When Tim and I launched Koalify, reaching 100 installs in the HubSpot marketplace was the first milestone we set.
On February 7th (no coincidence, more on that later), Koalify officially launched on the HubSpot marketplace.
As of May 1st, we've reached 100 active installs in the HubSpot marketplace. Having achieved this milestone and reflecting on our journey, we're excited to share what we've learned with the HubSpot community.
Start talking to potential users
We had some initial assumptions of pains we had experienced ourselves as a HubSpot CRM admin. However, we needed to confirm if other HubSpot experts encountered similar issues and how they dealt with them. To validate our assumptions, we conducted user interviews with Operations, Marketing, and Sales managers within our network who are using HubSpot.
We were initially looking into general data quality issues, not just duplicates. However, during the interviews, it became clear that duplicates were causing the most significant impact and were the most prevalent. As a result, we prioritized tackling the duplicate issue first.
Keeping it simple
As a new product for to the HubSpot community, we aimed for crystal-clear communication about our product.
Hence, we boiled it down to one simple message: "HubSpot deduplication made easy."
Our product's simplicity starts with Koalify's full integration into HubSpot —no extra logins needed. Leveraging familiar UI elements such as CRM cards, properties, and workflow actions ensures a user experience that feels intuitive and effortless.
Moreover, simplicity extends to our pricing structure. We offer a free plan and only one paid plan with all features included. The price changes depending on how many records you have in your HubSpot account.
Our HubSpot marketplace launch
Submitting your application to the HubSpot marketplace follows a clear and well-documented process.
We’ll share some of our personal experiences to provide more clarity on timing a marketplace launch.
One requirement is to have at least 3 active installs. However, we recommend aiming for at least 10. The initial people you interview should demonstrate enough interest to install a beta version of your app. This not only ensures early engagement but also gives you a head start over other new apps.
This step is crucial because once your listing is approved, your app gets featured as a new app for 30 days, significantly boosting its visibility. In fact, we delayed our marketplace launch until February because we both enjoyed some time skiing in January and wanted to be fully committed when featured in the HubSpot marketplace.
We learned that about 90% of the marketplace submissions, get listed after receiving some feedback first. After the initial submission, expect to receive feedback within 5 to 10 working days (at the time of writing). After updating your listing based on this feedback, you'll resubmit. Then, 5 working days later, you'll hopefully receive this message:
Growing to 100 intalls in the HubSpot marketplace
As mentioned previously, we had a head start with over 10 fantastic beta testers when our listing went live on the marketplace. Here are the steps we took to increase the number of installations, more or less in chronological order.
1) The HubSpot marketplace
The HubSpot Marketplace has been our primary source of trial requests. Approximately 85% of our installations come through the marketplace, while the remaining 15% are done via our website. Therefore, ensuring our listing is up to date and appealing is crucial. The positioning of apps within the HubSpot Marketplace is determined by the number of installations (Most installed) and whether your app is certified (Relevance). Thus, boosting installations is key. Here are some tips:
- Offer a generous free plan. This advice was shared by HubSpot Marketplace OGs Daniel and Austin from OrgChartHub & GeoMapper. Happy free users translate into active installations and potential referrals.
- Add genuine and qualitive reviews to your marketplace listing. We asked our early supporters and advocates to write a review. To build trust when people visit your marketplace listing.
A clear, up to date marketplace listing with a substantial number of installations and positive reviews should improve your marketplace listing's conversion rate. Regarding conversion rates, there's only limited data directly available for our marketplace listing. However, HubSpot can provide some intriguing data points. In my opinion, the most interesting reports are the ecosystem listing views and Marketplace-assisted installations.
Koalify reached approximately 221 marketplace listing views and 28 installations via the marketplace, resulting in a conversion rate of roughly 17% in the first 2 months of our app's marketplace listing.
2) Cold messages on Linkedin to HubSpot experts in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Given that the majority of our network and second-degree connections are located in Belgium, with some in the Netherlands, we opted to begin locally. Our goal was to validate interest in Koalify and gather insights from other HubSpot experts regarding their experiences with duplicates.
I reached out to nearly 70 people and reached at least 7 meetings booked or Koalify installations.
Note that we stopped Linkedin outreaches after a couple of weeks as we prioritized inbound activities in March and April.
3) The HubSpot community website
The HubSpot community website is an excellent resource for discovering innovative solutions to any HubSpot questions. I am genuinely interested in the challenges other users encounter and happy to share potential solutions based on my experiences as a HubSpot administrator. I was very active during the initial months of 2024 and achieved the status of community champion in March! My engagement in the HubSpot community resulted in at least 3 meetings or Koalify installations, and likely more due to the extra visibility. However, this is difficult to measure precisely.
This reply is a nice example of an accepted solution, even earning upvotes from HubSpot Community Heroes Jennifer Nixon and Karsten Köhler:
4) The Sprocketeer Slack Community
Similar to the HubSpot community website, members can ask questions and support one another. However, in my experience, the Sprocketeer Slack environment, with its 1500+ members, feels like a smaller yet more active community. Being on Slack makes it easier to have real conversations and discussions. I met some really interesting people (like Lori & Jonathan who are mentioned in the conversation below). Furthermore I was able to reach at least 7 meetings or Koalify installations via this amazing community! You can join the Sprocketeer community via my invite link or get in touch with the community manager Cameron Collins.
5) Reddit
I recall seeing a LinkedIn poll inquiring about where people sourced their HubSpot questions, with some individuals voting for Reddit. Triggered, I joined and began monitoring posts mentioning HubSpot, particularly within dedicated threads (r/hubspot). While I'm still relatively new to the Reddit community, I've noticed other HubSpot experts like Ryan Gunn and Daniel Secareanu consistently adding value and sharing their experiences with fellow Reddit users. Though I haven't yet recorded a booked meeting directly resulting from an interaction on Reddit, I've received positive feedback on some of my posts:
6) Linkedin posts (and replies)
As mentioned previously, we've shifted from cold messaging on LinkedIn to focusing more on inbound activities. LinkedIn serves as one of our primary channels for sharing posts about new features and company updates. While we're still in the early stages, we're beginning to see our initial results in terms of booked meetings and Koalify installs. However, we acknowledge there's a long way to go before we can match the level of engaging LinkedIn content produced by Matt Bolian and his team at Supered team.
Additionally, it's beneficial for learning and engagement to interact with LinkedIn posts related to your product or services.
I personally do this by following hashtags such as #hubspotipsandtricks and #hubspotcrm.
7) Blogging
I'm personally a huge fan of the Arrows blog and Stuart Balcombe’s content because it’s very actionable and to the point. We are planning to produce similar content, focusing on HubSpot data quality, as this resonates most with our early customers and supporters. Additionally, we'll occasionally share posts about our growth as a bootstrapped SaaS plugin for the HubSpot community.
Conclusion
We're thrilled to have reached over 100 active installs, but we're also just getting started! We'll continue in the same way as how we began, by talking to and especially listening to our users to improve our product. The HubSpot marketplace has been our main channel for new installs so far. Additionally, cold outreach via LinkedIn, the HubSpot community website, and the Sprocketeer Slack community have been important channels for us. We'll continue to grow these successful channels and explore new ones like YouTube, Twitter, and possibly even some paid options.
Feel free to send me an email or DM if there are any topics you'd like me to cover in our next blog post.
Jonas