A detailed description of the launch of Crello on the Product Hunt product platform – preparation, the most effective promotion tactics, mistakes, achievements and plans.
Crello first came out on Product Hunt in the summer of 2017. We have become Product of the Day and Product of the Month. And so far, Crello remains in the top 30 product list with the most votes.
In this article we will tell the story of our success – we will share the secrets of preparation and promotion, reveal the results and list the lessons we learned from the campaigns. And most importantly, we will share how we are now helping others launch a campaign – simply and effectively.
What for
Why bother spending so much time and effort preparing the launch and promoting on Product Hunt platforms?
People come to Product Hunt to learn about new products that can make life a little (or much) easier: there are tools that relate to productivity, AI, UX, marketing, design, analytics, photography, wearable technologies and the Internet of things, there are also games. , task managers and much more.
How popular is this platform? According to SimilarWeb statistics, over the past six months, 8.3+ million people visit producthunt.com every month. Product Hunt’s global Alexa ranking is now 4.2 and over 40% of its visitors are from the United States.
Crello launched two products on Product Hunt: an online graphics editor in August 2017 and animated designs a year later in 2018.
The online editor Crello received more than 5 thousand votes, and thanks to such a warm reaction it was in the top – it became # 2 “Product of the Day” (August 29, 2017), # 2 “Product of the Week” (August 29, 2017) and # 4 “Product of the Month” “(August 2017). Crello’s animated designs have received over 1000 votes. Why we didn’t become # 1, you will find out further 🙂
These two launches helped us introduce ourselves to a huge number of people. We got 40K direct conversions from Product Hunt, and that’s not counting organic traffic, searches, and clicks from Product Hunt emails.
In the last two months alone – two years after launch – 600 people have come to us from Product Hunt. So this is a long-running story.
Here are the main results from our launch at Product Hunt in August 2017:
- more than 30 publications in media around the world (in 8 languages);
- more than 11 thousand direct referrals from Product Hunt;
- valuable feedback and tips on how to improve the editor;
- the average daily traffic rate has tripled compared to the indicator at the start of the campaign.
Crello editor has become a recognizable brand and has established itself as a serious player in the online graphic tools market.
Preparation
Step 1. Create an account on Product Hunt.
A user profile must be created at least one week before the product is posted.
On the product page, you need to specify it creator / s… You can mark yourself as a creator or add others – the main thing is that they also have accounts on Product Hunt.
Step 2. Explore the platform.
Check out the products already featured on Product Hunt to see what descriptions and images are added by companies, what commentators have written, and to participate in the discussions yourself.
This will help you feel the tone of communication on the platform and understand what is interesting to users – both in terms of the product as a whole, and in terms of certain aspects that users may want to understand more deeply.
Step 3. Learn more about launching on Product Hunt.
Here are some applied materials – an article on our launch blog on Product Hunt and helpful tips from Foundr.
Step 4. Prepare materials for launch.
Launching on Product Hunt is a critical moment. You need to carefully prepare for it. Here is a must-have of something that will come in handy for launching (and everything should be perfect here):
- profile text pages on Product Hunt (tagline, category, categories, 260 character description, first comments about the product);
- profile pictures on Product Hunt (avatar, at least two images to the product gallery),
- promo video for the product (only YouTube videos can be posted on Product Hunt);
- promotions and lyrics for social media and websites to invite friends and customers to rate a product on Product Hunt;
- links to publications about your product.
It is important to prepare not only a profile on Product Hunt, but also content for external platforms – Facebook, Instagram, other social networks and the site. Because with the help of these materials, you can “bring” as many people as possible to the product page and get the most votes.
Let’s be honest – everyone makes launch materials literally at the last minute.
The Crello team has been preparing two releases, and we know the pain. And we also know what kind of visuals you need. That is why we have made for you a selection of themed templates for launching on Product Hunt: you can edit them for yourself in a couple of minutes – add text and logos. And so you will already have everything you need to launch on Product Hunt.
The visuals are the main focus. Therefore, visuals for launching and promoting a campaign, content for social networks and pictures for pop-ups can save (or drown) your release.
Step 5. Turn around.
The next step in the preparatory phase is something that everyone hates terribly. Intense communication, presentations, stories about yourself to everyone in a row, in general – networking…
This step includes the following steps:
- search for influential hunterwho will talk about your product and influencers who will support the launch on social media;
- shaping around the product community users who will vote and comment on the product page on Product Hunt;
Important: everyone in your company should know the exact date of the launch of the campaign and promotional activities in which you want to involve them (for example, post updates about the campaign on your pages in social networks).
And when everyone around you already knows about the launch of the campaign, you can start.
Step 6. Check competitors.
Perhaps this is generally worth starting with. Before you start preparing, try to find out if competitors are going to launch at the same time as you.
The graphic editor Crello turned out to be the second “Product of the Day” on August 29, 2017, only because on the same day, 7 hours after our launch, Product Hunt 4.0 was released:
At first glance, the critical situation turned out to be beneficial for us: the own launch of Product Hunt attracted more traffic to the platform – and more people watched other products, including Crello.
Promotion
If you have prepared correctly, the success of a promotional campaign is almost in your pocket.
Here’s how to tell everyone about the launch:
- make a publication on the company’s website, blog, pages in social networks, email newsletters;
- ask everyone who is working on your project to share news of the launch on social networks, blog or mailing list;
- ask partners to talk about your launch on their social networks, mailings, blog and other platforms;
- agree on publications in the media.
Another important point to get more people involved in your product campaign is to respond to all comments on your Product Hunt page and participate in other discussions.
Your team should be at a low start – ready to respond to the many questions that users may have after launching a campaign.
Regardless of the outcome, don’t forget to thank your users, friends and partners for supporting the launch!
Our findings
Before launching our third campaign on the Product Hunt campaign, we spoke with representatives of the companies who also prepared releases on the Product Hunt, and analyzed their experience. Here are the conclusions we made:
- Adequate resources (time and people) are essential to properly plan your campaign.
- The visuals matter – if the launch ad image you post on Facebook isn’t high-quality or interesting enough, it won’t get clicked on. Facebook’s algorithm will lower the post in the SERP, and fewer people will know about the launch. And if you add animation (yes, Crello has taken care of that too), it will be great.
- Emails are important – send private messages about the launch to your users, friends and partners. Whoever says anything, but people like to provide a service – if it costs them nothing 🙂
- Summer is not the best time to launch, all partners are on vacation, the city is half empty, all the journalists are on the beaches, and the emails are on answering machines.
- Finding a top hunter to help you with your campaign is not a win yet.
Our top tip
Having launched two campaigns on Product Hunt, we decided to do a third.
This time it’s a product to help others launch on Product Hunt! If you think this is a piece in a piece, you do not think – we have really created sets of editable templates that will make it easier to launch on Product Hunt, and it is their launch on Product Hunt.
Here’s what’s in our kits:
- profile picture for Product Hunt
- gallery of product images
- cover for Facebook page
- post announcement for Facebook
- thank you post for Facebook
- posting to Instagram
- Twitter post
- banner for ad on the site
Most importantly, it’s all FREE to edit, download and use. And the Crello set for Product Hunt even includes animation – the most trendy format! Create animated campaign posts on Product Hunt for Instagram or Facebook using the format square video post Crello.
Register for a Crello account or log in via Google or Facebook – and start preparing. With Product Hunt visual templates, you can do it all in half an hour.
Good luck!
