This is my first preview, both written and as a video! it’s a learning experience for me as much as it can be useful to provide some insight and reasoning on what’s being talked about.
That being said, we will overview Briefcase, a subscription by AppSumo aimed at people wanting to get even more out of AppSumo deals.
For more on what AppSumo is as a platform, you can browse their website, but to make it short: they offer VERY good, often lifetime deals, on SaaS (software-as-a-service) platforms and other tools that can be useful to a wide range of audience (we’re talking marketers, video makers, podcasters, website owners, agencies, etc.). They rotate deals constantly, so it’s useful to have both previews (does it look interesting?), and reviews, as in, how it actually is and works after purchase is made.
There is only one main question being asked today: Does Briefcase look good enough to join? And here’s my answer, as a non-member!
Note: This is what I’ve surmised from reading about it on the Briefcase website. I do NOT have Briefcase myself, yet. The point of this article and my previews is whether what I see looks good enough for me and my use-cases to give it a go.
If it is, I will verify later by trying those tools and apply fixes if/where fixes are due and prepare a review.
The last modified date also reflects how fresh is this information.
the “Useful for” is just a meter I go by when assessing a tool, it is by no means restrictive.
What is the deal?
.. and where is the deal? It’s HERE, if you want to take a look yourself, at briefcasehq.com
The deal of this deal (I HAD to write it this way) is this: Briefcase is a quarterly membership program by AppSumo that gives you:
- Access to certain software/tools included in the membership
- AppSumo Plus (a yearly membership deal available for 99$/year)
- 4 Briefcase Coupons
So let’s go through each one of those and what we can see on the website!
Tools included in the Briefcase Membership
According to their FAQs, access to each of these tools has to be redeemed, so we have to do that if we find that particular tool interesting, and it will be ours as long as our Briefcase subscription is active.
We’ve checked the webpage and the deal for each of those tools, so we can see at a glance whether it’s something that we can use. It obviously depends on what we do and what we can improve on!
This is just a very quick look at these tools, it is not in detail as of yet.
Poplink
Poplink is a URL link shortener service that allows for easily branded links easy to remember and that mask all of the tracking UTMs and affiliate related parts of a web address.
You can customize them in a way to reflect your brand, such as yourbrand.banana and have retargeting pixels and tracking added into it.
You could also attach it to RSS feeds for automatic link creation.
Briefcase’s plan is a custom one that you won’t find on Poplink’s website and it gives:
- 30 total promotions that you can edit, reuse, and replace
- 50,000 clicks per month
- Outbound link promotions
- Custom colors, positioning, and domain (Please note: Custom domains must be in http:// format)
- Calls to Action free of Poplink branding
- Analytical data (impressions, clicks, conversions)
From what I see on their website at a glance, it’s less than their Pro plan (15$/month), but still an ample number.
Useful for: Marketers, Social Managers, Influencers
At a Glance
It seems useful for a variety of individuals, even just the tracking via Pixels on branded links opens up a lot of possibilities, so it seems useful exploring for anyone involved in publishing posts, videos and anything else on the internet.
KingSumo Web Pro
The deal here is the same offering as the web Pro that is available for 228$/year, or for free if you are an AppSumo Plus member.
From what I can see on the website and the live example that’s available, it helps you create viral giveaways where the user has more winning chances if they share the contest itself.
This way it is possible to increase one’s own email list by a large amount with just a giveaway and much less advertisement cost, as users are given an incentive by sharing, via additional chances.
Useful for: Marketers, Influencers, Anyone with a Newsletter
At a Glance
This is definitely useful to ANYONE that has a newsletter and sends them out regularly, to increase their list with a few campaigns.
Book Like a Boss
The objective of this tool is to cut all of the annoyance of booking meetings, describing services offered, prices and receiving payment. It connects to your calendar and allows people to book their appointment with you at times you are available, allows to sell your services and offers integrations to both calendars and payment services such as Stripe or Paypal.
What you get seems close to the Latte membership plan, and the value seems to be at a 25$/month, so you get all of the features.
Useful for: Consultants, Teachers
At a Glance
It seems very well made, and definitely useful for anyone that offers a consulting service of any kind, even free I’d assume
Website Auditor
Every website of any kind needs SEO care, so this seems like a very useful deal no matter the website you run. Even hobby websites do gain traction via organic search.
I have briefly looked around and the tool has been around for a while and is known, so that’s a good start.
Here’s Briefcase’s Deal:
- Gain unlimited access to WebSite Auditor training materials
- Optimize an unlimited number of websites
- Measure optimization rates for competitors’ pages
- Create in-app optimization HTML reports
- + an incredible roadmap of future updates
Useful for: Anyone with a Website
At a Glance
There’s definitely a lot of potential here, with both tools and training/guidelines to follow. The fact that it’s unlimited number of websites also is very good and makes for a seemingly powerful deal, valued at 49$/month.
Grum Start Plan
Instagram Scheduling can be very tricky for Social Media Managers or even if you handle your own page. This tool aims to ease that and make it better for you. I dislike how their page is devoid of any documentation that I can access to preview what it does, but we do have Briefcase’s recap, valued at 120$/year:
- The first comment feature (Hide hashtags in your first comment)
- Unlimited photo & video scheduling
- Unlimited amount of editors who can manage an IG account together
- Manage 1-2 accounts
Useful for: Anyone managing Instagram
At a Glance
With the information available, I can say this tool can be useful to schedule a robust media presence on instagram, however there are not many accounts available with the plan.
Missinglettr
Missinglettr is a social media scheduling and planning tool for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google My Business specifically aimed at content creators of any kind (blogs, guides, information, businesses). It allows to create extremely long social campaigns of varied kind with just one post from your blog. That way your content keeps getting traction and shared overtime.
The premise is really good and I admit I’ve noticed this tool over the past few years but never had a chance to try it yet.
With Briefcase you get:
- Link unlimited sites 25 social profiles
- An additional team member
- Create up to 10 campaigns a week per site
- Invite external people to review your campaigns
- Start a campaign for old content
valued at 65$/month and by going on their websites, it’s a very generous plan. Also, it’s generally pretty good as 25 social profiles are a lot and unlimited websites makes it very sweet.
Useful for: Content Creators looking to promote their blog via social media
At a Glance
The tool is known and used all around by many and has looked solid for years, so this is one of those things that sound too good to be true, to my eye. But maybe, sometimes they are true.
AppSumo Plus
So it seems there’s a membership inside the membership. It’s a membership-ception!
You can check it out here. AppSumo Plus is a membership you can get on its own at 99$/year and gives you:
- 10% off any AppSumo purchase
- KingSumo Web Pro
- Exclusive Extended Access to Deals (early access, late access, etc.)
All of this is included in Briefcase.
Seems like a sweet deal of its own if you do purchase many items on AppSumo. After 10 purchases over a year, it has basically paid for itself.
Briefcase Coupons
According to their site they’ve been transitioning to coupons from chips — not really sure what changed, but from what I can see:
- You are given 4 coupons, each worth 49$, at the beginning of each quarter.
- You can spend them on AppSumo deals. One coupon at a time.
- You cannot fraction them, so if you spend the coupon on a deal worth 39$, you’re “wasting” part of its worth.
- If you refund your purchase made with a coupon, you get the coupon back.
So if I get this right, you get 196$ worth on AppSumo purchases.
Let’s Recap
Briefcase costs 147$ quarterly (I guess 588$/year?) and gives you:
- Exclusive Access to tools
- AppSumo Plus benefits
- 4 Briefcase Coupons each quarter (49$/each)
If I understand all of this properly, this deal seems VERY appealing as the value of each of those option is very solid, and the bundle makes the net value really appealing, if you are in a position where you can use most of the tools and have your eye on some AppSumo deals (which, admittedly, I do).
Alright, I’m sold! Now you should expect another article and video about my experience with Briefcase, in a while, as I get to use the tools. Soon!
BriefCase HQ Preview Card
Name: Briefcase
Description: Briefcase is a subscription for loyal Sumo-lings that has a ton of value with extra deals, discounts and coupons to spend on AppSumo
Offer price: 147/quarter
Currency: USD
Application Category: Web Subscription
Summary
Briefcase costs 147$ quarterly (I guess 588$/year?) and gives you:
- Exclusive Access to tools
- AppSumo Plus benefits
- 4 Briefcase Coupons each quarter (49$/each)
If I understand all of this properly, this deal seems VERY appealing as the value of each of those option is very solid, and the bundle makes the net value really appealing, if you are in a position where you can use most of the tools and have your eye on some AppSumo deals (which, admittedly, I do).
Alright, I’m sold! Now you should expect another article and video about my experience with Briefcase, in a while, as I get to use the tools. Soon!
The value seems exceptional and we were sold on this far before we even made it to the end of the value.
