“How to Build a Community of Evangelists for Your Software Product” Interview with Ryan Hoover and Erik Torenmberg, co-founders at Product Hunt
By Poornima Vijayashanker
We all want customers to crave the products we build. Next, we want them to spread the word, because WOM (word-of-mouth) marketing is THE strongest and most authentic for your product. How do you build this community of evangelists and supporters?
WOM is a testimonial delivered from one customer to another. The customer spreading the word cares about helping the other person out and is willing to vouch for the product based on benefits they’ve personally experienced.
These days, most customer-to-customer testimonials live on the internet through social media, forums, forwarded emails, and other online communities.
They also live on Product Hunt, TechCrunch’s Best New Startup of 2014.
Recommendation-driven user acquisitions aren’t the only benefit for products that succeed on Product Hunt; they might also nab press coverage, investor interest, or high-quality feedback from the tech enthusiasts.
When Product Hunt was just getting started, it faced a classic chicken-and-egg problem that typically burdens community-based products. You need users on your home turf to attract other users, but how do you go from an initial 0 users to 10 or 100?
Product Hunt did a phenomenal job building up a following. The founder, Ryan Hoover, started with a simple email list that grew into a strong community of evangelists eager to use the product every day.
In today’s episode of FemgineerTV, we’ll cover how he did it. Any new startup—even if it’s not social or community-based—can use these strategies to drive word-of-mouth recommendations for their product.
I’ve invited Ryan Hoover and his founding team member Erik Torenberg to candidly share how they used evangelists to accelerate Product Hunt’s growth in the early days. They’ll also explain how they continue to build fervor for the product through an engaged and growing community.
Watch the episode and learn:
- What they did to create a positive first impression of their company on prospective users and influencers.
- How they attracted early adopters even before ProductHunt was built.
- How they mobilized their early adopters to evangelize the product and bring in more users.
- Strategies that did and didn’t work to increase community engagement.
- How they keep users hooked and coming back.
If you’re struggling to get traction for your software product, watch the episode. You’ll definitely walk away with some valuable insights to apply to your business right away!
Viewer’s Challenge
After you’ve watched the episode, take our challenge. Let us know in the blog comments below:
- How do you think about your customers’ first-time experience and how do you know whether it’s contributing to customer acquisition and retention?
- How do you pull your customers back into your product and keep them engaged?
- If your product has a community, what were some of the key steps you took to build it, and how has it changed over time?
The 3 BEST responses will receive a special giveaway from our sponsor Pivotal Tracker and will be showcased in Femgineer’s weekly newsletter!
Submit your responses in the blog comments below by April 22nd at 11:59pm PST.
The next episode of Femgineer TV airs in May. I’ll be hosting Indi Young, the founder of Adapative Path, a user experience consultant, and author of two books: Mental Models and, most recently, Practical Empathy. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know when it’s out!
