Let us tell you a secret. If you’re a WordPress and WooCommerce user, you would be doing yourself a favor if you try different plugins made by Barn2 Plugins. Their plugins are designed to enhance e-commerce WordPress sites with particular features that are hard to get.
Now, having multiple plugins is great, but there’s a problem. You know what that is? Having the capability to do WordPress plugin demos in an efficient manner!
That’s where InstaWP comes in, which you’ll see as we talk to Barn2 Plugins Co-Founder and CEO Katie Keith. InstaWP lets potential customers experience a plugin demo, which helps convince them to get their plugins. In this case study, we’ll explore what Barn2 Plugins is and see how InstaWP has helped them present their various plugins better.
About the Client
- According to their LinkedIn, Barn2 is one of the UK’s top plugin companies and sells WordPress and WooCommerce plugins to tens of thousands of website owners worldwide.
- As of this writing, Barn2 has 23 premium WordPress plugins and 5 free plugins.
- Their popular plugins include WooCommerce Product Table, which lets you list WooCommerce products in a searchable table layout with filters; WooCommerce Product Add-Ons, which allows you to personalize WooCommerce products and choose extra options and add-ons effortlessly; Posts Table Pro, a simple but flexible way to help you display WordPress blog posts in a searchable and sortable table; and Document Library Pro, which lets you add and import documents and display them in a searchable library.
As Katie says,
“We pride ourselves on creating high-quality plugins that are built to the latest software development best practices and providing industry-leading customer support to help our customers achieve success with our plugins.”
The Challenge For Barn2 Plugins: The Best Way To Do A WordPress Plugin Demo
- With their many plugins, Katie and Andy found it hard to do a plugin demo for each one.
- They tried offering a free test WordPress plugin for their customers, but it required them to customize their website, which was a hassle.
- Their sales increased, but the overall revenue remained the same—not worth the effort they put into it.
As Katie explains,
“Almost all our plugins have a front-end demo site, but this isn’t ideal for every plugin. For example, some of our plugins are very back-end heavy, such as WooCommerce Wholesale Pro, which hides content from logged-out users, so a front-end demo isn’t an ideal way to showcase the plugin’s capabilities.”
- They stopped offering the trials, but Katie didn’t stop looking for test plugin software and other methods to help customers understand their plugins before they buy.
- They tried some plugins like CodeCanyon, which offered admin demos but were overly complex and buggy.
- Katie also personally didn’t like the multisite structure.
Learning About InstaWP For WordPress Plugin Testing
- In 2023, Katie started hearing about InstaWP, particularly in WordCamp Europe.
- After careful consideration, she and Andy decided that InstaWP was the perfect way to allow their customers to try out their products before buying.
- What excited them about InstaWP was how easy it was to use, letting them create WordPress plugin demos and sites in a flash and in a user-friendly way.
How Barn2 Plugins Uses InstaWP: To Let Customers Test WordPress Plugin Online
Katie says,
“We have used InstaWP to create an admin plugin demo for our Document Library Pro plugin. Next, we plan to add similar themes for our other plugins, too. It’s the perfect solution because it’s incredibly user-friendly for our customers while providing us with an easy-to-use interface and helpful reporting so that we can see how the demos are performing.”
To try the InstaWP-powered admin WordPress plugin demo
of Barn2’s Document Library plugin, you can follow these steps:
Go to Barn2’s Document Library Plugin page and click Live Demo.
Note: This is particularly interesting, as they are provide a choice to the user for a front-end demo or the back-end demo (admin demo), depending on the usecase.
<Tweet to Katie’s twitter about this post> https://twitter.com/KatieKeithBarn2/status/1708821404123082784? Or https://twitter.com/KatieKeithBarn2/status/1706957145457955204?
- Select Create Demo for the Admin Demo to launch an editable plugin demonstration session.
- Proceed to have quick admin access to the demo and try the plugin on your own.
Try Document Library’s Admin Demo →
The Results: How InstaWP Affected The Sales of Barn2 Plugins After Plugin Demo
Barn2 Plugins’ move to InstaWP was a positive for them. Katie says,
“So far, 295 people have signed up for an admin demo, which is pretty incredible as it was only launched a few weeks ago. It’s too early to track sales reliably, but we have received positive feedback from customers.”
Isn’t that amazing? That’s the power of having a plugin demo for your potential clients. You can also do that if you have your own plugins.
Final Thoughts
Barn2 Plugins deciding to use InstaWP to let them test WordPress plugins online to show off their plugins shows just how much easier it can be for customers to try out and love a product. Using InstaWP, Barn2 has made it super simple for anyone to demo their plugins immediately without any fuss. This smart move helps people see how good the plugins are before they buy them.
As mentioned above, if you’re in the business of making plugins or software, this is a big lesson: trying a plugin demo before buying helps to convince people! Giving your customers a way to test things easily can really help them decide to buy your product. Choosing InstaWP for your projects is a strategic decision that can enhance your sales performance.
