Video Presentation for TechSAV at https://youtu.be/68qFYQeHwKE A beginners guide to Product Hunt. Get a quick overview of how a Product Hunt launch works, how to prepare, what you can gain from it and how to maximize Product Hunt as a channel.

1. Product Hunt 101
By Yvonne Jouffrault

2. Daily Competition
# of Upvotes
Live Rankings
User Comments
Community
PH Categories
Productivity
Developer Tools
Social Media Tools
Iphone Apps
etc...
‘Digital Products’
Brand New Software
Major Features
Content
Resources
Digital Subscriptions

3. Me. [startups + product]
8 Years Real Estate Investment + Private Equity
Founded Tour Buddy Apps - 5+ yrs. Grew Tour Buddy into global
product. Acquired by largest competitor in 2018.
4+ years - Growing tech/startup community in Savannah as and
Entrepreneur in Residence (ATDC) + Super connector
Paris - Head of Product Marketing @ Zenaton, Product Strategy
Consultant to other startups & scaleups
October ‘19: Zenaton Product Hunt launch: #1 product of the day
and #5 for the week in the developer tool category

4. Product Hunt as a CHANNEL
VELOCITY! Quickly acquire new customers/early adopters
and lots of feedback. Ideal for early product/solution fit
validation.
SUSTAINABLE - Drive traffic to your site for months to come!
Actually...forever!
VISIBILITY: Reach a global audience
Its FREE!

5. Product Hunter Psychology
Tire Kickers. Product hunters have an early adopter
mentality. They are eager to try, quick to sign up, usually don’t
have a immediate use case and quick to leave. [onboarding
content is important]
Supportive and Social. If they like what they see or it
resonates, they will provide encouragement, ideas and share
widely. [make it easy to share]
But, they are not necessarily your target customer!

6. What you need to Launch.
Basic Website - Describe value proposition, target user and
key features
Signup: Ability to sign-up and ‘try’ a basic version of your
product
Metrics. A way to measure conversions and KPIs
[Recommended] Chat window on your website. Product
hunters like to chat and you should encourage this!

7. Ready. Aim. Launch!
Preparation
Launch Day
Post Launch Activities

8. Pre-Launch
Do your HOMEWORK. Research your category, check out
similar products: landing pages, comments, success rate.
Landing Page. create your assets (image, text, maker
comment, sign up page, video, etc.)
Seed early comments: Email a few enthusiastic users and ask
them to support and provide feedback when you launch.
Posts & Emails. Create your social media posts, emails to
friends and family, etc for launch day.

9. LAUNCH DAY
LAUNCH. Get hunted and post your maker comment. Email
your early users and ask them to share feedback to get the
first comments..
BLAST Everyone. Email everyone you know, post on all social
media and ask for support and feedback.
BE Responsive & VISIBLE: Respond to product hunt
comments and emails/chats coming through your website.

10. Post Launch
Thank everyone. Be nice and say thanks to anyone who
supported you.
Follow up with new users! Capitalize on your new users and
learn from their user journey and feedback. Send automated
nurturing emails [or personal emails offering help!]
Brag and Share. Everyone likes a success story so share what
you learned and the successes you had. And convert great
comments into ‘testimonials’ or ‘reviews’.

11. The REAL VALUE of a
Product Hunt Launch

12. one Small Step of your Journey
Metrics! More data points to learn about your user journey
and friction points.
Users who don’t know you! Capitalize on feedback from users
that have no ‘warm connection’ to you! Their
questions/criticism/confusion deserve attention.
An Ongoing Channel! You will continue to see referrals
coming from your product hunt page for months and years to
come.

13. PH as an ongoing channel
Product Hunt SEO is the BEST! Users searching for specific
tools land on your PH page or see ‘similar products’ when
viewing another PH page.
Legitimacy! More likely to sign up after reading
comments/reviews on PH and then coming through to your
website.

14. Go Build Something!
Yvonne Jouffrault. @yjouffrault. yvonne@jouffrault.com