With so many software solutions on the market today, it can be difficult for customers to figure out which product best suits their needs. That places responsibility on the company to ensure their platform stands out from the crowd. Aiming to make marketing themselves easy and efficient, Atlanta-based Tourial provides companies with a no-code product storytelling solution.
The startup just secured $3.4 million in capital from a seed round led by Bonfire Ventures. Tourial’s platform lets marketing teams create interactive product experiences within minutes, rather than spend months working with stakeholders to craft them. The goal is to help software companies engage potential buyers and convey their product’s value to customers early on.
“Product videos and demo environments really struggle to communicate a product’s value early in the evaluation process,” Jason Graub, CEO and co-founder of Tourial, said in a statement. “Marketers can now easily design product experiences that focus on what converts and sells — great product stories — and focus less on the non-essential elements within the product that distract the buyer.”
Companies can use their existing product assets, like screenshots, videos and gifs, to build interactive storytelling experiences using Tourial’s drag and drop design studio. From there, the completed tourial can be implemented from anywhere, including the company’s website or virtual or in-person events.
Nowadays, this kind of marketing is growing in necessity, according to Tourial, since more than 80 percent of B2B product research happens before a buyer ever contacts the company. As software products tend to be particularly difficult to explain, Tourial works to combine storytelling and education so SaaS providers can effectively communicate their product’s purpose in a way that resonates with their audience.
“In a product-led world where buyers have less time and patience than ever, it’s imperative for marketers to explain the ‘what and why’ of their product as early as possible in their prospect’s consideration process,” Brett Queener, investor at Bonfire Ventures, said in a statement. “In our view, every software company will want a tourial as a main page CTA [call to action] as they deliver higher visitor engagement, better lead conversion and increased revenue.”
The sentiment is shared by a range of companies as Tourial counts names like Salesloft, DataRobot and Sprinklr among its customers.
Tourial is putting its seed funding toward creating new product features, expanding its platform across more channels and hiring new team members. The company currently has 16 employees with plans to grow that number to 35 by year’s end, as reported by Atlanta Inno. Tourial will focus on recruiting talent for its data and insights marketing and sales teams.
