SaaS launch checklist for a small team

A small team does not need a launch campaign. It needs a short list of things done in the right order, so that the people who show up on launch day can understand the product, try it and tell you what is wrong. This checklist is written for teams of one to five, with no marketing budget to speak of.

The short version

Two weeks before: make the product understandable and measurable. Launch week: show up in a few places where your buyers already look, and answer every reply. The month after: keep the listings that sent people, fix what visitors told you, and write down what happened.

Two weeks before launch

Make the first visit work

• The homepage says what it is in one line. Read it aloud to someone outside your field. If they cannot repeat it back, rewrite it.
• There is a way to try it without a call. A free plan, a trial, a demo account or a two-minute video. Each step between landing and using is a place people leave.
• Pricing is on a public page. Visitors comparing several tools need a price to compare.
• Sign-up works on a phone. Test it on a real one, with a slow connection.

Make it measurable

• Analytics are installed and tested. Open the site in a private window and confirm the visit shows up.
• You have one conversion event. A sign-up, a first project created, an install. Pick the one that means someone actually tried the product.
• Every listing link has UTM tags. Use one utm_medium for all directories and a different utm_source for each. Our guide on checking whether a directory sends real traffic explains why.

Prepare the listing text once

Write the tagline, a description of 150 to 300 words, a short "what is different" paragraph, three or four screenshots and a price summary in one document. Most directories ask for the same fields, and writing them once means each submission takes minutes. The listing guide goes through each field.

Also publish an llms.txt file at the root of your site with a plain summary of the product. Some directories, this one included, read it to fill in the submit form, llms.txt is a proposed convention and support among AI tools is uneven, so treat it as a convenience.

Pick where to launch

Choose three to five places, not thirty:

• One or two launch boards where products like yours appear. Look at the last few weeks and check that tools in your category got attention.
• The communities your users already read, where self-promotion is allowed on stated days or in stated threads. Read the rules first.
• Your own list, however small: past users, a waitlist, people who asked to be told.

Skip directories that exist only to collect submissions. Google's spam policies name low-quality directory links as link spam; our guide to directory links explains what that means for you.

Launch week

Timing

Weekly boards reward being live for the whole week. On a board that runs Monday to Sunday UTC, a Monday launch has seven days to collect visits; a Friday launch has three. Our guide on choosing the launch day covers the trade-offs.

On the day

• Post in your chosen places within a few hours of each other, so early visitors arrive while you are at your desk.
• Write a short maker comment on each listing: why you built it, who it is for, what you want feedback on.
• Reply to every question the same day. On a small launch, the replies are often the most useful thing you get.
• Keep a list of every bug and confusion people report. Fix the quick ones that day and say so in the thread.

Through the week

• Ask people who tried it and liked it to say so where they found you. Do not ask for votes from people who have not used the product. That is the wrong kind of attention, and some boards, this one included, discount votes from new accounts.
• Post one update mid-week if you shipped a fix people asked for.
• Do not buy traffic in launch week. You will not be able to tell what worked.

The month after

• Compare sources. After 30 days, rank each place by conversions, not visits. Keep the top two or three in mind for your next release.
• Update the listings that worked. Add the screenshot of the feature you shipped, fix the description where people were confused. A listing that changes when the product changes stays useful.
• Write a short launch story. What you built, what happened, what you would do differently. It helps the next maker and gives people searching for your product something to find.
• Plan the next launch. A real new version is a reason to launch again. A re-launch with nothing new is not.

A note on paying for a launch

Paying can save effort, for example by letting you pick the launch week. It should never buy position on a board that claims to be ranked. Before you pay anywhere, check that paid slots are labelled and that the ranking method is published. Ours is on How we rank, and prices are on Pricing.