Here's how The Swarm won #1 Product of the Day!

Product Hunt: The big picture

• Plan for multiple launch arcs: Think of Product Hunt as a long-term channel instead of a one-off launchpad. You will gain long-term followers, reviews, diverse accolades (not just product of the day/week/month), shoutouts, social proofs, and you can generate awareness and leads in the long run with Product Hunt. If your target audience aligns well with it (tech founders - mostly B2B, developers, early adopters, tinkerers, builders at early-stage but also advanced growth stages) invest in the platform and plan for 1-3 launches a year (ex: https://www.producthunt.com/products/descript
• Position your launch and be contrarian: Don’t copy-paste your website. Saying you're launching an agent for XYZ, for example, is not being contrarian (as cool as it may be). My point is: Even if you are launching an agent :) take a stand, challenge the status quo, ask the difficult questions (see how we positioned The Swarm 🔆 as a novel take on relationships and a counterpoint to bad AI: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/the-swarm)
• Upvotes are how you win the day/week/month but it's not all about upvotes. Product Hunt rewards your product visibility in the long-term, via a mix of engagement and votes. Leverage comments and drive conversation (not just promotion). Consider an AMA and take advantage of their new forums launched just a few weeks ago (see https://www.producthunt.com/p/general)‍
• It’s not about winning (of course it helps…) but more so about using this opportunity to reconnect with your contacts, leads, etc. Everyday loves to help a PH launch by a company or a person they know. Consider this when asking for a vote: Don’t just ask for a vote with a quick link. Share something interesting, ask a personalized question. Consider this also when thanking people: Don’t just say “thanks so much, we won”, go further.

The stuff no one told you about

• Clear your calendar on the day of AND the next day. You want to have time to follow up the next day AND your email/LinkedIn will blow up if successful. There will be PH comments, and LinkedIn thanks and congrats and many messages trickling in the following day too.
• People can keep voting after the day is over (to compete for a week or month) so if you care about these additional awards, keep communicating after the day of the launch.
• Schedule your launch. Then move it. You can schedule a launch, then move it to the best date possible. You can gain followers in the process by sending them to your product hub page.
• It starts at midnight PT so you have 24h. If your team is around the world, take advantage of every hour. At The Swarm, we had our team in Poland, then US, then some contacts in Asia and Australia at the end of the day! Starting strong ensures you’re in the top 5 which organically snowballs in your favor since you’re on the frontpage of producthunt.com all day. A lot of organic, additional votes will come that way.
• If you only want to win product of the day (which I generally don't recommend as your only goal re: long-term point above) consider Saturdays or Sundays that are a lot less competitive. Otherwise, shoot for the middle of the week to maximize your visibility.
• Get some help from a pro from planning to launching! We're lucky to have Chris Messina as the hunter for our launch. His advice was invaluable (see https://chrismessina.me/hunt-me)
• Plug for The Swarm, but true! ;) Tap into your extended company network. Map and tap into the key relationships of your team and stakeholders to not only upvote you and comment on your page, but also amplify your launch by posting interesting and original content to their own relevant networks.
• Use  client testimonials in images in the gallery, not just screenshots.
• Use some proof points that reinforce your launch (investors, other awards, etc.)
• Use PH shoutouts to call out partners and products you’ve used to build yours (in long-term if people post shoutout about your product it can be helpful to generate traffic and leads)

📅 Two Weeks Before Launch

• Finalize your Product Hunt positioning and copy
• Brief the design person and video person with it (you don’t absolutely need a video, but it helps)
• Begin engaging early supporters (people can hit “get notify” on your banner page, which is what gets displayed before the day). You can start building followers that day
• Draft your "Maker" comment which is the first comment the CEO (generally) will post
• Ensure all team members are added to the page and have created a PH account
• Invite a hunter if applicable (this has lost weight over the years, used to be huge)

📅 One Week Before Launch

• Make a list of your key people (use the swarm or Attio or your own CRM to isolate the top 500 people that are helping your business some way or another)
• Prepare a personal email campaign for these people for the day of (Lemlist or other tool). 
• Write up copy for social media posts, so they’re ready
• Add a banner to your website about the upcoming launch

📅 Two days before

• Finalize the page
• Schedule LinkedIn posts
• Schedule personal outreach campaign, and generally schedule anything you can ahead of time to save time the day of on personal outreach, responding to comments
• Remind the team to be ready! Generally it takes two people on deck at the minimum to manage this if you want to do it well. Ideally 3 or 4 people.

📅 One day Pre-Launch

• Send blurbs to team
• Post heads up on LinkedIn and social
• Have a lighter day and restful evening

📅 Launch Day

• Remind the team to post on social media, post comments on the PH page, and of course upvote
• Everyone to boost the CEO or leader post on social for extra visibility
• Update website to "We're live today!"
• Monitor AMA if applicable and comments all day
• Run personal outreach for a few hours (LinkedIn, WhatsApp, text messages: for people who are not in the “personal” email campaign although it's also ok to message someone on two platforms of course)
• Post in Slack communities, forums, groups you’re a part of. Respect the group policies and frame your outreach accordingly.

Good luck with your launch!