In the B2B software world, almost 70% of the purchasing journey unfolds before a prospect ever engages directly with a vendor. This silent phase of decision-making is where websites (the domain of marketing teams) are critical. They narrate the product story, but often in a diluted form that leaves prospects wanting more.

The narrative is controlled, and the benefits are promoted, but the raw, unfiltered experience of the product is missing. To bridge this gap, vendors have turned to offering free trials, an open invitation to step into the product's world. It seems straightforward: if a prospect is genuinely interested, they'll dive in and navigate the product themselves. However, the transition from a very topline website narrative to a visit to a product full of buttons and features can feel disorienting. 

Prospects find themselves overwhelmed by the empty product environment, a scenario that can quickly transform from intriguing to intimidating. And that’s where the interactive product tours come in. They help you strike the right balance between the two extremes. Here, we'll explore the essence of interactive product tours, and their benefits, and highlight how they can transform your user engagement and conversion rates. Let’s begin.

What Are Interactive Product Tours?

Interactive product tours are like your website's personal assistant. They're designed to give your visitors a guided, hands-on experience of your product, demonstrating its value and benefits while showcasing its features and functionalities. Think of it as a VIP backstage pass to your product, where users get to see, touch, and feel what makes your product special, all that in a guided and structured way.

Benefits of Interactive Product Tours for the Revenue Teams

Interactive product tours create the best buying experience for the prospect while also providing a range of benefits to the entire revenue team. Below, we outline the key advantages that marketers can gain from implementing interactive product tours on their websites.

1. Improved Buyer Engagement

Interactive product tours facilitate a more engaging user experience by providing guided, hands-on interaction with the product. Thanks to the different Call to Action functionalities, the prospects can comment, ask questions, and share the demos with their colleagues.

2. Enhanced Lead Qualification

By monitoring how users interact with the product tour, marketers can gather valuable data on buyer intent and interest. This information can be used to refine lead qualification processes, helping improve the SQL/MQL ratios.

3. Increased Website Conversions

Interactive product tours offer a new CTA on the website. Some of the visitors might not yet be ready to meet the sales team so they don’t opt in for the Book a Demo CTA. An interactive product tour is a no-commitment opportunity for the prospect to dive deeper into the exploration giving them more reasons to request the meeting.

4. Improved Pipeline Quality

By providing the relevant product info to only curious leads, businesses provide answers to their questions in the on-demand setting rather than spending valuable time with their sales teams doing the same job face to face.

5. Stronger Opportunity Conversion 

Interactive tours guide potential customers through the value proposition of a product, providing them with the information they need to make a purchase decision. This can result in higher conversion rates, as users are more likely to take action after a guided experience.

6. Shortened Sales Cycles

Interactive product tours can expedite the sales process by allowing users to comprehend the product's features and benefits in a condensed time frame. This leads to a quick decision-making process and a shorter overall sales cycle.

7. Complex Concepts Explained in an Easy Way 

For products or services that are complex or technical in nature, interactive tours offer an effective way to convey complicated concepts in an easily digestible format, enhancing user comprehension and reducing barriers to purchase.

8. Boosted  SEO and Organic Traffic

The number of users who are engaged with the website and the amount of time they spend on it can positively impact SEO metrics. Therefore, it can boost search engine rankings and contribute to an increase in organic traffic.

How Interactive Product Tours on Your Website Can Help Buyers?

Interactive product tours provide potential buyers with a guided yet flexible experience that allows them to explore a product or service at their own pace. These tours go beyond traditional marketing materials to offer a more comprehensive understanding of what is being offered.

1. Provide a Self-Paced Learning Experience

Interactive product tours allow users to navigate through the product features at their own speed. This self-paced learning experience enables potential buyers to spend time on areas that are most relevant to them, thereby enhancing their understanding of the product.

2. Allow Buyers to Touch the Product Without Being Overwhelmed  

Interactive product tours provide the perfect balance between providing a tactile experience of the product and avoiding the potential overwhelm of a full-fledged trial. These tours offer a curated 'try before you buy' scenario, where users can interact with key features in a controlled, simulated environment. 

Unlike product trials that may leave users adrift in a sea of features, interactive tours guide them through the most relevant functionalities, leading with value and benefits. This guided exploration is instrumental in easing purchase hesitations and leading to high conversion rates.

3. Exponentially More Engaging Than Traditional Product Descriptions or Videos

While product descriptions and videos offer a static form of learning, interactive product tours provide a dynamic user experience. The interactive elements keep potential buyers engaged, making them more likely to absorb the information being presented.

4. Helps Buyers Make Informed Purchase Decisions

By offering a comprehensive overview of features, benefits, and use cases, interactive product tours equip potential buyers with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions. This level of insight can be particularly beneficial for complex or high-value products, where the buyer's decision-making process may require a deeper level of understanding.

How to Create Effective Interactive Product Tours?

A well-designed tour can be a powerful tool for both user engagement and conversion, but its effectiveness hinges on several key factors. Below, we outline some best practices for creating interactive product tours that inform as well as engage and convert.

Step 1: Make it Relevant

Empower your prospects by offering a 'Choose Your Own Journey” style tour or a curated demo gallery. This approach allows users to navigate directly to the information that's most pertinent to them, ensuring a personalised and relevant experience.

Step 2: Make it Short/Succinct

Prospects are on a mission as they want to quickly understand what you do and how you can solve their problems. Keeping your tour concise, aim for the golden rule of 10-15 clicks to ensure you're respecting their time while providing essential insights.

Step 3: Build a Rapport

Even in on-demand scenarios, it's crucial to build a rapport with your audience. Incorporate videos within your tour to add a personal touch and connect with your prospects on a human level.

Step 4: Make it Interactive

The key to an effective product tour is interactivity. Encourage feedback, prompt users to share their experiences, and engage them with interactive elements throughout the tour. This not only makes the experience memorable but also provides valuable insights into user preferences.

Step 5: Tell the Story

Understand the problems your prospects are looking to solve and address them head-on. Your tour should quickly align your product's benefits with their pain points. It is best to tell a story that not only informs but also reassures them that they're in the right place.

Examples of Successful Interactive Product Tours

Interactive product tours are dynamic, user-centric walkthroughs designed to highlight the core features and benefits of a product. Let's explore some standout examples from industry leaders.

1. Celonis

Celonis has taken a pioneering step with its demo library, a curated collection of interactive product demos designed to cater to a variety of industries, personas, and use cases. This approach allows prospects to self-select their journey through the product's capabilities, ensuring they engage with content that is most relevant to their needs. 

The demo library transforms prospects into educated buyers. By the time these MQLs reach the sales team, they are well-informed and primed for deeper conversations, thereby increasing the likelihood of successful conversions.

Similarly, Demoboost's “Choose Your Own Journey” demo represents the epitome of user-centric design. Experience it firsthand here to get a glimpse into the future of interactive product exploration.

2. Pendo

Pendo offers an interactive product tour that effectively showcases its capabilities and benefits. Here's a breakdown of what users can expect during the tour:

• Dashboard Overview: Upon entering the tour, users are greeted with a comprehensive dashboard that provides an account overview and insights into weekly accounts. This immediate visual representation gives users a clear snapshot of their product's performance.
• Product Analysis - Pages: Pendo's tour delves deeper into product analysis, starting with the 'Pages' section. Here, users gain insight into where their customers are spending the most time within the product. This data is invaluable for understanding user behaviour and optimising product design accordingly.
• Product Analysis - Features: The tour further elaborates on the 'Features' section of product analysis. This segment helps users understand which specific features their customers are interacting with the most. Such insights can guide product development and feature enhancement strategies.
• Product Analysis - Track Events: Lastly, the 'Track Events' section provides users with event-type information that has been programmatically sent to Pendo. This data offers a granular view of user interactions, allowing businesses to fine-tune their product offerings based on real-time feedback.

3. Demandbase

Demandbase, a leader in account-based marketing, offers a compelling interactive product tour that effectively highlights its platform's robust features. Here's a glimpse of what users can experience during the tour:

• Classic Dashboard: As users embark on the tour, they're presented with a classic dashboard, neatly organised with 'Industry' and 'Department' filters. This layout ensures that users can quickly navigate and access the specific data they're interested in.
• Analytics Dashboard: Demandbase's tour takes users to its analytics dashboard, which provides a comprehensive summary view. Here, users can see both known and unknown accounts, along with their associated activities. This dual view ensures businesses have a holistic understanding of their audience.
• Engagement Tab: The tour further introduces the 'Engagement' tab, dedicated to site analytics and intent. This section is crucial for businesses to gauge how users are interacting with their platform and what their potential intentions might be.
• Report Tab: Concluding the tour, users are shown the 'Report' tab. This section is organised into 'Favourites', 'My Reports', and 'Public', ensuring that users can easily locate and access their preferred reports, enhancing the user experience.

4. Hockeystack

Hockeystack's interactive product tour brilliantly highlights its features, giving users a clear roadmap of what to expect as they navigate through.

• Marketing Influence Report: When starting the tour, users are presented with a comprehensive marketing influence report. This broad overview provides users with a snapshot of how various marketing efforts are influencing their target audience, setting the stage for deeper insights.
• Business Overview Tab: Delving deeper, the tour introduces the 'Business Overview' tab. Here, users can observe deal trends and deal value trends, offering a clear picture of how business deals have evolved over time and their associated value.
• Organic Acquisition Tab: The tour then navigates to the 'Organic Acquisition' tab, a treasure trove of data for businesses focusing on organic growth. This section provides insights into organic traffic, organic influence leads, and other vital metrics that can guide organic marketing strategies.
• Additional Tabs: Hockeystack showcases a variety of other tabs tailored to specific marketing channels and needs, such as 'LinkedIn Ads', 'ABM', 'Web Analytics', and 'All Templates'. These tabs ensure that users have a one-stop platform for all their marketing analytics needs.

5. Gong

Dive into Gong's interactive product tour and discover its blend of intuitive design and powerful insights.

• Holistic Dashboard View: As users commence the tour, they are greeted with a comprehensive dashboard that offers a panoramic view of various metrics such as pipeline, forecast, win/loss, and more. This initial overview sets the tone for the depth of insights Gong offers.
• "Best Case" Tab: The tour progresses to the "best case" tab, a segment dedicated to providing clarity on ongoing deals. Here, users can discern the reality of their deals, distinguishing fact from fiction, and strategizing their next moves with precision.
• Stage Section with Filters: Navigating further, the tour introduces the stage section. This segment stands out for its customization, allowing users to filter by the CRM metrics they prioritise, such as Deal Stage or close date. This tailored approach ensures users can focus on the data that matters most to them.
• Team's Pipeline Overview: Wrapping up the tour, Gong offers users a bird's-eye view of their entire team's pipeline. This broader perspective is invaluable for managers and team leads, enabling them to gauge team performance and strategize accordingly.

6. Gladly

Lastly, step into the world of Gladly's interactive product tour and experience a customer-centric platform that redefines communication. 

• Unified Customer Dashboard: Initiating the tour, users are introduced to a meticulously designed dashboard that centralises all customer conversations. Regardless of the communication channel, every interaction finds its place here, ensuring you never miss a beat with your customers.
• Chat/SMS Tab with Seamless Integration: As the tour progresses, the spotlight shifts to the chat/sms tab. What stands out is the platform's versatility. With just a browser and internet connectivity, users are equipped to handle all communication channels, voice included.
• Consolidated Conversation Threads: Delving deeper, Gladly emphasises its commitment to seamless communication. Every interaction with a customer, irrespective of the channel, is threaded into a single, continuous conversation. Whether a customer transitions from voice to text or email to chat, the continuity remains unbroken, all neatly presented within a timeline.
• "Liveboards" for Real-Time Monitoring: Concluding the tour, Gladly unveils the "liveboards" section, a haven for supervisors. This feature offers a real-time pulse of the contact center, allowing leaders to monitor performance, track agent activity, and identify trending topics across all channels.

How Does Demoboost Power Your Website with Interactive Product Tours?

Demoboost offers a suite of features tailored to enhance buyer perceptions and highlight your product's unique selling points.

• Unparalleled Engagement: Demoboost's interactive demos boast impressive engagement rates, with 88% of users starting the tour and 89% completing it. This high level of engagement is due to the immersive, hands-on experience that captivates users from start to finish, providing a clear understanding of the product's value.
• Superior Lead Qualification: With the 'Choose Your Own Journey' feature, Demoboost takes lead qualification to the next level. Prospects can navigate through a customised path that resonates with their specific needs, allowing for a more targeted and insightful qualification process.
• Seamless Integration: Demoboost integrates effortlessly with all major CRMs and marketing automation tools. This connectivity ensures that every interaction within the product tour is captured and leveraged for comprehensive lead nurturing and follow-up strategies.
• Instant Value Realisation: Understanding the importance of time in the buyer's journey, Demoboost collaborates with clients to swiftly map out and construct demo galleries. This rapid deployment showcases immediate value and accelerates the journey from prospect to qualified lead.

See It to Believe It. Book a Demo today for Interactive Product Tours.

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