Demio Review: Is This Browser-Based Webinar Platform Worth the Hype?
In the past few years, more and more industries started adopting online solutions for traditional in-person events and campaigns. Webinars are at the helm of this transformation. 95% of businesses believe that webinars are an important part of their marketing strategy, and it only makes sense. The average conversion rate for webinars is 55%.
But you can’t pull off a successful webinar with Google Meets. You need a lot of extra tools to engage your audience and promote your products. That’s where Demio comes in. It’s one of the best webinar platforms, and it can help you kickstart growth with live and evergreen events. Keep reading our Demio review to find out more.
What is Demio: A Quick Overview
Demio is a webinar tool that simplifies hosting events online. Its features, integrations, and design are all focused on ease of use. After rigorous testing of Demio, I can confidently say: you’ll be hard-pressed to find a cleaner interface in webinar apps.
Not to mention, all of it happens in your browser. We love that. Demio lets you and your audience focus on the value you bring. You don’t need to worry about the tech side, you just need to plan and host killer webinars.
And it manages to do all of it without stripping too many features. You get decent options to plan events, create automated evergreen funnels, interact with your audience, and even get advanced analytics about your past webinars.
It’s not a perfect tool. We’re not big fans of its pricing, and you do sacrifice a bit of customization here and there. But all in all, it’s a decent choice. You can try it today with a 14-day free trial, and no credit card is required:
Background on Demio
Demio is made by Banzai, a company that creates lightweight, yet powerful engagement marketing tools. Demio was launched back in 2014, and it was made by two marketers from Florida that wanted a webinar software fit for their needs.
Demio grew a lot since then. The Banzai team actively works on the app to make it better based on community feedback, which is a big perk when looking for any kind of software.
There’s a lot of value in tools built by people that want to use them. That’s what Demio is. And it’s part of the reason it got Software Advice’s Front Runner 2022 award.
But what makes it so great? Let’s dig in.
Getting Started With Demio
The platform itself is very intuitive. If you scroll through its dashboards for 10-15 minutes, you’ll know everything you need to host your first webinar.
On top of that, Demio created a pretty innovative starter guide. You’ll be invited to join after sign-up:
And I recommend you do. It’s a mock webinar, complete with simulated participants, and videos that explain how to host an event. In just 10 minutes, any new user will learn the ropes of Demio, regardless of experience level.
If all of this isn’t enough, Demio’s support center can help too. They have a solid knowledge base, fast response times from live chat support agents, and a University section where you can learn more about how to make the most out of Demio.
Overall, this is one of the easiest webinar tools I’ve ever tried. If WebinarJam, Livestorm, or GetResponse ever felt too intimidating, try Demio.
Key Features
Although it’s easy to use, Demio doesn’t chop features left and right. It has everything you need to create, promote, and host successful webinars. Let’s go over its main features.
Dashboard
The main dashboard is where you can see the schedule of all of your upcoming sessions, as well as create new events, and adjust your profile settings.
Right off the bat, you’re not overwhelmed with options. You can do a lot. But in this initial dashboard, you only see what’s most important. To get started, you can click on your name in the top-right corner to open your settings. Here, you can modify things like your branding:
It’s also the place to manage general account details, integrations, or API. But we’ll talk more about them in a bit.
There are some settings you’d expect to see here, but they’re missing. For example, you can’t create general templates for emails or registration forms. You need to create an event, and then design pages or emails for each event in particular. But all in all, we’re off to a good start.
Easy event customization
After you create an event, you can build landing pages and emails to promote it. All the promotional options you have are available in the “Customize” menu:
The most useful feature is the registration page, which makes it very easy to create a professional sign-up page in seconds. Unfortunately, the builder is pretty limited. It only has a tiny library of pre-built elements that can be added to any page.
So it’s not comparable to a fully-fleshed page builder. If you want something more customizable, you’ll need to create the registration page with something else, then integrate a lead collection tool with Demio.
But Demio’s registration pages can help in a pinch. They’re clean, well-designed, and easy to deploy. All of them have a thank you page, and you can seamlessly embed it into your own site.
Email reminders are pretty much the same. You can send them at different intervals to improve attendance at your event:
But don’t expect advanced email templates. You can’t edit much beyond the text. All emails you send with Demio look like this:
So they’re a decent option as a reminder. But not as promotional emails. If you want to do serious email marketing, you’ll need a tool like Mailchimp.
Besides pages and emails, you can also customize your webinar materials in advance. You can use Demio to create polls, handouts, and calls to action (called featured actions). These are saved to your event, and then you can seamlessly throw them up during your presentation.
You can also upload presentation materials like videos or slide shows. They’re easy to add to events and showcase during a webinar.
Events
There are three types of events in Demio: standard, series, and automated. Standard events are just live webinars that you can plan and host straight from the platform. Series events are a bunch of live events that take place with the same group. Automated events are evergreen webinars that run on their own.
They’re all equally easy to create, and easy to access. From our tests, we also found that Demio events look great in any browser, even on mobile.
Live Webinars
Live webinars are Demio’s core feature, so we’ll spend some more time explaining how they work. You can join a planned live webinar from your schedule, and kickstart the session from the top-left corner of the screen:
Interacting with your audience after you started the session is very easy. You can see the chat in the right tab, and you can easily delete messages, or mark them as a question to highlight and address them:
You can also start a private chat with anyone, or switch over to the admin chat if you want to talk to your moderators.
What you see is very similar to what your audience will see, bar from the moderation options. They can also choose to ask questions, instead of just typing in chat, which will highlight their query.
This makes it very easy to engage your audience during a webinar and keep chat interactions structured.
As a host, it’s also easy to share videos and slide shows:
Unfortunately, you don’t get any control over how these are displayed. They’ll take up most of the screen, and you’ll be on top of it. That layout might work for most people. If you want more control over this kind of thing though, you won’t get it from Demio.
You can also share your screen, much like you would in Google Meets or Zoom. What I really like though is that you can quickly switch from the tab you’re showing:
To the webinar tab, with just the press of a button:
You can share other materials from the bottom-right corner of the screen. These include downloadable files, polls, or featured actions. You can pick one that you created beforehand, or even create new materials mid-webinar.
Files and polls are good to have, and they’re industry standard in webinar software. So are calls to action, but I really like the featured actions here in Demio. They’re easy to create:
And throw up on the screen at the right moment:
The way you see it as a host is exactly how your audience will see it. This isn’t a revolution in marketing, and experienced users might miss some advanced settings, like the ability to A/B test. But it’s still a very easy way to push your audience down a funnel.
Live events aren’t as customizable as some experienced users might want. But all in all, they’re pretty easy to pull off, beginner friendly, and can be extremely effective.
Automated Events
Automated events are quick to set up from the main dashboard. You can turn older live events into automated webinars, or upload any recording of a webinar you have.
After you upload a video, you can edit a few details about your automated event. You can set up registration and reminders in advance like you would with any kind of Demio event. And you can also automate resource sharing during the webinar:
If you want, you can join the event at any time, and interact with anyone in the chat. But you don’t have to. With a little bit of prep, this funnel will work on its own. It’s a very powerful evergreen tool. But unfortunately, it’s not available in the cheaper Starter plan.
Post-Webinar Tools
Demio’s post-webinar tools are stellar. You can get a replay of your event the second it’s over:
And share it instantly with different segments of your audience. Moreover, you can access insights about your event:
The general analytics are useful. You can see how many people registered, how many of them attended, and even when people generally closed the webinar. This can help you fine-tune your sessions and improve your conversion rate.
On top, you can get a detailed transcript of all messages in the event, as well as a breakdown of each participant, when they logged in, and other useful details:
Demio analytics won’t be enough for data junkies. But for most businesses, these insights are good enough to optimize both live and evergreen events.
Integrations
It’s very easy to integrate Demio into your existing suite. You get basic integrations like Mailchimp or GetResponse. And you can easily connect your accounts by pasting an activation key, or logging in:
Demio also integrates with Zapier, and you get a ton of pre-made Zaps. With a little bit of work, these can set any webinar on autopilot.
Demio itself has an API key for you to integrate into other apps. And it’s really easy to add integrations to existing events when you plan a session.
Demio Use Cases
Demio has plenty of use cases. We tried to showcase what it can do in this Demio webinar review. But to make things clearer, here are three distinct use cases:
Your marketing team can use Demio for simple and evergreen campaigns. It features a bunch of marketing automation features, as well as readily-available data for how a session progressed, its ROI, and where people dropped off.
Demio can also be used for sales demos, whether live or “simulated live” with automated events. The actionable data you get helps with funnel optimization and improvements to the sales pitch.
Lastly, Demio’s webinar can be handy to customer success teams. Live sessions are perfect to welcome non-techies, and automated events are a great onboarding method for new customers. Its data can also pinpoint potential brand ambassadors based on event engagement.
What makes Demio stand out from other webinar platforms?
Demio does a lot of things right. Its webinar interactions are seamless, sharing materials with participants is easy, and the data you get is very useful. Not to mention, you can manage both live events and evergreen webinar funnels from the same app.
But Demio stands out thanks to its ease of use. The interface is self-explanatory, no dashboard is bloated with hardly-used features, and beginners can make the most out of it without extensive training.
Demio Pricing
We’re not big fans of Demio’s pricing. It’s not expensive, Demio’s price is average. The problem is that the Starter plan lacks a lot of Demio’s core features. Unless you get the Growth plan you’ll miss out on things like automated webinars, advanced tracking by registration source, or custom branding.
If you’re fine without those (or if you can shell out the $831) Demio is a smart choice. Here’s what each pricing plan features:
Starter – $411/year:
- 1 host limit
- Standard webinar features
- 3-hour limit on sessions
- Live and Event Series
- Standard support
Growth – from $831/year:
- 5 hosts limit
- Everything in Starter
- Automated events
- 8-hour limit on sessions
- Custom room, forms and email branding
- Registration source tracking
Premium – from $3,000/year:
- Premium integrations with Hubspot, Salesforce, Marketo, and Pardot
- No limit on hosts per account
- Everything from Growth
- Custom domains
- 10-hour limit on sessions
- Priority support
- Access to Beta features
- Dedicated Account Manager
Summary of Demio’s Pros and Cons
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In our tests, we mostly appreciated Demio’s ease of use. Beginners or non-tech-savvy people will be able to make the most out of the app without any specialized training. Best of all, Demio doesn’t sacrifice too much control for this ease of use.
On the other hand, the lowest pricing tier doesn’t really feel like “Demio.” It’s a bit stripped of features. And if you can’t rely on your internet connection at all times, you might want to look into Demio alternatives. We haven’t experienced any issues with connectivity, but multiple users reported problems with this.
Quick Conclusion
Demio is a reliable webinar tool. If you’ve ever felt stumped by its more complicated cousins, you should really give it a try. We hope our Demio review helped you see whether or not it’s the right pick for you.
If you’re still not sure, here’s the bottom line: Demio is not skimping on any crucial features, and you can use it without a degree. If that sounds like a great deal, check it out with a free 14-day trial, no credit card required:
