Backend Demos in WordPress
Your sandbox demo site is not helping.
I'm aging myself here, but I remember a time in WordPress when product demos weren’t even a thing. All you had to do was show some screenshots of your settings, a screenshot or two of the frontend, and that was enough for the buyer.
Ah, the good old days.
Alas, things have changed, and in today’s WordPress business landscape, product companies need to “wow” a prospective customer. One way people are choosing to do this is by providing a demo site.
Some WordPress products even let you spin up a demo site to play around with the product. In exchange for your email address, you get a “sandbox” of sorts to see the software in action.
I'm fine with this, but only if the demo site looks good. However, almost every single one of them is a shitty experience.
I touched on this briefly in my letter to WordPress founders, but I wanted to add just a little more context.
WordPress’ Backend is a Terrible Sales Tool
Imagine you're a prospective customer of a WordPress product, but you're not overly familiar with WordPress.
You sign up for a demo, and you're suddenly dropped into the admin dashboard, filled with countless menu items, random widgets, and a slew of admin notices.
Not a great experience, right?
As a result, prospective customers may assume your product is just as confusing, and now you're facing an uphill battle.
If you then navigate to the frontend demo of the site, and it's not impressive (perhaps it's just a bare-bones skeleton theme), then the thread has been lost. There is now a massive disconnect between their experience on that demo site, and the flashy sales pages.
Which brings me to an important point: very few people get excited about the “how”, they care about the “what”. As in, what it looks like, what it could be for them. You need to show them how awesome it can be!
Focus on The Wow Factor!
Let that sink in.
If you have a product demo, does it get people excited?
Are you selling, or showing?
Because the flat-out-truth is that showing is not good enough anymore. Your conversion rates will tank. Honestly, you’d be better off with screenshots than letting someone into the mess that is the WordPress dashboard.
Always remember that your goal is to make your product shine in every aspect, to make every customer interaction as impressive as possible. You need to get prospective customers feeling positive emotions.
Does your demo do that?
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