You Can! Inspiring Women In Business
Beta Testers - The Secret Weapon For Course Creators
Fri, 22 Nov 2024
In this episode of The You Can Podcast, host Sarah Jolley-Jarvis dives into one of her favourite topics: beta testers. Sarah explains why beta testing is a must-have strategy for startups and seasoned entrepreneurs alike, particularly when transforming expertise into scalable courses or services.You'll learn:What beta testers are and why they're invaluable.How to find the right beta testers for your business.When to charge (or not charge) your beta group.Real-world examples of how beta testers shaped course launches and helped entrepreneurs refine their ideal client focus.Packed with actionable insights and relatable anecdotes, this episode will inspire you to leverage beta testers to save time, money, and effort—while building trust and gathering testimonials to supercharge your business growth.Tune in now and discover how beta testers can help you hit the ground running with confidence!Need some help? Contact [email protected] or book a call hereSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/you-can-inspiring-women-in-business/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Chapter 1: What are beta testers and why are they important?
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the You Can Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Jolly Jarvis. And today we're going to be talking around beta testers and why basically I'm so obsessed with them and I recommend them to people and I use them with clients all the time.
Anybody from startups who are testing a new business idea and through to individuals who are wanting to take their expertise and work that they've been doing with clients and to put it into a more sustainable and scalable structure. So I use beta testers all the time with clients. I talk about this all the time.
It must be, if you were to record my sort of conversations and the topics that I talk around, it will be ideal client and beta testers. They're right up there on the words and phrases that I use on an hourly basis, let alone daily. So Why do I think they're so good? Why do I think that they're so important? As I say, I've seen them be so, so effective for clients.
And for me, my personal journey, my business, my first business started off, my first service-based business started off with a load of beta testers that I got together, asking somebody to tap into their network and offer my services online. out for them to test out a sales program with me and a kind of sales offer.
And so from that, I understood who I wanted to work with, who I didn't want to work with, what results I could expect. Actually, the reality of working with those individuals where I needed people to be in their business, where sales fitted for that business. I thought, you know what, I can come in, I can show people how to maximize the impact that they have.
in those sales conversations, in those sales calls and all would be fine and dandy. I very, very quickly understood that actually those individuals needed help earlier on in the process. They needed to draw on my marketing skills to get those sales calls into their diary so that they could actually practice then the sales skills I was wanting to teach them. Because
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Chapter 2: How can beta testers help shape your course?
it's all well and good learning the stuff, but if you've got no one to practise on, if you're not putting it into practise, you're not gonna get any results. So in this episode, what are you expecting to learn? Well, I'm gonna be talking around what a beta tester is, why beta testers are so valuable, how to find beta testers, okay? Where are we gonna magic them out of?
Where are we gonna find them? when to use a beta tester, should you charge for a beta tester, should you not charge for a beta, when not to use beta testers. And then we're gonna wrap all that up so that you've got really, really clear on where they can fit and hopefully energised over where they can fit in your business. So let's get started. What is a beta tester?
Well, a beta tester is someone who tries your product or service before the official launch. That's your kind of technical definition. In reality, what does it look like? It looks like a group of individuals you get together who are ideally your ideal client or as close to your ideal client as possible, who can feedback, who can work with you on what it is you are offering.
And the value that that brings, I'm going to come on to in the why bit in just a second, but it really does revolutionize your ability to hit the ground running, make sure that you are offering something that people actually want.
And that's the thing is, is time and time again, people come to me having created a course, people are out there telling people how to create a signature course, but they're not actually teaching them how to sell it. And that's because the problem is, is they can't sell it because they made it in isolation. I have a client at the moment who had created a course and it took her a year. Okay.
And actually during that time, she never once spoke to somebody who could be a potential client because she was following word for word what is this individual, this organization was telling them to do. And so she didn't go anywhere near her ideal clients to sense check if this was actually what they wanted. And guess what? Surprise, surprise. They don't. Surprise, surprise.
The messaging is absolutely totally off. But already I have spoiled some of my whys. So let me just continue to kind of explain the beta tester role. So. They're helping you to meet the needs of your ideal client. They're helping you to understand. It's a bit of a try before you buy and you overly commit. It enables you to test that idea, that concept. It's like a rehearsal for the real thing.
It gives you that opportunity. I had a client recently, Rebecca, and she did a beta test with some of her ideal clients. They didn't show up, they weren't committed, they weren't engaged.
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Chapter 3: When should you charge beta testers?
Chapter 4: How to find the right beta testers for your business?
Where are we gonna find them? when to use a beta tester, should you charge for a beta tester, should you not charge for a beta, when not to use beta testers. And then we're gonna wrap all that up so that you've got really, really clear on where they can fit and hopefully energised over where they can fit in your business. So let's get started. What is a beta tester?
Well, a beta tester is someone who tries your product or service before the official launch. That's your kind of technical definition. In reality, what does it look like? It looks like a group of individuals you get together who are ideally your ideal client or as close to your ideal client as possible, who can feedback, who can work with you on what it is you are offering.
And the value that that brings, I'm going to come on to in the why bit in just a second, but it really does revolutionize your ability to hit the ground running, make sure that you are offering something that people actually want.
And that's the thing is, is time and time again, people come to me having created a course, people are out there telling people how to create a signature course, but they're not actually teaching them how to sell it. And that's because the problem is, is they can't sell it because they made it in isolation. I have a client at the moment who had created a course and it took her a year. Okay.
And actually during that time, she never once spoke to somebody who could be a potential client because she was following word for word what is this individual, this organization was telling them to do. And so she didn't go anywhere near her ideal clients to sense check if this was actually what they wanted. And guess what? Surprise, surprise. They don't. Surprise, surprise.
The messaging is absolutely totally off. But already I have spoiled some of my whys. So let me just continue to kind of explain the beta tester role. So. They're helping you to meet the needs of your ideal client. They're helping you to understand. It's a bit of a try before you buy and you overly commit. It enables you to test that idea, that concept. It's like a rehearsal for the real thing.
It gives you that opportunity. I had a client recently, Rebecca, and she did a beta test with some of her ideal clients. They didn't show up, they weren't committed, they weren't engaged.
and she was like these people are just too busy they're just not prioritizing the outcome that i will provide them with with this course and so you know she that made her go back to and look at who her ideal client really is um and she picked a slightly different niche the difference was it was still female they still had the same challenges but they were individuals who had not yet had a family who not who not yet had any commitments
um or significant commitments and so they were able to focus on themselves they didn't feel bad for focusing on themselves it was the normal for them and that really helped her to hone in and understand if she had gone off which so many people want to do they want to go off they want to create a website they want to get business cards they want to do all the official stuff the branding that would all be very different okay not very different not crazily different but significantly different enough that they should have had to come back and undone and redone all those different elements
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Chapter 5: What feedback can you get from beta testers?
when you've already got loads of testimonials and proof, you don't need to go down the best beta tester route. If you're changing the format somewhat, then maybe you could look to do it as a bit of an intro offer, but I definitely wouldn't go down the full beta feedback handholding that you will do for your first round of betas.
And then if you are confident in the offer and you don't need that additional feedback, I would then say, do you really need to do beta testers? I tend to veer towards the ample testimonials and social proof or when you've already got it validated, when you've had it run past somebody.
But if, for example, you've created this with a focus group, for example, then that might be then something that you don't get people to test in the same way. So should you charge for beta testers? Well, when to charge, okay, is if you're providing significant value.
So a lot of my clients will do a kind of tip of the iceberg or they will segment a section of their full, well, their intentional full course, ideally. If we're doing a bit of a repair job, it might be part of a course they already have and they will deliver that on its own. What you want is for any sort of intro courses, smaller courses to feed into that bigger course.
95% of my clients get their first paying client on a course from their beta testers. Okay, I got one of my first paying clients from my beta testers.
um because that person has sampled what it is that you are to offer they've sampled it's a sample okay it's like you know when you go in and you do the little chef samples okay as a kind of it's like a pre-starter in nice restaurants and it gives you a sample of what that chef's all about it kind of um
gives you an insight that is not your meal at no point are you going to have that and then go you know what i'm already full i'm going um you're going to stick there for the next bit because you've experienced how good it is and you'll continue along that i presume unless you hate it and then i presume you could leave um but i'm yet to encounter anyone who's done that um so
I would charge if you're already providing significant value, if you can't split it up like that. OK, or if there's an established level of trust already with your audience. So if you're producing, for example, you're switching from doing, you know, just trading time for money to having some sort of hybrid or a new digital course that stands alone.
If you've got loads of trust already with your audience, then absolutely look to charge for that.
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Chapter 6: How to use testimonials from beta testers effectively?
use them, okay, at the beginning stages of creating a course. And what I tend to do, and for those of you that have been in my world for a while, you'll know that I'm like sell and then create. And that would be where I'd go with this as well, okay, is yes, okay, you might not be selling them into to buy, physically purchasing, handing over money, but they're willing to invest their time. Okay.
If you've got individuals willing to invest their time in something at the very least, then you know that you've got interest. I've worked with people who we've not been able to get people engaged enough to be willing to invest any of their time, let alone any finances going forwards. And if there is reluctance at that initial stage for people to
to part with their time, then you're going to really struggle with a colder audience and getting them to part with their money. So then it's looking at, okay, what value proposition you're putting forwards? What messaging are we using? All is not lost. Okay. Don't ever feel disheartened and think, you know what, I just need to give up and go and get a job somewhere else.
Because that is more than likely not the case. It's that your messaging isn't right. It's not going out to the right people and all those other things that may feed into it. Okay. If you are struggling with this, if you want to be successful at creating courses and putting them out there and selling them, then please, please do get in touch with me, Sarah, at youcan.online. And let's have a chat.
Let's find out how I can help you or at the very least point you in the right direction. So please do take a few minutes and think about how you may be able to use beta testers in your business either now or in the future. with whatever you've got planned. So thank you very much for tuning in and listening to this episode of the You Can podcast.
Please do share this far and wide with your friends and anybody you think will enjoy it. Please do follow, subscribe and also review this podcast. Every bit helps. So that's it for me this week. If you would like further support and help, then please do check out the links in the description where you can start to get help and get that business growing. But that's it for me this week, guys.
I look forward to chatting to you again next week. Bye for now.
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