How We Made $400,000 in Sales on AppSumo?
I’m unlocking our 2 different lifetime deal campaigns selling $400,000 and all the mistakes we’ve made. Let’s start!
Hi 👋 I am Arif Çağlar, Co-Founder of Shopiroller.
After the project we did with AppSumo, I wanted to share this experience with everyone who is interested. You can find all the details about our AppSumo project in this article.
We are the only team in AppSumo that has completed a project as AppSumo Select with 2 different products in 1 year. This has been an incredible experience for us.
Contents:
- What is AppSumo and LTD(lifetime deal)?
- Why did we do a LTD campaign?
- Who should do a LTD campaign with Appsumo?
- AppSumo Negotiation Process: Appsumo Select or Marketplace?
- AppSumo Campaign Preparation Process and Suggestions
- Launch!
- Customer Support Process and Automations
- More Reviews, More Sales!
- Facebook Groups and Giveaway
- Last Call!
- The End!
Shopiroller is a powerful e-commerce platform that aims to further empower e-commerce entrepreneurs in the increasing competition in the ecosystem. Unlike known e-commerce platform, Shopiroller focuses on sales channels and supports sellers to increase sales. Entrepreneur can create his online store and create powerful sales channels for his store such as website, mobile application, payment by link, social media and marketplace. It can also manage product, order and stock management for all these channels in a single panel.
Mobiroller is a mobile application platform that allows users to create native Android and iOS mobile applications without knowing coding, and publish them in application stores such as Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
I’m unlocking our 2 different lifetime deal campaigns selling $400,000 and all the mistakes we’ve made. Let’s start!
1. What is AppSumo and LTD(lifetime deal)?
AppSumo was founded in 2010 to create a space for people selling digital products and services and potential buyers. What makes AppSumo special is that it offers high discounts. It does this with LTD (lifetime deals).
Here, of course, there are some unique terms. One of them; LTD potential buyers and customers are called Sumo-ling. This is how you can address them.
For anyone who doesn’t know what a LTD is, it means a lifetime deal. A lifetime agreement is a special type of agreement in which you purchase access/use rights to a SaaS product as a “Lifetime” for a one-time fee.
Sounds pretty silly doesn’t it? But I don’t think so.
2. Why Did We Do a LTD Campaign?
First, let’s take a look at who the audience in AppSumo is. Solopreneurs, digital marketing agency owners/staff and marketers are very active here. The audience here is very conscious and has a great command of the ecosystem. That’s why they can ask tough questions, it’s good to be careful 🙂
They asked us about the MRR and LTV data of the product. I’m talking about an audience that knows and can interpret Saas metrics.
In addition, this audience mostly consists of users from America, Canada, England, Spain, Germany and of course India.
By the way, some of the people who bought you will not use you. He will get you for Life just because he trusts you. He will invest in you like an investor. If you become a very valuable product in the future, its lifetime package will be very valuable. Getting people to invest in you here is invaluable.
As a Saas product, we had happy users who paid us, but of course it wasn’t enough. If we had a lot of money to invest, we could advertise to our target audience. However, that is not the case.
Since we didn’t have a big budget for marketing activities, we had to find a smarter way to grow. That’s why we started looking for powerful sources of visibility: a platform or website that would allow us to reach hundreds of thousands of targeted email subscribers and potential customers.
Here, for Shopiroller, which is an early stage product; We aimed for product validation and real feedback. We also aimed to provide fuel for us before investing and generate income that the customer can convert into investment.
Mobiroller is a stronger product in the market. However, it could have been a powerful project to expand globally and increase brand awareness. We also thought that it would generate a serious income because of its powerful features and support system. This enabled us to create a resource that could enter the advertising competition in the global market.
I tried to explain for the product in 2 different stages. In summary;
- Product Verification: You have launched a product and you need to talk to too many people about the product. It is possible in AppSumo to do this in the global market at almost zero cost.
- Exploring New Markets: AppSumo is the way to go if you want to explore new markets outside your home country and be in the global market.
- Getting New Users and Building a Community: You can gain 3000 new users in 2 months and create a strong community.
- Monetization: It can fund your planning for new features and budgeting for performance marketing.
3. Who should do a LTD campaign with Appsumo?
I tried to explain in detail why an AppSumo campaign should be made. I think early-stage SaaS startups should definitely experience AppSumo. I think it is very valuable to get clearer feedback about the product and give direction to the product.
It is also possible to do it at the MVP stage and get feedback at an earlier stage. Thus, more accurate developments can be planned. But entering at a very early stage will cause negative feedback from the audience. Don’t care too much about it. You just need to know that you will get less income.
When the product reaches a stronger stage, making an AppSumo project will generate higher income and user numbers.
You can contact me to discuss at what stage you should do the project. We can review your product together.
So what is the number of teams we need? I will write the project process in detail shortly. However, you do not need large crews here. We managed 2 products with a support team of 6 people. However, in this process, we had to manage the current operation and the project together. So our team was 6 people. Only 2 founders are enough to manage the project in my opinion. It is possible to get freelancer services during the project process. Have this idea in your pocket. It is necessary not to hesitate to make small investments as you will earn an income.
4. AppSumo Negotiation Process: Appsumo Select or Marketplace?
You are given two options for making an AppSumo project: AppSumo Select or Marketplace.
For AppSumo Select, the AppSumo team evaluates you on some issues. First of all, it is necessary to be successful in this evaluation. AppSumo markets startups that started as Select. It gains more visibility on the homepage, gets more featured in the newsletter and blog page, and gains a lot more members. It also places Google and Facebook Meta ads for you and their budget belongs to them. They say they spend about half of your product’s revenue on marketing. However, according to the agreement, an average of 25%-35% of the income of Select projects will be transferred to you. It varies depending on the agreement.
AppSumo Marketplace is another way you can be active after your application is approved. With this option, AppSumo does not market you. It only allows you to be featured on the AppSumo Marketplace. You have to do your own marketing. That’s why AppSumo only gets 20% of sales. However, if you are successful in the Marketplace, they can offer you Select. It could be a different opportunity.
We did all of our projects as AppSumo Select. I can’t give the exact number. But about a third of the $400,000 was our income.
Tip-1: Here is my advice; if it passes the evaluation, my attempt will be to do AppSumo Select. I think it would definitely be more productive for an early stage startup.
Tip-2: According to my impressions and what I learned, B2B products do not accept much as AppSumo Select.
We held 3 different meetings with AppSumo, and then we agreed on all items and signed a contract. Here are some important contract clauses. What features will be offered in the product packages and what will be the price? What will be the amount to be paid to you? How long will the campaign last?.. These issues are deeper and longer. You can contact me to discuss them in detail.
After the contract is signed, the process begins…
5. AppSumo Campaign Preparation Process and Suggestions
All processes that I will explain after this stage are AppSumo Select processes.
After the contract process, the AppSumo team proceeds in a very planned and regular manner. From the first day, you will be informed about the list of things to do and DDLs during the preparation phase. Accordingly, you can make your business plan.
After the contract is signed, there is a 60-day Onboarding process until the Project Launch. They immediately take you to the slack group and ask you to write who will be included in the project with their tasks in an e-mail you receive. Accordingly, they give the necessary powers to the team. The entire to-do list is managed via freedcamp.com.
Forms to be filled are sent to you during the process. By filling out these forms, your AppSumo Deal Page is created. The DDL of the content that should be on your product page in the first 14 days is completed and approved.
Afterwards, forms are sent to you for Customer Support. After the content form, you must fill in the information on that form within 7 days. There may be things you need to plan before you fill it out. Therefore, it is useful to work focused in this process. These processes are completed in the first 21 days.
The AppSumo audience is very active on Facebook. If not, you need a Community. My suggestion here would definitely be to set up a Facebook Group. The AppSumo audience will care about this and if they like you they will want to be in that group to support you.
Also, you definitely need a roadmap in this process. But it should be an “honest roadmap”. My most important advice: don’t say okay to anything you can’t do and try to be realistic.
You must have a product support page. You should have articles with support documents, describing the system and how to do it. This will help you get fewer questions. It also shows how well you do your work and that you care about the user.
They ask you for the images that will be on the Deal Page. You have to design them yourself. You can use gifs. In addition, the promotional video content is prepared and submitted for your approval. Thus, you are informed about the preparation of the entire page.
Technically, API integration is required. I will not give detailed information for this stage. It’s a very technical process, your backhend team will take part in this.
After all these preparations are completed, the testing processes begin. The AppSumo team does a serious test and reports bugs to you.
If there are no mistakes, let the party begin! 🥳🥳🥳
6. Launch!
Tadaa! The expected day has come. As a team, we eagerly awaited this day. We even cut a cake and celebrated on the launch day. We put a lot of effort into the preparation process and it will be very exciting for us to see what happens now…
The launch is according to the American time and I remember that it was held around 6–7 in the evening.
Our expectation was that there would be traffic immediately after the launch and a lot of questions. We even thought that the web page or panels would not work because of the traffic. However, nothing like this happened after the launch.
It is necessary to know this situation; There is a paid membership model called “AppSumo Plus Member” in AppSumo. These members become more privileged. All new projects are first announced to this group and then general announcements are made.
For the first 48 hours, only AppSumo Plus Member members were launched and only this team could access it. For the first 48 hours after launch, we didn’t get any weird traffic. However, our first sale came 4 hours after launch. This excited us a lot, but we experienced a lot of emotional change in those 4 hours. I must be honest.
The biggest strength of AppSumo in my opinion is that it has a very strong mailing list and a single mail can fly the system. After the first 48 hours, general announcement e-mails were made.
Here we go now. 🚀🚀🚀
After the general announcement, a serious volume begins to form. People are starting to test you. They ask a lot of support questions. They write to the Deal Page. They are examining what you promised. This process requires you to be there as a team.
7. Customer Support Process and Automations
I will say something very clear; I will explain the most important topic of the AppSumo project. All the previous effort will gain meaning with the right work done here. Or it will be thrown away. It could be worse than throwing it away.
Let’s be aware of this. We are in a very strong community. This means you have to be very careful. Because giving false information, not doing what you promised or using a disrespectful tone will spread very quickly in the community. This means they can kill your product. It’s not just a failed project. It would be a nightmare to get hundreds of 1-star comments on platforms like G2 and Capterra.
Areas you should always check:
- Deal Page
- Customer support emails and live chat
- Roadmap feature requests
- Facebook group posts
I wrote down the places where potential users will come in contact with you the most. The faster they are answered, the happier they will be. Therefore, if possible, a Customer support specialist should be active in the system 24 hours a day. I would definitely recommend having someone day and night. A simple solution can be to deal with Customer Support, a freelancer from Fiver living in the USA.
It is necessary to respond sympathetically and using emojis on the Deal Page. they love it. It is necessary to respond quickly to the questions that come in there as answers.
And now we’re going to talk about my favorite subject. AUTOMATIONS!
It will be your biggest helpers in the support processes. They will continue to work while you sleep.
Welcome Mails will be the main automation. Those who want to see the sample e-mails I used can contact me. Here, as soon as users become a member, e-mails on different subjects can be sent on the 1st day and the 2nd day. A very nice strategy can be created here, I have an automation that I have tested and thought to be working.
You can use chatbot in the system. You can get answers to simple questions that everyone will ask here.
You can use popups. When the user comes to a page, you can show him the message you want and have it onboard.
Let me list some of the tools I used in this process:
- Sendy: Mass mailing and welcome mail automation
- AnnounceKit: Easy announcement and messaging
- Infoset: Technical support management, chatbot, live support
- Popupsmart: Pop-up management
- Frill: Roadmap management
- Videoask: Video automation tool
8. More Reviews, More Sales!
After reviewing you, users can write you a Review if they want, on the Deal Page. What does this mean?
He can write a Review, giving you 1 to 5 tacos. The comment they wrote for you: Review. It uses AppSumo tacos instead of asterisks. These reviews and the average of the ratings are displayed on the Deal Page. The more good reviews you get, the more sales you can make. Selling is a matter of trust! The more beautiful and higher you score, the more people will believe you.
You must also reply to these review messages. I suggest that the most authoritative person answer here, if possible. This audience loves meeting with the most authorized person of the company. This gives them confidence. Providing the CEO account information to the support manager may also be a solution.
Here is my first suggestion to get a Review; complete the above-mentioned issues.
I will not go into this subject in detail. However, I would like to make another very valuable suggestion. This audience loves to receive gifts. That’s why giving gifts is a nice way to get something done.
You can tell your mail automation that if it leaves an honest infirmary, you will upgrade them to a higher tier package for free. Don’t say give us 5 tacos. Here, a message should be given as “honest review”.
Tip: The AppSumo team does extra mailing and marketing work for products that have received 20 - 5 taco reviews. This means you will make more sales.
9. Facebook Groups and Giveaway
One of the indispensable parts of this business is Facebook groups. I have at least 50 Facebook Groups on my list of AppSumo users. And each has between 3k and 12k people. This is a great opportunity for you to reach this audience.
It can create a natural growth for you if you are loved in these groups. The best way to be active in these groups is to give gifts by lottery. So how should this be?
Now for this, you must first meet and persuade the group admin. This is the procedure: you will give a gift package-tier to the group admin. 🙂
In the group, the strategy should be: Get people’s attention as much as possible. For this, you will organize a lottery campaign. For example, there is a Facebook Group with 10k people. Here you will give gift packages to 25 people. In return, you expect honest reviews at G2 and Capterra.
When you do this, hundreds of questions will come to your post in the group and you will answer them one by one. So people will recognize you and you will attract attention. You have gifted 25 packages. But the fact that you get hundreds of AppSumo sales and G2 reviews is a bonus.
Doing this across all Facebook groups means reaching a great audience. However, this is not as easy as it seems and requires serious effort.
10. Last Call!
You will make at least about 50% of the total revenue of your AppSumo project during the Last Call period. So what is this Last Call?
AppSumo refers to the last 96 hours of your project. Traffic starts after AppSumo’s Last Call e-mail. This means last chance for users. It’s like you either buy it now or shut up forever 🙂
After these 96 hours, only your AppSumo Plus Member group-specific project can continue for 48 hours. Or they can divide 96 hours into 48+48.
What should you do in this last process? You no longer need anything new. Whatever you have done so far, you must keep doing it. Fast and honest communication, technical support!
11. The End!
Congratulations! You have completed the AppSumo campaign. So it’s all over? No!
First of all, users have the right to return products purchased within 60 days. So people who bought you can return it within 60 days. I don’t think we want that. Therefore, this careful technical support and other processes should continue for at least 60 days.
The money you earn is sent to you monthly after 60 days. This means that the fee you earn this month will be sent to you 60 days after the returns are issued. You can make your cash flow plan accordingly.
You’ve probably made 1000+ sales here, gained 5000+ members. You have built a meaningful community and can use its power to continue to grow.
My only suggestion would be to act without ignoring this audience.
I wanted to convey the processes to you in a transparent manner. Of course, there’s a lot more than what I’m talking about. We can talk in detail with those who are interested.
I hope it has been of some help to you. Happy reading.
You can write to me on Linkedin or Twitter to contact me. Enjoy your work ...
Thats All! 🙌
