#LifetimeDeals #eCommerce #AppSumo #SaaS #Subscription #Marketing
I hope our story helps others learn from our mistakes and get paying users faster.
### Short Context
We launched our eCommerce platform for digital products at the end of summer 2023. We got a lot of attention on ProductHunt, but we didn’t achieve real success – we got 0 paying users then…
### Grind mode ON
We spent months improving many things: our marketing, our features, and the overall quality of our platform. We tried several ways to make money, including lifetime deals. Some worked, some didn’t, but we managed to get around 20 users subscribed, and the MRR started to grow.
### Hello AppSumo
I heard a few success stories on lifetime deal platforms like AppSumo. During November, we decided to give it a try. The AppSumo team is result-oriented and provides valuable feedback and marketing for your product. The launch itself was a huge success, selling more licenses than ever before.
### But what is next?!
The success of the lifetime deal launch made us think it was the right choice. However, we only managed to sell a few more after the initial buzz from the AppSumo launch. We couldn’t get people interested in our lifetime deals.
### Why we failed?
We realized that AppSumo’s users may not be our target audience for lifetime deals. AppSumo’s marketing team is great at selling lifetime deals, but the upfront costs deter many new eCommerce sellers.
### Lesson has been learnt…
We changed our approach again by offering a more expensive lifetime deal targeted at serious eCommerce sellers. We also reintroduced standard subscriptions with a 2-week free trial, which paid off. We saw an increase in trials and conversions into paying users.
We learnt a lot from trying different pricing models and will continue to iterate and learn from our experiences. Best wishes! 🔥
Awesome, thinking about doing App sumo also, you did get revenue from those 15o sign ups?
Any books that helped you reframe your marketing?
I have been doing LTD well before “appsumo” & i will tell you how i do it
& if there is any follow up questions, i can assist.
My goal is always to make recurring revenue and I use LTD as a way to
raise money to fund the RR model.
**Here is simplified version of it:**
1. We build a MVP of a product. This can be a WP Plugin, SaaS etc
2. We Give it a GENERIC Name.
3. We offer the LTD on ClickBank, JVZOO Initially
4. AOV has to be high by having FE/ and MULTIPLE OTOS Including Backend Webinar
5. We setup the launch with affiliates 15-30 days ahead of time.
6. Launch Day: We launch the product
7. Within 7 days, We will have made at least 100K in BAD promo.
8. We then launch new version of the product with MORE features, and a new name because the LTD name has already a perception of “cheap”, like yours and no one will want to pay monthly.
9. We launch the new SaaS and do the normal stuff to bring in the RR.
And ^ Simplified version, so please don’t assume things. ASK.
Some things that i would do if i were you:
1. Rebrand because this brand has that “cheap” ltd vibe now.
2. Home page needs huge improvement. Check clickup, do it their style. [swipefolder.com](http://swipefolder.com) has more examples. The copy is all messy. You say you have this that feature but website needs to make it clear who this is for and the usp.
3. Don’t do LTD anymore even at higher price
5. The sales videos etc needs to be done better6. You should drop the .ai and have “ai” stuff as an element of the product not the main focus – This is for future.
Pivoting pricing models—classic entrepreneur move! 👍 Keep iterating!
This is without experience, so it’s kind of an uneducated opinion but doesn’t a lifetime deal seem like a harder to maintain model over time? I mean once they got it, that’s one less customer forever. Any way you could turn a lifetime deal user back into a paying customer? Maybe feature packages? I’m just brainstorming here
Sounds like Lifetime Deals are like gym memberships. Sounds great at first, but you realize you don’t really use it as much as you thought.
Your journey navigating various pricing models is a testament to the dynamic nature of entrepreneurship. It’s inspiring to see how you’ve iterated and learned from each approach. I’m particularly intrigued by your observation about AppSumo’s user base and their purchasing behavior. How do you plan to leverage these insights in your future strategies?
sales
Thanks for sharing. May I ask what your current pricing model is?
Thanks for sharing! We’re in final stages before going live with Appsumo and this was motivating.
Hopefully, we’ll have similar results or better! 🙂
Appsumo is a joke. They take too high of a fee. A LOT of companies fail after going on appsumo. Glad you guys bounced back.