Infectious

Demos that Stick!

You're looking to change the world. But, you need to get people to take notice and inspire them into telling others. Whether you're talking at TechCrunch, DEMO, to investors or customers you need a demo that sticks.

If you're looking for basic tactics behind great demos you'll want to read GuyKawasaki's blog, 'How to be A Demo God' or Michael Arrington's TechCrunch post, 'How to Demo your Startup'.

But a great demo is more than just tactics, it's an artform that when done well leaves your audience in awe. Don't get me wrong, tactics are incredibly important. In fact, one of the most important tactics is often screwed up. Namely, people do the demo last when it should be done upfront. Jeff Bonforte outlines some great thoughts on the necessities of doing a demo upfront on his blog post, 'Boom, Demo First'.

But to really reach your audience, your idea needs to stick. With this in mind, I'd suggest taking a read of Made to Stick because the same principles Chip and Dan Heath discuss apply to demoing your product. Here are their 6 principles:

PRINCIPLE 1: SIMPLICITY - How do you find the essential core of your ideas?

“It’s hard to make ideas stick in a noisy, unpredictable, chaotic environment. If we’re to succeed, the first step is this: Be simple. Not simple in terms of ‘dumbing down’ or ’sound bites.’ What we mean by ’simple’ is finding the core of the idea. ‘Finding the core’ means stripping an idea down to its most critical essence.” (pgs. 27, 28)

PRINCIPLE 2: UNEXPECTEDNESS - How do you get our audience to pay attention to our ideas, and how do you maintain their interest when you need time to get the ideas across?

“The most basic way to get someone’s attention is this: Break a pattern. Humans adapt incredibly quickly to consistent patterns. Figure out what is counterintuitive about the message-i.e., What are the unexpected implications of your core message? Communicate your message in a way that breaks your audiences’ guessing machines.” (pgs. 64, 72)

PRINCIPLE 3: CONCRETENESS - How do you make your ideas clear?  

“Abstraction makes it harder to understand an idea and to remember it. It also makes it harder to coordinate our activities with others, who may interpret the abstraction in very different ways. Concreteness helps us avoid these problems.” (pg. 100)

PRINCIPLE 4: CREDIBILITY - How do you make people believe your ideas?

“How do we get people to believe our ideas? We’ve got to find a source of credibility to draw on. A person’s knowledge of details is often a good proxy for her expertise. Think of how a history buff can quickly establish her credibility by telling an interesting Civil War anecdote. But concrete details don’t just lend credibility to the authorities who provide them; they lend credibility to the idea itself.” (pgs. 138, 163)

PRINCIPLE 5: EMOTIONS - How do you get people to care about your ideas?

“How can we make people care about our ideas? We get them to take off their Analytical Hats. We create empathy for specific individuals. We show how our ideas are associated with things that people already care about. We appeal to their self-interest, but we also appeal to their identities-not only to the people they are right now but also to the people they would like to be.” (pg. 203)

PRINCIPLE 6: STORIES - How do you get people to act on your ideas?

“A story is powerful because it provides the context missing from abstract prose. This is the role that stories play-putting knowledge into a framework that is more lifelike, more true to our day-to-day existence. Stories are almost always CONCRETE. Most of them have EMOTIONAL and UNEXPECTED elements. The hardest part of using stories effectively is make sure they’re SIMPLE-that they reflect your core message. It’s not enough to tell a great story; the story has to reflect your agenda.” (pgs. 214, 237)

So, now all you have to do is pull all of these principles together;) If you're looking for someone who has mastered the skill look at some of the demo's by Steve Jobs...a master in my mind. Here is his demo of the IPhone (IPod capabilities) at MacWorld. Notice how he captures his audience by sticking to most of these principles.

What's your distribution, distribution, distribution?

You've heard the age old marketing adage from brick and mortar entrepreneurs that getting traffic is about location, location and location. Well, getting web traffic is about distribution, distribution and distribution. So what product strategies make a difference? Make sure you have one of these product distribution accelerators:

1. A viral product that turns 1 user into 1+ additional users
2. A product whose SEO content benefits from usage thus driving users from organic search
3. A product where you can buy traffic (SEM) with a quick return...again driving users from search
4. A product widget that is valuable to publishers and drives awareness or users back to your site

There are some products on the web that have developed significant amounts of traffic without one of theses element...growing through word of mouth...but these cases have become extremely difficult in an environment with so much noise. What's been most effective for your product?

The Top Under Served Markets on the Web

When creating a product is it better to start by defining the problem or audience? By starting with the problem you may have an audience. But who is the audience and how large are they?

By starting with an under-served audience first and then figuring out the markets needs products have a higher probability of resonating with the audience. This may sound like a nuance in approach but it could have a significant difference on what type of product gets built.

So, what are the most important under served audiences on the web? Knowing the answer to this question could lead to valuable and unique solutions. So, let me throw out one idea in finding the most vibrant audiences.

Yahoo! Groups is an Audience Goldmine

If your looking for under served, vibrant communities on the web Yahoo! Groups is one of the best places to start your research. Yahoo! Groups has hundreds of thousands of groups in every category imaginable. Entrepreneurs just need to do a bit of research to determine the size and engagement of a particular audience. You might want to start at The Best of Yahoo! Groups.

Say you're interested in determining the popularity of Mother's Groups. After typing in 'Moms Groups' you'll see that there are over 23,000 groups. Additionally, you'll also notice that all of the top groups have thousands of users. A good sign of a large audience. You'll need to join a few of the groups to see how engaged they are. I'm sure this realization has spurred on several products in this area like Big Tent.

At this point you might be asking the question, why these groups are under served. In fact, some may be served perfectly well. The key is finding those groups that are large, engaged and could be much better served from a tailored solution. This reminds me of the story of Craigslist which was originally a group within Yahoo! Groups until the solution no longer fit the needs of the community. They struck out on their own and the rest is history.

There are other products like Ning, Google Groups and Facebook Groups that can also provide some insightful learnings.

Happy hunting...