Hey all, I am a first-time founder, with low to zero expectations for a Product Hunt launch, but in the end, I got Product Hunt of the Day and saw good results from it. (proof)
My strategy took quite a lot of manual effort, so make sure you actually want to launch on Product Hunt. A quick test is to check whether your audience aligns with Product Hunt. If yes, the results can be really promising. Like in my case, my AI Note app aligns with entrepreneurs, founders, and PM audiences on PH.
Stage 1 - Prepare
Create a coming soon (teaser) page on Product Hunt.
I did this 2 months before the launch.
This allows people to learn about your product. If they click "Notify," they will get a notification email on your launch day.
Pick a day when you're most likely to succeed. You can check the trends of previous launches to see voting patterns for each weekday.
Stage 2 - Find Your Supporters
Browse LinkedIn groups related to PH to find active PH users.
You can also check the streak section or discussions on Product Hunt to find active members.
Stage 3 - Connect & Invite them to “Notify” on the Launch
With the users above, use whichever channel you can find to connect.
Remember to put all these people's names on a spreadsheet to track.
Stage 4 - Grind
Just do it. I had about 2000 people on my sheet before the launch :) and +300 people clicked “notify” on the coming soon page.
Stage 5 - Prepare Before Before the Launch
Prepare all the marketing content beforehand.
Images, demo videos, and assets on the PH page.
Social media posts.
Rest well :)
Stage 6 - Reach out on Launch Day
Reaching out to people on your spreadsheet directly as soon as the time starts :) as many as possible.
Use every channel and group possible to get people to support you. Yes I mean every
Stage 7 - Keep doing that, and hope for the best.
My team continuously reached out to people throughout the day, finding every vote possible.
However, there's a competitor that seems like they're buying votes; they got more votes than us. But in the end, we won because our votes were from real, qualified, and long-time users.
If you start early, you can get many people to support your product, and it's less rushed.
Okay, that’s all from me, hope it helps :)