Testing the water before launch

maxwell smart

Morning All

I'm launching a web venture in October, the site will be up and running around 1st week in September. Now I'd like to do some testing and make sure it works, but some of my partners want to get the message out before the official launch, their talking mid September, so we can start generating revenue.
Now I'm all for generating revenue, but I believe the website has to be 100% bulletproof before we start the marketing. I have a full campaign ready to roll, but don't want to go too soon, as it were.

Am I mad to protest? This could, if done correctly, be very sucessful.

Thanks

Bandara

maxwell smart wrote: »

Morning All

I'm launching a web venture in October, the site will be up and running around 1st week in September. Now I'd like to do some testing and make sure it works, but some of my partners want to get the message out before the official launch, their talking mid September, so we can start generating revenue.
Now I'm all for generating revenue, but I believe the website has to be 100% bulletproof before we start the marketing. I have a full campaign ready to roll, but don't want to go too soon, as it were.

Am I mad to protest? This could, if done correctly, be very sucessful.

Thanks

depending on the venture it might be no harm to open it up, do limited trading, and if you make a balls of things then you can rectify them before you actually spend money launching it properly.

a few under the radar disasters at the start isn't necessarily a bad thing

RoadKillTs

Am I mad to protest? This could, if done correctly, be very sucessful.

I think you are dead right. Site should be tested properly before going live. Too many businesses launch before the site is ready and waste a fortune on marketing.

100% agree. If you launch anything claiming to be this and that and then consumers go and check it out and realise it's anything but - it's a total disaster and they won't be back.

Sure look at some of the sites that have been launched in the past - all hype pre launch then when it came to the crunch, bloody disaster, terrible SEO, bad design, no data on it. Who would trust someone like that ? They lied - they said it was a great magic thing and then people get excited, check it out and it doesn't live up to expectations - can you say "bye bye potential customers". If you're going to tell a story, it has to be authentic and for it to be authentic, it has to live up to expectations.

It's like saying "free delivery", then at the shopping cart, they throw in 8 euro tax or something. Disaster. They deserve to fail if they treat their customers like idiots.

random.stranger

+1 on above posts.

Might be worth offering up in a forum to get some feedback before launch. Maybe do a bit of fine tuning based on feedback.

patftrears

maxwell smart wrote: »

Morning All

I'm launching a web venture in October, the site will be up and running around 1st week in September. Now I'd like to do some testing and make sure it works, but some of my partners want to get the message out before the official launch, their talking mid September, so we can start generating revenue.
Now I'm all for generating revenue, but I believe the website has to be 100% bulletproof before we start the marketing. I have a full campaign ready to roll, but don't want to go too soon, as it were.

Am I mad to protest? This could, if done correctly, be very sucessful.

Thanks

I'd always launch a product/site in beta.

It helps to sort out any bugs you missed.

Gives you feedback from the users so you can change things before actual launch. I know so many guys who spend years building software they thought was just what their market wanted and never bothered to ask any potential customer, companies never took off year wasted.

Launch it privately with no charge is the way to go.

Spinnaker

Great for you. Hope it goes well in any case. Some observations:

Your partners are rushing for revenue sake rather than for your customer's experience. Getting the first experience right is key to retaining maximum revenue. Get it right first time.

You say "some testing". Surely exhaustive testing should be done? There are lots of useful checklists available online. Presenting even one will convince your partners how many pitfalls there are. Find these before your customers do. Assuming they won't might be assuming they are dumb :-(

Two weeks seems short for getting the message out there ?

So: Not mad at all !!

Get even one partner to run your site against testing checklists. Buy in for comprehensive testing may follow.

Recruit say 20 friends, technie and non-technie for a private launch.

I've seen pre-launch focus groups to be very useful for testing customer experience. I know website focus groups exist but havent used them. might be worth investigating but again after more than "some" testing.

Again. Good luck with it !!!