8 Steps for Launching Your Product On Instagram

By Saphia Lanier for The Shelf, Full-Funnel Influencer MarketingTM

You can read the full-length version of this post on launching your product on Instagram.

Launching a new product online is fun! It’s exciting! And yet, it’s downright horrifying. For most brands, a product launch is a little like riding a rollercoaster backward. You never really know where your launch will end up.

So, in the next few minutes, we'll lay out a plan for introducing Instagrammers to new products… since 83 percent of them use the platform for product discovery.

Step #1: Figure Out Who You're Targeting

That’s a big one. Chances are you've already done a ton of research on your target customers before designing your product. But even so, you're still going to have to learn basically everything there is to know about marketing to this particular demographic. You need that info for stuff like... testing messages, CTAs, images, and captions... .

You also need to know how your audience behaves on Instagram, compared to how they behave on other platforms. The way you approach your Instagram product launch should be unique to this platform.

That said, take time to get to know your demographic so you can make an Instagram marketing campaign that resonates with them. (This will come in handy later when it comes time to choose influencers and hashtags.)

Step #2: Grow Your Instagram Following with Members of Your Target Audience

This is an essential step, because you don't want to start promoting to an empty house.

The good news is that you just need a solid start: Several hundred followers and a compelling pitch to get potential influencer partners excited about your product and your vision.

There are a couple of no-sweat ways to grow your audience quickly, such as:

• Asking your existing network to follow you on Instagram.
• Publishing at least a dozen high quality photos to start, and continuing to publish content with captions daily. And its okay to include photos that showcase your product or service - use them to explain your new product.
• Making sure your posts fall in line with a specific theme that 'feels' like your brand. You want to make your brand’s Instagram feed cohesive.
• Completing your bio and give it some personality, and add a link back to your website.

Step #3: Clearly Define the Goals of Your Product Launch

If you haven’t thought much about what you want your influencer campaign to achieve, beyond sales, you’ll probably be surprised by how many different types of goals you can set for your campaign.

For example, maybe success for a new brand is adding a thousand followers, or boosting your engagement ratio past 1 percent. Your campaign goals can take a variety of shapes. The point is... you need realistic, measurable goals.

Step #4: Map a Timeline for Your Launch Date

Ideally, you want to create an Instagram marketing campaign that's at least 45 days long. This way, you have enough time to grow buzz. Also remember that it typically takes a couple of weeks just to recruit influencers, ship products, approve the content your influencer partners create and schedule posts to go live. Roll out your campaign over several days or weeks. That way, you can tweak content and optimize messaging as you go. If you know when you want your campaign to go live, you can plan accordingly.

Step #5: Choose the Right Influencers

This is where most brands have trouble. It may take you a few weeks just to get the right influencers committed to your campaign, especially if you’re not using a tool like The Shelf platform for the influencer selection process. Remember... 69 percent of Instagram users go on the platform to interact with influencers. If you can get the right people promoting your product, your buzz generation will be... insane!

Step #6: Use Your Team's Creative Genius

What makes Instagram interesting isn't just the quality of the photos, but more the stories you can tell with images. The pics you use on Instagram should support your corporate brand. This is a really great opportunity for you to connect with people even before they know what your brand is really about.

Step #7: Build a Catalog of Amazing Assets for Your Campaign

The content influencers create should be centered around themes and concepts that your creative team or agency comes up with. We typically present our clients with concept decks which detail the ideas, media, and the value of each concept. That's what you want. You need to find influencers who are good at recreating content that's in line with your concepts.

Your team can supplement sponsored content with things like behind-the-scenes video of the product development process, or a candid, off-the-cuff interview with your CEO, or a super-likable account manager. Another option is to showcase case studies in a way that's interesting and inspiring, and not kill-yourself-boring.

We also recommend coming up with a unique hashtags to use with each campaign. Have influencers add these hashtags to their posts.

Step #8: Rock Your Launch Day!

Instagram marketing goes beyond the pushing of a 'publish' button and monitoring the launch. You need to be in there on launch day, engaging with your audience.

In fact, why not go live so you can answer questions and see all the excitement first-hand?

Here are other tips you can use to ensure your launch day goes well:

• Answer DMs promptly
• Reshare relevant content from followers
• Add your Instragram stories to highlights (for the late comers)
• Edit your bio text and image so it reflects your launch, specifically (add a trackable link, also)
• After launch day, don't forget to continue measuring the results of your campaign.

A Few Final Thoughts...

The planning phase is the most tedious, but well worth it. Once you have all your nuts and bolts, all you have to do is screw them into place.

If you're ready to talk shop with a human, not just a cool, AI, blog-to-voice guy like me, click the button at the bottom of this page to schedule your brainstorming session, or call us at (212) 655-9879.