How to Find Beta Testers for Your SaaS in 2021
The road to the finished product can be long and winding and one of its last step is Beta launch. This last stage before the final release will require some outside help from your Beta testers. And the feedback from your beta testers will determine the success of your product.
Finding Beta testers can be a tedious task, especially if you don’t know where to start. Finding quality Beta testers even more. You will need to find appropriate channels and appropriate messages across them. We at Easynote have made this journey already, and we would like to share our findings with you.
- Make your existing customers your Beta testers
If you’re releasing a new version of an already existing product or you’re adding a completely new product to the line, consult your existing customers database. Send them an email and offer them the possibility to test your product. They already love what you have and are most likely to use new things you might have created.
This is probably the best way to find Beta testers. Most of our Beta testers came this way and they were the most helpful ones. However, it might not be viable for all. This goes for those launching their first product ever or those targeting a completely new market with the new product. In this case, you will need to put the extra effort in otherways.
2. Send an application to different Beta testing sites
There are places that will offer your product to the people who love to test products in their Beta stages. And that is exactly what you want, someone passionate about your product as much as you are.
It is not a complicated process. You will have to fill out an application form and wait for their response. Some of these sites will make you wait for a certain period of time before publishing your product or you will have to pay if you want the immediate service. Make sure you start this step on time.
We have had particularly good experiences with Betabound. The application process was easy and most of our testers coming from the Beta testing communities came from them.
3. List your product on Product Hunt
If you want to test how appealing your product is, you might want to list it on Product Hunt. Launching a product on Product Hunt is pretty simple. You can list it within a couple of minutes and wait for the upvotes.
Upvotes are basically votes your product gets from users. The more upvotes you get, the better chance you have of someone finding your product. In fact, it is great for finding final customers, but you can find Beta testers through it as well.
Promotional part is 80% of the work, so the most important thing is to promote the event. Announce the listing on your social media. Keep the upvote button on your site and/or landing page. People who found you through other means will upvote you and so make you more visible to the Product Hunt users. This in turn will generate new visits and hopefully some of them will convert in your Beta testers.
4. Ask your local news media for collaboration
You don’t need to do a sponsored article or pay for advertisement (unless you want to!). Approach your local news media and ask them for collaboration. They might want to do an interview with the CEO or write about your product in their technology sections. They often lack content and any idea is more than welcome. Besides, this will count as a free promotion which is always welcome.
Don’t underestimate the power of traditional media. We got a significant amount of Beta testers this way. The more trusted the media is, the more users you will get. And if you choose to work with a digital news portal, a free backlink is never bad.
5. Find Facebook groups your target audience uses
We got an unexpectedly high number of Beta testers this way. Are you a cloud based solution for people to keep track of their favorite cooking recipes? Find groups where people discuss cooking. Maybe you are targeting HR departments? There will most definitely be a community of HR specialists on Facebook.
Make sure however that your posts are not just promotional. Don’t try to sell your product, try to solve problems people have. You have probably created a product based off of some passion you’ve had. Communicate that to the community. And maybe add your favorite recipe ;).
6. Check out Reddit threads
This will require some engagement on a deeper level on your part. You will need to give your contribution back to Reddit users: start discussions and answer people’s questions. Share your experiences and ask for input. Reddit proved to be a particularly good way of finding Beta testers, but only if you are familiar with it.
Similar to Facebook, you will need to find groups your target audience uses. Choose 5–6 groups with most ONLINE users. This will ensure you are posting in groups where the engagement is good. Unless people are there to interact immediately, your post will get lost in the multitude of others.
Not all channels will bring many Beta testers
Each channel will have its pros and cons, and it’s up to you to decide which ones are appropriate for your product. However, some of them will not be the best for finding many Beta testers due to their nature.
Here are some we’ve found that most probably won’t work.
The only thing wrong with Instagram is that it doesn’t have groups where people with similar interests can interact. Therefore, there is no place for you to discuss with others the benefits of your product. Unless you pay an influencer to promote your product or do Instagram ads, there is no way your product will get seen. And if your product has no visibility, there will be no people wanting to test it.
Similar to Instagram, Twitter lacks communities that share similar interests. Yes, you can interact with others and find common topics through hashtags, but you can’t reach a group of people all at once. Unless your tweet goes viral, it is not likely you will end up reaching a lot of Twitter users. And that means no people will come to test your product.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, does have groups where people interact. However, this is solely a business platform and so most groups tend to be work-related. If you are targeting this audience, it might seem like a good idea to contact people on here. But, other software companies already know this and are taking advantage of it!
LinkedIn users are overwhelmed with the amount of people trying to sell them things everyday. It happens through different groups they join (which is why it’s strictly forbidden to advertise your products in most of them!). They get cold emailed on a daily basis. They have learned all the tactics and know how to successfully ignore them.
Quora
When it comes to Quora, its downside is that it is hard to get engagement on it. Its thing is that you ask questions and answer questions other people asked.
If you decide to answer popular questions and so find Beta testers, your post won’t stand out. If you answer questions that no one has answered before, you will hardly get any visibility. Unless you are what is known as “contributor”, there’s little chance you can successfully find many Beta testers on Quora.
The channel you choose will depend on your needs. These are just recommendations, not a list set in stone. Depending on your time or specific needs, you can try all of the channels mentioned. You will have to evaluate the appropriate channels based on your product and the market you are operating in.
Finally, keep in mind that this is the guide on how to find Beta testers. Not on where to advertise your product. All of these channels might be appropriate for that, depending on your target market.
Extra advice before you go
Use Easynote to better organize the process of finding Beta testers. Set up a project and call it “Finding Beta testers”. Easynote will show you an overview of all your projects and their progress in one place. You can appoint people working on them and share relevant information.
Tasks within a project can be the channels you choose. You can set up a tableview with unlimited widgets (people responsible, progress, status, urgency, text). For those who like to visualize their workflow, there is a Kanban board. There are both popup and email notifications for any changes made across all of your projects.
