We launched on appsumo marketplace, but there has not been any traction. Any ideas how it works?
Adding a huge thank you to all that checked this post out. This was my first post and I was apprehensive that either it would go unnoticed or will have HN kind of comments, where you just end up regretting why you posted in the first place at all!
So, again thank you all for being kind and sharing real insights!
Hi, we launched on appsumo marketplace, which seems to be a new format for their offers.
We were apprehensive about launching on appsumo because we do have paying customers, and this seems like a huge dilution of brand in terms of pricing to put a discounts as big as appsumo usually have.
We have not shared this deal with our existing customers or even free users, but have not even found any traction from appsumo as you need 5 reviews before it shows up on their page. It is searchable though.
Any ideas how we could get to that level and whether it is worth it to share with existing customers.
If anybody in the community here finds our product useful, here is a link :
https://appsumo.com/zipboard/
A quick intro: zipBoard is a visual feedback and bug tracking tool.
As an appsumo user I wouldnt buy it for that price. If your pricing was $8-$20 i'd consider it but Nimbus has you beat. You could try pitchground they will take less commission but I just dont see a lot of value in your feature set. When people buy on Appsumo they are taking a risk. A risk that your company could close the next month or that you got some codecanyon script and your doing a pump and dump. You could offer 1 free code for an honest review and that might help or hop in an LTD community and drop a few codes for the first 10 reviewers. You could also hit some of you youtubers up and pay them to do a video. So you have options just make sure to reinvest in your product. Also make your roadmap public and intergrate with pabbly connect.
Wow 8-20$ for a year! It definitely confirms that is not an ICP for us.
We have been in business long enough to sell to larger businesses and I think that is where our feature sets also turn out to be more useful. Team size > 20 atleast simultaneously on building content etc.
We do have reviews on capterra which sort of confirm that we are not looking to close soon.
https://www.capterra.com/p/150774/zipBoard/
We have an open roadmap on trello, but curious to know what is pabbly connect?
PC is like Zapier but at a much better price point.
Zapier is one of the most expensive iPaaS.
https://www.g2.com/categories/ipaas
1 Can I get data from other platforms into the SaaS product?
(leads, statuses, dates and times) APIs
2 Can I get data out of the SaaS product?
(video conversions, updates, the reason I'm using the SaaS product) Webhooks
If your product is a walled garden chances are that it won't succeed as well as it could if it played nicely with others.
As an example: One of my personal favorite workflows right now is using Zoom.ai (scheduling software similar to https://calendly.com/ and https://www.clickacall.live/ to automatically send users that register a video chat link where at the scheduled meeting time they can video chat with our team on our own domain without using 3rd party tools like Skype or Zoom.
If you have APIs and webhooks then working with PC is in your best interest because there are a ton of users that use PC to connect their business workflows. PC helps out early stage companies because all the serious people who build businesses are using it to creates energies between different platforms. SaaS products don't need to do everything they just need to do something better than all the other SaaS products to be viable.
Every SaaS product I use on a daily basis connects together meaning I never need to duplicate data ever- my data is easily accessible - this ensures that I can build what-ever workflows I need to get the job done and can automate a large portion of my business.
Some apps have lets say - Jira as an integration but I'm limited to what that integration can do.
With PC I can take any issues from Jira and send them to any 3rd party software to create tasks, schedule meetings, trigger welcome automations, send a text message or phone call. ( I can even send a youtube video to get transcribed)
With webhooks: When someone on my team does something- I know about it and the next step in the business process can take place automatically. Say for instance a Kanban board- When a task is completed and moved to the review stage of the Kanban board it triggers an automation where my QA tester gets that specific task assigned to them to review along with a deadline.
This webhook can also trigger an email to the client letting them know that the issue is currently in Testing and will be completed by x date.
This saves time because all we have to do is drag it over, while we are working.
We don't have to assign it ourselves or spend time figuring out what client to send the email and if that email has been sent yet.
If your platform doesn't already have webhooks it would be a good idea to get started on that because that creates an "Action Step" rather than an API being an "Event Step" in the workflow process.
I hope you found some value in this post.
AppSumo is nothing but a mailing list. I mean they created a audience years ago and expand on this audience. Then with this audience they collect commission on the contract with you. If you would start a new AppSumo today it does not work without an audience. So, with your product, and the lack of traction, this tells me the AppSumo audience is wrong for you.
Yes, I figured and also had some idea that this is not our audience, but thought new leads never hurt :)
Create a video if possible, and replace the images. Settings pages and switches aren't exciting, they don't let people visualize how their life is better with your platform.
Oh well, now that is published already and does not seem like the right place for us to be posted at, I guess I will do that work on my website. Thanks for the tips though. I think they have a templated format for input too though.
I buy from Appsumo and will, like most, only consider LTD.
Your product description makes no sense at all (sorry!)
Get on to the FB groups for LTD / SaaS deals who are very very active and you’ll find your audience there - albeit quite tough. If you really want to get traction find Mohammed Ali - he’s the godfather on FB in this space.
Problem is as you’re established, you have a commercial decision to make whether this route is right for you as it can only work as a ltd. Not sure how much traction you’ll get regardless if you don’t offer. LTD.
Just two points:
AppSumo users love lifetime deals. But yours is - 1 year deal. So, even you were the part of primary AppSumo select deal, you won't get much traction. This is just an undeniable fact.
AppSumo Marketplace is not a service. It's simply a landing page for your offer. AppSumo doesn't put any extra effort in promoting your deals there. So, if you are serious about traction, you should try for 'AppSumo Select', not the marketplace.
However, there are certain criteria which ones you fulfil, you will get a shootout in FB group etc. I hope you are already aware of those perks and how it works.
Looks like a great product!
Appsumo is famous for lifetime deals, and by offering a yearly deal you are turning away potential users.
The marketplace is super competitive.
Worth a read: https://medium.com/@activechat/how-to-survive-a-510-000-launch-on-appsumo-675fa0a552fa
Im an appsumo user.
Went to your landing page and it took me a lot of reading to understand what your product is.
My first thought "it's a magic widget that improves pictures of my products"
Thanks for checking it out. It seems like we totally did get our messaging wrong.
That is a WIP. thanks for checking it out.
I heard they take 70% commission, is this true?
wow! Did not know that they do take 70%. Not for the marketplace deal. But, with such high discounts and 70% commission, I do not know how it makes sense.
yes
For market place listings like these it is 30%, for featured deals it is 70%.
But till Dec'20, they would be taking just 10% for marketplace deals.
I recognized yesterday that there were about 200 new deals this single day on their marketplace (days before they had maybe 20 deals on their marketplace altogether.
Maybe they are trying different strategies? Of course when you compete with 200 new deals, you won't get much attention.
Yes, seems like that is how marketplace is different from their initial offering.
The marketplace seems to be different than their existing partner program. I'd improve your marketplace listing & then apply to their existing partner program.
https://appsumo.com/partners/apply/
Yes , but that makes me wonder if the partner program is worth it , and what is really the difference between the two .
I got to know about Zipboard deal on AppSumo only through this IH post.
I see it is an annual deal, AppSumo is a place for lifetime deals where sumo-lings prefer to pick only deals that available at one time price. They might consider picking an annual and discounted deal only if they see the product to be unique or from an established/known player (Crowdfire is one of the examples from a few years ago)
What did AppSumo say about not getting any sales or traction. Did you reach out to them?
I also heard as a product owner, it is your responsibility to get the initial reviews (atleast 5-10) to get them to feature your product on the top in their marketplace.
Did not reach out to Appsumo, thought will check here what others experience has been. I guess from what I gather might not be much of useful leads for us - specially lifetime deals
This comment was deleted 5 years ago.
Not for marketplace deal though.