How to Launch on Product Hunt

Launching on Product Hunt is an excellent way to quickly get your startup and product in front of a large audience and find early adopters. Engaging early users is crucial for getting feedback and validation before a larger launch. A Product Hunt launch will often be the most significant source of website traffic and customer sign-ups in a young startup’s early life.

However, launching on Product Hunt is not a “set it and forget it” endeavor. Successful launches require some groundwork from the startup team to build early momentum on launch day by engaging with your stakeholders - customers, team, family, and friends - to support you and help spread the word about your big launch.

The following is a practical guide for successfully launching on Product Hunt. The information in this guide comes from my personal experience launching on Product Hunt, including getting Number 2 Product of the Day and helping countless other founders with their launches.

Expectation Setting

Just because you follow this guide doesn’t guarantee a successful launch day or that you’ll get Product of the Day. There are several things you should keep in mind:

1. Is Product Hunt the right community for my product? The PH audience tends to be other founders, makers, investors, and tech enthusiasts. If your product is an AR tool for knitting enthusiasts, you might have the best product ever, but it probably won’t resonate with the typical PH user.
2. Many great products launch each day, making getting Product of the Day hard. You can do everything right here, but the quality of your product matters to get in the top spot. Set your expectations accordingly, and realize that just getting on the front page is an accomplishment, as the roughly 100k daily PH visitors will see your product. Engaging with product hunt users can significantly improve your visibility and chances of success.
3. Have I done a good enough job of explaining my product and the value proposition? PH visitors browse quickly, so your image, title, and description must capture their attention quickly.

What to do/What not to do

Do

✅ Prepare for your launch - don’t expect just to post it on Product Hunt and to rise to the top

✅ Put up a banner or link on your website announcing the launch on the day

✅ Send your launch details to every person you can think of who might support your launch

✅ Spend time building goodwill in the Product Hunt community before launch - post in the forums, on other product launches, etc.

✅ Use Product Hunt's Ship toolkit to tease your product ahead of the official Product Hunt launch. Collect emails of interested users and communicate with them leading up to the launch.

✅ Get early engagement with your launch so you can get featured and be on the front page for as long as possible

✅ Post right at midnight Pacific Time

✅ Make yourself available to respond to comments and questions throughout the day

✅ Make it as easy as possible for your community to support you

✅ Ensure your infrastructure can handle new website visitors and sign-ups

✅ Check out similar products to yours and see what worked for them and what sorts of questions/comments they received so you’re prepared to answer them

Don't

❌ Just ask for upvotes - the PH algorithm takes into account all forms of engagement and can sniff out upvote farmers

❌ Fish for upvotes from newly created accounts - Product Hunt's algorithm demotes posts that show signs of vote fishing from new accounts

❌ Spend time, energy, or money looking for a Hunter - just hunt it yourself; you don’t get that big of a boost from a name-brand unter

❌ Wait for the engagement to roll in - you need to have your community help you get the early momentum

❌ Think of Product Hunt as your entire go-to-market strategy - a successful Product Hunt launch is just one day (check out this post)

Product Hunt Launch Checklist

Now that we have some basics, here is the step-by-step guide for launching on Product Hunt. We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for you to be successful on launch day.

1. Prepare Your Product: Ensure your product is polished and ready for public viewing.
2. Create a Compelling Thumbnail and Tagline: These are the first things users will see.
3. Engage with the Community: Start engaging with the Product Hunt community before launching.
4. Leverage Social Media: Use your social media channels to build anticipation.
5. Understand Product Hunt's Algorithm: Product Hunt's algorithm favors products that receive engagement from established Product Hunt members. Focus on building anticipation, engaging high-value users, leveraging time zones, and segmenting outreach to spread votes throughout the day.
6. Prepare Your Launch Post: Write a clear and engaging post highlighting your product's unique features.
7. Gather Support: Reach out to your network to support your launch with upvotes and comments.
8. Monitor and Respond: Be active on launch day, responding to comments and engaging with users.
9. Analyze and Learn: After your launch, analyze the results and learn from the experience for future launches.

Pre-Launch

◻️ Decide on a date to launch

• Create a hard deadline to give you something to work towards
• The day of the week is important - the highest engagement is Monday - Thursday, but there's more competition. The weekend is lower competition so that you can get higher on Product of the Day rankings, but you might get less traffic.

◻️ Compile your lists of potential supporters

• Gather email addresses for every customer, friend, family member, workmates, and whoever else in your network can support you on the day of launch
• This community is going to be critical for building early momentum on launch day

◻️ Draft emails informing your community about the launch and how they can support you

• I like to draft a couple of emails. The first goes out a week or two before your launch, explains that you're launching soon, and asks your community to head to Product Hunt to create an account. This means fewer new accounts on launch day support you (a high ratio of new accounts could appear like spam), and your supporters know the lay of the land.
• The second goes out on launch day, announcing that you're live and including the link to the launch. You should also include anything that makes it easy for them to engage. Of course, you want upvotes, but give them ideas for what types of questions to ask and even copy for them to use when sharing on social media or in Slack messages or emails to their friends and colleagues.

◻️Find your Product Hunt mutuals

• Look through your followers on Product Hunt and start to let them know you're launching.
• Look at anyone who you follow or follows you on Twitter/X and let them know you have a launch coming up

◻️ Don't plan anything on launch day apart from supporting your launch

◻️ Be sure the product is ready for the world

◻️ Make sure your infrastructure can handle an influx of new users, visitors, and sign-ups

◻️ Create a product/demo video

◻️ Create your other assets for the Product Hunt post

• Gif Logo
• First comment
• Product images
• Website banner directing visitors to the Product Hunt page

◻️ Draft your post and get feedback from people on it so you're sure it's crystal clear

On Launch Day

The big day! Make sure you're available to support your launch and make it a success.

◻️ Post your product right at midnight PST

◻️ Send out your launch email to your email list - be sure to include the link to the launch page

◻️ If your post isn't getting engagement, ask the Product Hunt team if it hasn't been featured (use the chat on the website)

◻️ Enable your website banner to drive visitors to the Product Hunt page

◻️ Spend your day on Product Hunt - make it a team exercise and come up with creative new ways to drive more engagement

◻️ Look for mentions on social media and engage with people who are talking about your launch

◻️ Follow or Tweet at people who have engaged with Product Hunt launches in the past - they might check out your launch

After Launch: Engaging Early Adopters

◻️ Thank your community for supporting you and let them know what you achieved

◻️ Get feedback from your new users - the Product Hunt community is founders and makers themselves, and they often have great feedback

◻️ Keep monitoring your launch page - people might still be asking questions or showing interest in your product

FAQ

What is Product Hunt? How does Product Hunt work?

Product Hunt is a website where makers, founders, and startups post new products. Product Hunt members then vote on each product, and whoever gets top at the end of each day wins Product of the Day. It's a great way to launch something new and reach a large audience to see what you're working on for no money (just your time prepping the launch).

How do I launch/get on Product Hunt?

Anyone can submit a producr to Product Hunt. Click here and start building your launch page. You can schedule it for later, so start drafting your campaign now.

I'm not ready to launch today. Can I schedule it for later?

You can schedule it anytime within the next 30 days. More here

Why am I not showing up on the Product Hunt homepage?

To appear on the front page, you need to be featured. Product Hunt staff do this to avoid spam or people posting non-products. Contact the Product Hunt team using their chat if you believe you should be featured.

What is a Hunter?

A Hunter is the person who posts the product. You can post it yourself and be the Hunter and the Maker, or have someone hunt for you. There's not much benefit to having a name-brand Hunter, so it's better to spend the time on other things and just hunt yourself.

Do I need top Hunters?

No, just hunt yourself.

What happens if I screw up my launch?

You can launch again! The biggest mistake most people make is wanting everything to be perfect for launch day. Just ship it.

If I have the most upvotes, will I be the Product of the Day?

Upvotes are only one factor the Product Hunt algorithm uses to determine the ranking on the front page. Other factors include time since posting and perceived fraudulent voting ring activity. The page likely contains several comments, the amount of feedback, the strength of feedback, sharing, and click-throughs to the product. That's why you don't just ask for upvotes but all forms of engagement.