Every breakthrough starts with a walkthrough.
(We’re not sure this is actually the case, but it rhymes so we’re going with it.)
Anyways, it doesn’t matter if you’re trying to generate leads, get buyers to sign on the dotted line, onboard customers, or drive product adoption, you need buyers to understand your software’s unique value and know how to get the most out of it.
And one way to do this is by using a website walkthrough.
Join us as we break down everything you need to know about using website walkthroughs to boost your SaaS sales strategy.
What is a website walkthrough?
Before we go any further, let’s take a minute to review some important definitions.
When we talk about a website walkthrough, we mean the step-by-step tutorial or guided interactive demo that showcases a complex product to help users get to the “aha!” moment. And by this we mean that moment when users understand a product’s key value.
Website walkthroughs are a great way for users to discover and understand what a product’s features are, how to apply and utilize features, and the benefits of the product.
When done right, website walkthroughs should help users quickly understand a product’s flow and unique value proposition.
Website walkthroughs vs. product tours
You may be thinking to yourself, “Gee, Walnut, website walkthroughs sound awfully similar to product tours.”
To that we’d say that you are absolutely correct!
Product tours and walkthroughs are very similar in that they are often embedded on a company’s website or in marketing materials to allow prospects to try the product earlier in the sales process.
Typically, they are used to help get buyers engaged from the get go, qualify leads, and boost conversion rates.
Beyond that, website walkthroughs can be used to help successfully demo your product, onboard customers, educate users on product updates or new feature releases, and boost SaaS product adoption.
Why do you need a website walkthrough?
There are a few reasons you and your team may want to start using website walkthroughs beyond giving your brand a competitive advantage.
Walkthroughs can play a major part in educating the public about your product, showing specific prospects how they can utilize your product to solve their needs, and onboard customers successfully.
The result is more customers who stick around longer.
Improve the buyer experience
Using a website walkthrough can go a long way in helping you boost the buying experience for your prospects.
Website walkthroughs provide a clear and concise guide on using the product’s features, which can help minimize the learning curve and quickly show potential customers what they can gain from using your product.
For example, if you embed walkthroughs on your website, you can give prospects the opportunity to try out your product earlier on in the sales cycle. This means they can understand right away if your product will meet their needs, instead of having to sit through rounds of discovery calls just to see the product.
Boost engagement
Website walkthroughs can be personalized to make product education, customer onboarding, or marketing materials much more engaging.
Not to mention, if you use a demo platform like Walnut to make your website walkthroughs, you’ll be able to track engagement to see the features your visitors love. Then optimize your product marketing strategy accordingly.
Better allocate your resources
Regardless of where in the go-to-market funnel you use your website walkthrough, you’ll be able to reduce resources that would have been required for explaining your product.
If you use walkthroughs in your marketing materials, you’ll be able to track how visitors interact with your product walkthrough to gain insights about their buying intent. And this can help you qualify your leads according to specific personas or set of features, which can help you reduce the load on your sales team.
Likewise, website walkthroughs make it easier for users to get started using features or products because it allows them to discover the product’s flow at their own pace.
This means that they’ll be less likely to need help and guidance, which frees up your support team.
Reduce churn
Website walkthroughs are your secret weapon when it comes to simplifying the onboarding experience.
In many cases, the reason a customer churns is because they never really learned how to use a product in the first place. That’s why website walkthroughs are so important. Companies can use website walkthroughs to teach customers how to make the most out of their product. They can even customize walkthroughs for each customer and add guides to let them master the product at their own pace.
When you boost customer satisfaction and retention, it can also help you trim customer acquisition costs and drive revenue growth. And all of this can make a major difference in boosting your customer retention and decreasing churn.
What makes a website walkthrough effective?
Now, you have a pretty clear picture of what a website walkthrough is.
But not all website walkthroughs are created equal.
And while walkthroughs may vary based on your specific brand, product, and audience, effective website walkthroughs have a few elements in common.
Interactive
First and foremost, interactive walkthroughs pack a much stronger punch than non-interactive ones.
This is because to be as effective as possible, your walkthrough needs to give prospects a realistic sense of what it would be like to actually use your product.
That’s the advantage of making the walkthroughs interactive. You can give buyers the ability to freely click through the walkthrough and offer a more true-to-life product experience.
Another major benefit of interactive walkthroughs is that it allows prospects to skip through content. While this might feel counterintuitive, giving prospects the ability to skip content allows them to focus on only the parts that are the most relevant to their needs and keeps them engaged.
Concise
Short and sweet.
That’s exactly how your website walkthrough should be.
You’ll only want to include the most necessary information so it’s easy for prospects to follow along. Plus, you want to make sure you don’t bore prospects with unnecessary feature dumping.
Easy to use
You shouldn’t need a walkthrough to help you navigate your website walkthrough.
When you make a website walkthrough, your goal should be to simplify the product experience for your customers, not make it more complicated.
A good rule of thumb is to make sure that your website walkthrough explains how your product works, shows them exactly what to click, and how to progress from step to step.
Well-structured
In addition to being easy-to-use, you need to make sure that your website walkthroughs have a clear structure.
This will help you ensure that it’s intuitive and easy to follow so buyers can freely navigate through it.
To be effective, buyers need to fully understand what they’re learning how to do, what they’re trying to achieve, and what they stand to gain.
When to use a website walkthrough
So, when exactly should you use a website walkthrough?
Great question!
Many companies will embed a website walkthrough on their website homepage or use it in their marketing materials as a way to showcase the product earlier on in the sales process.
Some companies will also take advantage of website walkthroughs when there is a new product release or update.
How to create a killer website walkthrough
One does not simply make a website walkthrough.
To achieve the best results, you’ll need to prepare.
To do this, you’ll want to lay out the objectives, make sure you’re taking a user-centric approach, utilize multiple teams, and utilize a website walkthrough tool.
Here’s how to create your website walkthrough in 4 steps:
1. Consider the goals and objectives
Before you start building your website walkthrough, you need to make sure you understand what your buyers should learn from it.
That’s why it’s essential to decide what information is necessary to include in order to get buyers from point A to point B.
Plus you need to present the information in a way that’s clear and easy to follow so buyers don’t get lost along the way.
2. Take a customer-centric approach
That makes sense, but how can you decide what to include in your website walkthrough and what to ditch?
Well, that’s where you’re going to have to take a look at your customers’ behavior.
This includes everything from what buttons they hover over and click as well as where and when they would want to see a walkthrough.
To find this information out, you can use A/B testing, heatmap monitoring, or even eye-movement tracking.
3. Utilize a website walkthrough tool
Now it’s time to actually create your website walkthrough.
If you go the in-house route, just beware that you’ll need significant R&D help and resources, and it may be harder to make even smaller changes to it once it’s built. Plus, you open yourself up to risk that confidential existing customer data could be exposed.
That’s why some companies opt for walkthrough tools (like Walnut) that make it simple to create compelling and engaging interactive walkthroughs that can be personalized for every buyer.
4. Optimize, optimize, optimize
Your job isn’t done after you’ve published the website walkthrough.
Ideally, you’ll want to consistently analyze how users interact with your walkthrough to make sure you are always improving and optimizing it.
You can do this by monitoring how much time buyers spend on your walkthrough, where they click the most, which parts they spent less time on, and what the walkthrough completion rate is.
Using website walkthroughs to enhance the buying experience
With an effective website walkthrough, you’ll be able to show your buyers exactly how your product works and why they need it in their lives.
No matter what your use case is — enhancing your marketing materials, adding an embed to your website, or boosting your customer success — a walkthrough can take your company to the next level.
But website walkthroughs are only successful if they manage to keep buyers engaged and allow them to interact freely with your product so they have a realistic sense of what it would actually be like to use the product.
Luckily, this is easy to do, if you use an interactive walkthrough platform (like Walnut).
The bottom line is that using website walkthroughs will not only help enhance your marketing, sales, and customer success, but also help you improve the buying experience for your customers.
What are you waiting for? Click the “Get started” button to start delivering interactive website walkthroughs.
