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In this article, we use tona as a case study to explore how to launch on Product Hunt.
Tona is an online platform helping businesses monitor their competitors without spending hours on data collection. It allows you to monitor your competitors’ websites and newsletters all in one place.
Tona recently launched on 25th July 2023 and came 2nd Product of the Day 👏 A big moment for the team as the competition was very tight.
The outcome:
- 10,000+ Website Visitors
- 900+ Upvotes
- 400+ Signups
- 300+ Social Mentions
This article will explain what Product Hunt is, how to prepare beforehand for your best launch, launch day duties and post-launch follow up.
What is Product Hunt?
Product Hunt is an online platform to discover and launch products in the tech and startup space. It allows entrepreneurs, makers and developers to show their innovative products to a global community of tech enthusiasts, investors and users.
Some key terms:
- Maker: Those who make products
- Hunter: Those who launch products on Product Hunt
Anyone can use Product Hunt! It is a community designed such that users can browse through collections of new products, vote for their favourites, and engage in discussions with product creators and other community members.
The platform operates on a voting system, where products are listed in order of their popularity and engagement within the community. Each day, a limited number of products are featured on the home page, making it a highly competitive but exciting environment for product launches.
In this article, we will walk through how tona prepared for its launch on Product Hunt 👇
- Pre launch
- Growing a community
- Launch day
- Post launch
- Recap
Pre launch 📝
Preparation is key! Familiarise yourself with the Product Hunt platform at least 1 month before your launch, so you can get an idea of how it works and engage with other community members for the best results.
Here is a pre-launch checklist:
- Prepare your product submission
- Pick your launch day
- Do I need a hunter?
Prepare your product submission
This is probably the most important step. Make sure your product is ready for submission - here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
Include images and description
Make sure you use high-resolution graphics to your what your product is. Include a clear description of how it works.
Tona’s competitor monitoring platform helps companies in tracking the metrics of their competition in real-time. This makes it easier to monitor newsletters in one place as often it is challenging to keep track of the inbox. Tona also helps with website monitoring, meaning that if your competitor has updated a page, you will be notified and can make actionable next steps accordingly.
Optimise your product icon. Include any images or videos to show what it is, why you built it and any relevant details about it.
Tona stands out with its aesthetic pastel colour gradients, as well as a succinct description which highlights its function in a way easy to understand.
Product description
This includes the headline, tagline and description. Select the categories that your product fits into.
In here, tona helps with improving productivity by monitoring competitor’s activities using data and analytics. It also allows optimal user experience with its aesthetic design and intuitive platform.
Pick your launch day
Tuesday remains the most popular day for launching. This gives you more traffic and more signups if done correctly.
However, this also means you have more competition as well and your product might not be ranked as high as you would have expected.
Weekends usually remain the quietest.
Here’s an order of the most to least traffic on Product Hunt:
Do I need a hunter?
Myth: If a hunter has a large following, they can boost your product and increase engagement.
Every day, there are only a handful of products being featured on the homepage based on upvotes and popularity. Hunters are also called ‘superusers’, if they hunt your product, it can help promote your product and build trust in the community. You could also gain new followers from the hunter’s network as well.
However, it might be challenging to ask a hunter and wait for their reply when they receive hundreds of requests. If you can’t get in touch with a hunter, there is nothing to worry about. You can always hunt your own product if you create enough engagement and have a banging product.
In short: It would be nice to have one, but not absolutely necessary.
Grow a community 🙌
Before your launch day, it is crucial to build a community that supports you and the product you are working so hard for. We would recommend growing a following to at least 300 people before launching. This creates engagement and momentum when launch day comes.
Leverage social media and build excitement
Share your progress and the product you are building. Leverage multiple social media platforms, including Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram to maximise your reach and engagement.
Email marketing and announcements in groups are additional ways to maximise reach. Set conversion goals and measure KPI for your email campaign. Gather at least 1000 emails for these leads. This will maximise ROI and conversion rates.
Get your community excited! There’s no better way than people getting pumped for your launch and helping you spread the word. This creates engagement and momentum, growing your potential user database and the feedback you receive can help you improve your product further.
You can start engaging by being active in communities and sending out newsletters. Start posting on your channels and ask your early users to write about your launch on socials.
Launch day 🎉
The day to launch has finally come!
Ideally, you would want to launch at 12:01am PST to get the full 24 hours to generate as many upvotes as you can.
In the first 3 hours all products are shown in random order. Afterwards, the ones with the highest rating will be shown on top. The higher you are, the more people come to your listing. If your product is good as well, you will get more votes which puts you at the top of the ranking page.
The start is important as you would want to get as many upvotes, comments and engagement as possible compared to other products launching at the same time period. It helps you build a community with active PH users and this would pave the way to success for your product. In here, tona came second with a tight competition along with other cool products.
After launching, the top comment will usually be the maker’s comment. This shows who has been building the amazing product behind and allows users to get to know them better. Make sure you emphasise your key value proposition and the problem you are trying to solve. Use it to also show your journey - how you have identified the pain point, the process of building, and be humble. Users on PH usually appreciate that and more comments will follow.
Be prepared to answer comments and generate discussions. Share your product across socials and community groups like Facebook and Slack. At Product Hunt, the quality of engagement surpasses quantity. Make genuine connections with active PH users to build a strong foundation for your product. This can help with engagement, your brand’s reputation and opportunities to raise capital in the future. If you can make your audience attached to your product, they will voluntarily follow your journey and future launches.
Important‼️ Never try to manipulate voting such as paying someone to increase upvotes. Otherwise, Product Hunt can penalise you for that and all your hard efforts will go to waste. You wouldn’t want to risk all for nothing right?
Post launch 🎈
It is definitely worth celebrating after completing your launch! Here are some pointers that make the journey worth it and how you can follow up:
Thank your supporters
It would not be possible without your supporters and the community in the success of your launch! Take your time to thank them for supporting you and engage in building strong relationships.
It is also worth continuing to monitor your product even after launch day. Besides ‘Product of the Day’, there is also ‘Product of the Week’ and ‘Product of the Month’ to aim for as well.
Tona bags ‘2nd Best Product of the Day’ with 900+ upvotes 👇
User feedback
Receiving user feedback will help you improve and iterate your product. By talking to your users, you can identify more pain points and areas to improve on. This also makes them feel listened to and continue to build a strong community which supports your product.
They are also more likely to continue following and supporting your journey, which could be a huge benefit when it comes to your next launch. With user engagement and retention, this could help you build a loyal customer base.
Increasing brand awareness
If your product receives the highest upvotes, you can earn badges and awards which can then be embedded on your website. With increased engagement and momentum, this helps your product gain exposure to advertising and PR. Your product could be featured in articles, newsletters and be discoverable for weeks or even months.
Conclusion
Tona’s success didn’t come overnight; it takes months of preparation, understanding the product-market fit, and the amount of hard work and effort the team puts in. Although there are challenges in the process, this success is incredibly rewarding 🎉
If you would like to try out tona, make sure to check it out here.
Recap
- Set an agenda to maximise reach and engagement pre launch
- Grow a community of supporters to increase engagement and momentum
- Make sure your product submission is optimised
- Pick your launch day
- Follow up with your supporters and iterate your product through user feedback
