With an audience that is actively looking for new products and the upvote system, Product Hunt is a dream platform for product managers and marketers. Product Hunt helps with the early traction of your product and getting it out to the masses.
While a perk of the platform is increased traffic, the actual value proposition is conversion. Product Hunt users are on the lookout to adopt new software and tech, meaning that your convection will spike (depending on your launch strategy). If you get on the Top 5 List, you’ll be featured in the Product Hunt’s newsletter the next day.
You will only get one shot at launching your product on Product Hunt. So you need to strategize your marketing techniques and your launch for the best results. There are three parts to setting up a launch on Product Hunt: content, visuals, and other smaller parts. You want to make sure that you account for all parts of your launch. You don't want to miss anything.
Content Elements
1. Title:
This is the name of your product. Keep it simple; don't add emojis (unless it's part of the name) or a description.
2. Tagline:
You can use this part to describe, in brief, what your product does. You will have 60 characters to get your point across, so keep it concise. This is the part where you want to highlight what value your product provides, over including the features. This will help people identify what your product does or offers. You’ll want to ditch fancy slogans and claims like “the best” to “world’s best”. Optimize your tagline with keywords that users will search for.
3. Description:
You can add a few lines on what your product does. This is the part that will give the users a bit of information on what you are trying to achieve with the product. Don’t make it too long, you want to capture and maintain the user's attention. Use simple, short sentences. The longer your description is, the higher the chances will be that the user will skim the text or outright ignore it. The simpler, the better.
Read More: What is CleverTap? Features and Alternatives
4. Topics:
Think of them as hashtags on Instagram or keywords. Topics will make your product searchable. You can search for them on the platform to look for similar products. Or add them to your product launch so that other people can search for your product. You can add about 3-4 topics for your product, so be cautious about what topics you add.
For example, if you had a no-code app building platform, you can tag it as No-Code, Productivity, Developer Tools
Another example - if you have a photography app that lets users take pictures in the dark. You can add the topics: Photography, Tech, Android/IOS (depending on what OS you are programming for).
Read More: How to get more targeted traffic
5. Makers:
Here, you can add the usernames of the team members who worked on the project. Remember to add their personal accounts (your team members will need an account to be added as a Maker). There are two plus points of adding your team members:
The team member receives credit for their work on the project
Followers of each team member will receive a notification (if the product is featured on the homepage)
You can link your social media profiles so that your friends and followers can find you.
6. Maker's Comment:
This is where you will create a story or setting for your product and yourself. Introduce yourself and your team. Explain what problem you wanted to solve and what your product does. Take a few lines to explain the value proposition of your product, who it's made for, use cases, etc. Is this a new product? Do you have new features or any big updates on the product? You want to create a narrative that will get people interested in you and your product. So don't be afraid to tell a story, but don't make it too long.
7. Links:
Your primary link should either be to your website or the product landing page. This way, Product Hunt users have a direct link that they can use to get the product. Your secondary links can be App Store links, Google Play links, or even your brands’ or products’ social media profiles.
Visual Creatives
1. Thumbnail:
This is the visual introduction of your product. You want the thumbnail to be visually appealing. Images are a great option along with GIFs that help explain the product. Don't select a garish image or a gif that has a lot of strobe effects. Product Hunt suggests using 240x240 dimensions for the thumbnail and the GIF used will have to be under 3MB.
2. Gallery:
This is where you can show off your product. You can create a visual narrative by arranging your images. The gallery needs at least 3 images to be viewed. You can also upload your images en masse and then rearrange them by dragging and dropping them. The recommended size for the gallery is 1270x760.
3. Video:
Product Hunt supports YouTube videos. You should upload the video before the launch and make sure that you did not set the video to private. Private videos will not be viewable by the users. Remember to add the full URL, when adding YouTube videos, since the platform does not support shortened URLs.
Other Elements
1. Posting:
There are two options available:
Launch Now
Schedule Launch
If you decide to schedule your product launch, schedule it within 14 days of your current day for your product to go live. You can edit the post even after you schedule its launch date.
Note: Product Hunt works in PST, and they release the Hunt digest every day, which features yesterday’s top products. Your traffic significantly increases if you get into the top 5 of the day. To optimize the duration that your product has on the platform before Product Hunt releases the digest is to launch your product at 12 AM. This way, your product has the entirety of 24 hours to gain traction.
2. Pricing:
There are three categories: free, paid, and paid with a free trial/plan. Choose a category that best suits your product pricing.
Read More: 5 SaaS Pricing Models for a Balanced Revenue
3. Status:
This is the status of your product. You can use this part to let your audiences know if your product is a beta version or if it is still unreleased. You can choose the unreleased option while you are running your awareness marketing campaigns for the product.