How long is the Ideal Duration to Run a Lifetime Deal Campaign?

There is a popular saying among the lifetime deal community of SaaS founders and marketers.

Do it once, and do it right.

If you are considering running a lifetime deal for your SaaS tool, do not overlook your campaign duration.

Your deal campaign duration has a strategic value that can maximize the impact of your lifetime deal campaign. So…

How long should you be running a Lifetime Deal?

The short answer is it varies depending on the reason why you’re running your SaaS lifetime deal.

The ideal time period is a minimum of 6-8 weeks based on our experience of working with 100s SaaS tools over the years. It works best for SaaS startups making it a high-impact lifetime deal campaign. 

The primary reason is that it allows your audience to better understand and evaluate your product and make an informed decision.

It is important to plan and execute your deal period strategically. You must consider factors such as the size of your target audience, the number of promotional channels, etc. 

Why are 6-8 weeks ideal for running a lifetime deal?

Firstly, let’s be clear that 6-8 weeks is the minimum ideal duration to run a successful lifetime deal for your SaaS product. 

One of the primary reasons it works best is that a 6-8 week period gives your target audience enough time to test and understand your product better. It is essential to get lasting benefits from your lifetime deal campaign. 

Secondly, a shorter deal period, say 7 days to 30 days, may get people to talk more about your product and even sell the same number of deals. However, such a reward is often always momentary. 

Selling the maximum number of licenses by creating FOMO attracts impulsive buyers.

But, remember that SaaS lifetime deals always come with a 60-day “no questions asked” refund period.

When your LTD users cannot find proper use cases where your product can fit into their workflow, they will be initiating a refund. It is more likely to happen even if they are your ideal customers. 

So give your audience enough time to take a look at your product. it will allow them to explore different use cases and understand how important is it to make your tool a part of their workflow. 

It also gives you sufficient time to educate your customers and help them see the ROI in their purchase. 

Lifetime Deal Campaign: A Complete Timeline Breakdown

Strategically plan your lifetime deal duration to educate and nurture your users and audience to create a win-win scenario.

Running your lifetime deal for a minimum of 6-8 weeks, you can plan your campaign in phases. It allows you to emphasize value to your target audience, increase your sales, and minimize refunds.

It also helps you to prepare better for the campaign and leverage a growth opportunity when available.

Here’s how.

Lifetime Deal Campaign: Weeks 1-2

The first couple of weeks is all about allowing users to check out your tool before they make a purchase decision. 

When you launch a lifetime deal for your SaaS product, it is sure to attract a lot of users. Buyers, the early adopters, will flock in; a fair number of users will buy out of fear of missing out. 

However, with a 6-8 week deal period, the first couple of weeks is the phase where you allow your target audience to test and understand your SaaS tool. It gives them enough time to explore and discover all the potential use cases for your Tool. 

It helps them take an informed decision. And since a fair number of your LTD users will be purchasing after identifying the use cases and understanding how your SaaS tool can help their workflow, they are more likely to continue using your product.

Lifetime Deal Campaign: Weeks 3-4

The following couple of weeks is all about collaboration.

It is the User-Founder collaboration to be precise. 

Over the years we have witnessed and learned that SaaS founders who engage and collaborate with their LTD customers are able to generate more value from their lifetime deal than the others. 

Weeks 3-4 are particularly helpful and ideal to engage and collaborate with your LTD users since they also will have used the product.

You can help your users understand specifics about your product and understand their use cases. On the other hand, your users will be able to ask more specific questions. 

Lifetime Deal Campaign: Weeks 5-6

The subsequent weeks, weeks 5-6, are more about working closely with your LTD users.

This period is ideal to help your users attain success with your product. But the highlight of this phase is to collect feedback and testimonials.

This is where you start receiving the first tangible rewards from your lifetime deal campaign. 

By week 5, most of your LTD buyers will have identified use cases that can benefit them. And because of that, they will be highly engaging and ready to give you their feedback. 

It is also the prime period to request their testimonial. Your LTD user will be happy to do it; especially if you have been engaging with them and helping them out regularly in the previous couple of weeks. 

Lifetime Deal Campaign: Weeks 7-8

During the last two weeks of running your lifetime deal, organize webinars to educate your users and more potential buyers.  

Organizing webinars and workshops to help educate LTD users about the features they may have missed is a great way to maximize the impact of your lifetime deal campaign. Such an interactive learning environment helps users understand how to use your product more effectively, as well as learn about new features or capabilities that were not immediately obvious when they first started using it.

By hosting webinars and workshops during the lifetime deal period, you can also create a sense of community amongst your user base and build relationships with them beyond just transactional engagement.

This allows customers to give feedback on what they’d like changed or improved, which helps ensure that future iterations of the product are even better and more accurate to your audience’s expectations.

It is also the ideal time to share your product roadmap with your audience if you have not already shared it. 

This encourages customers to become advocates for your product and increases customer loyalty. And then you will be closing your deal offer by the end of the 8th week. 

Extending Your Lifetime Deal Duration 

You may consider extending the duration of your lifetime deal campaign by two more weeks if there are plans to roll out new product features.

This can be done in order to create further buzz, excitement, and engagement with your product.

In order to achieve this, you must plan ahead. If you are extending the deal duration, you can use the webinar in the 8th week to announce it to create more buzz about your product and the new features. 

Additionally, running an additional marketing campaign or special offer can help attract more attention and interest in the product.

The process of extending the lifetime deal duration should be carefully planned out in advance in order to ensure that all necessary steps are taken for its success. It is also important to communicate regularly with customers about any new features that will be rolled out during this period so that they remain informed and engaged throughout the process.

How long can you extend your Lifetime Deal Duration?

While a 6-8 week deal duration is ideal, you may extend it in certain scenarios like rolling out an update or keep acquiring more new users if the momentum is high. 

But how long is too long for running a lifetime deal campaign? 

In some scenarios, you may want to extend your lifetime deal duration for various reasons. If you come across valid reasons to extend your lifetime deal duration, you may do it. If your product has momentum, it will help you acquire more users.   

However, do not extend your lifetime deal duration beyond 12-16 weeks. 

Even if your product has momentum and you see consistent or increased sales, it is best to close it by the 16th week. It will help you keep the demand among your target audience and convert them into subscribers with tailored offers. 

Conclusion

Lifetime deals are a great way to acquire new users and drive product adoption. However, it is important to plan your lifetime deal campaign carefully and manage it efficiently in order to maximize its impact.

The ideal period for running a lifetime deal campaign is 6-8 weeks, although it may be extended up to 12-16 weeks if necessary. In order to keep customers engaged and informed throughout the campaign, it is important to plan ahead and communicate regularly with customers.