After having spent months redoing your website, at some point, you will get to actually launch your website in beta. While this is already a rewarding moment in itself, releasing your website in beta will come with many more questions and more points to work on: How will your beta users like the new website? Will they understand everything? And more importantly; is the beta website actually an improvement for your users?
This is where Usabilla comes in. Through Usabilla you can ...
- Collect passive feedback to rapidly identify early stage issues
- Utilize active campaign surveys to validate your beta website assumptions with actual user insights
- Measure the customer satisfaction rate of your new website
- Learn what effect your website changes have made on your KPIs
This article offers you ideas for using Usabilla on your beta website. Feel free to use it for inspirational purposes. In this article, we will discuss 4 ways in which Usabilla for Websites can help you on your beta website. If you have any other great ideas, we would love to hear from you.
1. Invite your users
After your beta website has been launched, the very first step is switching your traffic over. By showing a Recruit Participants Campaign on your current website, you can invite (a % of) users to try out the new website. Without using development resources, you will be able to have an invite up and running in a matter of minutes. Instructions for setting up a Recruit Participants Campaign can be found here.
Initially, you can decide to only direct a small percentage of your users to the beta website by using the "target X% of your users" targeting option for the Recruit Participants Campaign. Once you've gathered insights from these users and you have made improvements accordingly, you can gradually invite more users to the beta website.
The advantage of inviting your users versus simply directing them to the new page is that invited users will be more aware that they are on the beta website. This ensures that returning visitors are not surprised when they find out that your website changed all of the sudden. Even more so, they will probably feel a bit special for being selected as one of the few to view the beta site. This interaction could even increase their engagement with you.
2. Show your buttons
Using a passive feedback button on your beta website can bring great results. Once your users are on the beta website, it's time to inform them about your feedback functionality. There are two ways in which you can inform your users; show them a second notification when they enter the website or use a Boost Feedback Campaign.
Using these campaigns makes your users aware of the feedback button. They might not give feedback immediately, but when they then run into an issue, they'll know where the button is. Also, letting the user know upfront that you listen to their feedback most likely puts the user into a different mindset and makes them more attentive to things they could leave feedback about.
Using a notification
A notification can be made by using a Recruit Participants Campaign. Simply create your campaign and add the text that you would like to display to the user. Then enable HTML for the paragraph element and insert the following HTML tag:
<style>#button{display:none;}</style>
This will hide the call to action button and leave you with a pure notification campaign. The notification is best shown a few seconds after the user entered the beta website.
Boost Feedback Campaign
You can use a Boost Feedback Campaign to ask your users to leave feedback directly through a button in the campaign. If you are using a Boost Feedback Campaign, it's best to show this to the user after they've had some time to look around and form an opinion on your website.
Therefore, a good time to show a Boost Feedback Campaign is after visiting 2/3 pages or after the user has spent some time on a page.
3. Actively ask
We’ve covered the ways you can facilitate the feedback process when your users take the initiative; now we will discuss how to actively reach out to your users to collect additional feedback. Through Active Feedback Campaigns, you will be able to ask relevant questions targeted to specific users to collect actionable feedback. Here are a few survey ideas to use on your beta site.
How do you feel about our new website?
Although this question seems similar to the one in your feedback form, asking it actively can provide you new insights from a different perspective. When a user clicks your feedback button, they are probably motivated by an issue or a bug. This is why you may notice more negative feedback collected from the feedback button. If you actively ask you users how they feel, your results will be more objective.
We recommend showing this campaign to your users after they have visited a few pages or when they are done and leave your website. If you are going to ask this question during their visit, it is best asked as a slideout campaign. However, if you are asking the question as an exit survey, use a full survey for noticeability.
CES - How easy was it to accomplish X on our beta website?
With every new version of your website, one of your goals is probably providing a smoother experience for your users. A powerful way to measure this is by collecting Customer Effort Score (CES). Measure this score by asking your users, “How easy was it to accomplish X on our beta website?” Ask this after a user completes a specific action (i.e. after they’ve made a purchase). Comparing your old site’s CES to your beta site’s CES will reveal the pros and cons of your potential new site.
Error Page Campaign
Let's face it; when developing a beta website, from time to time things will go wrong. Maybe you missed a link or redirect that causes a user to end up on your 404-page. While this is a frustrating experience for a user - beta or not - your user can help you fix the error and prevent it from happening for future users.
You are able to identify these broken links quickly by setting up a campaign on your error page.
4. Find out why users leave
Most beta websites offer the option to go back to the old website. If a user navigates from the beta website back to the current website, this is often a sign that they miss something from your old website or that they don't like certain aspects of your beta website. Asking these users why they chose to return to the original site will help you to identify what users like better about the old site and what they need from the future site.
It's best to show this campaign in a Full Survey format as soon as they switched back to the old site. You can target users that return to the old website is using the document.referrer.
These pointers should help you to get started using Usabilla on your beta page. Any questions? Reach out to our friendly support team or use the Usabilla In-Page widget below.