As an EdTech company, booking demos is essential for fostering a relationship with your leads and making it an easy next step for them to convert into a sale. If you need help with booking more demos, there are a variety of tips you should consider to improve your metrics.
In this article, we will talk about how you can book more EdTech demos by:
- Setting yourself apart from your competitors
- Creating a powerful sales funnel
- Building a strong reputation
- Using omnichannel marketing
- Leveraging video marketing
- Hosting live demos
- Offering incentives for your leads
As a marketing professional, I have worked with over 200 universities and colleges and have over a decade of experience in the industry. With these proven tips, you will improve your brand reputation, strengthen your bookings for demos, and also meet your customers where they are.
So, without further ado, let’s get into the first tip: differentiation.
Tip #1: Differentiation
One major issue that some EdTech firms might be facing is the issue of proper brand positioning or differentiation. These topics are related when it comes to explanations for poor booking metrics or, worse, conversions for your business. Your brand may not have positioned itself in a way that differentiates your company in the industry—at least not enough for your potential customers to see the benefits of what you have to offer.
If you are concerned that you have not succeeded in differentiating your brand correctly, here are some questions to ask:
- How do customers view our company?
- What specific demographics book demos, and do they fit our target audience?
- Are we reaching the right audience?
- What unique value do we bring to our audience?
It might be time to take another look at your brand positioning. First, find one (or more) attributes that you need to present to your audience to stand out. Then, find ways to connect with your target audiences so they can see your company’s true value. Move beyond thinking only about the benefits of your product. Think about who you are selling to and how you serve them. Your prospects are all human beings with wants and needs of their own. Connect with them in a way that shows them that you understand and empathize with their pain points.
Above all else, your differentiation should make you an authority figure in the industry. This is especially important for booking demos because, after all, why else would they see the benefit of seeing what you offer if you aren’t an authority in your industry?
Set yourself apart from your competitors. Your audience needs to know what makes you different and why they should choose you. So differentiate your brand and position yourself to stand out with proper value and you will see an improvement in your demo bookings!
Tip #2: Make Demo Bookings Part of Your Funnel
A good sales and marketing process ensures that you have vital conversion metrics. So, here’s a solution: make sure your demo bookings are part of your sales funnels.
Your demo should be an integral part of your sales tactics. There are several systems that you could use, but perhaps the most accessible format is the following structure:
- Outreach: The first stage of any sales funnel should be outreach. Use marketing, cold calls or contacts, and any other form of outreach that you feel would best connect with your target audience. For best results, use multiple channels (which we will discuss later in more depth).
- Value: Once you’ve connected with your audience, make sure that you are offering them something of value (not just your demo). If they are on your email list, make sure you are sending them relevant information that educates, entertains, or inspires. Don’t just send them several sales pitches. Once you’ve shown them you have a lot to offer, invite them to a demo.
- Live Demo: After you have made your connection and created contact with your client, it is time for the live demo. At this point, they should feel compelled to learn more—if you have done the work with your marketing. Remember: your marketing should already sell them on the product, so the live demo booking should be easy.
- Sale: The live demo is the final stage before you make the sale. If your offer or trial is enticing enough, this should yield significant conversions from your target audience. Once you have completed the sale, maintain strong customer relationship management to ensure their loyalty and their satisfaction.
This is a somewhat simplified form of a sales funnel, but this gives you some ideas for how to increase demo bookings! If you can generate good leads from your chosen customer demographics, your sales funnel—when correctly set up—should be able to do the rest. With a proven system, you should see an improvement in your bookings in no time!
Tip #3: Don’t Forget About Brand Reputation
You may have the proper marketing and sales funnel, even differentiation in the industry, but something else could be causing you to have fewer demo bookings. Unfortunately, it could be your brand reputation.
Your brand reputation is essential to selling your customers or potential customers on your marketing product. Brand reputation establishes credibility, a succinct, unique brand message, and even positive customer experiences for your products and services.
There are a few things that you can do to improve your brand reputation if you find that this is a critical problem for you:
- Focus on improving your connections with your audience: Today’s world is incredibly digital, which makes it incredibly easy for you to connect with your customers on social media. Make sure you are constantly offering value and acting with integrity. Interact with your audience in a professional manner that matches your business’ tone.
- Establish credibility through proven use cases and examples: One of the best things you can do is use case studies or examples from past customers to display your value proposition. This will increase your brand’s credibility and further prove your actual value as a brand to your customers.
- Maintain a solid digital presence: It’s true—the present and future of marketing are digital. You should always be seen as a reliable digital brand; if you lack platforms to engage on, expand your options. Omnichannel presence is necessary to see your brand’s success and improve your reputation!
Your brand reputation should allow you to create a strong, positive digital presence. Today’s technology has made it incredibly easy for people to connect on the Internet, but people often forget how tough it is to mitigate positive and damaging reputations.
By creating brand awareness, remaining connected, and staying apprised of any critical issues that your brand may be facing, you can build your brand reputation. That way, you ensure that no matter what happens, your brand remains positive so you can secure more demo bookings to teach people more about your excellent value proposition.
Tip #4: Use Omnichannel Marketing
If you want optimal results, you need to be present on most if not all marketing channels. These include all social media platforms, Google Maps, and more. Therefore, it would help if you made yourself present on any channels, and your marketing can be diversified to reflect content that your various audiences want to see.
There are a few critical—if not essential—omnichannel marketing tips that you need to employ to see improvements in the number of demo bookings that you receive over time:
- Focus on SEO: Chances are, you already know the extreme power of SEO and how much it aids businesses. Your marketing should reflect proven keywords, SEO techniques, and tips to help you gain visibility. On any digital channel—even social media—you need to connect to the search words that your target audiences use to find your services.
- Short, Concise Content: The days of long, drawn-out content are over. You need to present clear, quick messages for your customers. For example, an average social media post only can contain so many words. Platforms like TikTok allow for long-form content, but most of it is only about a minute long. Keep your content short and sweet if you want to capture the attention of your audience.
- Repurpose Your Content: One of the hidden secrets of omnichannel marketing that people often sleep on is repurposing your content. For example, why make seven different pieces of content for seven platforms when you could use the same video? You’ll cut down on time spent on this while also seeing improvements in customer bookings because each forum will share the same message.
Omnichannel marketing is the best method to capture as much of your audience as possible while also sharing the same messages across unique channels. It doesn’t have to be complicated—no one expects you to be Wonder Woman or Superman! Keep it simple and focus on the quality and value of your digital presence, and you will see a change in your bookings.
Tip #5: Entice Your Audience with Video Marketing
I know we already talked about diversifying your marketing through omnichannel penetration, but we need to talk about video marketing. So many brands sleep on the power of video marketing, which can be valuable for your business! Platforms like YouTube, Vine (RIP), and TikTok are proof enough that videos are in, and long-form content will sell differently than videos today.
However, let’s be clear: don’t share a full-length movie and expect your customers to want to sit and watch it. Unfortunately, anything longer than five minutes will be too long for today’s customer base. Most videos do well when they are kept under two minutes. So, if you want to improve your marketing, turn to videos.
Set up the video camera and get to work because 54% of all customers want to see more videos from brands and businesses. So what better way to capture the power of your brand than to see it for itself in visual elements? FYI: Google rewards video content and can improve your ranking on YouTube and search engines!
If you want to entice your audience and improve your bookings, share video content and give them a sneak-peak of what is to come. Show them a testimonial of a client using your product and seeing massive benefits from your offer. The best way to sell people on your product or on the value of booking a demo is to do so by showing them visual results that are tangible and memorable. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth all that—and much more.
Tip #6: Don’t Record Your Demo—Host It Live
If you have been recording your demos, you may have seen some success, but did you know that live webinar might hold the key to seeing increases in viewership? Many firms don’t know this, but you will capture more attention from an audience when you say that you will have a live webinar for your demo rather than one prerecorded.
Most of the time, individuals will view a prerecorded demo as just another video they can watch on their own time. Still, by having it live, you’re creating an element of scarcity and further showing your audience that there is only one opportunity to see what you have to offer, making this call to action much more potent than just a simple recorded demo video.
One case study we conducted for a different industry showed that live webinars maintained about 20 to 30% attendance rates from the individuals who initially signed up. Additionally, about another 10% of those who signed up will watch the recording, so you will only capture a small fraction of the audience but imagine if you had only recorded the demo. You could have only had about 10% of your audience watching, which is much smaller than a nearly 40% of the audience members who signed up for the live demo!
If you want to see significant changes, ensure that you host a live demo. People want to have somebody who can answer their questions. They want to have somebody they can trust that will be available to them. If you have live demos, you will see greater trust in your brand and even more individuals who feel compelled to purchase because they were able to alleviate their worries with a live host from your company. This further increases your chances of success when it comes to your conversion rates!
Tip #7: Create Unique Opportunities for Those Who Attend Live Demos
Finally, one of the most important tips we can offer you is to create unique opportunities for those who sign up for the live webinars. There is nothing that people love more than having a chance to get access to something that is otherwise exclusive, something that they would never be able to achieve otherwise, especially when it comes to rewards or discounts on future subscriptions.
Some of the most successful conversions entail offering an exclusive deal they can’t get anywhere else. For example, you could have your company provide the live demo and give a 10% discount on the first two months of the subscription for your product or service. Not only will this get them to sign up, but if you have a strong value proposition, you will be able to secure their loyalty after their trial period and discount.
You can create a significant offer that will entice customers so much that they will be impossible to say no to. Some other examples that you can use for unique opportunities include the following:
- Offering exclusive discounts
- Offering extended trials
- Offering a free consultation for your products or services
- Referral discounts
- Exclusive program offerings
As you can see, there are various ways to create unique opportunities for those who attend live demos. When you offer this and make it clear in your marketing that you have something special that they can only get one time, you’ll be surprised how many people eventually sign up. More importantly, you’ll be pretty happy with how many of those demo bookings turn into conversions!
Improve Your Leads and Demo Bookings Today
There are so many ways that you can improve your demo bookings to secure more conversions over time. We hope this information provided you with a lot of insight and tips to help you improve your demo bookings. If you want to make sure your demos leave your prospect with no choice but to say “yes, this is what I need”, download our Cheat Sheet – “How to Drive More Sales with Your EdTech Demo” and start driving more sales with your next demo!
