Buyer-First Website Review: Trainual with Erin Balsa

About this series: Buyer-First Website Review is a recorded version of our Buyer-First Bites Newsletter.

Each month one of our advisors will on-the-spot review a SaaS website against the best practices from our 2024 B2B Buyer First Best Practices Report:

• Accessible: How convenient is it for buyers to book time with a sales team
• Visible: How public is the pricing and packaging
• Usable: How easy is it for buyers to get hands-on and use the product

See below our advisor, Erin Balsa’s first reactions to the website, Trainual.

Watch the full recording or see the highlights below:

For each bite, we've summarized that section and included the corresponding clip.

1. Is it easy to book a demo?

My first impression is that Trainual’s "Get a Demo" button is clearly visible in the top right corner.

"They put a white button on a dark background so it catches my eye. They also place it where I would naturally expect to see it, which is the top-right"

What I like about the form is it requires minimal input. It only requires two fields to fill out, which reduces friction.

2. Can I see the product?

While Trainual does include an interactive demo on the homepage, it is slightly hidden and I would have preferred it to be more prominent.

"To start I always try to click a software image. I never know if it's going to be clickable or not. A lot of times nowadays it is clickable and it might open a demo"

Going down the homepage it’s mostly “Get a Demo” CTAs until I hit the fourth section with a calculator on the left and a play button to “Try Trainual for yourself”.

Personally, I would love to see it a little sooner because if I'm interested in a tool I'm not here just to be nosy. I'm here because I actually want to learn more.

3. Is pricing easy to find?

In the navbar, it's easy to see the word pricing. It's right where I would expect to see it. It's not buried within another folder or menu item.

And if I land on the page I see four different pricing plans. If I scroll down, they have optional add-ons, which I love.

"That's totally buyer-friendly because they're not going to get you on the phone thinking, 'Oh, cool. It's $249 a year. I can totally afford this'.

And then they're like 'Oh, by the way' if you want a custom domain, that's an extra $15 'Oh, by the way'. And a lot of companies do that"

I love that they're completely transparent with these add-ons, so I know before I decide to spend my limited time.

Does the above fold make it clear what Trainual does? [Bonus Bite]

My background is as a writer and editor. So I always look at the copy. And for anyone who has used website heat mapping, we know a lot of people won’t scroll down past the hero.

When I look at the above the fold I’m trying to understand:

1. What is this tool

2. Is it for people like me

When I land on this page I first see “Easily systemize and scale the way you work”.

"So then I look at the image next. I actually would. I wouldn't even look at the H2.

I would look at the H1, which is the big heading. And then I would look at the software image and see if this added any context for me."

In this case, I got a bunch of context about possible use cases and who the software is built for just from the image, and now I'm ready to go and continue exploring the hero.

The H2 starts by saying “How” and I love that because a lot of times the copy on the home page doesn't tell you how. It makes all these grandiose promises and it's like, well, okay, how?

They're trying to tell me right above the fold how, and it says “processes that document themselves” Well, I'm sold because I spent a lot of time in my in-house roles and working as a documenting content marketing processes.

I’d maybe suggest though to spell out certain jargon, like "SOPs" (Standard Operating Procedures), to clarify for users who may be unfamiliar with the terminology.