eBook

The Marketer’s Guide

to User Testing
Understanding Why Your Customers
Do What They Do

www.UserTesting.com | 1-800-903-9493 | @UserTesting

Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................3

What Is User Testing, and How Can It Help Marketers?............................................5

Why do user testing rather than another feedback method?...........................6
Some terminology we’ll use in this eBook ........................................................7

Testing Your Marketing Initiatives: What You Can Do with User Testing.................8
Cultivate your brand image ...............................................................................9
Ensure a consistent cross-channel experience................................................12
Increase your customer retention....................................................................14
Determine how your company can stand out from competitors....................15
Benchmark your site or product’s performance over time.............................17
Find optimization opportunities from your analytics data.............................18
Understand the customer intent behind your organic search traffic.............20
Craft convincing copy........................................................................................21
Optimize your landing pages and forms for higher conversion .....................22
Create more engaging content and email marketing.....................................24
Run A/B tests that make a real impact.............................................................26
Launch more successful ad campaigns...........................................................27

How It Works: 5 Steps to Getting Actionable Customer Insights...........................28

Defining the test objective................................................................................29
Choosing demographics...................................................................................29
Choosing the device and other requirements.................................................31
Selecting tasks and questions..........................................................................32
Analyzing and sharing the results....................................................................35

Template to Measure Overall Brand Impression and Usability.............................36

Conclusion................................................................................................................38

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 2

Introduction
As marketers, we love our data.

The rise of data-driven marketing has led to smarter spending decisions, more
effective campaigns, and increased customer engagement. Marketers have
access to more robust analytics tools than ever before. Customer relationship
management (CRM) software allows marketing and sales teams to follow each
customer’s specific journey from the very first interaction through to the sale
and beyond.

We know exactly what’s happening on our websites, apps, and marketing campaigns.

But there’s one major problem: we don’t always understand why.

If you’re like most marketers, you’ve probably thought your job would be easier if
only you understood what was actually going wrong. You have the tools to find and
fix the problems, but not the insights to guide you.

You may have seen your campaign

performance or site analytics and
wondered what’s going on inside your
customers’ heads. What were they
thinking when they abandoned their
order? Or when they bounced from a
landing page after just 5 seconds? Or
when they unsubscribed from an email
list? Would they have converted if you
had a different design or different copy?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 3

You may suspect you know the answers to these questions, but unless you hear
it straight from the source, you’re taking a guess. And in the age of data-driven
marketing, guesswork is a dangerous way to run a business.

The only way to be sure what customers are thinking and feeling is to ask them.

So how do you do that?

The answer is user testing.

In this eBook, we’re going to show you what user testing is and how it can help
you find out why your customers do what they do.

We’ll cover some common user testing scenarios that marketers can benefit
from, like:

• Evaluating how customers perceive your brand

• Understanding the cross-channel customer journey
• Comparing your company to the competition
• Optimizing your web presence
• And plenty more!

You’ll learn the nuts and bolts of how to gather qualitative user feedback to
supplement your data and build a complete picture of your customer behavior.
You’ll also find tips on creating excellent test plans that give you the insights you
need (no research background required).

Now, are you ready to get the feedback you need to improve your conversion
rates—and your customer experience?

Great! Let’s get started.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 4

What Is User Testing,
and How Can It Help Marketers?
User testing means observing a person interacting with your website, app, or
other product, speaking their thoughts aloud as they perform designated tasks.

It’s like looking over the shoulder of your customer as they use the product.
You’ll see and hear exactly where they get confused about your product or your
messaging, and you’ll find out how they feel about your brand. When you create
your test, you specify which tasks you’d like the users to complete and which
questions you’d like them to answer about their thoughts and opinions.

For marketers, this type of instant feedback can be the secret weapon you
need to find out why your customers do what they do.

User testing can be done in-house (in a usability lab) or remotely (using an
online tool like UserTesting).

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 5

Why do user testing rather than another
feedback method?
Marketers gather customer feedback through surveys, focus groups, and one-
on-one customer interviews. So, why do user testing?

We’ve found that test participants tend to give more realistic, honest, and
accurate feedback through user testing than other types of customer research.

The reason is that they’re interacting with the site, app, or product in real time,
so they aren’t predicting what they think they would do in a given situation—
they’re actually doing it! Plus, with a remote, online user test, the users are in
their natural environment, not in an artificial lab setting that makes them feel
uncomfortable. There’s no researcher hovering over them, so they don’t feel
tempted to give you the answer they think you want to hear. Finally, remote user
testing is fast—much faster than conducting a traditional focus group or market
research study that requires days or even weeks of setup and recruiting time.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 6

Some terminology we’ll use in this eBook
Here is a short glossary of terms that may make this eBook a little easier to read:

Test
An individual user test completed by one participant.

Study
A collection of tests, the results of which comprise your final dataset.

User
A participant in your user test.

Task
A goal or objective that you set for the user in your test.

Question
A way to gather factual or subjective information within your test.

Quantitative Results
Responses that can be captured in, or converted to, numeric form.

Qualitative Results
Responses or results that cannot be quantified.

Test plan
The “script” of tasks and questions a user will complete during the test.

Now, let’s jump into all of the things you can user test.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 7

Testing Your Marketing Initiatives:
What You Can Do with User Testing
No matter what type of marketing team you’re on, there’s something you can
learn through user testing that you can’t learn through any other feedback tool.

Digital marketers user test their campaigns and learn the “why” behind their
analytics data. Content marketers generate new content ideas and find out what
attracts a user to sign up for a piece of content through user testing. Product
marketers learn whether their target market understands the value, the specs,
and the pricing of their product. Corporate brand teams learn how potential
customers perceive their brand and their competition.

In this section, you’ll find lots of ideas for your user tests. Don’t worry about
asking every question in a single user test! The idea is to iteratively run small
batches of tests, rather than one comprehensive test to rule them all.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 8

Cultivate your brand image
As marketers, it’s our responsibility to
establish and protect the company brand.
And while we work hard to develop brand
guidelines to ensure that our messaging
and design are consistent across
platforms and collateral, they aren’t
always enough. How do you know if your
assumed brand identity is how people
actually see you?

Marketers have traditionally used methods like focus groups and surveys,
but did you know that you can also get these insights almost instantly through
user testing?

Running these types of user tests ensure that your company and customers
are on the same page. You’ll find out if you’re top-of-mind and where you rank
in comparison to others in your industry. Plus, it’ll help you gain a competitive
edge against your competitors.

If you’re ready to quickly learn how customers perceive your brand, here are
some questions and ideas to consider as you plan your user test:

• What do people think and know about your industry?

- Before asking your test participants to do anything else, ask them what
they already know about your industry.
- When your industry is mentioned, do they think about your company?
- What about your competitors?
- What qualities or words do they associate with your industry?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 9

• What do people think/know about your company (without looking at
your website)?
- Ask your test participants to describe how familiar they are with your
company. What do they think your company does?
- Ask if they have seen your advertisements. If so, where? What do they
remember about them?
- What adjectives or qualities do they associate with your company name?
- What color do they most associate with your company?
- If not currently, would they become a member/customer of your
company?
- How do they differentiate you from similar companies or competitors?

• Are you clearly communicating your brand through your website?

- Upon initial review, what words or emotions do users associate with
the homepage?
- What color stands out the most on the homepage? What words or
emotions do your test participants associate with that color?
- Ask test participants to describe their impressions of the logo. What, if
anything, do they associate with the logo?
- What words or emotions do they associate with the fonts on the site?

• Is your branding consistent across all of your channels?

- Watch users interact with your desktop site, mobile site or app, social
media, ads, and marketing collateral.
- Does anything stand out as unusual, different, or off-brand to them?

• Does your brand appear trustworthy? Every time someone interacts with
your company, you’ve got an opportunity to build a relationship with
them. Like most relationships, the resulting foundation will be built on—
and revolve around—trust.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 10

 - Is your contact information easy to find?
- Do you offer live help options? Is this desired
- Do you effectively show off your other clients, give a confirmation from a
third party, or showcase endorsements or testimonials on your site?
- Do you have any dead links on your site?
- Do they trust you or your competitors more?

• After interacting with your brand, would test participants recommend you?

• What do they like and dislike about the way you present your product
or service?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 11

Ensure a consistent cross-channel experience
As users often don’t complete an activity in one sitting or through one channel,
it’s important to evaluate your cross-channel experience. Your cross-channel
experience is any interaction a user has with your company while completing
a single activity on multiple channels. Channels can be websites, apps, email,
social media, online chat, phone calls, print media, and even physical locations.

To begin evaluating your cross-channel experience, consider these questions

as part of your user test:

• How do users interact with your company on their smartphone, desktop,

tablet, and in person?
- When and why is each channel used? Is it dependent on the time of day,
environment, or just based on convenience?
- What do users consider their primary channel of choice? Which do they
use for primary and secondary tasks?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 12

• How is the experience across all channels? Is it:
- Consistent? Do users have a familiar and expected experience across
touch points?
- Seamless? Can users smoothly transition from one channel to another
channel while completing a task?
- Available? Can users complete activities regardless of the channel?
- Context-specific? Is the experience is optimized for the channel?

• Can your users smoothly complete a process that spans multiple devices?
- When and why do users shift from one channel to the next? Is it due to
choice, convenience, or necessity?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 13

Increase your customer retention
Marketers are often focused on attracting new clients and users, but it’s also
critical to keep your current customers happy. Satisfied customers will stay loyal,
make return purchases, and ideally become brand advocates for your company.
Dissatisfied customers will leave you, return their purchases, and potentially
become vocal critics.

If you’re experiencing problems with customer retention or churn, set up

user tests with your current clients and get answers to the following:

• How are your customers currently using your products?

• Are your customers aware of all of the features, products, and services that
you offer?
• How likely would they be to recommend your company to a friend?
• What, if anything, would make them stop doing business with you?
• If they had a magic wand, what would your customers change about
your company?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 14

Determine how your company can stand out
from competitors
Can we let you in on a secret?
You can test literally any website with UserTesting.

Okay, so it’s not actually a secret… but it is pretty darn awesome! It means
that you’re not limited to only testing your own sites. You can compare your
company to your competitors and even track their changes over time. Talk
about a competitive edge!

There are two ways to test your site

against your competitor’s site. You
can have test participants visit both
sites and describe their thoughts on
each one, or you can send separate
sets of test participants to each site
(and then do the comparison
yourself).

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 15

Run competitor tests to find out:

• Why do they prefer one company over the other?

• Who does a better job of clearly explaining the product or offering?
• Who does a better job of convincing the customer to convert?
• What do people like and dislike about your top competitor’s newest feature
or product?
• What would convince them to switch to your company?
• What might convince your current customers to switch to one of
your competitors?

Comparing your company to your competitors is helpful at any point in your

company lifecycle. If your competitor comes out with a cool new feature, don’t
panic—test! Before you scramble to match whatever they just launched, ask
users what they like about it and if it’s as useful as it appears. You may discover
the feature your competitor spent tons of money on is not actually a good idea
to consumers.

Get a leg up on your competition. If you’re only testing your company, you’re
missing out!

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 16

Benchmark your site or product’s performance
over time
A great way to track your performance and
progress over time is through benchmarking
studies. Many companies like to run these
because they show actual data as it changes
over time. It adds a quantitative dimension to
the qualitative research you’re already doing,
which can drive home your findings and add
weight to your suggestions.

There are some slight differences between a benchmarking study and a one-
time study: you’ll need to make sure to commit to running studies on a regular
basis (such as monthly or quarterly), keep a consistent test plan, and include
more users in your studies than with a one-time study (10, 20, or even 50). This
will produce enough reliable data to track your progress with confidence.

Try out these benchmarking questions to start tracking your progress

over time:

• How is your customer experience changing over time?

• Are you improving compared to your competition?
• Are changes occurring because of something you changed on your site or
app, something different about your product, or something in the market?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 17

Find optimization opportunities
from your analytics data
Analytics data is a great way to reveal what
is happening on your site, but you also need
to understand why. You can use analytics
data to pinpoint problem areas, and then dig
in with user tests to really understand why
drop-offs or low conversion rates occur.

To get more insight into the “why” of user

intent, try out these ideas:

• First, ask why certain pages have high bounce and exit rates.
- Run a Behavior Flow Report in Google Analytics (see CRO eBook) to show
you where drop-offs are occurring.
- Run a Goal Flow report to define where the issues are on your campaign
or conversion path.

• Then, taking data from either report, run a user test where you have the
highest bounce or exit rate and see why people drop off.
- What’s really causing users to leave your site at those points?
- Look at user intent. There may be a mismatch between expectations and
what is provided.

• Why are conversions lower on mobile than desktop (or vice versa)?
- Run a user test to understand the intent of a mobile visitor versus a desk
top visitor.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 18

• Why do certain demographics behave differently than other
demographics on your site?
- Use Google Analytics to determine which audience segments are not
performing well for certain pages or flows.
- Run user tests with these groups to understand why certain demographics
aren’t performing on those pages or flows
.

• Why does one page have a comparatively high average visit duration?
- Ask users what they would expect from these landing pages and then ask
them to proceed with that logic. Ask them to explain what that page is for
based on what they see.
- Look at the user intent and expectations.

• Why aren’t you getting enough sign ups?

- Run a user test to find out why you’re not getting enough comments,
newsletter signups, or white paper downloads. Is the problem with your
call to action (CTA)? Are there privacy concerns?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 19

Understand the customer intent behind your organic
search traffic
You’re getting a ton of organic search traffic, but do you know why? Are your
results more appealing than your competitors? Do you stand out better on the
search results page? By running user tests, you’ll be able to better understand
the keyword search experience and why people are selecting your site.

Run these user tests and solve the mysteries around your organic search traffic.

• What do users notice first when they search for your keywords: your site,
your competitors, or your ads?
• What words stand out to them on the Google search results page?
• If and when they click on your link, what are they expecting to find?
• Does your landing page meet those expectations?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 20

Craft convincing copy
Copywriting is one of the primary ways we
persuade and engage users, often with the end
of goal of hoping they will take action. But how
do you know if what you’re writing is effective?
Even if what you’ve written doesn’t intend to sell
a product, you’re still trying to buy someone’s
attention. Every word and every line of text you
write should be meaningful.

Confirm that your copy is actually effective with these user testing ideas.

• Does your target market understand your offering when they land on your
site or use your app for the first time?
• Could a first-time visitor or user describe your unique value proposition
using their own words?
• When you write, is your language clear and free of jargon? Are you writing
like your audience speaks?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 21

Optimize your landing pages and forms
for higher conversion
The job of a marketer is to trigger activity: signing up for a trial, making a
purchase, or entering an email address. With the help of landing pages, forms,
and Calls to Action (CTAs), we’re able to persuade users to take action—but it’s
crucial that they’re optimized for high conversion rates.

Here are some testing ideas to ensure that you’re getting people to click
and take action.

Landing Pages:
• Can your target user understand what’s being offered on your landing page?
• Does the landing page meet their expectations?
• Do they become distracted by anything while on your landing page?
• Do they think your offer has value, and are they willing to pay money or
enter their contact information in exchange for it?

Forms:
• Can users easily sign up with the forms on your landing page?
• Have you optimized the number of fields on your form?
• Does the form work correctly and smoothly on all devices and all screen sizes?
• If a user makes a mistake when filling out the form, do your error messages
easily help them correct the mistake?
• Is there anything about the form that would make the user give up?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 22

 • Are all of your web forms fully accessible to people who use a keyboard or
switch input device, rather than a mouse?
- Are all your menus, buttons, and links reachable using the keyboard?
- Have you sequenced the controls so that they follow a logical order?
- Do you show which control has focus, by making it visually distinct?
• For forms on mobile:
- Are all of your navigation and links accessible to those using a mobile
device?

Calls-to-Action (CTA):
• Does your CTA catch the attention of your users?
• Is there any other information that the user would need to see before click-
ing or tapping the CTA?
• Do you clearly explain the benefit to the user (what’s in it for them) when
they undertake the action?
• Does the CTA clearly communicate what will happen after the action?
• Does your CTA have room to breathe (white space)?
• Did you clearly differentiate the size, shape, or color of the CTA button?
• Is your CTA design consistent across your site?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 23

Create more engaging content and email marketing
Whether you’re churning out new content or
sending emails to your database, you always
want your marketing efforts to be well-
received by your users. And while you may
have access to download and email statistics,
you can’t actually read your user’s minds.

To gain a better understanding of what

users think about your content and email
marketing (without developing mind-
reading powers) try answering these
questions with user tests:

Content marketing:

• Do users find your blog/whitepapers/infographics/webinars/apps helpful

and relevant?
• Do your users enjoy reading similar content from other companies? (If so,
which ones?)
• What topics would they like to see you cover next?
• Where do users generally go to discover content related to their interests,
their job, and their industry?
• When a user lands on your blog or resource center, what do they want to
read first?
• Why did that piece of content catch their eye?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 24

Email marketing:

• Why do users open some of your emails more than others?

• What would users change about your emails if they could?
• What do users expect to see when they click through an email from your
company? Does the clickthrough match their expectations?
• Will your target market understand and engage with your next email
campaign?
• Do your users receive emails from other companies in your industry? If so,
which companies?
• What do the users like and dislike about those emails?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 25

Run A/B tests that make a real impact
We wrack our brains, trying to come up with
an A/B test that will move the needle. But
sometimes we just don’t know what will
increase our conversion rates. Luckily, user
testing and A/B testing are a match made in
heaven. User testing allows you understand
where and why your users are struggling,
which then can help you formulate a B
version that addresses the underlying issues
and in turn boosts your conversion rates.

How can user tests help you run better A/B tests? Try these ideas, because the
best A/B test idea you haven’t thought of may come directly from your prospects.

• Come up with an A/B testing idea by:

- Sending users through your funnel and seeing where they struggle or fall
off the path.
- Sending users to your competitors’ sites or apps and finding out what they
like or dislike. Learning from what your competitors have tried will give
you ideas about what you may want to add to your site, and what
functionality users don’t find helpful.

• Run a user test to find out why your last A/B test resulted the way it did.
- Learn what users preferred about the winning version.
- What, if anything, did they prefer about the losing version?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 26

Launch more successful ad campaigns
Analytics are a great way to track the performance of your ads, but we don’t
often know the “why” behind the “what happened.” Did your ad perform well
because of the placement, the offer, the design, or a combination of these
factors? User testing removes the guesswork from your analytics, and replaces it
with the cold, hard facts you get from watching your users interact with your ads.

Run user tests to find out what people think about your ads:

• What’s the mindset of someone encountering your ads for the first time?
• What do people notice, like, and dislike about your ads?
• Are your ads perceived as helpful or spammy?
• What do people notice, like, and dislike about your competitor’s ads?
• When two ads are compared side-by-side, ask the user to explain why they
prefer one over the other
• What do users expect to see once they’ve clicked on your ad?
• What phrases or design elements catch the eye?
• What entices your target user to click a Google AdWords ad?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 27

How It Works: 5 Steps to Getting
Actionable Customer Insights
By now, you’ve probably gotten an idea or two for some tests you’d like to try
out. So how do you actually run a user test?

You don’t need to be a professional researcher to set up effective user tests

and analyze the results. With a little preparation and practice, you’ll be able to
gather fast, insightful user feedback anytime you need it.

There are five steps to follow when you set up your study. We’ll go into detail on
each step below.

1. Defining the test objective: What are you trying to learn?

2. Choosing demographics: Who do you want feedback from?
3. Choosing the device and other requirements: What do your test
participants need to have in order to give you the feedback you need?
4. Selecting tasks and questions: What do you want to watch users do?
5. Analyzing the results: What should you look out for?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 28

1. Defining the test objective
Just like any scientific experiment, the first step of setting up a user test is
identifying the question you’re hoping to answer.

Decide what you’re trying to learn. It could be broad, like, “What first impression
does our brand make on our target market?” Or it could be more specific, like, “Why
does this one landing page have a lower conversion rate than others?”

Share it with any stakeholders to make sure everyone understands why you’re
running the test and what you can expect to learn.

2. Choosing demographics
Next, it’s time to decide who will be taking your test.

Companies often ask us whether they need to run users tests with their exact
target market. The answer is, “It depends.”

There are some times when it’s important to test your product with your exact
market, and other times when users from any demographic can give you the
feedback you need.

When you need to test with your target market

If you’re trying to measure something subjective, like how customers perceive
your brand or whether they understand the unique value proposition of your
product, then you should test with your target market. The goal here is to see
inside the mind of your ideal customer. Their specific insights will help you
market to them more effectively.

Likewise, if you’re marketing very niche product that only certain groups of
people will understand (such as an app for medical professionals), then you’ll
need to make sure you’re recruiting that user. If you don’t get the appropriate
user to take your test, then you won’t get very helpful feedback.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 29

To get more specific, you can write screener questions to reach your ideal user
when you’re recruiting. In order for a user to qualify to take your test, they’ll
need to answer the screener questions correctly. Screener questions are
generally written in multiple-choice format, and you can use as many as you
need to recruit the right users. Be aware that the more specific your target
market is, the longer it can take to recruit test participants.

When you can test with any demographics

There are also times when you don’t need to use specific demographic filters for
your user test. If you’re marketing a product with a very wide target audience, or
you’re just trying to discover usability issues on your website, then any user can
give you the feedback you need.

How many users to test with

There’s a saying that goes, “It only takes one person to notice a broken doorknob.”
If you’re just looking for some quick feedback on the usability of your website,
forms, or landing pages, then you don’t need very many test participants. Most
usability testing professionals recommend 5-7 participants per test.

If, however, you’re looking to pick up trends in customer opinions, then you’ll
want to get feedback from more people. Perhaps you want to find out whether
your target customers identify with the images and copy on your site. For studies
like this, we recommend segmenting your audience and running tests with 5-7
users per segment. This will give more comprehensive insights into the minds
of your customers. For example, you might find that most of your segments find
your site to be hip, fresh, and energetic, but men over 40 find it to be irritating and
juvenile. These kinds of insights require larger testing samples, but they can be
very valuable in helping your team make strategic positioning decisions.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 30

3. Choosing the device and other requirements
Some people are tempted to test their user experience on
desktop and leave mobile as an afterthought. Don’t fall into
this trap! Mobile usage continues to rise year over year, and a
bad experience on your mobile site or app can cause a user
to give up on your company for good.

Decide how many tests you want to run on desktop, tablet,

and smartphone (iOS and Android). We recommend running
at least as many mobile tests as desktop tests.

In addition to choosing the device type, plan out any additional requirements your
test may have. Do your test participants need to be in a particular location or have
a type of equipment handy to give you the feedback you’re looking for? Make sure
to indicate that when you write your test.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 31

4. Selecting tasks and questions
Now, decide exactly what you want to watch users do.

Most user tests consist of a mix of tasks and questions.

A task is an action or activity that you would like a user to accomplish.

Example: “Go through the checkout process as far as you can without actually
making a purchase.”

Sometimes you will want to use open-ended tasks, like “Please spend 5 minutes
exploring the site as you normally would, speaking your thoughts aloud.” These
tasks will allow you to see how users naturally discover your brand and offerings.

Other times, you may need to pinpoint something specific, like, “Find the ad that
says ‘Buy one get one free’ and describe what you’re expecting when you click
the ad. Then, click on the ad.” These tasks are good for drilling down into pages
with high bounce rates or other areas of concern.

Use a question when you would like feedback from users in their own words.

Example: “What, if anything, was frustrating or difficult about this process?

Please explain your answer out loud.”

In addition to asking questions for users to answer aloud, you can include
multiple choice questions, rating scale questions, and written answer questions.
These will result in quantitative data you can then use to pinpoint trends and
outliers. They can be invaluable when you want to run a very large batch of tests,
but you don’t have the time to watch every single video.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 32

 Question Type Example
What do you like and dislike about this website?
Verbal Response
Please explain your answer out loud.

Do you trust this company?

Multiple Choice ° Yes
° No
° I don’t know

How likely are you to make a purchase today?

Rating Scale
1 2 3 4 5
Not at all likely Very likely

Please type in three words you would use to describe

Written Response
this company.

A note on writing questions: Don’t be tempted to ask leading questions that will
result in the answer you want to hear. Keep your questions neutral and unbiased.

Bad example: “On a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you love Acme Corp?
1=I love it a little; 5=I love it a ton.”

Good example: “On a scale of 1 to 5, what is your opinion of Acme Corp?

1=Very negative; 5=Very positive.”

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 33

User tests are often about 15 minutes long. This is usually enough time to
uncover some excellent insights without wearing your test participants out.

We often recommend running a pilot test: Before beginning your study with
multiple test participants, run a test with just one person. This will give you a
chance to “test the test” and see if the wording of your tasks and questions
confused the user. If so, you can reword the unclear task or question, and then
release the test to your desired number of users.

Once you’re happy with your test plan, go ahead and order your tests (if you’re
using a remote tool) or invite your test participants in and record a video of them
completing the test (if you’re testing in house).

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 34

5. Analyzing and sharing the results
As you watch the videos, look for any places where people get stuck or confused.
Make notes or annotations so you can refer back to these interesting points.

Use the data from your qualitative questions to find anything noteworthy. For
example, if six test participants said a task was fairly easy, but one said it was very
difficult, zero in on that one person. What went wrong? If most test participants
say your brand looks chic, modern, stylish, and luxurious, but one says it looks
tacky, it’s probably worth investigating why that person got that impression.

Once you’ve identified the interesting parts of the test videos, you can share
them with your stakeholders. You can also use your data to create relevant
graphs and charts. These results are great for settling disputes within a team.
Rather than arguing back and forth over what you think customers are thinking
about your company, let your customers speak for themselves.

Now you have everything you need to start running user tests and getting
valuable insights!

We encourage you to incorporate user feedback into all of your marketing

initiatives. When you discover what resonates with your target audience, you’re
prepared to boost conversion rates, bring in more revenue, and get ahead of
the competition. Plus, by putting your users first and improving the customer
experience, you’ll earn loyal customers for life.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 35

Test Template to Measure Overall
Brand Impression and Usability
You can copy and paste from this template when you create your first user test.
(To uncover more insights, modify this template using the questions from earlier
in this eBook!)

Starting URL: http://www.google.com

Introduction

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who would search for [PRODUCT OR
SERVICE YOU OFFER]

Tasks

1. Search Google for [PRODUCT OR SERVICE YOU OFFER]. Click on a couple of

Google’s search results, and explain what you’re learning.
2. Go to [YOUR URL]. Look at this page for five seconds. Then look away and
answer this one question (without peeking!): What do you remember?
3. Staying on this page, look around and say what you think this company is
about. What does it offer? How does it make you feel?
4. Put yourself in the shoes of a person who searched Google for “[PRODUCT
OR SERVICE YOU OFFER]” and ended up here. Think of one thing that you’d
want to do on this site. Try to do that one thing.
5. Pretend you’re in a hurry. As quickly as you can, [TASK YOU WANT PEOPLE
TO DO ON YOUR SITE].

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 36

 6. If there is something to buy (or sign up for) on this site, quickly go through
the buying (or sign up) process, using phony information. If this wasn’t a
test, would you have bought or signed up? Why or why not?

Post-Test Questions

1. Would you use the [YOUR URL] website in the future (please explain why or
why not)?
2. If you had a magic wand, how would you improve [YOUR URL]?
3. What did you like about [YOUR URL]?
4. How likely are you to recommend [YOUR URL] to a friend or colleague
(0=Not at all likely, and 10=Very Likely)?

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 37

Conclusion
To understand why your customers do what they do, user testing can be your
secret weapon. You’ll uncover insights about how customers perceive your
brand, what convinces them to convert, and what you can do to improve your
marketing efforts.

If you choose to run tests with UserTesting, you’ll usually begin receiving videos
in about an hour, so you can start making improvements and increasing your
conversions immediately. When the test is complete, you’ll receive a video of
the user’s screen and a recording of their voice as they go through each task and
question. On mobile devices, you also see where they have swiped and tapped
their screens.

Remember, user testing isn’t limited to testing websites! You can test mobile
apps. You can test prototypes and wireframes as well as unreleased apps. You
can even test physical products and experiences beyond the device using
UserTesting’s mobile recording technology. Plus, if you want to learn how
customers interact with your brand across multiple touchpoints, you can run a
cross-channel study that spans a range of devices.

The Marketer’s Guide to User Testing 38

 Ready to set up and run your first user test?
It’s easy to get started with UserTesting’s handy on-demand solution. If you don’t
have the time do it on your own, try our full-service Pro plans. Our expert research
team can set up and analyze the studies for you, and then send you a complete
report of findings and video clips.

REAL PEOPLE
Recruit your target market anytime, anywhere

ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS
See and share qualitative and quantitative feedback

COMPREHENSIVE TESTING
Test apps or sites on desktops, tablets, or phones

EXPERT SERVICES
Our team can do the research for you

Learn more »
Visit UserTesting.com/services

Request a demo
Call us at 1-888-877-1882

About
UserTesting is the fastest and most advanced user experience research platform
on the market. The company gives marketers, product managers, and UX
designers on-demand access to people in their target audience who deliver
audio, video, and written feedback on websites, mobile apps, prototypes, and
even physical products and locations.

2672 Bayshore Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 | www.UserTesting.com | 1-800-903-9493 | [email protected]