7 launches on Product Hunt. 7 lessons learnt.
Valerie Fenske
10 replies
So we had 7 Product Hunt releases over almost 2 years. Each release taught us something. I am happy to share the insights with you:
1. Discounts work, always.
Dashly team said "hi" to the world with the PH release. We decided to stimulate signups and "dives into trials" with 50% discount. That's how we got almost 100 signups during 24 hours. Not bad!
2. You don't necessarily need a hunter.
We had 2 launches with hunters, and 5 launches throught the "ship" button.
3. Make sure you qualify and engage the visitors.
Once we released an ebook on PH and got 2000 leads in 24 hours (everybody loves free stuff, don't they). Just a few of them converted into standing customers. The mistake: we built a sales funnel which didn't start with proper qualification. It gave us "dirty" analytics.
4. It takes around a week to get ready for the launch.
5. Be ready to fail.
You may think "oh that's a super cool product that everyone will want!". Please, don't generate expectations. Stay calm. When we were releasing something really unique on the market, it was our worst release. No emotions, only lessons learnt.
6. Unstoppable traffic source.
Product Hunt will always be an unstoppable traffic source for us. Treat PH like a catalogue where everyone needs something - including your product.
7. Build connections
The Product Hunt platform is not only for telling the world about your product. It's also about making connections, getting insights, inspiration and advice.
What was your experience with the releases like?
p.s. if you are planning the release - feel free to ask any questions!
Replies
Matthew Anderson@mattstellisoft
Hi Valerie! I'm launching my product today. I haven't invested the time in getting to grips with Product Hunt and understanding exactly how it works. Do you just get one day to gather upvotes? What happens to your product after the launch day? I notice PH don't want you re-launching the same product but are they happy for you to relaunch based upon updates? I'm incrementally releasing parts of my system until it's finished so I would like to do another "launch" of the same product further down the line.
Share
@matthew_anderson4 What product are you launching and what is your target audience?
Hi @Valerie. Few thought on point 1 and 6 you've shared.
1. Discounts
Discounts work almost everywhere and every time. The problem is when product success depends on them. If people don't want to pay full price for your product, you have a serious problem. No amount of discounts will fix that problem.
6. Traffic source
PH can be a good traffic source. Question is, does it matter? Will at least some percentage of that traffic convert? Traffic on its own is worth nothing if nobody converts. If your audience is on PH, and you are seeing medium to high conversion rates, than PH is great. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter.
@alexdevero you are totally right.
Why we started with discount? We knew the product was totally new to the market, and it aslo had competitors. Well-known ones. So we decided to stimulate signups and "dives into trials" with 50% discount.
And yes, traffic from PH always converts to signups and subscriptions. Otherwise, I wouldn't have mentioned that :)
@valeryfenskaya In that case, congrats. It looks that you nailed your target market and good, maybe the best, channel for reach.
What is your strategy after launch, with discounts. Will you continue with them for a while and then stop, like when you get the traction you want. Or, was the discount only a strategy for launch and you will discontinue it?
@alexdevero thank you for the support!
The discount was available with one (the first one) launch only. We generated leads with coupons for the discount.
Hey @valeryfenskaya! Could you please share how you deal with #3? I still have trouble understanding how to properly qualify people, would really appreciate a small insight
We launched our Product a week ago and really most of this advice I tested my self. Connections and persistence are everything <3