How to hit top 5 on Product Hunt
Sup 3.0 had an awesome day on Product Hunt. We hit 2nd place during the day and finished with a top 5 placing. I am very familiar with the 3271 Medium articles about how to nail your Product Hunt launch but I wanted to add to it with some real practical advice that you can implement, as well as some original pieces of advice.
1. Prepare your team 👫 👬 👭
The real influential power of Product Hunt is within its amazing community. Have your team integrate in to this community during the weeks leading to the release of your product. Not for sake of shmoozing, but to encourage everyone to truly understand the sociology of Product Hunt and how its users interact.
2. Get ready 1 week early 💅
Artwork, videos, and the welcoming comment should all be prepared early. We were hunted as soon as our update was released, which caught us off guard. Luckily, we were able to scramble together the elements that weren’t quite ready, but I would definitely suggest having it all in place a week before you expect to be hunted.
3. Artwork on fleek 👌
Customise the artwork for your main image and header. GIFs are a great way to communicate your product effectively (shoutout to our UI Designer, Pierre for killing it!). The header should be 1000 x 300 and the other image 260 x 180.
4. Respond to all questions with questions 🤔
The Product Hunt community are not normal people. They are great people. They will prod your concept with insightful, critical and original comments and give you feedback with depth you do not receive elsewhere. Don’t answer with sleezy sales language or disregard negative comments. ASK BACK. Pose further questions in response to their original comment. If you’re lucky enough to have people engaging with you, milk them for as much advice and feedback as you can!
We probably didn’t do enough of this and should have spent less time defending criticism and more time embracing it with questions as rebuttals.
5. Thank upvoters 😘
Towards the end of the day, we generated a Twitter list of our upvoters and sent a video Tweet to every single one (Use this tool!). This hurt my face, but was so worth it. People really appreciated the personal touch and it led to some brilliant conversations. You can always tag multiple upvoters in each Tweet and address them all at once. Include a Product Hunt link too, in case they Re-Tweet you, leading to further discovery of your product.
Bonus: Emoji your little 💙 out
Here’s a silly one.
If you manage to hit 100 upvotes, Product Hunt automatically Tweet about your product to over 100,000 followers. This consists of your assigned product name and accompanying tagline. Maximise this with the use of emoji within your tagline. Product Hunters love emoji and they look great on Twitter, so give this a go!
Remember, none of this will work if your product is shit, so get that in check first.
I really hope this helps and I would be very happy to chat if you have any further questions. Email me or Tweet me.
