How to get sales on AppSumo? Pushing SaaS from $100 → $500 MRR

Hello, IndieHackers:)
My name is Stanislav. I`m a UI designer and co-founder of MetaSurvey.

Our small team two indie devs have finally pulled our swipe survey builder to $100 MRR! It took us 2.5 years to work as a side project. We are 100% self-funded and bootstrapped.

Yeah, that is long! (Yet, we never thought of quitting!)

The "idea" to go to discounter:

Now I decided to launch at AppSumo - to drive those new customers and grow to $500 MRR ;) I chose AS because it has a simple interface and vivid USP/UVPs for the customers (a cheap lifetime deal). Also, AS team helps you with the launch.

The main idea is to give a startup a much wider exposure, beyond google/bing organic traffic and IH / PH community. Also, with cheap prices and exclusive Lifetime deals you can reach the relatively "cheap" markets: India, Pakistan, China, and the like. As smbd said: it`s better to sell a $1 product to 10M customers, than a $1000 product to 10. IMAO, that's fair

AppSumo is a discounter for startups and SaaS projects, where you can promote your project via a % discount campaign - a lifetime deal. You can upload from 200 to 10 000 "taco" coupons.

Why did I choose AS? Cause after 2.5 years of building, we still don`t have traction and a stable flow of customers. Sales are often random and come from different sources (Google organic, remarketing from our surveys)

Preparing to Launch:

As a SaaS project, we got a Freemium pricing model: almost all survey builder features are unlocked on the Free plan. Also, we got Pro and Pro+ subscription plans ($18/mo and $58/mo) which remove the 10-question / 150-responses limits, add additional features and remove our logo.

For our survey builder we suggested a Lifetime deal for $58.00 $144.00 instead of paying $12 x 12mo =$144 yearly. So you get a Lifetime license for 50% of the yearly payment for all Pro options.

Basic instruments AppSumo offers:

Basically, AS gives you a personal manager - you can book a call for a platform demo, and ask advice on pre-launch, launch day, post-launch, or any other questions.

Also, they published a Ultimate marketing playbook, where you can read a pre-launch checklist, advises on launch and tips to widen exposure and traffic on your product page.

The platform has some promotional features:

• [x] Share via email
• [x] Email templates
• [x] Display partner badge (html)
• [x] Repost from AS support team
• [x] Repost on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• [x] Affilate program
• [x] Newsletter (weekly)

Some promo features will unlock when you reach different review milestones of 5 / 10 / 15 / 50 reviews. Some soptions are available from the start.

What we got in the first hours:

Actually, in fitrst hours - launch gave us absolutely NOTHING at the moment. Some traffic and a badge on our beautiful landing page, build with the Unicorn platform by @alexanderisora.

I do not know if we did something wrong, but the AppSumo team did not add us to any of the categories on the main page, even to New arrivals and Spotlight categories. That is really weird.

We perfectly filled our the product page, uploaded max pictures, uploaded pricing plans, promo-codes, set up pre-launch emails as AS advised, and were on the call with the support manager, but nothing helped.

So IndieHackers, can you kindly advise on the AppSumo launch:

• How to maximize profit from the platform?
• How to get to the main page? )
• Was the platform helpful for growing your project(s)?

We created a cool survey for you to give feedback.

Much thanks for your time!