
We hid the 'demo' button. Our signups quadrupled. - yeleti
http://teslachat.tumblr.com/post/59767541777/we-hid-the-demo-button
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JRFuentes7
First, congrats for asking the question, "Did we do something wrong?" Getting
more sign-ups is laudable, but are they qualified signups that are improving
metrics you care about? Removing the demo, you're potentially removing an
important lead-qualifier for your traffic.

The real test is "which cohort achieves higher [metric you care about]?" For
example, let's say you care about revenue. Does the "demo button present"
cohort generate more or less revenue than the "demo button absent" cohort?

What do your analytics say about that?

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kkaul
I'll tell you exactly what the problem is. The page for the demo does not have
a very eye catching way to get the user to signup. There is just one sign
labelled 'complete signup' at the top right side, which is very easy to miss.

Now, here's the major issue. I'm assuming whenever someone joins the demo
page, he/she gets a random guest number and can chat. Then when the person
leaves, his session stays logged in for some time, and then is removed.

The problem is that when people try to learn more about your product, and try
to go to the home page, the logged in session takes them back to the chat
room. It happened to me multiple times where I closed all windows, and went
back to tesla.im, it would take me to the chat room, so there was no way to
read more about what you guys were offering, and since the signup button in
the chat room is easy to miss, most people leave.

If they do try, like in my case, to go back to the homepage to see more about
the product, then they are continuously forwarded to the chat room, which is
horrible considering people are have very short attention spans.

So maybe fix that and try again?

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yeleti
You will need to logout even if you are a demo user. Please see this image:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9098858/tesla%20logout.p...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9098858/tesla%20logout.png)

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kkaul
Aha! see, I didn't even notice that! For the purpose of the demo, can the
logout button be a bit more pronounced? Or don't redirect traffic from the
home page to the chat room even if a user is logged in.

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yeleti
I understand some users are confused. You will need to logout even if you are
a demo user. Please see this image:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9098858/tesla%20logout.p...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9098858/tesla%20logout.png)

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Casseres
Before hiding the demo button: How many users who tried the demo created an
account?

After hiding the demo button: How many users who created an account still use
the service a week later?

Your signups might have quadrupled, but did the number of active users
quadruple, or do you now just have a bunch of dead accounts?

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andyhmltn
Well for one, once you've hit the demo button, you can't actually get out of
it without signing up. I wanted to re-read what your app was about after
hitting the demo link quickly and now I can't.

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koppo
You must have done some A/B testing for this. However i suggest you focus on
just one metric that really works for you.

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programminggeek
Your app is free right? Why would you need a demo button for a free app?

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sopooneo
Possibly because people like to try things out before going through the work
of creating an account.

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aytekin
So, you have just made the demo harder. :)

