How I got 550 upvotes + 130 comments + 2 newsletter features on Product Hunt 🚀
Last year (I know, delayed post) my company (https://kinde.com/) launched on Product Hunt on one of the busiest days of the year. We ended up getting beaten out for the top spot by some of the top launches of the year, but had a couple of newsletter features that made up for it.
I've been planning on writing an article on what we did for a while, but never got around to it. There are hundreds of articles you could find online about how to build out the perfect launch page, so instead, I'm going to focus on the three things we did to drive upvotes. After all, getting people excited about an authentication startup can be difficult, even if we did have feature flags, billing and experimentation on the way - shameless plug, but seriously use us for auth ;)
Alright here are the 3 primary things we did that worked well for us, and no it wasn't posting in every Facebook and Reddit group under the sun
Creating an army
We were lucky to have a large team at launch (28 people), so this had a lot more impact, but it should work for any team size.
Essentially I spoke to the team ~ a month out from the launch and asked each of them to create a list of 5 people (family, friends, and other people working in tech). Each of them would then go to those 5 people and ask them to create a product hunt account (if they didn't already have one) a month out from launch so that the accounts didn't look fake on the day.
They gave their private armies the date of the launch and told them to expect a message on the day with the launch link. Off the bat, we already had ~150 people ready in waiting to upvote + comment when launch day came.
Raid LinkedIn and Twitter
Again a luxury of having such a large team, but we decided that we would absolutely soak LinkedIn and Twitter such that no one would miss our launch. At the exact same time (roughly 15 minutes after launch), every member of our team posted a pre-written post about our launch with a link to PH to their networks.
The best estimate is that between everyone's posts, we would've garnered around 80,000 impressions across socials. For weeks afterward, I had people in the Australian tech community telling me that on the day they couldn't get away from content about our launch.
Cross-posting
Get anyone and everyone who has any vested interest in your product to share it. For us this was our early access users and most importantly, our investors. Our primary investor (Blackbird VC) is the largest firm in Australia and has a huuuge LinkedIn following, so their sharing the launch was really big for us.
Mistakes
I personally think we could have done better. All of the above helped a lot but there was one key shortfall that made it more difficult.
We were sending people directly to our launch page.
Product Hunt has got really good at detecting people that are gaming the system and therefore has given less value to upvotes from people that arrive directly on the launch page. It meant that we got deranked versus launches that had far fewer upvotes and comments.
In hindsight I think it would have been far more valuable to direct people to the PH home page and ask them to navigate to our launch, increasing the value of each upvote we get. We'll be launching feature flags in the next few weeks and it's something I'm planning on doing for that.
Overall it was a successful launch and we're planning on using a similar playbook for our next few. It's difficult to get people excited about some products, including a Shopify for SaaS, but it doesn't mean you can't rank highly and get the attention of the PH writers for the newsletter.
This writing was rushed and I imagine as a result is riddled with inconsistency, but if you have any Qs about our launch drop them below and I'll try to be more effective in my responses.
Also use Kinde :)
Yes there were learnings, but there was a lot of simple things that you made us at Kinde do with little effort that seemed to have great returns on the PH launch.
Looking forward to the next PH launch 🚀
That was my first time taking part in a ProductHunt launch and it was a thrill. You definitely garnered up a lot of awareness internally about what ProductHunt is, the community both there and here at IndieHackers, and how important it is to spread our message. The fact that we made the newsletter was a huge win!
I remember even suggesting that we do multiple launches a year for whatever feature set we released, but you rightly reminded me that launches should be distinct products or major overhauls, not just features to an existing product.
I'm definitely looking forward to our next launch since our core auth product will be far more mature and we'll be releasing a few massive products that create way more value for our customers and provide us with big differentiators in the market.
The next few will be fun - hopefully less stressful
Congratulations on the success of your Product Hunt launch! Here are some tips that may have helped you get 550 upvotes, 130 comments, and 2 newsletter features:
Preparation is key: Before you launch on Product Hunt, make sure your product is ready for prime time. Have a clear value proposition, a polished design, and a functional product that solves a real problem. Build a landing page or a website for your product, and create a press kit with high-quality images, videos, and screenshots.
Build relationships: Reach out to your existing network, including friends, family, and colleagues, and ask them to support your launch on Product Hunt. Ask them to upvote and comment on your product, and to share it with their networks. Also, try to connect with influencers, journalists, and bloggers who might be interested in your product and ask them to feature it on their channels.
Engage with the community: When you launch on Product Hunt, make sure to actively engage with the community. Answer questions, respond to feedback, and thank people for their support. Also, be sure to upvote and comment on other products on Product Hunt to build relationships and show your support for other makers.
Leverage social media: Use social media channels, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, to promote your Product Hunt launch. Use relevant hashtags, mention influential people, and share interesting content to generate buzz and drive traffic to your product page.
Follow up: After your launch on Product Hunt, continue to engage with the community and follow up with people who have supported your product. Send personalized thank-you messages, provide updates on your product's progress, and continue to build relationships with influencers and journalists who might be interested in featuring your product.
By following these tips, you can increase your chances of success on Product Hunt and generate more upvotes, comments, and features. Good luck with your product!
Your post is very helpful. Thank you for sharing it. I'm looking forward to applying your techniques to our own website https://gofinanc.com/ . Your step-by-step guide will hopefully help us to develop our startup as quickly as possible. As described in the case study. Thanks a lot.
Absolutely love the idea of cross-posting and launching together! Would you be okay risking some visitors dropping after visiting the PH homepage and not navigating to your launch?
Hard to say how many would actually drop off. Definitely a risk but intuitively I would think the drop off would be somewhere in the region of ~10%, overall I imagine it would be more valuable
The advice of directing people to the main page and having them navigate to your launch is such a great tip! Thanks for sharing.
Haven't had the chance to try it yet but will update after our next one. We figured it out on the day so was too late to switch but it makes intuitive sense
Congratulations on your Product Hunt launch success Connor 🎉
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I feel that will help you in getting the traffic consistently, dropping the link below, feel free to check it out 👇🏼
https://launchpedia.co/places-to-promote-your-startup
@connorcameron I think this reminds the IH community that a successful PH launch is possible even on your first go. It's all about planning and getting a group of people ready to support and spread the message on the day.
Yes, that's the whole thing "Get a group of people ready to support"
Link to the launch itself - https://www.producthunt.com/products/kinde#kinde