How to launch on Product Hunt (and rank #1)
Hello there! I’m Sofia, Marketing Specialist at Crono and in this article, I’ll guide you through the strategy we adopted to win the Product of the Day on our first launch on Product Hunt. It’s a comprehensive guide of what I did, what we did as a team and how you can implement these steps to make your launch successful.
Before launching
Before launching your product on Product Hunt you might want to consider a couple of things.
What are your goals? Why do you want to launch on PH? Is your team or product ready?
What happens before launching is crucial because it sets the expectations and how you’ll learn from this experience. As for many things, the reason why is the key.
Why Product Hunt?
Product Hunt is one of the most known platforms for innovators and tech lovers. It’s a hub where anyone can showcase their product or idea, get feedback or recognition. It can serve many different purposes and open unexpected opportunities.
But before getting into the details of best practices etc., you really need to understand how the platform works: who gets featured or posted, what’s an upvote, how to grab people’s attention and so on.
There are a lot of interesting articles on PH’s blog on how to launch, how the platform works, how to build a community and so on. Make sure to check them out.
So before even planning to actively use the platform, just observe it, and live it. Take your time to explore its sections, learn about the most active users, their habits and so on. You’ll understand that the PH community doesn’t just live there but also on X, Reddit, LinkedIn etc.
Set your goals and expectations
So now that you know what Product Hunt is and how it works, you’re convinced that launching is the next thing to do. Yes but not really.
The outcome of your launch depends on many factors (we’ll get there soon) and while some of them are out of your control, you can make sure to do everything in your power to make it a success..
That’s why it is important to set goals and expectations. They can be KPIs – like leads generated, website visits, form submissions or the number of upvotes – but also less measurable goals like awareness, validation or interest.
Make sure to set those with a realistic and optimistic mind. This will guide you through the launch and motivate you to get the best out of this experience.
For example, if your goal is to get leads make sure to have a landing page ready to get them; or if you’re looking for support, spark a conversation that could be interesting for your target.
Get ready
Now that you know why you’re launching and what are your goals, is finally time to get your hands dirty and prepare some content. Product Hunt requires a series of contents, like product URL, icon, gallery and so on
Make sure to create them well. Pro tip: get some inspiration from the most successful launches. For example, we noticed that having a gallery that showed the product and told a story was a winning strategy.
Some friends suggested we create an animated logo for the icon to be more visible, which we easily made using Jitter (a solid tool for non-professionals).
Check out the full list of content you need – some may not be mandatory but make sure to tick as many boxes as you can.
So polish your website, create a landing page if needed, some cool images or videos, and a great tagline: be prepared to show the world your great product
Launch strategy
Once you have everything ready, or while your team is working on it, make sure to craft a strategy for the launch, here are some tips.
Take it easy, don’t rush it: this might be the rule number one. Rule number two is don’t wait ages though.
Product Hunt is a community and as such, it’s crowded with people and their amazing ideas and products. Even if yours is the most innovative project, without a network of supporters it won’t get the recognition it deserves.
So make sure to spread the word!
Party people
As said before, PH is a community of people (mostly tech people ) and this is its greatest and most powerful feature. You get noticed by them, start conversations, and get feedback: it’s awesome.
Picture it like a party you’re about to go to.
If you want to impress someone there, you need a story (and we took care of the content in the preview paragraph) but also you need to know who you’re talking to. Explore the platform, create conversations or add value to the existing ones, upvote cool products, comment, get in touch with the makers.
Live and breathe the community and, most importantly, use all the tools the platform gives you.
Once you understand that, move ahead.
Pipeline of supporters
It’s hard (not impossible) to create an audience if you haven’t launched yet but you’re going to need a lot of supporters. Competition is high, that’s true. Of course, you can always let a Hunter promote your launch but it’s not necessary, you can do it.
Now it’s time to use all your superpowers. Create a Teaser banner to allow people to sign up and get notified when you’ll be launching but also to be featured in the Coming Soon feed.
Start creating your pipeline of supporters: friends, ex-colleagues, cool people on Product Hunt, and Makers whose products you love. Use social media, LinkedIn, Reddit, or whatever you’re comfortable with to spread the word and gather support.
Once you understand that, move ahead.
I created a pipeline of potential supporters and contacted them using Crono with personalised messages and the result was awesome: no spammy messages, everyone was happy to support.
Thanks to the AI personalization feature, my DMs were relevant, and I could track their performance, all in one place.
Pro tip: I sent some cool cats GIF.
Your pipeline will be super important to get people’s eyes on you and boost your upvotes on the day of the launch. Another suggestion is to collect supporters from all over the world.
Make it a teamwork
If you have a team, or also friends and family, make it an event. Launching and all the preparation that comes with it, is a great way to create or strengthen the bond with your team.
Take time to create an account, set up the profiles and create some posts on social media: it’s a shared adventure!
Ps. Remember to check out the promoting guidelines, only certain things are allowed (like paying for upvotes is not).
Moreover, a shared strategy works better and generates more momentum: imagine your entire team inviting their network or posting about the launch.
They amplify the echo, generate more opportunities and actively contribute. So, from devs to HR, make it a teamwork.
Plus, it’s a good excuse to go out for some pizza!
The perfect day
The perfect day for launching doesn’t exist, let’s repeat it: it’s a variable you can’t control but you can do a few things about it.
The first thing is to be ready, like really ready: do your homework.
The second is to observe and measure: track daily upvotes to identify competitive days. Create a report, measure data, and watch for external events: any upcoming bank holidays? Announced launches from big tech companies?
Don’t settle for what seems easier: launching on weekends has less competition, but could also bring fewer leads if that’s a goal.
Here are two tools that will be handy on launch day to track your performance: Hunted.space and Product Wars 2.
Launching is so cool
So these are just a few good tips based on what we did to rank as Product of the Day: there’s a lot we could do better in the next launches but here you have a pretty solid base to start with.
Launching on PH is very exciting and cool: you get in touch with many people and awesome products so enjoy the ride and hit me up if you have any questions!
If you want to try Crono, get your free trial now and good luck with your next launch!
