How to promote your launch: the Startup Launched playbook
A launch goes better with a plan. These are the steps Startup Launched suggests, grouped by when to do them.
Ahead of the launch
Give the page everything
Write a clear tagline, a description in your own words and the questions people ask you most. Complete your founder profile too: people like to know who is behind a product.
Show the product
Screenshots of the product in use explain more than a paragraph. Add a clean logo, and a short demo video if you have one.
Pick a week you can be there
Avoid a week when you are away. The first days matter most, and you want to be there to answer people.
Warm up your contacts
Let your team, users and supporters know the date. Have your posts drafted so you only need to add the link.
Launch day
Post your listing
Write one honest post about what you built and why, with the listing link. Pin it, and put the link in your bio while launch week runs.
Be there to reply
Treat each question as a chance to explain the product better. Reply the same day and keep the tone friendly.
Find the right forums
Post only where the rules allow it and the topic fits. Write in your own name, answer questions there too, and use Show HN for something people can try.
Let your subscribers know
Write a brief launch email with the link and one line on what is new. Add a launch banner or link to your welcome email too.
Keep it honest. Votes can never be bought, each person has one, and asking for votes from borrowed or extra accounts is against the rules.
During launch week
Update the page
Read the comments again and improve the page: answers to common questions, clearer wording and current images.
Share a second time
A day or so after launch, post again on LinkedIn with something new: what people asked, what you changed or what you learnt.
Add other directories
List your product in other launch directories that suit it. Check each one's terms, price and link type first.
Add your badge
Embed the badge code on your site. It points to your listing, where people can read about the product and leave a comment.
When the week is over
Review the results
After launch week, look at the numbers in your own analytics and write down what to repeat and what to drop.
Update it now and then
After launch, keep the details current: what it does, what it costs and what it looks like now.
Use your next milestone
Launch again later with a meaningful update, and explain what changed since last time.
Launch directories, compared
Best Launch Directories compares launch directories, startup directories and AI tool lists, with each one's Domain Rating, pricing and link type, so you can pick the ones that fit.
Extras that can help
If you would like extra help, Startup Launched sells the following, each at the price shown. All of them are optional.
- Featured launch $19
Featured on the homepage for 7 days from your launch week, marked Featured, and never counted as a vote.
- Multi-site bundle $99
One listing, written once by you: we put it live on 49 other launch and discovery sites in different words for each, and every edit you make later updates all of them automatically.
- Done-for-you listing $149.99
Hand it to us: your listing goes onto 49 other launch and discovery sites, each with its own description, and one email brings you every link.
- Homepage pitch $49
The one Sponsored slot on the homepage, yours for 7 days: name, logo, tagline and a link to your website.
- Category pitch $19
Sit above the listings on your category page for 7 days, labelled Sponsored.
- Newsletter pitch $29
One weekly newsletter issue with your company in its Sponsored place.
- Billboard from $5
The Billboard is ordered by money contributed and nothing else, with the biggest total at the top. It is kept apart from votes.
- Product review $19
A structured review of your product built from your public website and your listing, shown on your listing and labelled as commissioned by the maker. It is never a vote or a rating.
- Editorial founder feature $29
An edited article about the founder, from their own story, profile and listing facts; our editors invent nothing.
Prices are in US dollars; VAT is added where it is due.
Questions
- How do I follow up after launching?
- Look at your analytics, update the listing when the product changes, and launch again when you have a real update.
- Should I share on launch day or later?
- Start on launch day itself. A second post during the week, built around something new, gives the launch a second chance.
- How many launch directories should I use?
- Choose the directories that list products like yours. Compare their prices and link types first, and avoid pasting the same text everywhere.
- Is it all right to ask friends to vote?
- You can ask real users to take a look. Each person votes once, votes can never be bought, and extra or shared accounts are against the rules.
We hope it helps. The Startup Launched help centre answers the questions this page does not. Open the help centre