Last week I launched Streamradiox (The Spotify for streamers) on Product Hunt after five months of development. The launch went well, and I could hardly had anticipated so much support! For the sake of transparency, here is some quantitative data:
- 320 upvotes, and 48 comments on the Product Hunt post.
- More than 1140 new signups on Streamradiox.com to get early access to the beta.
- Ten music producers and independent record labels who want to upload their music into Streamradiox
- Starred by the Product Hunt team in two newsletters (Thanks folks!)
Tip 1: Create an honest video
I spent some time iterating over how I present and tell the story behind Streamradiox. I prepared the video the night before the Product Hunt launch, and I didn't have much time so I was short, and sweet.
Some advice to prepare the video:
- Intro who you are and why your background is relevant for your project
- What's the problem that you are solving?
- Show off your product!
Tip 2: Product Hunt Runbook
I created a document listing every action for the launch day, detailing the tasks to perform every hour. During the launch, everything started to blow up, and I felt overwhelmed. However, this document helped stay on track and not lose focus.
I used Notion, where every item in the runbook contains its own page with detailed information, messages, and the content that will be put out there.
Tip 3: Day off from work
The launch day is very stressful and demanding. In a short amount of time, you need to reach as many people as possible. It also requires multitasking and focus: coordinating social media, replying to comments, sending messages, reaching out to contacts…
I'm glad I took a day off; otherwise, it'd have been impossible to keep up with the pace and the demand for the launch.
Tip 4: Social media presence
I updated all my social media accounts (Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) with the link to the Product Hunt page and created banners asking for people for their vote. I also made a new entry on Linkedin as the Founder of Streamradiox and asked people to vote for us in Product Hunt.
My goal was for anyone to come across any one of my social profiles to see that I'm launching on Product Hunt.
Tip 5: Got a solid hunter.
There are amazing folks in Product Hunt who are hunting many projects. I got the advice of getting a hunter working in the same space as my product (e.g: Music). The best approach is to browse topics and find products that are more similar to yours.
For Streamradiox, Justin Mitchell (@jmitch) was my hunter. Justin has been mentoring me for many months about Streamradiox and product knowledge. He offered me to hunt the product, and it was a no brainer! If you can** find a mentor **to help you be out, that would be great too.
If you need help, I'm happy to hunt your product or put you in touch with people in my network. Feel free to reach out.
Tip 6: Direct messages
I directly reached out to my contacts on Social Media (WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, etc), replied to all new comments on Product Hunt, and sent a newsletter to the people following my personal blog.
While during my first launch on Product Hunt with Clotim I took a more passive approach, merely sharing the launch on social, this time I pinged my friends directly and asked them for help spreading the word. Thanks to them, I got a broader impact.
Tip 7: Learn to create a GIF
I always loved the cool GIFs from other makers in Product Hunt. This time I pushed myself to learn how to build one, and I ended up making the Streamradiox GIF using Premiere PRO.
There are other tools out there if you want to create GIFs without the complexity of more advanced software like Giphy
Next post: Five things I didn't do well
In the next post, I'll talk about five mistakes I made in this launch. Subscribe to my newsletter so you don't miss out. http://ferreiro.me/newsletter
Have questions or feedback to improve in my next launch? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jgferreiro
