Product Hunt provides a rare opportunity to introduce your product to a community of entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts.

There’s not a magic formula to launching on Product Hunt. But if you take the time to prepare, you’re more likely to have a better experience. Here are our recommendations for longer term pre-planning, the week before the launch, launch day, and post campaign.

Product Hunt best practices

What to do now

Plan ahead: Don’t want to leave anything until the day of – you’ll want the time to engage with the Product Hunt community.

Pick your day: Tue/Wed/Thu are generally best days because folks tend to be more heads down Mon and not paying attention on Fri/Sat/Sun. If your date is rock solid and don’t mind tipping your hat to potential competitors, you can add your company on the Coming Soon list.

Test your messaging: It’s better to know whether your messaging lands with your target audience before you put it in front of them. We love Wynter.

Build your list of friendlies: Assemble lists of customers, friends, employees who will support and amplify the launch.

Prep all of your messaging: Prewrite your maker comments, social media posts, email outreach to friendlies, so you’re not leaving anything for the last minute.

Pitch additional content ideas: A story can be a great complement to your product launch.

Create a video: Keep it under 90 sec. Go for authenticity and clarity over cleverness. Overly produced videos don’t really fly – be authentic. Ours is below.

Design product assets: For your logo, make it into an animated gif so it pops when people interact with it. You'll also need to create still images or gifs to complement your video. Consider adding one line to each image/gif for people to quickly grok what your product does.

Sign up for your competitors' emails: If they pre-announce you may choose to move your launch day.

Figure out who’s going to hunt your product: We worked with Chris Messina.

The week leading up to your Product Hunt launch

Let friendlies know when the launch is happening: Give them a few days notice.

Gather your team’s profile handles: Everyone on your team can be a maker – be sure you’re ready to add them.

Set up your page: Be sure to do this at least a few hours before midnight on the day you launch.

Prep your promo: Promotions are optional, but they’re a great way to encourage the community to check you out.

Check tracking: Make sure everything is set up in Google Analytics or whatever tool you use for tracking.

Inform your team and empower them to be advocates: Set up an internal resource for the team with everything they could need including timing, copy, and any links. We created a dedicated Slack channel, too.

Prep social media: Design templates to share comments and reviews.

Pre-write FAQs: Write all of your FAQs ahead of time so you’re not scrambling to answer tough questions in the moment. Figure out who will be answering questions. We recommend preparing multiple people to respond to questions based on their area of expertise.

Comment daily on other Product Hunt campaigns: Hopefully you’re doing this anyway, but if not, comment on other launches leading up to your launch to demonstrate your interest in the community.

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Launch day!!!

Launch at 12:01 am: Take advantage of the full 24 hours to maximize every minute. If you’re based in the US, rally your customers in other countries to comment early.

Let friendlies know you’re live and ask for feedback and support, not upvotes: Use language like, “Check out,” “Amplify our launch,” or “Share your feedback.” Comments > Upvotes since they help people get a better understanding of your product.

Add a banner to your homepage: Product Hunt offers official modules to add to your site.

Set aside the entire day to be responsive: Block your calendar to be active on Product Hunt, Twitter and LinkedIn. Just know it’s totally normal to have peaks and valleys throughout the day.

Share numbers/stats publicly throughout the day: For example, you can announce the number of upvotes in the first hour and share a wrap up at the end of the day.

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You did it. What's next?

Thank people: Send gratitude to your existing and new supporters!

Keep checking for new comments: Expect trickle for next few days and be sure to respond.

Consider an ad buy to build upon momentum: Learn more here.

Think of ways you can continue to give back to the community: Don’t ghost the community after your launch is over. Continue to discover and support new products with your upvotes and comments.

As you’re building out your launch campaign, think about ways to demonstrate how you can help solve the community’s problems, show humility, and treat each member with appreciation.

What worked for you on Product Hunt? Contact us, and we’ll continue to update this resource with ideas.