Beta testing your products and services before you go to market is important for both customer-facing (B2C and DTC) and business to business (B2B) brands. Beta testing your products and services allows you to identify and resolve potential pain points for your customers. Beta testing can be expensive, depending on the structure of your testing and the length of time you decide to test your products.
The size and length of your beta testing is best determined by your audience of potential customers and the product or service you sell. You should plan to test your products for a minimum of 3-6 months or with 10-15 customers, but your audience and timeframe can quickly grow from there.
For example, if you sell software to doctors, your margin for error will be incredibly small and there may be regulations around the type of testing you must conduct in order to protect consumer data and usability for the doctor’s office. You may need to test your software for years before it’s ready to go to market in order to ensure your product functions the way that a doctor expects, the way a patient expects, and protects the data stored within your tools. Testing like this is frequently done by a third-party, which does add time and expense, but creates an efficient testing environment based on industry best practices and considers the regulatory environment.
As another example, if you sell custom artwork and home furnishings to consumers, you may only need to test your shopping experience with fifteen or twenty customers before you launch your brand. Within just a few months, you should be able to gain an understanding of what products your customers prefer and whether they want to shop in a gallery, on your website, in a store, or in their own home, You can tailor your customer experience for the brand using the information you gain from your first fifteen customers to scale your brand to a larger audience.
No matter how long you test your products and services, it’s important to include testing on your launch roadmap. Testing is an easy way to gain insights about your customer’s preferences and refine your product offering before you spend money to advertise and launch your brand.
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If you need help to launch your brand or product line, reach out. We’d love to build a marketing strategy for your business and help you succeed on your launch.