You aren't Willy Wonka
The demo isn't the golden ticket people seek
Marketers: “Gating content is a dirty habit”
Only running campaigns with “Get a Free Demo”
Every single day, I see companies blindly running ads on Linkedin and Twitter with the CTA "Get Your FREE Demo!" as if it's a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
A free demo? How did I get so lucky? I can’t believe you aren’t charging me money for having the privilege of you selling me your software.
Forget the absurdity of calling it free for a second and lets dig deeper into why leading with a demo call to action is one of the worst ways to prompt action or engage with your prospects.
Imagine standing in the middle of a busy street handing out flyers for snow blowers in the middle of summer. That's what you're doing with a free demo.
At any given time, approximately 95% of your audience isn’t even in the market for your solution. By leading with a demo, you're providing them with zero ways to genuinely connect with your brand or find a deeper value.
You just eliminated 95% of the audience you want to engage with by leading with that as your main CTA. 95%!
So you may be thinking - “That’s great but I have a lead number to hit and pipeline goals to meet. Our sales team needs demos to hit revenue goals”
As someone who led demand generation at G2 for almost 3 years and was responsible of 50% of the pipeline for a 120 person sales team I get it.
But you are thinking about things all wrong.
You don’t need more demo requests, you need better offers.
So how do you come up with better offers that will still generate pipeline? You need an intimate understanding of what the #1 problem your product solves for your buyers. Reverse engineer that into a truly valuable offer you can lead with instead.
Want a few examples?
G2 : 90 Days of Free Intent Data
At G2 our biggest driver of pipeline came from requests for free intent data. We used to offer 90 days of free intent data to any company. As part of them requesting it we would schedule a call to show them how intent worked, how reviews played a role, how the best companies leverage the data and help them formulate a game plan on using it.
#1 problem solved: Unlocking who is actively shopping for solutions.
The offer: 90 days of free intent data.
KlientBoost: Free Marketing Plan
KlientBoost understands that all of the service they are offer from paid to email to SEO are all part of a broader marketing strategy for their buyers. And building marketing plans is tough. It is hard to show how all of these channels and initiatives connect and help deliver overall results.
#1 problem solved: Marketing driving more pipeline, revenue, and profit.
The offer: Building the marketing plan to do that for you.
So whether I was looking for an intent data provider or not, who wouldn’t want to know for free what companies are actively shopping for solutions?
Who wouldn’t want a free marketing plan from a company that works with hundreds of the top SaaS companies?
Those are things I would actually be excited about getting for free.
They definitely sound more a hell of a lot more exciting than a demo.
Thanks for reading!