My History

Having launched multiple AppSumo campaigns, I can vouch for the fact that a public roadmap is absolutely critical for running your campaign properly. In fact, running a popular (read: extremely intense) AppSumo campaign is what spawned the idea for PathPro in the first place! This was quite a few years back, but I had launched an AppSumo campaign to promote a booking software—a surprise launch that earned nearly $100k in sales, 1000s of customers, and a slew of feedback. An awesome success to be sure, but one that nearly ran me into the ground due to my limited resources and lack of proper customer feedback collection tools. Ultimately what I learned was that AppSumo customers (referred to as AppSumolings), were a passionate bunch that were very much willing to provide feedback and constructive criticism. They are the ultimate test group…and they will completely overwhelm you if you’re not prepared. This not only includes an influx of tech support issues, but also inquiries about whaat to expect down the line. And that’s where public roadmaps come in.

At the time of this first AppSumo campaign, I had to cobble together a rough roadmap using some generic page-building tools, because regardless of my efforts to find a free public roadmap tool, nothing fit my needs. What I needed was a roadmap that would outline every release in a timeline-oriented design, and one where I could further engage with customers. I also needed to place it within the environment of my marketing website, not on some random URL unrelated to my product (hello, like, almost every roadmap tool out there).

Let’s back up however and explore why public roadmaps are so critical in keeping AppSumolings informed while you run your AppSumo campaign. And hey, let’s go ahead and title this section…

Why Roadmaps are Critical When Running an Appsumo Campaign:

1. They want to know what features are coming down the line.

While running an AppSumo campaign, whether via AppSumo’s “Select” campaigns or on their self-hosted marketplace, one fact of life is that you will have a LOT of customer support inquiries. AppSumo’s massive customer base, individually known as AppSumolings, will inundate you with questions about the product in its current state, but they’ll also want to know what they can expect to see down the line. See, AppSumo specializes in life time deals (LTDs), meaning SaaS-based companies that typically charge a monthly subscription will instead offer an extremely steep discount on their product, charging a single fee for lifetime access to your product. So, naturally, customers want to see an idea of everything you have planned as they decide whether to purchase your product.

Presenting future features and updates is a critical tool not only in keeping these customers informed, but it also serves as a prominent sales tool. When customers see that the product will grow in the future, they are all the more likely to become convinced that the AppSumo deal is worth purchasing.

2. They want to know when to expect fixes, updates, and change logs based on feedback

As we mentioned already, you can expect a TON of feedback about your product while running your AppSumo campaign. Collecting this feedback in a product give manner can be incredibly overwhelming if you don’t have the proper tools, so it’s critical that you arrive prepared.

As you collect feedback and bug reports, users want to know that they’ll be fixed quickly. With PathPro’s public roadmaps, not only can you engage with customers on specific issues, letting them know when to expect fixes, but you can automatically inform them of when the fixes are live. Customers can actively subscribe to every task, feature, or bug fix that you’ve listed on your roadmap, so they’ll know that their issues are being addressed. Seeing that you run a tight ship, all while listening to AppSumoling concerns is critical in garnering positive reviews, and reviews are the lifeblood of a successful AppSumo campaign.

So, not only will you want to outline future feature (which may come after the campaign has been completed) but you’ll also want a focused delivery of bugs and updates that will be released during the course of the campaign. With a combination of Public and private roadmaps, you’ll bridge the gap between customer feedback, and delegating tasks to your team. All this while keeping customers informed, and popularity rising. At the end of the day, support is king on AppSumo, and organization is the key to providing a stellar tech support experience for what may be 1000s of customers. not a small task, but one that’s made SO much easier with the proper tools.

Let’s break that down a little…

See it this way: You receive multiple submissions pointing out the same bug, discovered in tandem by 100s of AppSumolings/Customers. With PathPro, AppSumolings will have a dedicated page to submit these bug reports (as well as ideas on how you can improve your product). These submissions are collected within your admin area’s “Feature Submissions” section, already a huge step in managing customer feedback, right? Keeping with the example of a bug being reported, you can add this bug fix directly to your public roadmap, listing the exact date as to when AppSumolings can expect the fix. Furthermore, you can tag each user that submitted the bug, ensuring that they receive updates, but also including them as contributors to the fix itself (and hey, that pat on the back means creating mini ambassadors that are sure to spread the news of your snappy customer support).

So, once the bug fix is addressed by your team, you’ll mark the task complete. Afterwards all AppSumolings will receive an email notification that the product has been updated based on their exact feedback. Not only will they be amazed by the tile updates, but they’ll be able to review all updates in an organized series of change logs and release notes.

Like we mentioned, reviews are the lifeblood of a successful AppSumo campaign, and impeccable tech support is the key to unlocking 5-taco reviews (AppSumo’s version of 5 stars). With PathPro’s combination of organized feedback collection, public roadmaps, release-based notifications and informative change logs, you’ll be primed and ready to grow those reviews. In fact, you’ll even have the exact list of customers that contributed, all of whom you can then follow up with to request a review on your AppSumo product profile.

So, How do I add Public Roadmaps for My AppSumo Campaign?

Good question! At the beginning of this article I mentioned that despite my search efforts, I couldn’t find the perfect solution for quickly adding a free public roadmap to my actual website. All services required me to link to a separate service, and that would be far too confusing for customers. I needed a single link on my site, using the URL I wanted, to add a sleek, timeline-based roadmap. Further, I needed to to organize my updates in a release-focused manner. I managed with what I had, patching together a rough timeline of updates that I was only able to publish a couple weeks after my campaign started, but I knew at that point that I should have come to the table with a Roadmap firmly in place. It would have boosted my sales even further. It would have garnered more positive reviews. It would have helped me keep customers even happier, yielding who knows how many more sales. But alas, that tool didn’t exist…yet the idea of PathPro began to form.

Years later, Pathpro utilizes lessons learned after personally launching multiple AppSumo campaigns. It is a tool that lets you organize a massive amount of customer feedback, and to put that feedback into action through task management feature voting, and other powerful product growth tools.