Finding a beta tester for a mobile app may seem like one of the hardest tasks, but also an important one. A good mobile app development company will definitely tell you the importance of this stage. For all you confused people out there who have no clue about beta testing your mobile app – we got you!
In this blog, we’ve created a curated roundup on tips to find beta tester for your app development project. The basic concepts include the meaning of beta testing, reasons to go for beta testing and its advantages.
What is Beta Testing?
First things first! The term Beta originates from the Greek language. Beta is actually the second letter of Greek alphabets. Thus, beta testing is the second stage of software development. Beta testing is also known as field testing.
In simpler terms, beta testing is performed by a certain sample size of your target audience. These beta tester for mobile app use your end product to provide you with valuable feedback.
☛ Reasons to Opt for Beta Testing
Here are some solid reasons to have a beta testing strategy in place!
- The right beta testing services will help you analyze the user experience of your software. It will help you make sure that the functionality of your software meets customer expectations.
- One of the other reasons to find beta tester for a mobile app is that you get to validate your idea. You can try out different features and judge its acceptance based on users’ reactions.
- Every beta tester is going to react differently to your application. Based on all these reactions, a developer can implement changes and improve usability.
- There are many instances where a product has worked amazingly well in-house but failed once launched in the market. Beta testing in marketing is used to make sure that doesn’t happen. When you hire a beta tester for a mobile app, he/she uses your app in multiple environments and on a variety of devices. Thus, giving you an accurate judgment on how your mobile app will be perceived in the market.
- Beta testing enables you to quickly fix the bugs and release a new version without losing your users. Even if new bugs have come up after sorting the previous ones, that will be detected too.
- Early beta users for mobile apps are a good way to reach a larger audience. An early audience is the best means to gain publicity right from the initial stage.
- With beta testing, you can test your app in the market at a low cost. There are multiple platforms in the market where you can find early beta users for your app.
☛ Advantages of Beta Testing
Beta testing is beneficial to the developers, testers as well as users. Some advantages of beta testing are listed below:
- Beta testing enables the developers to test their application with a real audience even before launching it in the market.
- The beta tester for a mobile app will install, test and provide you feedback on the software in question. Such feedbacks enable the developers to improve their app quality.
- You can determine the bugs/defects in the software that were somehow missed by the Testing team.
- Beta testing will assist you in knowing the impact of your product on the target audience.
- It will help you improve the quality, functionality, and performance of the software.
- You get direct feedback from your target audience.
- It reduces the risk of product failure as you have already tested the software on some of your target audience.
We have listed all the good things about beta testing. We are pretty sure that now you will hire a beta tester for a mobile app! So, here are some ways to find some beta testers.
Ways to Find Beta Tester for Mobile App
☛ Email List
You have probably heard of Email marketing. In Email marketing, you try and develop a list of Email ids of your potential customers/target audience. You should start building this list even before the app goes into production.
Meanwhile, keep your target audience engaged with information relevant to your application. In this way, by the time you launch your application, there is a certain amount of audience handy.
From this list, filter out the most engaged people. You can keep these people updated about the recent developments in your app. There is a high probability that these people will become your beta testers. Involved this filtered audience in the entire development cycle.
The level of their engagement in the development process will decide how dedicatedly they provide you feedback once the app is ready.
☛ Beta Testing Websites
There are some websites in the market which provide beta testing services. For instance, UserTesting and BetaList. These websites will provide you with an initial set of users to test your app. But these users don’t need to belong to your definition of the target audience.
These websites will come to your rescue when you don’t have a ready mailing list.
☛ Find Beta Testers Personally
When you are out there finding beta testers personally, it will hugely depend on the type of your mobile application. In this manner, you get first-hand feedback as well as get a chance to interact with your audience personally.
Now, let’s talk about the relation between the type of app and the beta tester for the mobile app. If you are developing an application for college students, then find some beta testers from a college.
☛ Reddit
Reddit has a huge community of audiences. There are many sub-Reddit communities where you can upload the screenshots of your application and get reviews from the audience. Such activities can also garner some interest among people for your application.
Also, there are some sub-Reddits where you can directly find beta testers. For instance, Beta tests, Alpha and Beta users and Android Apps.
☛ Facebook
We all know that people from all groups and professions use Facebook regularly. Therefore, Facebook will have groups for all kinds of interest areas.
You can become a part of some groups on Facebook where you feel will be your potential audience. The best way to engage with the audience is to proactively participate in the conversations taking place here.
Once your mobile app is ready, you can directly ask the participants to review it. There are high chances you find people who match the description of your target audience and will willingly provide feedback.
☛ Short & Carefully Designed Media Campaign
Running a short and organized media campaign was bound to make it to the list. A media campaign for a short period will help you get immediate visibility across multiple channels.
A media campaign for all types of platforms like print media and digital will attract users to become beta testers. But make sure that your ads are interesting and engaging. The interactiveness of your campaign is directly proportional to the interest of the audience in your product.
☛ Provide Some Value to Early Adopters
Nothing works without an exchange of value. If you want some beta testers, provide them with some value in exchange to do so. Anything of value in exchange for their feedback will act as a great means of motivation.
Not everyone will ask for something in return, but if you provide something of value to them, it will ensure that you receive a completely honest and thorough opinion. A group of beta testers who don’t take this whole thing seriously can leave you with inaccurate information.
☛ BetaList
It is a place for startup owners to share their mobile apps with the people and receive early feedback. A point to be noted here is that BetaList accepts only customized landing pages. If you have created a custom page, then BetaList will give you approximately 50-100 beta tester for the mobile app. It will all depend on the efficacy of your landing page.
It’s free to list your product on BetaList. But it usually takes around 1-2 months to get 50-100 signups. However, there is also a paid option if you don’t want to wait much to get feedback.
☛ Betabound
It is a global community of more than 100,000 beta testers. If you are looking for a beta tester for your mobile app, you can upload it on Betabound for free.
It gives you complete freedom to start and stop your beta testing campaign. Furthermore, you have the option to give some bait to try out your application.
☛ PreApps
PreApps is another platform like Betabound to connect beta testers and developers for building quality apps. Again, it is free to post on PreApps but there is also a paid version to appear in their Featured app section.
PreApps gives you an option to create a page like an app store. It means you can include descriptions, social media accounts and social media page links too. Any interested users can like your mobile app and register to become a beta user.
Conclusion
After all the above discussions and information, we hope you understood the importance of a beta tester for mobile apps. It can be safely said that even if you hire an app developer that has all the required skills and expertise, some bugs are bound to come up.
Due to these high chances of bugs, the role of a beta tester is gaining importance in the market. Apart from testing your app, beta testers may give you some valuable insights that you may have missed.
These insights can help you improve your mobile application and increase the chances of its success. Also, let us clarify that even though its mentioned that providing something of value to beta testers will attract them. This is not a compulsion.
It is entirely your choice. You can find beta testers that will voluntarily do the work for you.
Are you still unclear about the concept of beta testers and their importance? Talk to our in-house team on [email protected] and understand the entire development cycle!