In this text we’ll describe our personal Product Hunt launch expertise. The expertise of three launches, to be exact! Our group launched on three totally different events with our Nitro skilled translation service, and every launch led to a profitable victory, with placement among the many prime merchandise of the day. Now we’re able to share our expertise and the discoveries we’ve made on this journey.
This text will profit anybody who’s contemplating a launch on Product Hunt and in search of a method that may get outcomes.
We’ll focus on:
- How we launched our B2B product 3 times on Product Hunt and earned the title “Product of the Day” each time
- What primary steps you’ll want to take if you wish to have a profitable launch
- Who prime hunters are and why you want them to have a profitable product launch in 2023
- How eye-catching illustrations could make your product stand out throughout launch
- What you’ll want to know if you happen to’re launching on Product Hunt with a small group and maximize your out there sources on launch day
- What adjustments have been made to the platform lately and what updates you’re prone to encounter if you wish to launch proper now. On this part we speak in regards to the “Coming quickly” web page, the growth of ChatGPT and AI-generated feedback on Product Hunt, the platform’s new anti-spam coverage, and the Randomized Homepage.
- Product Hunt launch technique: pre-launch, launch day, and post-launch, all in a transparent and logical timeline.
Buckle up!
Every time we had been selling our product Nitro. Nitro is knowledgeable translation platform from Alconost, overlaying 70+ languages. Nitro is ideally fitted to when a high quality translation is required shortly (96% of orders are executed inside 24 hours, with 63% accomplished in two hours or much less). All translations on Nitro are executed by skilled native-speaking linguists.
We’re assured of our product, however right here’s the rub: Nitro is meant for firms, and B2B merchandise are notoriously arduous to advertise on Product Hunt. We had been confronted with a problem: to struggle for our place within the solar towards graphic editors, no-code apps, and private productiveness enhancement instruments.
Our launches had been titled accordingly: the primary was merely Nitro, the second was Nitro 2.0, and the third — you guessed it — was Nitro 3.0. Earlier than every new launch we improved our product.
- Once we first began we merely offered the platform and described its capabilities. We highlighted its benefits — human translation, skilled linguists, quick turnaround, its personal API.
- The second time round we had added help for Google Docs: as an alternative of copying texts and pasting them into the Nitro translation window, now customers might add a doc and get the finished translation with out shedding any of the formatting.
- We did the identical with different file codecs: as we speak Nitro helps Google Docs, Google Sheets, HTML, and .strings (for iOS). We additionally added one thing new: help for the JSON format, which was what mainly motivated us to place in an look on Product Hunt the third time.
Outcomes:
- Nitro (November 2021): 4th place, 337 upvotes by finish of launch day, 500+ as of April 2023
- Nitro 2.0 (July 2022): fifth place, 136 upvotes by finish of launch day, 200+ as of April 2023
- Nitro 3.0 (March 2023): fifth place, 230 upvotes by finish of launch day, 300+ as of April 2023
The launches enabled us to attract consideration to our product whereas buying new registered customers and purchasers, and in addition served as a wonderful alternative to speak about Nitro on social networks and within the media. As well as, we acquired a shopper for Alconost’s adjoining service: localization. Nitro is appropriate for small quantities of textual content and for translating updates to video games, web sites, and apps. Whereas optimistic options of localization companies embrace work group by a mission supervisor, choice of an acceptable platform and translators for the shopper’s explicit wants, and course of design. In contrast to Nitro’s impersonal interface, a supervisor communicates with purchasers immediately and works in tandem with them, which is how we optimize the localization of enormous initiatives.
By no means as soon as have we enlisted the help of hunters. The conclusion? A profitable launch is ABSOLUTELY potential with out their help! Within the part beneath entitled “The position of the hunter in 2023, or Why we determined to launch on our personal” we describe in additional element what hunters can contribute to a launch.
Moreover, we all know first-hand what it means to organize for a launch with out an intensive group. The first driving pressure behind our launches consisted of 1 or two key individuals who understood the nuances of the platform and would ask their colleagues for help with preparations at any time when the necessity arose. On X-Day itself, some others from Alconost’s inner help group additionally lent a hand. However if you happen to’re solely in a position to contain a few individuals in making ready in your launch, as an alternative of an intensive group, we all know successfully make use of your out there time and power.
In almost each article on launching on Product Hunt you’ll see these suggestions:
- Put together for the launch prematurely.
That means you’ll have time to community on the platform and enlist the help of the group — you’re going to want it on X-Day. Turn out to be an energetic platform participant previous to launch. Participate in discussions (and actually share your viewpoint on the questions mentioned — you need to solely promote your product the place applicable), accumulate karma factors, help the merchandise of others, and work together with different Product Hunt members.
2. Put together eye-catching launch web page content material.
You’ll want:
- the identify of your product;
- quick descriptions of it, 60 and 260 characters in size;
- an icon (a GIF or concise brand) 240 x 240 or 600 x 600 pixels;
- a video — presumably a product demo; ideally an uncommon, unique video that each showcases the product and acts as a hook;
- placing, wealthy graphics with simply readable textual content for the gallery — 1270 x 760 pixels;
- a GIF (elective), ideally not bigger than 3MB;
- a remark from the first maker and, if desired, from different makers;
- subjects — from 1 to three; see fashionable subjects.
3. Kind a help group amongst Product Hunt communities, on LinkedIn, Telegram, WhatsApp, Fb, Slack, and Twitter.
The lists of those communities are continually being up to date; previous teams lose their relevance, and new ones seem. Create an inventory of communities within the early days of the preparation course of. Begin actively taking part in these communities: help different hunters, go away significant feedback, and relaxation assured — they’ll do the identical for you.
The problem encountered by these making ready for his or her first launch on Product Hunt is that it’s no simple factor to determine how the platform itself truly works. Whereas the web is filled with directions and articles on launch prep, all of them grow to be outdated pretty shortly: Product Hunt makes frequent updates that you just’ll nonetheless have to determine by yourself.
What we encountered on the preparation stage this time, in March of 2023, that wasn’t there earlier than:
“Coming quickly” web page
The “Coming quickly” web page or teaser is proven within the Coming quickly feed, and was launched on Product Hunt pretty lately — at any price, it wasn’t round when Nitro and Nitro 2.0 had been launched. At the moment, creating this web page is a requisite a part of launch preparation.
The “Coming quickly” web page shows the identify of the product, a brief description of 255 characters or fewer, and a banner. For the banner, a measurement of 1:2 (w:h) is beneficial for the desktop model, and 1:1 for cell. If this isn’t your first launch, use a 1:1 banner for each variations.
When an individual subscribes to the “Coming quickly” web page, they are going to obtain a notification after we launch. This refers to notifications immediately on the platform, with a bell icon within the higher proper nook. Within the best-case state of affairs, Product Hunt notifications are additionally delivered through e-mail.
As we see it, the “Coming quickly” web page made making a Ship pointless, and it’s freed from cost. We suggest making a teaser per week previous to launch.
A very powerful technical consideration is you could solely create a “Coming quickly” web page (or teaser) after you’ve scheduled your launch: you publish it on Product Hunt, then anticipate the product to launch robotically.
A scheduled launch permits you to:
- Create a “Coming quickly” web page
- Get a “Launching quickly” badge by your profile identify
- Put together and add all supplies for the launch and see how they are going to be displayed on the web page (from this second on the product web page is accessible through the hyperlink)
- If needed, make adjustments to the ready supplies proper up till the launch itself (the date may also be moved)
- Not fear about launching the product on the platform on X-Day — will probably be launched robotically.
We suggest making a scheduled launch as early as potential. The longer you will have your badge, the extra Product Hunt members will wish to be the primary to attach with you. Completely something within the scheduled launch may be modified — even the hyperlink to the product, though the hyperlink is step one in including the product to the web site.
As soon as the scheduled launch has been created, it’s very simple so as to add a teaser utilizing the directions from Product Hunt. When you’ve offered the knowledge for the “Coming quickly” web page, the banner goes by moderation, which may take as much as 24 hours. Our teaser was printed 3–4 hours after submitting the knowledge.
The ChatGPT growth
There’s a number of speak about ChatGPT on Product Hunt — only for curiosity’s sake, head over to the discussions and do a search there for ChatGPT. The variety of merchandise that use it is usually rising, as even a few days of watching the product scores will present.
Though the group could concur that ChatGPT is a great tool, the issue is that many individuals are beginning to participate in discussions and go away feedback underneath merchandise to not share their opinion, however to be engaged merely for the sake of engagement. To avoid wasting time, some are utilizing ChatGPT to generate responses and publish them on Product Hunt. Product Hunt is beginning to fight AI-generated feedback and content material — for instance, the “Report” button now has the choice to flag AI contributions.
Quite a lot of merchandise invariably fall behind within the scores when the Product Hunt algorithm flags suspected illicit exercise beneath a submit. Even if you happen to go about gaining upvotes the precise means, regulate what’s happening within the launch feedback.
In our opinion, ChatGPT is usually a nice assist when making ready for launch, particularly for these for whom English just isn’t their native language. ChatGPT may be helpful for shortly and accurately placing collectively an insightful reply or eye-catching remark, offering concepts for creating your individual discussions, or serving to you compile texts, letters, and posts about your launch — there are going to be a number of them! The necessary factor is to not abuse it and to be sincere with your self and the group. Then you definately received’t have any points.
You’ll be able to be taught extra about Product Hunt’s coverage relating to AI-generated content material within the dialogue “Let’s Speak About Spam” dated March 23, 2023.
The randomized homepage
The truth that Product Hunt is consistently and quickly altering is born out by their randomized product web page, which was actually launched the very day (!) earlier than we launched.
Primarily, throughout the first two hours of the launch day (00:01–02:00 PST) the leaderboard adjustments at random, and product upvotes throughout this era are hidden. At this identical time (00:01–02:00 PST) the variety of upvotes a product has been seen on the launch web page itself, however its general rating on the leaderboard stays unknown. As earlier than, the ultimate ranking is set by the group on the finish of the day.
The representatives of Product Hunt consider that if you happen to comply with the group guidelines and obtain genuine votes, these adjustments will have an effect on you positively. The random adjustments on the leaderboard are meant to assist stage the sector for all merchandise firstly of the day and cut back the stress to acquire the best variety of votes within the first jiffy/hours of the launch.
However, we suggest that you just attempt to attain a prime place firstly of the day. Any given particular person goes to note the primary 5 or 10 merchandise topping the scores — no extra. In our case, the interval for randomizing the highest merchandise was a bit longer than promised — round 2.5–3 hours.
The glossary put out by Product Hunt says {that a} hunter is any particular person with a free Product Hunt account who publishes merchandise so as to share them with the group. In different phrases, if you happen to’ve printed even one launch, you’re already a hunter.
Right here we’re speaking about prime hunters. These are long-time veterans of the platform who’ve a large viewers and often publish the merchandise of others. As a substitute of seeking out prime hunters on the platform by yourself, you possibly can verify their scores on the Upvote Bell web site.
Using a hunter in your launch could also be a great way to achieve a bigger viewers that admittedly enjoys larger belief among the many group. However to launch with a hunter they’ll have to really like your product. And contemplating that prime hunters obtain quite a few presents each day, you’ll want a powerful gross sales pitch and extra time for communication. Your launch date can even be depending on the hunter, because you’ll must agree on a day after they’re not serving to to launch different merchandise.
Up to now it made sense to pursue prime hunters: in spite of everything, every time they printed a brand new product, all their tens of hundreds of subscribers would obtain an e-mail, guaranteeing the product a large attain and, finally, an considerable enhance in upvotes. At the moment, a hunter’s subscribers solely obtain notifications on the platform itself.
We determined to not spend time speaking with a prime hunter, and as an alternative to community independently and organize with individuals from the group for help. Right here it is smart to construct a subscriber base on Product Hunt itself. While you hunt a product independently, subscribers will obtain a notification — the identical sort of notification that these of prime hunters obtain. The benefit of hunters lies within the variety of their subscribers. Our benefit lies in private contact with individuals who will come to help the launch on the very least as a result of we’ve been involved with them and grow to be pals.
In the event you determine to hunt out a hunter in spite of everything, we suggest that you just write to 4 or so, 4–6 weeks previous to launch. You’ll must have all of your supplies prepared once you do — illustrations, movies, textual descriptions. Oh, and talking of illustrations…
In most guides on making ready for a Product Hunt launch you’ll learn in regards to the significance of high quality graphic supplies. We will verify that sure, that’s true. From our first launch with Nitro we selected the idea of a cat mascot describing our Nitro platform. We caught to it all through all three launches.
Folks favored the illustrations a lot that they even wrote to us about them particularly — who got here up with that superior cat? The strategy additionally gave us a playful technique to show the capabilities of our platform: totally different photos described our native-speaking translators, the codecs we help, our turnaround time, or our API.
Our last launch was actually a race — our ranking modified from sixth place to ninth on the product board, and after we ended up within the prime 5 we needed to preserve that place for an additional 12 hours.
It’s necessary to unfold out your efforts all through the launch day, because the Product Hunt algorithm reacts positively to this. The launch day lasts a full 24 hours, and it’s not sufficient to achieve your goal place at a given second — it’s important to get there and keep there.
When X-Day ended we had received the title of “Product of the Day”. Beneath we share our most up-to-date conclusions:
- Be prepared for product randomization throughout the first hours of the launch, however don’t let this considerably affect your actions throughout this time. In any case, attempt to make it to the highest as early as potential.
- Subsequent, discover a technique to keep on the prime. All through the day, have interaction your help group. Make certain your efforts and upvotes are dispersed all through the hours of the day.
- Assume forward of time about what to do throughout the night time, particularly if you happen to’re launching with no hunter and with a small group. It may be dangerous to lose management over the leaderboard for a number of hours operating.
- Hold issues energetic on the launch web page: reply to feedback, reply questions totally, and spotlight your favourite feedback (by the way, in January of 2023 remark awards had been launched — you possibly can examine them right here).
There aren’t any absolute common options right here, and the to-do checklist and the way it’s damaged down over time will differ from one group to the following. However, beneath we’ve created a launch prep guidelines: these are the factors that we ourselves prioritize, and we suggest that you just do the identical.
Preparation:
Launch day:
- Share messages in regards to the launch with Product Hunt contacts on LinkedIn and Twitter
- Ask group members for help on launch day; create discussions surrounding the launch
- Ship an digital mailing asserting the product launch
- Receive the help of the group/”buddy community”
- Submit an announcement on social networks in regards to the launch
Afterward:
By following these steps and making ready for the large day prematurely, your efforts are certain to logically finish in your profitable the title of “Product of the Day”. Right here’s wishing you success along with your launch on Product Hunt!
