How to be a Top Product on Product Hunt
Resources and tactics for a PH launch
Product Hunt is a lively community of makers, developers, founders, marketers, investors, and other startup folks. If you are here, there is a high chance you already know what being a top product on Product Hunt means.
The top products get amazing exposure. In many cases, Product Hunt has been instrumental in providing the much-needed traction for the MVP of so many products.
But getting featured on Product Hunt is not easy. So in this edition of the Market-edit, I will discuss the craft of launching a product on Product Hunt.
Product Hunt launch is a process
When I started to launch projects on PH, I took help from several articles on the internet. But soon, I realized that PH was a different beast altogether. And that there was a rhythm to it.
I realised that launching on PH is almost a growth tactic. And that it could provide a lot of exposure to many ideas.
Hence we at Mailmodo built an iterative process around it, which we have used to launch several projects and clinched the top position in at least 4 instances.
The journey of a launch
A Product Hunt launch is a long sprint. During this sprint you need to take care of some key parameters to hit the right chords and get featured.
Your goal during these launches is to get featured because that will provide the maximum exposure to your product for the audience to engage with.
Your Product Hunt launch starts with your product or project. Goes without saying that no launch succeeds like that of a product that solves a unique problem for the users or the product community.
Hence often the best preparation for a PH launch is to offer something unique or valuable to the Product Hunters.
However, to be fair, sometimes even great products don’t succeed at getting featured. One of the reasons for this might be a lack of readiness for the launch.
And so, let’s discuss what parameters actually shape the launch and might be instrumental in helping you drive it for the win.
When to launch
Launch timing is key in helping you to clinch that coveted title of “Top Product of the Day”.
To ensure maximum coverage, launch or hunt your product at around 00:01 San Francisco Time (PST). Such a launch allows your product to be exposed to the audience for the highest number of hours(~24 hours) and collect votes for the entire day.
So set up your launch clocks according to this time. For example- while launching products from India, I usually do it at around 12:30 PM.
Also, take care of daylight savings if you are not based in the PST time zone.
For example, generally, in the winter, the launch time in India shifts to 1:30 PM.
Try to also check if your ICP or TG is available on that day to engage with your product page and provide you with the necessary “nitro” in the form of reviews, upvotes, and comments.
Who to hunt with
Usually, when a person hunts the product, all their followers are notified of the launch. This helps your product get the right traction from the beginning. Hence, getting the product hunted by the right person is important.
So how do you find the right hunter for your launch?
Well, of course, the answer is: It depends. However, the below traits are a few things that can help you find a good way to identify a hunter.
A good number of followers on PH.
Substantial points on PH profile- The hunters usually or automatically upvote. And I might go on to add that upvotes are not all equal. So better points are good.
Find someone in your niche. If you are launching a product on marketing analytics, find folks that talk about that or have launched similar products.
However, finding these folks can be a pain, so here’s a list of resources/tactics which can use to research-
Finding the hunters:
Check out products in your niche that were featured in the last 20-30 days on Product Hunt. Look at who hunted them. Connect with them and ask them if they can help you.
Upvote Bell has a leaderboard of almost all the product hunters and makers.
Product Hunt hunters leaderboard | Upvote BellMubashar Iqbal built a Maker Network in 2019 during the Product Hunt makers festival. You can find the list of makers in your network who might help you. Here’s the link- Maker Network.
Connecting with the Hunters
However, finding a hunter and connecting with them are two different things. Here are some ways to connect with them-
You can connect with them on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Create a post in the Product Hunt community and ask if someone would want to help you hunt.
Ask for referrals from other Makers or friends who have done PH launches in the past.
In case, you weren’t able to find a hunter, you can always hunt your product yourself. PH maintains that hunting it yourself won’t hurt the launch. In fact, PH promotes self-hunting. PH claims the following in its launch guide-
79% of featured posts were by makers who self-hunted.
60% of #1 Product of the Day winners were self-hunted.
So even if you don’t find someone, this might still be encouraging and you should go ahead with the launch.
Preparing assets for the launch
You need to prepare a number of assets for the launch. However, the first few assets a person sees about your product are the most important ones. And these are the assets you should spend most time or resources on.
Logo
The logo is one of the first things that catches the eyes of a Product Hunt scroller. Of course, logos are limited by your brand styles and guidelines, and there isn’t much you can do about it. However, you can create a GIF logo to showcase more of your product qualities.Important: When making a GIF logo, always ensure the first frame is the actual logo for the product. This is because GIF logos are only displayed in motion when the user hovers over your product card. During a normal listing, only the first frame of the GIF is shown to the Product Hunt user.
Title
If you have a proper noun for your product, this is already taken care of. However, if it’s a project, try to put a title that is true to what the project is really about.
Tagline
These few words in the tagline have the highest stakes in your launch. Put all your copywriting juices here. You must capture the attention of the Product Hunt user who is scrolling maybe between work hours. Make the tagline about why anyone should check out your product and what it does.
💡 Minimum words, brevity, and precision - are the keys here. Check out what kind of taglines folks are writing to understand how this has to go.
Description
Once users open your launch page, this is what will they will read. The description determines whether the person stays on the page and takes action or bounces off. In the description explain why your product makes sense, what values it brings and why users should check and give it a spin. Do this in a scannable way (bullets, emojis, lists, and so on). Load it with the benefits and values of your product and fire away.
Gallery
These images will tell the users what your product looks like and how it behaves. Many users might not read the description and other texts but dive right into the gallery. So ensure you’ve put your best foot forward here. Some of the things that your images could cover are-
What does your product do, and how?
What are its benefits?
What does your product look like?
What are its features?
Any social proofs?
💡 Your usual product marketing vibes are roaring in this section. Make it a pitch deck in 4-5 slides/images. Not many words, but only the necessary ones. Brevity is the key here.
First comment
The first comment will be mostly written by one of the makers. Usually, you will have to submit it while submitting the rest of the assets for the launch. So ensure that your first comment by the maker is crisp, to the point, and speaks directly to the community.
There are other assets as well. Here’s a checklist of these assets that will come handy during the launch - PH launch checklist.
Preview the launch page
Once things are ready, you can check how it may look once launched on PH using services like Preview Hunt.
You can even ask your hunter to upload all your assets directly on PH a day before and schedule it for 12:01 AM San Francisco the next day. Once you do this, your launch page will be available to view. You can also make any required edits before it goes live.
Going live
Once your launch page is live, you can access all the launch information and comments in the PH interface. Here you will also see all the engagement reports.
Recently, PH displays a plot of how the upvotes are moving up for you. And this is quite an interesting chart. Below is an example of the same from one of my project launches.
Note that the slope of this curve might be one of the most important factors that the PH algorithm might consider. How fast you grow and not just how much.
So keep an eye on this slope and the curve and spread out your promotions to compound the PH upvotes.
After the launch
At this stage, your key goals would be to collect a lot of feedback, comments, and upvotes to be featured in the PH roster for as long as possible.
Now, if your product gains traction by its sheer nature, congratulations!
Otherwise, it’s an uphill battle to go out in the wilderness and ensure your product gets the required upvotes and traction.
However, there are many initiatives that you can run after the launch to help you fuel your product’s ranking. Below I list some of these things that have worked for me.
Growing your PH upvotes
The key here is to ask your audience on other platforms to support you on PH.
Here’s a list of ideas or audiences that you can start engaging for this-
Your team - Inform your team about the launch beforehand. Even request them to set up a PH account in advance if they don’t have one. Ping them in groups or individually to upvote as soon as you launch.
Employee network evangelism - Request your team to evangelize and share the product launch in their networks.
Your social media audience - Send out a post on social announcing the launch and ask people to support it.
Your newsletter audience - Keep a newsletter edition ready to publish on the launch day and plug your PH launch there.
Website traffic: Embed your featured or top-product badge on your product landing page and redirect new users to product hunt to upvote.
Reach out to your partners, customers, investors, and other stakeholders.
Appeal to your supporters and friends and ask them to share genuine feedback, not just upvotes.
Being ready as a ‘Maker’
Makers are folks who are usually the face of the launch. Makers have to engage with comments and answer questions raised by the community.
Ensure that you or someone from the team is moderating the conversations and helping folks with their feedback and doubts.
Since engagement is one of the factors that will help you get a better ranking, this becomes an important role in executing on the launch day.
In fact, PH has launched awards for comments that makers can now confer on specific comments.
This is clearly one more signal that PH rewards engagements. And why shouldn’t it?
In fact, move over the rankings and points — you might get many ardent supporters, fans of your product, and customers in these comment sections. Many products get made in these comments sections. So ensure you are engaging genuinely and not just to increase the comments count.
What’s next
Play the long-term game
PH is a community. And a community works on the barter of kindness and mutual value. In this case, also engagement.
In fact, Product Hunt can be more than just a launchpad for your ideas and products. It’s a network of people that might give you many other gifts. However, this process starts with your participation in the community.
One of the first things to do to start this is to take a look at your profile. Your PH profile will help you understand how often you contribute or participate in the PH community.
Two profile details that can help you gauge this are - your medals and points, that you can find on your profile page.
The medal next to your name (Bronze, Silver, or Gold) indicates the points you've accumulated by contributing across Product Hunt. You'll gain points when other community members upvote your contribution.
So how do you earn more points-
Hunting other products
Commenting on other products
Engaging in and creating discussions
Building a relationship with the other Product Hunters.
That’s all, folks
I hope this newsletter edition helps you in showcasing your products and ideas to the PH community.
If you have more ideas about the PH launch, let me know in the comments. Also, if you have launched a product, feel free to share it in the comments below. ✌️
Regards, Yours Market-editor