How to Market Your Brand on Product Hunt (Like a Pro)

 
Product Updates • October 5, 2023
 
Once you start researching and reading articles and various guides about growth marketing, you’ll realize that many point to Product Hunt. Product Hunt is strongly recommended for the promotion of products in their early stages. So let’s dig a little bit deeper to find out more about the fabulous Product Hunt and reveal some of the best tricks on how to use it:

What is Product Hunt

According to the Google Knowledge graph and Wikipedia, Product Hunt is a popular, worldwide platform where users can discover and share new technology products. It was established in November 2013 by Ryan Hoover. Product Hunt is a platform that enables its users to vote (and declare their opinion) for their favorite products. These votes create daily rankings in various categories. Product Hunt traffic is massive, and its community is large and passionate. Furthermore, many PH members are influential in their professions. They are investors, authors, entrepreneurs, and the press, among others. Product Hunt curates the best new technology products every day and is a great place to improve brand awareness, find new prospects, and get honest feedback about your product. It has become the go-to website for startup companies wanting to announce the launch of their new products, a rebranding or additional features.

How the idea of Product Hunt originated

In the exclusive interview for FirstRound, Ryan Hoover explained that the idea originated while he was talking with friends and colleagues. Back then, people were wondering what the best site for announcing product launches and discovering new tech tools was. This made Hoover understood that there was no dedicated platform for something like that, but there were many distracted platforms that accumulated various information instead. There was Kickstarter, for instance, and other semi-competitors, but they were slightly different and had their limitations. Hoover identified the apparent gap in the market, and without an exact competitor, had the space to implement his idea. Interest over time Product Hunt has become the perfect spot for busy people who want fast and straightforward news and information about the current tech market. It’s the best place for newly launched startups to inform the public about their products. Interest by region

Understanding Product Hunt

Before you get excited and decide to feature your product on Product Hunt, you should get to know what it’s about and then decide if it’s a suitable place for your product and brand.

Not Suitable

Product Hunt isn’t appropriate in its nature for posting:
  • articles,
  • private groups,
  • services,
  • events
  • other things that aren’t products.

Suitable

It’s purpose is ideal for announcing:
  • technical tools releases
  • new ebooks
  • and some physical products.
What’s more:
  • A tool which you intend to share on PH should be brand new or relatively unknown.
  • Feel free to announce a new feature of a popular product on the platform.
  • Add your product to Product Hunt if it has just overcome a major rebranding.
And remember, there are no reposts on PH, so rethink your strategy before submitting products.

How to get on Product Hunt

Getting on Product Hunt isn’t the easiest thing to do, especially when your brand isn’t well-known. Although you can join the platform independently, you need an invitation from a member to be able to comment and submit products. Unless you have friends and connections on PH who are members and can help you out, any new startup should follow this process:

1. Research Similar Products:

A thorough investigation will help you out immensely. Take a look at how other companies promote similar products and follow in their footsteps. Pay attention to what pictures, captions, and descriptions are used. With this knowledge, it’ll be much easier for you to come up with better ideas that will fit in and perform well. Add all the similar products to your “collections” to keep an eye on them. Also, prepare a list of Top Hunters and submitters of similar products as it will be useful in the next few steps.

2. Your Content Matters a Lot

Once the research part is done, take your time to curate your own tagline, product description, and pictures. They shouldn’t be random, but deeply considered and high-quality. Tagline According to official PH Pro Tips, your tagline should be engaging, brief, straight to the point and descriptive. It’s also recommended to avoid cliche descriptions like “email on steroids” or superfluous buzzwords like “a beautiful SoLoMo live streaming experience.” According to Leo Polovet’s data research, the most frequent adjectives on Product Hunt are:
  • New
  • Simple
  • Free
  • Best
  • Beautiful
  • Better
  • Easy
Check out the other common words in product descriptions and additional observations. Product Description Prepare an introduction about yourself, the maker, and the story of your product. Tell it to PH members in the most intriguing way to encourage comments and discussion. An introduction should be added immediately after a product gets published on PH and before other comments and questions come in.

3. Create an “Exclusive Offer” and PH Dedicated Landing Page

Create a unique landing page with a significant discount or early access* to your newly launched product exclusively for Product Hunt members (*if the product isn’t accessible publically). This move will drive more interest to your tool and help you stand out from other submissions.

4. Notify Your Network About Your Plans

Once your product gets featured, there won’t be time left for planning. Your actions will need to be quick. That’s why you should enlist your contacts before, and notify them what you are planning to do. They’ll be ready to upvote your listing once you give them the green light. Ideally, you could get some friends – who are PH members and authorized to comment – to ask the first questions once your product goes live. This will break the ice, and other PH members will follow. Also, remind your network that if they want to spread the word about your product being featured on PH, they can’t openly encourage votes. This violates PH rules and can bring the complete opposite outcome.

5. How to Find a Submitter

Go back to the list of top hunters and submitters of similar products. Btw, the current top 5 influencers are:
  1. Eric Willis
  2. Kevin William David
  3. Jack Smith
  4. Ryan Hoover
  5. Chris Messina
Get in touch with them on Twitter. Be cautious, you don’t want to look spammy sending generic mass-messages. And don’t overwhelm people with your needs right away. On Twitter, just ask if you can drop them an email. Write a short explanation of your product and offer a free account so that they can test it out. Remember to establish a relationship before requesting to submit a product on Product Hunt.

6. Become the Maker of the Product

Finally, once your product is successfully submitted to Product Hunt on the agreed schedule, go back to your submitter and ask him to mark you as the Maker of your product. In the case of any issue with getting in touch with the submitter, you can also drop a message directly to Product Hunt on Twitter, and they will add you. Becoming a Maker of the product will automatically make you capable of commenting and submitting stuff on Product Hunt. Hurray!

Your Product is Submitted; You are its Happy Maker; What now?

Once your tool is featured, go to your PH listing and paste the previously prepared story and product description immediately, and ask members to express their honest feedback about your product. Then, just monitor the incoming questions and answer them thoroughly right away. And also, add the other members of your team as Makers.

How to Get More Upvotes on Product Hunt

On the other end, add a banner or a pop-up to your homepage that will forward your organic visitors to your Product Hunt listing and encourage more votes. You should also add a link to all your social media profiles and email your subscribers in order to communicate your launch on all possible channels. The goal is to get as many votes as possible and be featured on the first page.

But…

Once again, before you do anything, remember that openly encouraging people to upvote your PH listing is forbidden, and if detected, your product can suffer a serious drop in ranking or be removed entirely. So be careful, and just encourage people to check out your listing: “Hey guys! We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve made it onto Product Hunt, which you may know as the place on the Internet for the coolest new products. Come check out our thread!”

How daily Product Hunt Rankings are Defined

There are a few factors that affect the daily rankings on PH. The first and the most important factor is the number of upvotes that products get. The second most important factor is the time in which these votes are collected. Third places the number of comments under your listing.