What is your launch strategy?
Hey there,
As you may know we recently launched Logology.co. We are in a phase where we're looking for the first feedback and users to understand what the main glitches to fix are.
But what's next?
What strategy do you use to launch your product? Do you go step by step, small community by small community or do you launch directly on Product Hunt?
My intuition here is to go small first and get bigger and bigger. And launch to PH when you have the perfect gem.
Any feedback on this?
Trending on Indie Hackers
Protect your momentum like your life depends on It
Opsgenie vs. Splunk: Choosing the Right Incident Management Solution
FWIW, you can launch multiple versions of your product on PH. There are a few I've seen that built up an audience this way. Of course, as others have pointed out, I agree it's important bear in mind to launch where your audience lives
I know you can do multiple launches, but they "have" to be distant no? I mean, that does not make sense to launch every 3 months.
So, you better make a good launch :/
That's up to you. I was just alluding to the fact that other people make iterative progress on their products. :)
There are a few examples out there. One such I came across recently applying the strategy successfully is Reader Mode https://www.producthunt.com/posts/reader-mode-premium
Yo! I really wonder whether Product Hunt will be the right fit for you when it comes to launching. Your product is relatively expensive, which is fine if you're positioning it as a premium tool/service/whatever in your niche. You really need to make that clear in the copy, though, before you launch on PH.
I agree with you on launching later when you're bigger, but what exactly does this entail?
Your website looks stunning, and the animations provide a nice touch. But the value proposition really isn't clear to me from the onset. I think that you need to make that clearer before launching and have a well-baked idea on the hook that you want to launch your project with.
I don't know what you're offering even after reading the hero copy:
"Fall in love with your new logo. Got 15 minutes?"
Love the first line. It taps into the emotional core of potential customers who have been looking for the perfect logo, but haven't found it yet. But the 15 minutes sounds jarring. It takes me out of the fantasy. Why do you need to take 15 minutes of my time? It comes out of nowhere.
"We’ve prepared hundreds of designs that can adapt to any startup values. Take our brand discovery questionnaire and see your proposals."
You need to change the positioning here, desperately. I get that the designs are template-based, but it takes away the feeling of exclusivity that people want to have when they're buying premium services like this one.
You also need to be clearer with your messaging and what you actually offer. So far, there's no hint of that whatsoever.
Your messaging after the hero still has this weird mixture of being overly specific (e.g. 11 questions, 10 different brand positioning...), not being clear with your value prop, and emphasising emotions that might not be the right ones, regarding the context.
Thank you, it's very valuable feedback!
You made me understand that we definitely have an issue on how we sell our product.
We're in the middle of custom & random generator and it's kind of tricky to explain and make it crystal clear to our visitors.
I'll work on it!
No worries! Super glad you found it useful. I was hesitating on whether or not to write some notes on your copy, but decided to do it because your service looks so nice!
Feedback is always welcome! We're working on an update, if you want I can keep you posted!
Sure :). Go for it. Always feels nice to progress happen.
My general strategy is I launch to a tiny group of invite-only people who will be willing to tolerate an alpha-quality product.
For my new starter kit Phoenix Igniter, I initially only gave access to my existing Alchemist Camp customers. Then I opened it up to a slightly larger group of early email signups.
I'm glad I did it that way, too! There were a few rough edges around people signing up via one Oauth provider and signing up for that provider via another during the signup flow. I had a chance to improve the experience before sharing the app with a larger audience that didn't know or trust me as much.
When starting Alchemist Camp, I didn't have much online audience, so I sent people directly to a survey / email signup from a YouTube video. Then when I "launched" the paid offering, I only emailed to 1/3 of my list at first so I could get feedback, improve the site and/or docs and then email the rest of the list.
I've never launched to PH.
That's what we did. We opened first as a private beta, then here as a public beta. The question is more about what next?
What feedback have you gotten from your users so far?
They don't really understand what we're doing - we need more examples on the homepage. They don't want to signup this early either.
But I think the problem is deeper than that. The issue here is about logo generators. They are perceived as low quality tools. And we want to create something "premium", that create some misundertanding about our product
Have you written much on your blog about these things? I think it's normal to need multiple contacts with a prospective customer before they're willing to go through a sign-up process. This is doubly true if you're doing something the market isn't used to paying for.
Not much, nop. But that's the plan!
Blog posts are also easier to share on Reddit than a landing page is. Good luck!
I put Bashboard to PH and HN yesterday, cold reception. But I knew there wasn't going to be a party happening since my product solves a specific problem. It was more of a "it's ready enough to talk about" celebration moment. Although the silence meeting me was a turn off anyway :D So moving forward it's about talking to individuals. As it has been so far anyway.
Agree with you, it's all about customers feedback!
We're in a similar position right now. From what I've seen and the folks that I've spoken with, I don't think it makes sense to launch on PH when everything is "perfect". Its an iterative process, and I think you should just launch on PH/HN or wherever as soon as you feel like you can handle the influx of feedback. The launch is the first step in a long process of getting customers
We're planning on launching on PH/HN, but aren't going to treat it as the end all be all of things. A success on PH doesn't necessarily mean long term success or vice versa.
Combination of the small community + platforms like PH are the way to go imo!
Thanks!
I don't plan to ever "launch" Moon. I've put it in front of my target audience since day 1 and plan to let it grow by continuing to serve them and talking about it where they hang out (here on IH).
I have no interest in a "big splash" announcement on ProductHunt, HackerNews or even Indie Hackers.
Edit: Ok maybe on IH 🤷♂️
So, you won't post to PH, HN or Betalist?
At this point I can't see any real benefit. To me, a founder should "launch" their product directly where their customer hangs out. But why hold off on sharing it until one "big day"? Why not just share it as soon as possible and keep on improving it over time?
Because PH is kind of a big launch, isn't it wasting it if you launch with some obvious glitches?
But, yeah, that's the whole question!
Ah. I meant share it as soon as possible where your customers are, not "launch" it as soon as possible on PH. Sharing it early, directly to your customers will not be a waste because the people who actually need your product won't mind the obvious glitches. They will be happy that you're reducing their pain even a little bit. Just my opinion though. I'm curious to hear what others say.
Interesting point of view! Do you think Logology reduce your pain (even a little bit?)
I can't tell if your app is the same, but most of the logo generators I've tried just picked a relevant symbol (e.g. a moon) and place it next to my product name in various fonts and colors. Do you have anywhere on your site where I can see some examples?
If this is what Logology does then unfortunately I'm not in your target audience because I want a more custom-crafted logo (see my current one on the moon landing page).
We're working on examples, it should be online soon.
I know logo generators' quality is poor, that's why we created Logology. All our design materials are hand-made (pictogram, color scheme…) and we start by a branding discovery survey to help us understand your company personality. Then we generate logo proposals with dedicated colors-scheme for your company.
Ah, ok so it is a hand-made icon for my product? As in I wait for a human designer to review my survey answers and create a logo for me? If so that sounds much better (but tbh I couldn't tell if that is the process based on your website copy).
We’re somewhere in the middle btw the generators and the custom work.
Every part of our logos are hand-made and picked by Lucie to match your project personality. However the final result is made by our algorithm.