Are you announcing your product or app launch on Product Hunt, and want to make sure you have the best chance at getting featured?

Do you want to make the most of your time on Product Hunt to ensure a successful campaign?

While we’ve helped multiple apps get featured on Product Hunt, we wanted to reach out to a few experts and beg them to reveal some of their best tips on gaining success before, during, and after your Product Hunt campaign.

Here are seven tips from the experts on being a Product Hunt success story.

1. Create a great landing page

Before you do anything else, you want to make sure you have a landing page that highlights everything your app or product has to offer. Julia Nash, who has helped Softorino get multiple success stories on Product Hunt, points out that a cool landing page is essential to success on the platform.

Don’t make it too salesy, but be sure all of the best features are explained. Videos make a huge impact on your audience, so consider making a professional video recording that explains why you developed this product or app, what problem it solves, and how important it will be to your viewers’ lives.

2. Find the right Hunter

Even if you have your own account, you can get much more exposure on the site if you have an influential Hunter to post your product. Josh Inglis, a public relations professional from Propllr, suggests looking for Hunters that have shared similar items in the past, or who have curated lists.

You should also take a look at the top Hunter leaderboards, and make some notes about which ones have shown a precedent for caring about a product or app likes yours.

Why would you have a Hunter post for you? For one thing, there’s the chance that your product or app will be automatically featured, rather than just relegated to the Upcoming page.

3. Find your favorite Hunter’s email or social media address

Once you’ve identified a couple of Hunters, it’s time to figure out how to get in touch with them. The best way is by email.

Once you pick out your favorite Hunter, you can search for them on LinkedIn and use Email Hunter to try to guess their email address.

If that doesn’t work, look on social media, particularly Instagram and Twitter, to find a link to their personal website. You can generally find a good way to contact them through their personal website.

4. Make your pitch

Look at this just like pitching a reporter; you want to grab their attention, but you don’t want to annoy them with spam. Before you send anything out, make sure you read over our list of the top reasons reporters don’t reply to emails.

You should also make sure you use one of our recommended tools for ensuring you know when your email gets opened.

If you can’t find an email address, try sending your Hunter a tweet asking to connect. Again, you’re making a pitch, just a lot shorter. Grab their attention and let them know why they should care about your product or app.

Remember, some of these top Hunters, like Chris Messina, get pitched on a daily basis. Remember, your subject line is one of the most important elements of your email pitch, because that’s how you grab the Hunter’s attention.

For a deeper discussion on how to create a great pitch, check out how one of our email pitches led to the No. 2 Paid App overall on the iTunes App Store. The same principles apply to pitching Product Hunters.

5. Announce your launch on social media

The day your product or app launches on Product Hunt, make sure you share the page with all of your social media networks. This helps drive more exposure, especially since you’re announcing it to people who are already interested in what you’re doing. Just make sure you don’t ask for upvotes, because that’s against Product Hunt’s rules!

You should share your Product Hunt page throughout the day to drive more exposure. Also, be sure to share your Product Hunt page on various Facebook and LinkedIn groups. Alexis Monson, founder of Punkpost, points out that that you should reach out to anyone and everyone about your Product Hunt campaign, including social media and other communication channels you might be using.

6. Think about collections

Nash also points out that creating a collection is optional but can be very useful. She stresses that you should create a collection that’s relevant to your niche, so you can add your own product to it once it’s hunted.

If you play your cards right and the stars align in your favor, you could end up having your collection emailed out to all of the Product Hunt users as a newsletter.

7. Use the momentum wisely

Product Hunt has an audience of more than 100,000 people, just on Twitter alone. If you’re not convinced, Monson stresses that “journalists and a highly engaged community, who are interested in new technologies and startups, closely follow its news.”

Be sure to use your success on Product Hunt as leverage to get even more media exposure. In fact, we’ve helped clients get featured on Mashable and iOS Today by leveraging their Product Hunt success.

Your day in the sun on Product Hunt will be a badge of honor, but make sure you are ready for the spike in traffic. You’ll have about a week to bask in the glory of Product Hunt, but be sure you follow up with your social media channels and email lists about your feature and other great news related to your Product Hunt campaign.

Start your own Product Hunt success

With these tips in mind, you should be able to make the most of the short time you get on Product Hunt. It’s a great platform for getting noticed, but you have to use it properly. Follow these tips, along with all of Product Hunt’s rules, and you should be able to run a great campaign.

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