Get Simplicated is a web log by Simplicate Interactive about finding simple and elegant solutions to interesting web development and interactive marketing challenges.

Exactly how do users research, locate and purchase products from you and your competitors?

Steve Comrie | Mar 12

How valuable would that kind of insight be to your business and your conversion rate? Odds are, probably quite valuable. Well as luck would have it, my favourite user testing service has come out with a great suggestion that makes it super easy to learn exactly how your potential visitors find your site or your competitors site and how they use them.

The basic idea is to create tasks on UserTesting.com that asks users to start at Google and research a particular product or service that your company sells. From there, the customer may or may not find your site, but regardless, you'll get valuable insight into which ads or organic results they select and then the process they follow once they click through to the site.

What you'll learn:

 * what search terms people use, and in what order
 * which search results and ads they click on and why
 * what landing pages they find helpful and persuasive

Here's an example user task that you might want to consider using to get the ball rolling:

 

Scenario:  You're looking to buy a Bluetooth headset for your mobile phone.

Tasks:

1. Use Google to research Bluetooth headsets
2. Try to find a Bluetooth headset that's right for you.
3. Use Google to find a good place to buy that Bluetooth headset.
4. Go through the process of buying that headset (but don't click the final "submit order" button).
5. Explain what would strongly convince you to actually purchase that headset
6. Explain what (if anything) would stop you from actually purchasing that headset.

If you're intersted in running these kind of tests on your web site so that you can learn more about how your customer research, search, select and purchase products from you and your competitors, you can go straight to UserTesting.com and start running tests yourself.

If you'd like the benefit of having someone work with you to setup and evaluate the test results I would be more than happy to assist you, just give me a shout.

Tagged with: Improved Conversion Rates  Research  Audience Analysis  User Testing  

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