What steps do you take pre-launch?
Gabe Perez
52 replies
Curious to hear what everyone's *must-dos* are prior to and during a product launch!
Replies
Gabe Perez@gabe
Product Hunt
Part 2 - creating an upcoming launch page! Would love to hear your thoughts: https://www.producthunt.com/disc...
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Wire Flow
Be sure you have a network/group of people who you can count to be your supporters before the launch.
We are currently in the pre-launch stage while building Aaply www.aaply.app. This is what we are doing:
Preparing basics:
1. Branding + landing page.
2. Let users join the waitlist starting the first day of development/idea.
3. Creating social media accounts (tw, li, fb, medium).
4. Beginning to post, posting process content (what you are building, why, how, etc.)
5. Basic SEO optimisation.
6. Analytics setup (GA, SearchConsole, etc).
💬 Communication pre-launch:
1. Guest blogging.
2. Being active in tw/li discussions.
3. Reaching out to industry influencers.
4. Content marketing (blog + reddit/medium).
5. Co-promo with partners (products with later-stage startups with an audience).
💻 Product pre-launch:
1. Closed beta (limited functions, very very small group of users).
2. Сlosed beta №2 (more people after fixing few bugs 😁).
3. Access for all users from waitlist (when MVP/EVP is ready).
Product Hunt
@5harath @gabe__perez Thank you! Agree, and it seems like it might be useful for creators to collect all the possible action points in one post.
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
I can talk about this for hours but here are some tips from my experience of launching products:
Pre-launch:
1. Do a soft launch on Twitter or wherever you have your audience.
2. Warm up early believers by personally reaching out to them.
3. Prepare all answers for questions that you expect in the launch
4. Make sure the product doesn't have any bugs
5. Get excited to learn from the community.
During launch:
1. Be available for the community.
2. Address all the comments with personalized answers not templatized.
3. Share interesting feedback you get on Twitter or other social channels.
4. Share numbers like web traffic, no. of signups, paid customers(if any), social proof.
5. Have a lot of fun interacting with the community.
Product Hunt
@5harath @stefan_smiljkovic I anticipate new bugs to be found 😅
Wire Flow
@5harath
>4. Make sure the product doesn't have any bugs
hehe, this is almost impossible buddy. Specially if you work on more complex thing. Maybe if you are launching very basic app, or another newsletter, or list.
But having bugs is part of the project and will always be. Especially in early days of product life cycle.
Product Hunt
Brief on Demand by Amy
@5harath @stefan_smiljkovic True nothing is called perfect in tech world. Product evolve with a time and it will have always issues. It takes time to fix and come up with final. But yes it is wise to address the issue and make it more fixable. Some of customer understand that but some of them not. we need to go with that journey.
BrandBird
My 2 cents after launching 15+ products in 3 years 😅
Must-have:
1. Basic logo/branding
2. Find 5-10 people willing to test your product
3. Gather at least 4 testimonials from early adopters. Don't hesitate to offer them an LTD license to lurk them into giving feedback/testimonial
4. Soft launch on Twitter, IH, Reddit to detect bugs, UX issues, etc
5. Create a landing page with CTA to your web app or form to capture emails
6. Legit domain name (x̶x̶x̶.v̶e̶r̶c̶e̶l̶.a̶p̶p̶) to start ranking on Google with your launch traffic
7. Setup analytics & Google Search Console account
8. Make sure pricing/onboarding flows work perfectly
9. Double-check #8 👆
Nice-to-have:
1. Retweetable video to boost word-of-mouth effect
2. Build-in-public to strengthen your product story
3. Pre-schedule tweets, posts, etc, because your launch day will be crazy like hell 🔥
4. Reach out to influencers/industry leaders to use/promote your products (requires $$$ or give a free license)
I'm sure I forget 100+ other useful tips but these are the most important points...
Usersnap
These 2 worked the best for us: connect with fellow makers and engage with our customers. And we're almost #1 product of the day now, like right now! So go and check us out - Usersnap 😉
@ashley_lomazzi That's great! How did you connect with other makers? Via Twitter?
Build a waitlist! ⚡️
I created a course to break down the steps: justin-mcleod.teachable.com
Currently, we are working on growing an audience and creating a buzz with our design. Since we are making a design tool, impressing the community with the craftsmanship on our side is pretty important.
Being featured by inspiration platforms came to be a good tactic to get people on the waitlist for us.
At the same time, we put a lot of effort to grow our Twitter account since the coolest tech people hang out there.
It`s a very broad discussion, but I can tell what for me is the most painless way to make your way to pre-launch or even use it as a growth strategy.
The smart way to hack your way in front of others Is to build your idea first and start using it by yourself and then start sharing on social about your experiences or values you get from using it.
Pee York
Share the product in my belonged slack, facebook.
Share the progress on social media.
Product Hunt
@yusuke2424 what's the Slack!?
Pee York
@gabe__perez Tokyo Hacker news group, nocode group
Have a solid sleep the night before 😆
Product Hunt
@elise_sadu lol, new parent here, so this is very rare even without a launch lol
@elise_sadu great advice. I wish I could do it 🤣
Grow your audience before launching.
Tolstoy
Get drunk and hope for the best😉
I wish I could find something for "Post-launch".
We launched today on PH:
https://www.producthunt.com/post...
I've curated all the feedback that we got from users. However, I am feeling things are not going as we planned.
@teamideaonce congrats!
@blakeevans Thanks
@blakeevans Thanks Evans. give it a try whenever you get some time
@teamideaonce IdeaOnce is a nice tool! It can help me design easily and quickly.
@blakeevans Thank you that is really helpful
Neighborverse
This is my plan.
1. Get launch assets ready.
2. Let your audience on various networks know about the launch.
3. Prepare for Q&A
4. Hopefully, get some rest before launch.
Thoughts?
@chansen0219 @venkatarajan @san_geetha
On pre-launch you can do the following:
1. Share your product-making process on social media channels (Twitter, Facebook,..)
2. Actively interact and share about your products in communities (PH, Slack, Reddit,..)
3. Make sure that the product is not defective.
4. Prepare to answer all questions from users.
5. Get a good night's sleep before the launch day.
Product Hunt
@blakeevans Solid list, thanks Blake!
Build a Lead Generation Pre-Launch Landing Page.
Start Building Interest within Your Subscriber List.
Identify (and Engage with) Your Influencers Who Will Help You Out.
Draft Your Editorial Calendar.
Start Segmenting Your Audience.
Takeaways.
maybe stupid questions...but, I really want to understand this stuff :)
1) who should launch the product? me, as a maker, or hunter, who is interested in helping me?
2) does the video really impact your PH rank? Is it true that if you have a video attached, it means that you will be more successful than guys with screenshots?
Thank you for your answers in advance.
@sonia_belokur When hunters hunt a product, all their followers get notified.
The top ph posts do seem to have video. Not 100% sure if it's just the algorithm itself or because video is an easier way to explain what you have.
@between_team thank you for answers!
I'm also not sure if video really helps to achieve success. Who knows :)
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