To AppSumo or not to AppSumo? Viewst has ended its first campaign

To AppSumo or not to AppSumo? That is the question.
It’s probably what Shakespeare would ask if he were a 21st-century SaaS entrepreneur.
Is there a certain answer? No. Every product is unique.
But let’s try to address one aspect at a time

Why AppSumo?

AppSumo is a world-renowned platform for entrepreneurs that consistently offers lifetime deals (LTDs) for online services and digital products. AppSumo’s most potent feature that makes the platform so popular is its customer base, which exceeds 1 million, and AppSumo performs super segmentation based on subscribers’ engagement and website behaviour. AppSumo has many affiliate websites and partners that help to reach about 50 million people. This makes a partnership with the platform very promising. 

Key success factors of the AppSumo campaign

A successful campaign needs what are superficially just a few simple things: a product, an organised support team, and marketing. And of course, good preparatory work (read how Viewst has done its homework and launched the campaign here – What it’s like to run a campaign on AppSumo. Viewst: 1st month on air).

Goals of the campaign

The AppSumo campaign goal couldn’t be revenue growth alone as all AppSumo products offer the biggest discount possible.  

Viewst had several goals: 

1. user feedback

2. greater brand awareness

3. load testing of the builder

4. new ideas for further development and, of course,

5. higher revenue.

The team achieved them all. Viewst really needed a push for the product and AppSumo provided it. We talked to a big number of customers, enhanced our custdev, understood our clients’ real pain points and requests, fixed all bugs, and boosted revenue.

Results in numbers 

• 1,473 sales and 43 upgrades

• $76K+ revenue

• 85 questions, 50 reviews on the deal page

• 41 mentions in Mass Media and social networks

• a rise in subscribers on all our own social pages

• $37K+ sale amount with our referral link and 393 other product sales via reff link

The last three days of the campaign were particularly hot in terms of the number of requests and sales. 

What else could be done

What would we do differently next time?

Generally, Viewst performed well, but there are some things that we would definitely do in other ways:

• adjust all analytics to a consistent format in order to get the most out of the data for better upsells

• ship different tiers from the beginning to allow Sumo-lings maximum choice

• run some advertising campaigns on Google

• run only a one-month campaign with more aggressive promotions

Conclusion

There are different views as to whether to use AppSumo at all. There are also several questions that should be answered before making the right decision.

Do you want to test your product on a large number of users from different countries? Do you want to raise your product’s brand awareness? Do you want a kind of crash-test for your team? Do you want to get new ideas for product development? Are you ready for non-stop work and getting lots of complaints and bug reports? If your answers are “yes”, AppSumo is for you.