How user testing your SaaS website will increase sales
Intro
In this article, we discuss how, as a SaaS business, you can optimise your website's performance and increase your conversion rates by testing your website with real potential users.
Why User Test Your SaaS Website?
Everyone who works closely with a SaaS product or website knows that after a while, it's hard to step back, see the wood from the trees and make objective decisions. This experience is part of the human condition! It's not just you. It results in endless, opinion-driven discussions about what to do for the best, which can be frustrating. Again, this isn't particular to you; virtually all SaaS teams experience it. The way out of it? To take opinions off the table for now and make more decisions based on user insights from independent, expert user testing.
Testing your website and acquisition journey in the right way, with the right participants, will give you robust insights into what is working well, what isn't and why. You'll discover how to drive your conversion rates by simplifying and improving your messaging and optimising your user journeys.
Well-designed user testing will:
1) Take a deep dive into your potential customers' wants, needs, expectations, decision-making criteria, prior experiences, and pain points.
These findings will add to your existing knowledge of potential customers, further deepen your understanding, and often open different ways of thinking and unlocks new ideas.
2) Discover how well potential customers understand your proposition and any doubt or confusion they experience on the website.
In real life, users are going to be hitting your homepage and landing pages for the first time with little understanding of your proposition and with a few simple questions:
What is this product? (Clarity)
What problems can it solve for me? (Relevance)
How badly do I want it? (Value)
Why should I choose it? (Differentiation)
How quickly and easily users can answer these questions will significantly affect how many take positive action.
SaaS teams are often shocked when they see potential customers trying to find answers to these questions on their public-facing websites.
In user testing, we regularly find enough uncertainty or confusion around the primary offering to result in the abandonment of SaaS websites.
3) Uncover the unanswered questions and unmet information needs that could prevent your users from signing up or starting a trial.
Sometimes users have unanswered questions because they can't find information on your website. Other times, they find the content and don't fully understand it. The information and answers they need may not be on the website.
User testing will find these problems and show you how best to solve them.
4) Test the UX of your trial or registration journey and assess first impressions of your product.
Even when you have done the hard work and site visitors decide they want to use or trial your product, there is still plenty of opportunity to lose customers.
In user testing, we have uncovered confusion and uncertainty around trial offers, different packages, and many UX issues with sign-up journeys.
We have also seen users overwhelmed or confused by their first exposure to a product, meaning they may leave and never return in real life.
5) How are you performing compared to the competition?
Most SaaS products exist in a competitive marketplace, and potential customers will compare propositions. In user testing, you can ask participants to spend time on competitor websites to see where you are outperforming or behind your competitors and be a catalyst for further high-value insights on features and your competitive position.
In Summary
Investing in expert-led, independent user testing can be one of the most valuable things you do in making your public-facing website a fine-tuned converting machine. See here how we helped a SaaS business convert more lookers to bookers.
Userfy Can Help You
Please give me a shout anytime to discuss how you can optimise your website's performance and increase conversion rates by testing with real potential users.
Phil Randall (Owner at Userfy)
Email: phil.randall@userfy.co.uk
Call: 07712669935
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