purchase is made after a demo.
And I’ve never ever paid for a game before trying it.
That’s why I never played Minecraft…
Moral of the story: understanding the importance of product demos is not like discovering a new coding language. It’s simple and straightforward.
And people better understand facts when they are presented with examples.
So here I gathered the best 16 product demos for you to understand better and draw your path clearly.
But before, let’s see what product demos are:
What is a Product Demo?
A product demo or a product demonstration is a presentation of what your product is and how it mainly works. The product demo will be the first impression of your product. Therefore, the demo plays as the opening speech and determines how many of the listeners will sleep.
There are multiple versions of product demos.
👉 One-on-one demos are real-time demonstrations. A person from the support, sales, or product teams meets the user/customer face-to-face or in an online meeting, and performs a live demonstration.
Live demonstrations usually take too much time, effort, and durability (since it’s not easy to do the same thing over and over again), and since it requires more workforce, it comes across costly.
👉 Video demos are recordings of a person doing the demonstration. Video demonstrations require less work than one-on-one demos, and are the preference of 65% of users on the internet.
👉 Interactive demos are real-time demonstrations, but not made by a person. The product walkthrough takes the user through the whole process and helps them complete the demo on their own.
What is the purpose of a product demo?
The primary purpose of the product demo is to demonstrate the value of your product, while also educating the user.
On the other hand, a product demo can serve many different purposes.
It can be used to show off your new, innovative features and help the user learn more about how they work.
A good demo will also demonstrate just how simple using your product is.
For instance, a robotic person only shows you how to get to the homepage using the „homepage” button, while a good product demo can help you understand how to save your work before you decide to go to the homepage.
What makes a product demo good?
I won’t go in deep with this one because I want to focus on the details within the examples.
But overall speaking, here is what makes a product demo good:
- If the demo is as personalized as possible,
- If the demo gives just enough information to answer simple questions but not overload,
- If the demo is accessible more than once,
- If the demo leaves space for Q&A’s,
- If the demo states the benefits along with the features,
- If the demo can be regularly updated and adjusted according to the changes on or in the product,
You can call yourself a product demo genius
If you need more information about how to create sales demos, here you have a source.
16 Examples of Great Product Demos
There isn’t only one way to create a demo.
A demo is not teaching how to get from point a to point b.
A demo is making the people want to get from point a to point b with your product.
Here are the best examples:
1- Masterclass
MasterClass is an online learning platform that lets people get classes from worldwide known people, people that have proven to be the best.
Even though Masterclass is such a powerful platform, they need to prove they are worth it.
Here’s an example of what their demo videos look like:
They sell knowledge.
Their demo video shows that the knowledge they provide is accurate and worth the money.
This means, their way of using demos is great.
2- Duolingo
If you live on earth, you probably have heard of Duolingo. Even people who have no interest in language learning know what Duolingo is.
Yet, just like Masterclass, this enterprise company has to prove worthy and show that they really are the to-go choice for every single person no matter how they prefer to learn.
So here’s how they delivered in their demo:
They included all their features in a video, and they made it seem to work.
In the demo, they have proven that they deliver while quickly demonstrating how things will be. That’s how you do a working demo.
3- Ajar
As I said before, demos don’t necessarily have to be videos. You can also let users discover the product themselves – along with a bit of push that helps them get to the „Aha!” moment faster.
That’s exactly what Ajar did.
Ajar is a property management and rent collection site that helps landlords, property managers, and real estate agents smoothly manage their processes.
Since property management is a sensitive issue, they needed an in-depth demonstration of how they provide the best and safest solutions.
And here’s what one of their interactive demos looks like:
Image-quote “Our sales team was previously onboarding users by having a 1:1 session with them. This was not always convenient and was very time-consuming. We wanted to expand to the global market without having a physical presence in all countries.” – Marina Matta
Interactive Product Demos – is there such a thing?
If demos are better when they’re visual, why not tell what I’m saying with visuals?
Here’s a table:
| Interactive Demos | Video Demos | Live Demos | |
| Easily Updatable | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Affordable | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Less Time Taking | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Visually Appealing | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Personalization | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
So how do you create interactive demos easily and quickly for the least amount of money?
👉 With UserGuiding.
Don’t hear it from me; hear it from the over 9000+ customers that UserGuiding put a happy face on.
I don’t trust a hairdresser with bad hair. The same thing goes here.
4-CitizenShipper
When you make a demo, will you introduce the mobile version or the desktop version of your website? What about both?
CitizenShipper is an online transportation marketplace that was founded in 2008.
They needed a demonstration solution for both their desktop and mobile versions, and they found that the best way to make a demo for both was using interactive demos.
They also integrated Resource Centers to act like „demo bank and help center” at the same time.
Therefore, their demo did not only rock, but their choice gave them a diverse range of creative and trending practices as well.
5- SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey has its unique approach to a demo.
Just like mobile games, SurveyMonkey takes you through a survey that includes almost all of their features.
This way, you both experience the product as an end-user and get to see if the product is worth it.
While this is not suitable for everyone, it is very effective for companies that can use this approach. Just like our next one:
6- UserGuiding
Userguiding is a digital adoption tool that helps users build interactive demos and onboarding sequences.
A tool that helps people build demos should have a great demo itself to prove its worth, right?
That’s why UserGuiding serves all kinds of people.
UserGuiding offers all three kinds of demos:
- Live demos for high personalization,
- Video demos to increase the range of reach,
- And interactive demos to demonstrate how effective they are.
Here’s what their video demo looks like:
As for what their interactive demo looks like, I’d recommend you to try it out yourself!
7- IKEA place
IKEA place is IKEA’s new mobile app that lets you virtually place IKEA furniture into your home by scanning your home.
Their video is bright, and it displays what the app does along with how it works.
But the best part of this demo is that the video also shows the benefits with real-life examples.
A demo that can create an emotional bond and proves that they can feel empathy towards your problems is more likely to engage with the target audience.
8- Doorport
Doorport is a new generation doorbell and remote door lock company.
Their solution turns any house into a smart house, and reduces the stress of who’s behind the door.
Well, let’s see the rest from their demo video:
As you can see, Doorport simply proves that demo videos don’t have to look expensive to be effective – even though it could be a bit smoother.
9- Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a CRM for sales that allows managers to manage and organize their sales funnels.
Their demo video is quite long at 4 minutes.
As you can see in the video, they did what I’ve been telling not to do: simply showing what the product does.
So what makes this demo good?
The script. The fact that the voiceover has a tone that makes it feel like you are listening to a person live gave this demo video a soul and made it valuable.
That’s why you can easily watch this 4-minute long demo video. It’s well written and well-executed.
10- CuePath
CuePath is a medication-monitoring tool which is based in Canada.
They are a small company with limited resources, and they needed a simple yet effective solution to show their worth, in other words, a demo.
So they came up with a brilliant idea:
Along with their user engagement elements, they posted an in-app message which includes a hotspot. This way, they could point out their value, draw attention to themselves, and guide people straight to the order page.
11- Cubeit
Cubeit is an organizer for your applications.
Am I a user of Cubeit? No.
Is it written on the website? No.
So how do I know?
This demo video has three main strengths:
- It’s short
- It’s explanatory
- It’s simple
And that’s all that a demo video needs — a simple solution for a simple app that makes a big difference.
12- Soapbox
First of all, soapbox has not 1 but 3 demo videos.
Soapbox is a recording tool by Wistia that lets you record your screen and your face at the same time.
Which means you can use Soapbox itself to create demo videos.
While that’s the case, Soapbox used a perfect method to advertise themselves while teaching us an important lesson: the script is essential, but not everything.
Here’s the second video:
The first video and the third video include the exact same characters and script, but were shot and edited with different budgets, showing us how important pricing is when it comes to creating a video.
Also, the demo itself, even in the $1000 one, shows that funny elements are a good method to spike your demo video up.
13- Nightingale
Nightingale is a smart house sleep system by Cambridge Sounds.
The product simply neutralizes the sounds in a room and adjusts the room’s acoustic according to your needs.
In the demo, they could have chosen to put the product in action, just like Doorport, or they could have made someone do a good voiceover, like Pipedrive.
But they chose to use good visualization above everything else.
For people that value their sleep, they visualized the sounds, how cooler could a demo video be…
14- Peloton
Peloton turns your house into an indoor cycling gym studio.
Let the demo talk for itself:
I’m not a fan of indoor sports, but this demo managed to convince me.
If the video told me about how many courses they have or how their bike is the newest best model on planet earth, I would have said,” I get it. I’m happy for those who need it. I’m out, though.”
Their demo video shows the feelings of those who designed it, and those who have used it. It promises feelings, not weight loss.
And that’s why it’s a fantastic product demo video.
15- Tasty
Tasty started out as the recipe channel of BuzzFeed, but quickly became a brand itself. Now Tasty does not only share recipes but also sells its own ingredients and kitchen gadgets.
Not far before, Tasty launched a mobile app to combine all its services. That’s why they needed an announcement, and a demo, so they decided to combine both:
A simple, colorful, well-scripted, short demo video.
Not the most unique one, but definitely an ideal one!
16- Canva Button
The Canva Button is an extension of Canva where you can add the button to your website and let your customers do their design without leavşng your page.
I had to put together a long sentence to tell you what it is, and I’m not sure if I delivered my message clearly.
Meanwhile, the product demo takes only 1 minute to tell you every single detail about the product.
The demo speaks for itself, and the visuals speak louder than the script. That’s probably why the voiceover isn’t the best.
Still, it’s a pretty good product demonstration.
Conclusion
Notice how all the giants have both video and interactive demos?
That’s because the old practice is doing live demos, the current practice is videos, but the trending and most successful method is doing self-serve interactive demos.
Also, if you need tools to create the best demos, here you can find some options.
Frequently Asked Questions:
How do you demo a product?
There are many ways to demo a product, but the most popular ones are live demos, video demos, and interactive demos.
Who should do product demo?
A product demo is like a trailer of your product. It sets the expectations, and it influences the people for whether or not they will pay for the whole product.
How long should product demo be?
An interactive demo should be between 4-8 steps ideally. A video demo should mostly be between a minute and 4 minutes. It’s mostly recommended to keep it simple and short so that you don’t bore and overload your audience.
