SaaS Product Hunt Launch Checklist

What is Product Hunt?

It’s a community-based platform for SaaS founders, developers, and product lovers, where each day new software products are launched and the community members can vote for their favorite products.

The homepage features new products of the day along with the top-voted products from various categories.

A successful launch means your product’s listing earns many upvotes and gets featured in the top spot, thus driving greater brand visibility and more sign-ups — crucial for early traction!

Why Launch Your SaaS Product on Product Hunt?

If you wish that your product reaches a passionate audience of SaaS product lovers and makers, then Product Hunt is the place to launch.

The platform offers you a great opportunity to expose your new SaaS to fellow founders, investors, bloggers, journalists, designers, and developers — for free.

Launching your product on Product Hunt is 100% free, but you’re competing with numerous other products for attention.

So, to maximize your odds of standing out and getting new users on launch day, you need to nail your Product Hunt launch.

Requirements for Posting Your SaaS Product

To launch a product on Product Hunt, you need to first create a personal account. Then, complete the onboarding process to gain the ability to post a product. Each post must ideally include:

Website product page link
Product name
Tagline
Short description (260 characters)
Relevant topics (3-5)
Download link (App Store, Google Play, etc.)
Pricing tag (free, paid, and paid with trial)
Status (pre-launch or available)
Square thumbnail image (240×240)
Gallery images (1270×760)
YouTube video URL, if any
Promo code, if any
Makers’ Product Hunt usernames
Product’s Twitter account
A detailed first comment to start a conversation

Launching Your SaaS on Product Hunt: The Ultimate Checklist

Check off this step-by-step checklist to improve your odds of a successful launch.

Pre-Launch

Build a list of supporters — a blog reader-base, an email list, Twitter following, etc.
Decide on a date and day to launch — weekdays might get you more engagement, whereas weekends might fetch you a higher Product Hunt ranking.
Clear your launch day schedule so you (and your team) can focus on Product Hunt discussions and getting more engagement.
Draft your promotional emails and social media posts to share with your supporters on launch day. Tell exactly how they can support your launch, such as by commenting and upvoting.
Create a landing page of your product and blog about your product and its upcoming launch.
Create your marketing collateral — product images, demo videos, GIFs, logo, tagline, first comment, answers to anticipated questions, etc.
Engage in Product Hunt discussions and support other makers.
Join relevant communities on Slack, Discord, Reddit, and other platforms.
Keep an eye out for similar products on Product Hunt and take notes of successful launches.
Connect with people who upvoted or commented on similar products.
Check for and eliminate as many bugs in your product as you can.
Share your MVP/product with fellow founders and makers so they can give it a spin beforehand.
Ensure your website analytics is in place to track all of that extra traffic.

Launch Day

Post your product right at midnight PST.
Send out reminder emails and DMs to your community.
Monitor mentions on Twitter and engage with each mention.
Embed a Product Hunt widget to direct people from your website to Product Hunt so they can upvote and take part in the discussions section.
Get early upvotes and feedback from your friends and team.
Keep the discussion on your listing going throughout the day.

Post-Launch

Share a personalized thank you note to your supporters and post across your social media channels.
Offer to extend free trial periods to build retention.
Publish a blog post about your launch day performance and learnings.
Compile all feedback for your future product roadmap.
Reach out to get your product added to a Product Hunt Collection.
Measure your success metrics: free trial sign-ups, new paid users, landing page traffic, social shares, etc.
Continue to be active on Product Hunt and engage with the community.
Share your learning and help other founders with their Product Hunt launches.

Bonus Launch Tips and Best Practices

Succeed with your SaaS product’s launch on Product Hunt by checking off these best practices:

Use Preview Hunt, a free tool to test taglines, thumbnails, media, etc., and see what looks best when the listing goes live on Product Hunt’s feed.
Research and include keywords in your tagline, description, and first comment to try and rank your Product Hunt listing on the first page of Google SERPs.
Reach the maximum number of people by launching at 12 am PST and get as many early upvotes and comments as possible.
Prepare a launch message (requesting thoughts and feedback) to share on all your social media channels and relevant groups.
Don’t send unsolicited DMs to random people asking for upvotes. Try to spark genuine interest and discussions on Product Hunt.
Follow all the basic posting requirements listed above.
Try to find a Hunter — an influential and experienced Product Hunt user — to post your product and later add you as a maker. But don’t sweat it if you can’t find one.
Get the Product Hunt Badge on your website and create a launch press kit plus landing page.
Be active in the Product Hunt community ahead of time by answering Ask Product Hunt questions and commenting on other makers’ posts.
Be prepared to answer questions and provide support in Product Hunt discussions throughout the launch day.

Tools and Resources for a Successful Product Hunt Launch

PH Today : A simple real-time view of Product Hunt.
Zapier : Google Sheets + Twitter so you can automatically tweet each row in your sheet or save Twitter mentions to your spreadsheet.
Mention : Monitor all the conversations buzzing around your SaaS.
Giphy GIF Maker: Prepare GIFs by combining image files as frames or from videos.
Loom: A quick and easy way to record a product demo. It also lets you record yourself as you give the demo.
500 Makers: An up-to-date list of the Top 500 Makers on Product Hunt.
Mind the Product: A 10,000 strong Slack community of current and aspiring product owners discussing all things product-related.
Launch.chat: Founders, developers, and designers gather on this Slack channel to share ideas and connect. Get feedback on your product and showcase your expertise.
Ship by Product Hunt: An official toolkit for makers to ship awesome products.
r/ProductHunters: Subreddit for discussions about products on Product Hunt.
Helppier: To create interactive user guides and manuals, send in-app messages, and set up product tours.
Hotjar: For landing page heatmaps and session recordings to understand user behavior and get quick feedback from visitors.

Found this checklist useful? Here’s a handy infographic version you can share with your colleagues and network.

Author

Arkin Khemchandani

Arkin is a content marketer at Growfusely - a SaaS content marketing agency specializing in content and data-driven SEO. Besides work, he's an ardent recreational runner who loves beaches and trance music. Connect with him on Twitter: @arkin008