Product Hunt is like the Oscars of the tech scene. Some of the biggest names in tech have launched on Product Hunt, such as Slack, Notion, Zapier, Loom, and Robinhood.
The rest is history.
So, it goes without saying that if you want to draw attention to your product, generate a lot of buzz, and (if you reach those winning spots) find yourself featured in their newsletter reaching millions, then Product Hunt is the ultimate launchpad for any tech startup.
We spent a bunch of time prepping for the launch, but first let’s crunch the numbers…
Drumroll please…
#1 Product of the day
#3 Product of the week
1,225 upvotes
1,065 comments
43 reviews
424 product sign ups
3k website visitors
15k website impressions
"Day of’ results are super exciting, but long-term exposure on the platform is what makes the biggest difference"
So how did we prepare?
Getting our ducks in a row
- Researching past successful launches, talking to many founders and marketers
- Creating a trumpet product explainer video
- Creating product graphics
- Launch teaser email
- Social media build up
- Find a great hunter to launch with
- Prepping lists for community outreach (Slack Channels, Whatsapp groups, Twitter, LinkedIn)
- Revamping our entire product onboarding process
First things first, we got together all the stuff we knew would take us a while to prep for our Product Hunt page.
Starting with our Product explainer video.
We then created graphics showcasing our key features.
A month before launch day our team created their Product Hunt accounts and started interacting in the community. Product Hunt doesn't tend to favour fresh accounts, and supposedly their upvotes count less.
We also prepared all of our social content, graphics, and emails, ready to go live during the 3-day lead-up to the launch.
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Fun fact: we were supposed to launch earlier in Feb, but decided to wait for an epic hunter to join us. Shoutout Kevin William David who hunted us
Hunters are like influencers in the PH community, their reach can really impact the visibility of your product during launch, but make sure to engage with them at least a month before your ideal launch date. We made the mistake of leaving it too late, which caused delays.
Welcome to the wild west of a Product Hunt launch
On the day
Replying to comments & reviews
Social and email blast
Outreach to friends, founders and communities in other countries
You can prepare months in advance but when day zero comes around, it really is all hands on deck.
The launch goes on for 24 hours, starting at 8am GMT and ending at 8am the next day. If you’re a European product, you have to really have to really hit the ground running to get ahead before the US wakes up.
Product hunt is very community focused so you need to lean into this, so our whole team from Devs to AE’s were actively engaging with community members, commenting and responding to reviewers.
Our founders spent a lot of time reaching out to their communities and fellow founders across the UK, EU, and US.
To keep engagement going around the clock, it's important to get new upvotes as different parts of the world wake up.
...Along with a bunch of Twitter DMs to top Product Hunt streakers and in Slack communities.
When all is said and done, there’s no ‘one way’ to launch on Product hunt, its part preparation, part luck
You go into the launch completely blind, and only find out who’s in your group the morning of - If a big name launches the same day, it's just bad luck. We had two strong contenders who could have won if we didn't launch that day. You can't plan for everything.
What we learned
Activate your social channels and dig deep in your contacts
At least 3 days before launch build a buzz. Sending a pre and launch day email to users and cash in those IOU’s with anyone and everyone in your communities.
Ask every team member to reach out to their global contacts and create lists of people to message, email, or tweet on the day.
You’ll be surprised at the amount of people who are happy to help you out… Especially if they’ve been down the Product Hunt rabbit hole themselves.
Tuesday and Thursday are notoriously the busiest days to launch
We launched on a Thursday. On any other day 400/500 upvotes could get you in the top 3. We had 400+ votes before 1pm (as did the other folks in the top 3) and at that point we knew it was going to be a long day.
Why did we pick the most competitive day to launch?
The sheer level of engagement, and eyeballs on the platform is a worthy trade off. It meant more people clicking through to our website, and ultimately signing up.
Comments are key, not just upvotes
We were actually 3rd in upvotes on the day, but had nearly 3x the number of comments - Product Hunt is a community, so it's important that your team engages with commenters and reviewers in a meaningful way. Be open to feedback and actively ask for it.
Legitimate community engagement/comments are key to a successful launch.
Think about the bigger picture
The quick wins from launch day are exciting and give your business a great boost of signups, waitlisters, or users.
But, the real magic happens after launch. Building brand authority and reaching a wider audience within the Product Hunt community, as well as landing on the top lists of the week, month, and beyond, can provide a generous flow of traffic to your website and product.
