Playbook: How To Launch On Product Hunt
Hey hey, 👋
CONGRATS!
I assume that you have a product / service that you want the world to see and use 🙃
Or you just want to learn how the whole product hunt process works.
Anyway, you are at the right place!
We will teach you how you can launch your product on product hunt.
The process was used by several companies that we have studied such as Lemlist, Amy, etc. There are actually a ton of learnings out there but we wanted to summarize all the great know-how into simple apply to process…
THIS PLAYBOOK.
BUT you should start with this whole process at least 3 months prior to your launch. Proper preparation will make sure that you are successful.
So let’s get started :)
Pre-Launch
1) Set your Goals
What a surprise :).. As always we are starting with the goal!
As Arni said already, if you don’t have a goal then you will end up nowhere. So what are you actually aiming for?
Users: People who test your product and sign up to your service?
Traffic: People to get aware of your product and visit your website
Feedback: Engagement with potential customers and to get their feedback
Etc.
You can do it like our friends at AMY who used the following: (click here to get to the document)
Build your goals together with all stakeholders that are involved in this project,
Write them down!
Communicate them clearly to all people involved and repeat them over and over again!
FYI it is also important to think of a launch day. Tuesday and Wednesday are usually the busiest days on product hunt.
Does this mean you should always go for those days?
Well, it depends. What’s your goal and your product like? There is definitely more competition on these days.
Anyway. :)
We can start with the preparation once you have set up your goals.
2) Create a Product Hunt Profile and Engage
Create a profile on product hunt and make sure to warm it up prior to your launch.
BUT where to create it? 😁
Go to www.producthunt.com and create a profile just like mine below:
You ideally do that at least 1 month in advance of the launch.
Why?
We need to warm up the account a bit in advance. Product Hunt wants to see your engagement with the community
What does the warmup include?
Engage with the community.
Post discussions: https://www.producthunt.com/discussions?ref=header_nav
comment on discussions
upvote discussions
upvote products
Try to be as often on the platform as possible.
e.g. I was now 60 days in a row active, created discussions and participated in other discussion and product development.
The better you do that, the more badges you will earn.
So now it's your turn. Go on PH and start your journey 🧙🏼♂️
3) Build an Audience
The next step you want to do is to start the promotion of your product prior to the final launch.
So how do we do that? 🤔
Product Hunt gives you the option to create a sub landing page.
Just like mine below:
Why is this so important?
You can simply use this landing page to get early traction..
This way early users can subscribe to your product news to stay up to date.
What advantage does this have? 🤓
Get early traction: by promoting this landing page on product hunt discussions, social media groups or via email, gives you an early indication if there is interest in your product / service
Email Subscribers: Anyone who subscribed can be emailed afterwards. e.g. updates to the launch, feedback survey, etc.
So you see this has a lot of advantages.
Let's create a page now:
Go to Product hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/discussions?ref=header_nav
Click Submit --> New product
Put in the details 🙂
Share it with people (social media, groups, email, etc.)
BUT what else can you do to build your audience for your launch?
Use your existing database. So everyone who is already on your newsletter, communities
OR use social media. IMPORTANT NOTE: it is important that the people who support you on product hunt do not create their PH account within the same day. WHY? Product Hunt penalizes people that create an account the same day they also upvote. So whoever should support you, needs to have already an account or create it prior to the launch + engage with it :)
4) Find a Hunter
Why should we even work with a hunter? 😁
Successful launches usually come hand in hand with great supporters (Hunters)!
Just look at the example of AMY:
But where can we find a good hunter? 🤔 First, it’s important to think about your goals. It doesn’t make sense to work with a hunter that has a lot of followers interested in finance while you are promoting a marketing product. Try to find a hunter that really fits you and that might become a user of your product as well :) Here is a platform that shows you the best hunters and that allows you to search by category: https://upvote-bell.com/leaderboard
How can we now engage with them?
Let's try it on the example of Chris Messina who is first on our list above.
Best is to search and reach out to them via Linkedin. Chris is for example on that platform: https://www.linkedin.com/in/factoryjoe/
Follow him and reach out to him with a personalized message asking for help. He makes it even easier and offers an application to be hunted by him: https://chrismessina.me/product-hunt/new
BUT he asks for a hunter kit and that is not uncommon.
A hunter kit is basically all the info that your hunter will need in order to be able to post your product. 🤟
Name of the product (max 60 characters)
The URL you want to promote. If you have app URLs as well, put them here too
Tagline (max 60 characters)
The platforms your product runs on
Media — between 5 and 10 images showcasing different parts of your product. If you also have a YouTube video, that’s perfect
Tell them what goodies you’re preparing to give out to the Product Hunt community, if any.
I strongly recommend adding a video to your hunter kit and later to your landing page.
Research shows that products with good explainer videos are more likely to be successful.
It helps you to get your message across!
Here is the one that we created for Kickscale: https://youtu.be/AUNOzpq9ECg
There are plenty of agencies out there that can help you to create one. I worked with Ali … find his profile here:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/
Now it’s your time, get out there, create an appealing kit and find your hunter :)
Launch Day
Whooop whoop, it’s launch day!
When’s the best time to launch? Studies show that 12AM P.T. 🧙🏼♂️is the best time to launch. This way you make real use of the full day and all time zones.
That means you will need to block a whole day to take care of that launch.
So let’s prepare for that. I would recommend that you save this day together with your team..
Meet at a special place. E.g. a funky Airbnb
Empty calendars: Free all your calendars
Prepare food in advance
Team Building: It should be a special day where everyone on the team works hard and celebrates the wins… Team building :)
BUT in order to make it a success, we will need to prepare a proper Promotion. So let’s do it :)
1) Promotion
Well, you made it to the most important section..
The section that decides about success or failure on product hunt.. How well you prepare for your promotion!!
Make sure to prepare properly and to give every person on the team clear responsibilities on the execution of it
So what are the audiences that you need to prepare for your outreach?
Champions and Advocates: If you have already happy users.. Leverage them. They are your biggest supporters and are usually happy to help promote your product
It is fine if you only have a few
Existing Database:
Engage with your existing users, customers, fans, etc.
If you already have a newsletter list, leverage it. Prepare a proper email template. If you have no system to send your newsletter from then build the email in a system like Mailchimp or Hubspot
Product Hunt Subscribers: Now it will pay off that you have created a sub landing page on product hunt.
Use this list of subscribers and message them directly out of product hunt. You can also export them and use your marketing automation system.
Social Media:
Prepare your posts for social media. Wherever your audience’s attention is. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Tiktok, Snapchat, Linkedin, etc.
Each platform has different users and different forms of content that works on them
Choose them wisely. This report of the Pew Research Center might help when making that decision:
How often can you post?
You can post something every other hour on launch day.
It is one day where you go really heavy on promotion:
start with a “Support us post”
And post updates on your success. E.g. We got 100 upvotes
We got 200 upvotes, etc. celebrate each step with your audience.
Be creative :)
Or simply search on google for “product hunt social posts” .. there are usually plenty of examples under images. Here are the one's that we used: (build in Canva 😉)
Leverage Social media groups as well. Here are some from product hunt:
Partners:
Do you already have some partners? If you have strong partners.. Reach out to them and ask them for help.
Such as partners that you work together with on the product OR distribution partners. E.g. magazines or news outlets that usually share such news.
Usually they are more than happy to do so!
BUT connect early on with them.
Email Outbound:
2) Support
You reach out to all your peers AND you get a ton of upvotes + comments. So what now?
Reply to every comment that you get. Be there to answer every question. That’s the reason why you should take the whole day with your team.
Tech team: be there for support and document all issues and requested features
PH project owner: reply to every comment that you get and be kind to everyone :)
Others: Keep sharing everything on social media and engage with the people on product hunt
Stick to those simple rules during launch day and you will be successful 🤓
This process helped us to get to #2 Product of the Day.. which we are really happy about.
Are you now ready to apply the same process to you and your team?
Simply sign up to app.kickscale.com, find the full process there, assign the responsibilities to your team and start executing 🤟🙌
We at Kickscale believe that every team has great processes... processes that are worth to be shared with others. Here are some more that we would like to share: