I decided to write this article not to just lighten you on the behind-the-scenes of a Product Hunt launch, with almost 30 news apps being pushed every day there is enough content on the Internet that illustrate the mechanism.
What we preferred to do is to write down here the expectations we had for this launch, but also to give you the BIGGEST mistake we have made regarding Product Hunt.
What is Product Hunt and who is it for?
Nowadays, everyone (almost) knows Product Hunt, it became a must for every app/software to through this step to be pushed in front of a big community.
Just to remind the concept, Product Hunt is a website backed by one of the biggest community in product tools, which allow start-ups to publish their product and get upvoted by the community. All the big tools of today have been through this step: Slack, Notion, etc
It is targeted at every SaaS product that is looking or validating its Product Market Fit because you’re getting a real idea of if your product matches those users' need or not.
Getting started: our goal
Our objective was simple, as the previous big companies specialized in APIs we wanted to get our shot too on Product Hunt and see what the community thinks about our product.
We started the preparation with the idea of having feedback mostly from users and boosting our acquisition.
We defined 3 steps to make sure we will be well-prepared:
- Define a date
- Prepare the use case
- Prepare the launch
1. Define a date
I think for most of the teams being in our situation for this kind of launch, the first thing to do is to find a date.
We chose to launch Tuesday, April 19th, 2022.
Tuesday, because we know everyone is busy on a Monday and we could create traction in terms of communication during the rest of the week.
The team did a fantastic job, and the credit goes to Julie, our Sales, she was the one that started to look intensively for hunters, and during this period she was preparing a partnership with Typeform with Nicolas Grenier, Developer Advocate, and guess what? It happens that Nicolas is a rock star hunter on Product Hunt.
Immediately we submitted to him the idea of hunting our product and he accepted (Thanks by the way Nicolas, you’ve been nothing but an awesome Hunter).
2. Prepare the use case
We took the decision to highlight the concept of Open Spells on our platform, it was, for us, the best case for new users to test Meta API quickly and see the added value.
It was also for us an opportunity to improve the experience behind the Open Spell (pre-made integration) and release minor features to make it more enjoyable.
And to be honest, this part was the longest one because it required technical adjustments to release the features at the right time.
3. Prepare the launch
Thanks to our Marketing team, we made sure that Meta API users and the community were aware of the precise date of launch so we can have full support. We asked everyone on our network to be ready to smash the upvote button, and I must say they did it pretty well.
To prepare for the launch, we had to set up marketing actions. We created visuals to highlight our platform, but also a teaser video presenting the Open Spell. A presentation text is also needed on your page. We had to promote our presence on Product Hunt in order to get the most visibility and votes. We chose to talk about it on our social media, in email campaigns and on our Discord Server.
Data (product hunt vs AppSumo)
At the end of the launch, we finished in 9th position with over +40 apps launched that day, and we had more than 200 upvotes.
The difference with AppSumo was pretty clear, the first day on Product Hunt we had 720 visits which represents 81% of the traffic, and then the days after it dropped massively.
On the other hand, when we did the launch on AppSumo, we get only 25% of the traffic on the first day but it stayed high during the 2 months of our campaign, pretty clear the difference.
this is what we expected?
LAUNCH YOUR PRODUCT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
We waited months and months to launch for several unjustified reasons, but the reality is, just do it, you may have an opportunity to launch again so make things happen, and don’t overestimate Product Hunt, it will bring you great visibility and feedback but not enough to generate huge revenues or convert a mass of users.
Conclusion Product Hunt vs APP SUMO
Product Hunt was a good experience because it has this traditional meaning, that every SaaS tool has to do during the Go To Market. But concretely, the experience was more enjoyable and profitable on AppSumo, where we did benefit more.
Users feedback, reviews from beta testers, and community building, we found all this on AppSumo, and we confirmed our traction on Product Hunt, the combination of those 2 has some great potential.
Get started
if you want to get started on Product Hunt, here are some article inspirations:
Coralie Champion: Jan 10, 2023 3:46:51 PM
Mathieu Rasse: Dec 26, 2022 11:56:11 AM
Salim