10 Ways To Find Beta Testers For Your Startup Product (Which Work)

You’re excited.

The new SaaS startup on the block.

You’ve spent what feels like forever creating your product from an initial idea – with sleepless nights and endless cutbacks, you’re finally ready to launch.

You’re all set for beta testing, now you just need people using it. Easy, right?

Not quite.

Believe it or not, everyone is busy and time has never been so precious.

It’s hard to swing a real marketing punch without a healthy budget behind you.

But you still need to convince people of the incredible value your new product will bring to their lives; finding those eager early adopters to test your beta product is tricky.

So you tweet a few times to try and drive awareness.

Pay for a few Facebook Ads.

Write a blog post or two…

But you can’t help feeling your valiant efforts are just a small ripple, swallowed up by a huge ocean of endless content.

Thankfully there is hope.

There is a way to reach your audience and get your product known.

We’ve been there, done it and got the beta testers –  so read on.

Find The Experts

You’ll be pleased to know there are people who are interested in products like yours, you just need to find them (this is the fun part).

The following steps should help you with this:

1. Create a website that looks good

Would your site make you want to try the product out? Be self-reflective, put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Your website (or webpage) needs to be compelling and it needs to work on mobile devices too. Enough said.

2. Do some Google stalking

Use Google to search for people who have reviewed similar products (your competitors are a great place to start). Seek out the keen bloggers. Make a note of the authors.

3. Stalk some more

Research the authors and learn a bit more about their interests. Are they credible? If so, make some initial contact, this may be a follow on Twitter or Google +. Don’t dive straight in with a direct message. Take your time. Flirt a bit – endorse their content. Comment on an article.

Note: be thoughtful and sincere.

4. Listen

Engage with people; the chances are they will check you out and this will help them discover your product.

5. Make your move

Once you’ve built some rapport, then you can make a move.

Perhaps send a twitter message expressing how you would love for them to help with the beta testing of your product and provide some feedback. Be personal and end the tweet with a name; honest individuals are easier to talk to than big corporate companies.

6. Be exclusive

Make your beta exclusive with a personalised invitation and password protected access, this is a good way to build intrigue and curiosity.

7. Be grateful

Be prepared to help out and do favours for these people in return. Pay your dues; don’t ever become bigger than yourself by refusing to help the guy with a small following who wants to interview you about your new product. You should be bitting his (or her) arm off for the opportunity.

8. Make it really easy…

…for people to give feedback. We used a dedicated form for users to send feedback on their beta experience (thanks, Tom).

9. Build relationships

Find a way to stay connected with these people and help them become advocates of your product (this doesn’t mean pay them, don’t do that).

10. Embrace controversy

There are some interesting characters hidden behind their keyboards who often make good points. If your product gets some stick in the form of constructive feedback, take it on the chin and learn as much as you can – be objective about it.

If your product is really valuable to people, they’ll likely do the hard part of the marketing for you by sharing it with other relevant and engaged users who trust their authority.

Tip: Don’t just chase people with millions of Twitter followers, this can be blinding. Someone with a few hundred engaged, relevant followers could be more valuable to you than the egotistic noisemaker.

Consider The Feedback

You contacted these experts for a reason, so listen to their advice.

It doesn’t mean you have to act on it, but listen and consider it. These guys are likely the ones who will transform your product from a great idea to an amazing product that other users will love. If it’s good advice, refine and improve before you go public.

There are many ways to get people testing and using your new product, I wanted to share these tips particularly as they were especially valuable for Tap in the early days and provided some much-needed traction and user-feedback.

Got some tips for getting beta testers? Please share them below.

Cheers guys,

Joe