To answer some of the questions about the small ‘powered by’ logo at the bottom of the emails, the quick and simple answer is we decided not to include the logo upgrade in the agency plans because that’s what makes the most sense for us... and for you.
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If you’d like the more detailed version from a business perspective, let me break some things down for you...
On a Lifetime Deal (LTD) on AppSumo (AS), it is almost impossible to be profitable long term. Here’s why:
- LTD’s are generally highly discounted and AS takes a large cut of the sale for the role they play. For example, some of our agency plans are up to 99% off our normal annual (not lifetime) pricing, which is a massive discount and we share a significant portion of that sale with AS.
- For software LTD’s, there are monthly ongoing costs to keep a software running and updated. It’s not free and the more users and accounts you have and the more they use your platform, the more it costs. Forever.
- For an ESP to keep running, these costs are a LOT higher than normal since we have to be actively involved. Besides hosting, servers and support, we have deliverability specialists, IP’s we have to pay for and maintain as well as cutting edge ongoing development, none of which comes cheap.
With this in mind, due to the small cut of the sale we get on an LTD and the high ongoing costs, the breakeven point is 1 year, maybe slightly more. After that, any of the initial profits made (if there are any), get eaten up as expenses and the LTD buyer becomes a burden on the company costing them money.
This is why when a lot of companies who originally offered an LTD get acquired, the company that acquires them makes a business decision to cut off the LTD customers since they are costing them money, time and resources and are simply not profitable. They’re actually sucking the profits away.
This is also why a lot of startups that offer an LTD ultimately end up failing. They can’t cover their expenses and have to close their doors. This is when you’ll likely get an email that goes something like this: “It is with a heavy heart we are shutting down, or going in a different direction, or discontinuing our LTD plans etc. etc.”
We don’t want either of those scenarios to happen to us for your sake and ours, therefore something needs to be done to keep it profitable, or at a bare minimum, break even.
That’s where some of our small monthly upgrades come in. They help to cover basic expenses for the people who choose to enjoy them.
For the ppl who don’t, the small “Powered by Blastable” at the bottom of the emails we send helps us to generate a small amount of new business, which in a way, helps to keep the lights on for LTD buyers.
We’re not greedy, so you can also replace it with your partner/affiliate link, so you also earn $$$ on any sales that are referred. We even made a rap about it here: https://blastable.com/partners
We are in this for the long haul and to make that happen, things need to be sustainable. This is one of the ways that we are making sure it is. If you can’t or don’t want to afford $20 a month to remove a small logo from a plan that normally costs $999 a month (or pass that cost along to your clients if you choose an agency plan), then this may not be the LTD for you. There’s lots of other places with cheaper ‘here today, gone tomorrow,’ LTD’s to choose from which may be more suitable.
But if you want something that works and lasts and will be the best in its class, like Blastable, then understandably it might cost a little bit more.
We all need to win and come out ahead and this is our way of making sure that is what happens.
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