18
8 Comments

#4 on Product Hunt, made $259, and full marketing schedule revealed

Over the last 3 weeks, Dollo has welcomed 37 new downloads, almost every sale influenced by the Product Hunt launch campaign and the impact of #4 Product of the Day.

My why

It wasn't easy for me to find an avatar that represented me. This seems to be a common problem for many people. Based on some customer research, I discovered that many avatar makers aren't suitable for people from different cultures, nationalities, and appearances.

Therefore, I created Dollo to allow you to create your own Avatar like playing with Legos. Compatible with Sketch, Figma, PNG and SVG. It contains over 300 elements that can be customized. For example, skin colors, accessories, hairstyles, and clothes.

Here is the result and how I launched it:

Product Hunt Campaign Overview

Campaign date: 2 July (Friday)

  • #4 Product of the Day
  • 84 comments
  • 4 reviews

XX hours after launch / total sales / revenue

  • 24 hours / 13 sales / $91
  • 72 hours / 17 sales / $119
  • 7 days / 32 sales / $224
  • 3 weeks / 37 sales / $259

Before Campaign

Building in public

I actually learned illustration design from scratch since 1 Jan 2021, and I have been building in public on my Twitter every day or two.

On day 104, I began making avatars for Twitter friends, and I ended up making over 50 custom ones for them. This is also an opportunity for me to try and render facial expressions cutely.

I have been doing the same thing for 2.5 months until I am comfortable launching Dollo with over 300 components. It should be capable of generating many unique combinations.

During the campaign

My full marketing schedule based on my timezone GMT+8, hence 15 hours ahead of PST:

03:01 pm Product Hunt launch
03:01 pm 1st Twitter personal tweet
04:00 pm Makerpad short post
05:00 pm Newsletter to waitlisters
06:30 pm 1st Slack group message
07:00 pm Facebook personal post
07:00 pm Indie Hackers post
07:30 pm 2nd Slack group message
07:45 pm Reddit r/sideproject
08:00 pm Facebook YC Startup School group
08:15 pm 3rd Slack group message
08:45 pm Facebook Notion group
09:15 pm Hacker News
09:45 pm 1st Makerlog update
10:15 pm Instagram personal story
10:30 pm 4th Slack group message
10:45 pm Instagram Dollo post & story
11:00 pm Reddit r/figmadesign
11:00 pm Twitter Dollo tweet
12:00 am Owwly submission
12:30 am Facebook Design (UI/UX) group
01:00 am Sleep
08:30 am Wake up + Coffee
09:30 am 2nd Indie Hackers post
09:45 am Reddit r/Notion
09:45 am Facebook UX/UI Design Projects group
10:00 am Pinterest Dollo pin
10:00 am 2nd Makerlog update
10:00 am Reddit r/startups
10:15 am Behance Dollo post
10:15 am 5th Slack group message
10:30 am 2nd Twitter personal tweet
10:45 am Facebook Figma designers group
11:00 am So tired and my 4th place is pretty safe. Let's call it a day :)

Post campaign

Post-launch marketing activities are created for long-tail effects. It took me 14 days to reach out to influencers, design communities, media, customer reviews, and write this article.

As a result, I have received a lot of good feedback from well-known designers, been featured in top design newsletters, and been supported by Sketch, etc.

Reflection

I thought the launch results were coming from the support of my audience, and the building in public routines allowed me to move Dollo in the right direction. Big credit to everyone who has supported my creations.

My next illustration pack will be open sourced. Thank you :)

  1. 3

    Nice work with Dollo! Thanks for sharing your marketing schedule - I never know where to start so this provides some inspiration!

    1. 1

      Welcome ;) Let us know when you need help with PH campaign!

  2. 1

    Nice Job! It is not easy in this field. What was your strategy to approach influencers?

    1. 1

      I literally just googled by relevant keywords and found people who either wrote something about this topic, being interviewed or attended an event as speakers. Get send a personalized emai.

  3. 1

    Did all your posts that morning link to your Product Hunt page or your website?

    1. 1

      90% link to my PH campaign, 10% link to the Gumroad page as well

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 28 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 14 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments