715 customers in 60 days [AppSumo]

Hello Growth Fam 👋🏼

We recently did an AppSumo promotion that netted us 715 customers in the last 60 days. I am here to answer the ultimate question...

Was it worth it?

TL;DR
My answer is Yes

I am going to assume everyone here knows what AppSumo is since we are all hacking away at user acquisition. haha

So let's talk numbers.

Our deal with AppSumo looked like this...

• 25% revenue for the first 30 days
• 30% revenue the following 30 days

715 new customers means we generated $42,900.00 of which we will receive $11,531.55.

Just being honest, this was a huge let down.

I was told the average AppSumo deal does between $150k to $250k which set my expectations for a payout of $38,000 to $63,000.

So when I learned we would only net $11,531.55 I was slightly butt hurt.

Now let's talk about the customers....

For the most part... I love them... Most of them know they are buying software at an insane discount and can respect the challenge of providing an A+ experience for literal pennies on the dollar.

With that being said, some of them are horrible...

I gotta tell yah the truth... Some of these people were straight up ASS HOLES... Like I am talking rude on a personal level without even trying the product... Which for me is hard to take...

The AppSumo team would tell me to kill them with kindness, but good god!

Our product would sell for $60 and at 25% of that means we have to...

Support a customer for LIFE on $15.00!!!

For most companies... That's NOT possible...

What I can tell you... It leaves no room for me to waste time and energy on the few Ass Holes that came through...

I wanted to record a video of myself burning $15 dollars with that caption
"this is what you are worth to me"
and send it to the very very few who were shitty for no reason.

Pro Tip: If you plan on doing an AppSumo promotion make sure you are netting more than $15 a user

Let's talk benefits

Remember, I said yes it was worth here. Here is what I am happy with...

AppSumo claims they have over 500,000 on their email list. Looking on the positive side, we got paid to introduce Median to over 500,000 people.

Sure, the conversion rate was an absolute dumpster fire BUT we still got paid.

We now have 715 people offering us valuable feedback on our product. Maybe not much of a shock, but a lot of the requests are around integrations with other AppSumo products.

Also, We got AMAZING reviews. This has been one of my favorite takeaways. We have a ton of social proof.

Takeaways

• Marked to over 500,000 people
• 715 new people talking about our product
• Paid $11,531.55

What I would do different...

#1 - I would do the exact same promotion... but on my own...

While doing the AppSumo promotion I met a kid that raised $50k for his SaaS by self promoting a LTD on his website. Turns out, there is a whole world that revolves around Life Time Deals and they don't care who is running the promotion. Check out this link as an example.

My new friend got way more money and less customers...

#2 - I would have negotiated a higher price point for our product in the promotion.

#3 - I would try to write the number of promotional emails into the agreement.

We made all our money when the emails went out and when the "end is near" timer started. No emails with AppSumo means no money.

#4 - I would have upgraded accounts for free if they left us a review.

AppSumo seems to promote the products that get the most reviews. If we upgraded accounts for reviews we would have seen a spike in the reviews and it would have cost us next to nothing.

Lastly

AppSumo is not what it use to be. No knock on them. I am jealous, the business is going to do $100 million this year.

But it use to be reserved as somewhat prestigious to get approve to be an AppSumo promotion, and when they would send emails, they would be few and far between.

Now I get 3 emails a day from them and am numb to looking at the deals. On top of that, the site feels like it has 50 deals running at any given point. So your product will just end up as a colorful blur on their landing page.

If you get a chance to do an AppSumo promotion... I would say do it... Just cut your expectations in half and you will be much happier.

Cheers,