What’s the most important element in successful conversion optimization?
Research.
Yes, it’s not sexy. It’s not apparent, not even visible in the end product.
But without it the end product is just a result of a guessing game. If you guess right, good for you. In all other cases, you’re either leaving money on the table… or you’re broke.
To make the research process faster and more effective, here’s the list of 54 research tools.
These will help you uncover user insights and will make your life easier because you will no longer need this Russian roulette guessing game.
What you see below is just the list of tools. In the full article (link at the bottom) you’ll find the pros and cons for each. So if you’re interested in some of the tools, head over to the article and read more about them.
- Unbounce – landing page builder
- Google Analytics – step 0 of doing anything, really
- Woopra – another analytics suite, geared more towards individual customers, rather than just overall numbers, like Google Analytics
- Adobe Analytics – another analytics suite with multiple tools. I’ve only seen this when working with enterprise companies though, never small or mid-size companies.
- Kissmetrics – analytics tool great for visualizing funnels
- Mixpanel – similar to Kissmetrics but with more features. Retroactive funnel feature is particularly helpful. User retention funnels are great too.
- Clicky – simpler analytics tool, but free
- VWO – A/B testing tool. One of the two A/B testing tools that I use.
- Optimizely – here’s that second one.
- Formisimo – form analytics
- ClickTale – shows how users interact with your site
- HubSpot Website Grader – a quick and easy way to get a snapshot of a website’s overall performance
- Heap Analytics – for capturing and measuring user actions in web and iOS apps
- Piwik – open source analytics tool
- Inspectlet – tool for user behavior analysis. Good but quite expensive.
- Omniconvert – multi-purpose optimization tool
- Testlodge – test management tool
- AB Tasty – multi-purpose optimization tool
- Qualaroo – on-site survey tool. I’ve used to use it extensively, until I switched to HotJar (at #24 below)
- Survey.io – survey software
- SurveyMonkey – survey software
- Olark – live chat tool
- Crazyegg – heat maps, click maps, scroll maps. Same as for Qualaroo, I’ve used to use it a lot before switching to HotJar
- HotJar – multi-purpose optimization tool. Heat maps, click maps, scroll maps, funnels, surveys, session recordings. It replaced a lot of tools for me and I don’t remember when was the last time when I didn’t use it when working with a client.
- SessionCam – session recording and playback
- CallRail – tracking lead sources
- UsabilityHub’s Tools – multi-purpose optimization tool
- Silverback 3 – usability testing
- Browserling – web based browser testing
- Qualtrics – survey tool, popular with enterprises
- ScreenFly – view your website on a variety of device screens and resolutions
- Typeform – survey tool. For a couple years now I’ve switched 100% to Typeform. It’s the most user-friendly platform and it looks and works great on mobile too. When sending out a survey by email, users usually open the email on their mobile so it’s essential for a survey to work great on your phone.
- BrowserStack – web-based browser testing tool
- Ethnio – tool for recruiting people for user testing.
- Helio – collecting feedback on mockups
- Kampyle – on-page polling tools
- Intercom – messaging platform with multiple tools. Good, rather expensive though.
- Lucky Orange – multi-purpose conversion optimization platform
- Instapage – page editor, similar to Unbounce.
- Chatlio – talk to your customers using your existing Slack service
- UserTesting – usability testing platform. I used to use it a lot but recently they are moving more towards enterprise clients
- TryMyUI – usability testing tool
- Zendesk Chat – customer service platform
- 15Five – staff report tool
- WebEngage – a tool with a focus on user retention
- UserZoom – UX testing platform
- Loop11 – usability testing software
- Validately – user research solution
- Effective Experiments – project management and workflow platform, built specifically for conversion optimizers
- MaxyMizely – A/B testing solution
- Iridion – conversion optimization worfklow tool
- Sumo – (formerly SumoMe). Tools for capturing more email subscribers. Used to be a good entry-level solution but they got pricey recently
- Heatmap.me – heatmap tool
- Excel (or Google Sheets) – versatile tool, good at calculating stuff, limited only by your imagination and programming ability. Not great at storing graphics though. Needs more work to be a one-stop-shop conversion optimization tool 🙂
Now you have more tools than you could possibly wish for, or have time to test them all. Pick and choose what you like, try out a few and go from there.
It’s more important to use them, and to do research, than which ones you use in particular.
54 CRO Research Tools With Insight To Win More Conversions
PS. Google Analytics, HotJar, Optimizely – if I had to choose only three tools from the list above, this would be my choice.