🗞 What's New: An email sequence for your Product Hunt launch

Warm up your audience starting a week before your Product Hunt launch:

• Email one: Announce the launch and ask for support. Email two: Share your launch content and get feedback. Email three: Share the launch offer!
• It's not too late to start a newsletter to grow your audience. Leverage sponsored posts, cross-promotions with other newsletters, and referrals.
• $233 in revenue in one day. Building in public helped Amani's app go viral, hitting 1K downloads, 400K+ views, and 400 retweets in 24 hours.

Break free from the isolation of solo entrepreneurship. Join an Indie Hackers Peer Group in your city to collaborate, learn, and propel your business to new heights.

by Karthik

When you're launching on Product Hunt, don’t make the mistake of sending emails on your launch day. You need to warm up your subscribers about your launch at least a week before.

Use this tested three email sequence!

Email one, seven days before launch

Once you finalize your launch date, create a "Coming Soon!" page on Product Hunt and email it to your list. Include these elements:

1. What Product Hunt is.
2. How your launch will help you grow your startup and improve your product.

Ask supporters to create Product Hunt accounts to support your launch.

Email two, three days before launch

Send a follow-up email to your subscriber list:

1. Ask them whether they have created a Product Hunt account, and remind them to create one if they haven’t.
2. Share how your launch preparations are going, and any product updates.
3. Ask for feedback on your launch content.

Email three, launch day

Once your launch is live, send a third email:

1. Tell them how helpful their support will be for your launch.
2. Ask them to review your product on the product page.
3. Mention the launch offer, if you are running any.

Pro tip: If you use a platform like ConvertKit or MailerLite, batch your subscribers based on their locations, and schedule the launch email according to their timezones.

This will help you get a better open rate, and spread your support throughout the day.

If you don't have time to write these emails from scratch, and are looking for inspiration, we've created three email templates that you can copy and use for your Product Hunt launch. Get them for free here!

Discuss this story.

from the Growth Trends newsletter

💻 X considers new initiatives to attract more SMBs.

⏱ Ship your product within hours ($100 discount). #ad

👀 SEO trends you can't ignore in 2024.

🛠 Future-proof your SERP presence.

🤝 Build a community by running industry events.

🧸 Competition for plush toys is growing, thanks to adults driving sales.

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

by James Fleischmann

I caught up with successful newsletter creators to find out if it's a good time to get started, and if so, how to do it right.

Are newsletters still worth it?

Manu Cinca of Stacked Marketer:

Email has always been powerful. Newsletters, especially editorial-style newsletters, are in.

I do think 2024 will see a decline in them, so we are probably past the first newsletter peak. This doesn't mean newsletters will disappear, but they will probably see a bit of a plateau, some consolidation, and then more steady growth without as big of an explosion.

So, I think quality newsletters are the future, and worth investing in for founders.

Mac Martine of The SaaS Bootstrapper:

I don't think newsletters are going away anytime soon. There has been a huge uptick in people starting newsletters, so there's a lot more competition than there used to be for getting into someone's inbox.

In the early stages, founders have enough on their plates. A newsletter probably shouldn't be high on the priority list. It fits the bill better for someone who's focused on growing their personal brand, or a more mature business.

Alexander Isora of The 10k Newsletter:

Emailing is old, but it is still alive. So are newsletters. Newsletters are the simplest possible form of a product. They're easy to start, grow, and maintain.

But, if you bet on a newsletter as your only product, you’d better have a plan.

Ann Gynn of The Tilt:

Newsletters are definitely a thing of the future. It's one of the few ways that founders can "own" the audience, and have a direct line of communication with them. That can't happen with a social media following.

Michal Kankowski of Kickstart Sidehustle:

I cannot think of any business that shouldn't have a newsletter, since it's one of the few marketing channels that you truly own.

Monetizing and growing

Ann:

You should determine how the newsletter will help you achieve your business goals.

You can use a newsletter as a content marketing tool to grow an audience, or for your primary product. When a newsletter is the content product you sell, you must hyperfocus on who the audience is, and what content they want to see.

The Tilt's best growth has come from cross-promotional opportunities. We exchange mentions with other newsletters that target a similar audience.

In addition, we also get referrals from creators in the ConvertKit referral program.

Manu:

It's best to reach a certain critical audience before you try to monetize. Depending on the niche, that could be 500-1K unique opens, or it could be 10K+ opens for things more mainstream.

I think sponsored posts are the best balance of quick cash flow and quality. Creating your own products to monetize in your newsletter can also work very well.

To grow, use SparkLoop, newsletter promos and swaps, and paid social.

Mac:

If the newsletter itself is a business, adding revenue or paywalled content is likely the best way to go. If you're generating awareness for your own products, then the products themselves could be the monetization.

For a personal brand, there are a lot of options, such as ad revenue, affiliate marketing, selling your own products, and consulting.

Alexander:

I start monetizing every product from day one, even if it is just a few dollars. That includes my newsletter.

But, in the early stages, it shouldn't be about the money. It is about your experience and connections.

Discuss this story.

😔 We built 15 apps this year and didn't make a single sale. Posted by Michael Shaimerden.

📱 How can I use X to grow my product? Posted by Shirley.

🗓 Length of time from idea to product. Posted by Justin A.

💡 Building a preorder page was the best decision ever. Posted by Prasanna Mestha.

😴 Do you take any days off? Posted by Germán Merlo.

🗣 Tips for early SaaS marketing. Posted by Frank Lin.

Want a shout-out in next week's Best of Indie Hackers? Submit an article or link post on Indie Hackers whenever you come across something you think other indie hackers will enjoy.

by Amani

It all started when my wife sent me a photo in January 2022, with an idea for an app.

Product development

My wife had been recording her days on this chart for a year:

She asked if I could turn this into an app for her, and I said, "Yeah, sure thing babe! I'll be done in a week."

Well...10 months later, I started the design and development of the app.

It was my first time building in public. When I started, I really didn't expect anything, since it was a free app. People following my journey loved the app and the story behind it, so I kept posting and updating them.

A couple of months after I launched, people started asking for premium features. They wanted cross-platform support, sync and backup, rich text formatting, image attachment, etc.

I quickly added those, and also added a paywall. I had to go down that path since those features required a server for them to work.

Going viral

Fast forward 11 months: Someone posted about the app on X, and it went viral, generating 400K+ views and 400+ retweets in one day.

One day after the app went viral, it had:

• 23 purchases.
• $233 in revenue.
• 1K+ installs.

This blew my mind. I didn't imagine the app would go viral, or generate this much revenue in a single day. I built something useful, and the people came!

The app is called Obim, which means "my heart" in my native language. Check it out if you're interested!

Discuss this story.

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.

Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.

Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Karthik, Darko, James Fleischmann, and Amani for contributing posts. —Channing