What is the most underrated growth hack for Product Hunt launch day?
Personally, I believe (and still stand by it) that there are no shortcuts to success, only well-thought-out and applied tactics.
What marketing tactics for a successful product hunt launch have worked for you or grabbed your attention immediately?
Here are a few I’ve noticed:
Live-streaming on launch day via X and YouTube.
Getting hunted by an internal PH team member – e.g., Rajiv hunted quite a few.
Inviting as many makers with large followings to your team as possible.
I am pretty sure you also have one or two that were remarkable. Feel free to share them.
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Thanks for sharing.
Do you have some tips to bring people to the live?
Back in 2020, we ranked first on Product Hunt, without an audience and with barely any planning.
On launch day, our only goal was to secure the top spot.
Two things helped us get the most upvotes:
1. Earning votes one by one: We went to Station F (where over 1,000 entrepreneurs work) and walked from table to table with a big smile and some candy, asking for support. It took all morning, but it was totally worth it.
2. Local event: We launched the same day as an PH event in Paris. We attended, took the mic, pitched our product, and announced we are live on PH.
Beyond ranking first, we met great people and had an unforgettable day.
Love how you literally went to station f with candy to earn votes that's definitely not your typical marketing strategy
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@bengeekly Neat! I mean... we haven't had the option to be at an offline event, but you are a good example of how to do it. When it comes to live, I remember how @_maxblade or @sandradjajic streambed and people watched because they have strong communities. But some influential guest could help I suppose :)
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I'm using https://bethe.re/ to help me ace launches. Yes, I'm the founder of BeThere 😅
As the author of RealFaviconGenerator, I want to leverage my audience to vote for it when I launch it on various platform (PH being the final boss).
Good: RealFaviconGenerator has a decent traffic.
Bad: Most visitors are unengaged, not willing to vote for RealFaviconGenerator.
So I put a "Vote for RealFavicon" form on RealFaviconGenerator thanks to BeThere:
This form is filled by a few visitors every day. Nothing fancy. But in the end, I gathered a few hundreds confirmed signups.
I was able to ask these people to vote for RealFaviconGenerator on launch days I didn't even choose myself.
This made me rank #1 on SoloPush, then #1 again on TinyLaunch a few days later, effortlessly.
Right now, there are 167 people I can reach anytime to vote for RealFavicon when I launch again.
thats actually pretty brilliant when you think about it - using voting as a incentive for engagement!
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@ph_bernard Just out of curiosity and a little bit off of the topic, but... why is the text moved into the left? 😅
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@ph_bernard 😂
@ph_bernard how does this compare with native teaser pages?
It always comes down to just one thing: do outreach. That’s the most reliable way to find people who will support you.
In some cases - yes, collaborations with influencers, a Twitter Space, a hunter… but the only method that consistently works is outreach. The others have a much lower chance of success. It can work but rarely.
@byalexai Many outreach on LinkedIn – this one has a downside too... not many people from the corporate world are online during weekends on this (still career) platform.
@busmark_w_nika it's on all platforms, not only on Linkedin.
@busmark_w_nika @byalexai any advice on how to reach out to potential upvoters on a Saturday? We are launching on Saturday
@busmark_w_nika @borja_diazroig tell them you're launching on Saturday and their upvote is important. Try to reach out close friends.
@byalexai I see you launching soon!
we launched on product hunt today!
and one thing i did is...
i followed all the launches for 7 days, and reached out to all founders!
they basically gave me their insights! tips and supported us today!
@purvamjoshi Congrats on the launch so hype!!!
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@purvamjoshi Brave step exactly! :) This is something I would do very hesitantly (because I am like that) :D but hat off for this move :)
@purvamjoshi congrats! Good to know people are supportive
Thanks for sharing these points @busmark_w_nika
i'm curious about point 2, what's the best way to get the attention of internal PH team members prior to launch? Assuming commenting, starting discussions, etc. on PH works best.
Also I've been looking at engaging more closely with other builders via LinkedIn in the run-up to our launch and then DM-ing them after commenting on their posts for 1-2 weeks to ask for support. Time will tell if that's a winning strategy...
@mcval_osborne Hello, personally, I would try to reach out via email or their LinkedIn account. :) But yes, first build some relationship :)
One underrated hack is reaching out to smaller ph users with a ton of credibility in your space they can help spread the word, and genuinly supporting them!
@adi_singh5 Do you have any parameters for them? Like how active they need to be (streaks, upvoting others, commenting their posts etc.?)
The most underrated hack is to change the goal. Everyone is chasing upvotes, but the data shows that traffic from Product Hunt converts poorly (around 1.3%). Product Hunt doesn't create momentum; it amplifies it. So instead of asking, "How do I get upvotes?", I ask myself, how do I convert this wave of traffic into loyal users with a special offer and a killer landing page? The focus on conversion is the real growth hack.
But the tactic that came to me after the launch of Talentiply is the gamification of the launch. For example: hide an easter egg in the demo video and announce that the first person to find it and leave a comment indicating the time will receive a lifetime discount (or something like that).