How to Find the Right Hunter for Your Launch on Product Hunt

Hi, IHs👋

A few days ago, I posted my experience of launching three products on Product Hunt and I am very grateful for your support. It really gives me the motivation to continue sharing.

In addition, I found that many of you are interested in how I found the right hunters and led over-expected launch results. So I wrote a blog post to explain:

1. why you need to find the right hunters to launch your products instead of doing it yourself
2. how to find suitable hunters
3. how to invite them to hunt your products

I don't want to make this post overwhelming, so I'll try to make it as short and clear as possible.

Benefits of getting a famous hunter to launch your product🎁

Famous hunters are usually very nice, willing to help start-up teams showcase their work to the world, have a considerable number of followers, and are true technology enthusiasts. If a famous hunter launches your product,

💬 He/she might give you valuable feedback on your project before the launch day
🔔 His/her followers the hunter will be notified about the launch
💥 It’ll provide the initial boost that your product deserves
😍 people will take time to check the product out as it’s hunted by a famous person
🏆 overall, it’ll give your product a head-start to the top

What famous hunters CAN NOT do is make people like your product and become your users or clients, so makers should always note that spotlighting what specific issues your product can solve in your description box.

Find the Right Hunter 🎯

If we assume that every top hunter you contact agrees to launch, it’s not wise for a huntee without first determining if the hunter is a good fit for your product.

An ideal hunter should fulfill the following 3 requirements:

• A high number of followers
• Several successful launches
• A few launches in your category

Where can you actually find them? You can do it manually or take advantage of hunter-searching tools.

Manually
I’ve made a picture guide for searching for a hunter on Product Hunt manually, so I won’t go into details here, you can check actionable steps here.

Hunter searching tools
There are many hunter-searching tools on the market, but I will only introduce one that I've used and think is good, which is Upvote Bell. You can easily find the profiles of Top hunters and recently most active hunters on its leaderboard, as well as their number of followers and the number of products they have posted. The best part is that you can filter by specific category.

Make an effective pitch ✊

Famous hunters get tens of emails and DMs every day, and if your pitch is not attractive, the chances of them replying are close to zero. You need to prepare a well-prepared pitch that’s precise and gives an overall idea of what your product is all about.

You can follow the following tips to create a pitch to reach out to the Product Hunt hunters:

• Explain the problem that your product aims to solve，
• Show the solution your product provides.
• Share your initial customers’ (such as beta testers) thoughts on the product.
• Explain the motivation behind creating this product.
• Introduce your team, or yourself if you are an independent developer.

Please note that keep everything as simple as possible, and show your sincerity. At last, don’t forget to ask for ideas to improve your product at the end.

Email is usually the best way to contact them, but if you can’t find their email, Twitter DMs can work too.

Based on my experience, it’s better to reach out to around 4 hunters at a time, which means you send messages or emails to 4 hunters at the first and don’t start to contact more before they reply to you saying no. Thus, my suggestion is to start the process 4-6 weeks before the launch.

Final words

To successfully attract a hunter, keep in mind that they appreciate:
- Good quality products presented well
- Friendly communication (this applies to most outreach campaigns)
- Showing care for the Product Hunt community

The more you understand the hunter and their interests in launching products, the smoother the process will be.

That’s it, that’s how I found the right hunter, hope it can help you to do so. If you have any related questions, feel free to ask in the comments. 💬👇

And I also post a more complete and detailed version with some picture explanations for easier understanding on my blog , if you're interested, please check it out here👈.