Instagram is an ideal platform for product launches due to its large number of global users and high levels of user engagement. This platform offers a variety of formats and features to connect with your audience, such as Reels, Stories and interactive stickers. In addition, having a store on Instagram can help drive sales and, consequently, knowing how to take advantage of all these features, can bring benefits to generate interest around the visibility and sales of a new product. 

 

One of the most common mistakes brands make when launching products is not talking about them before they are available. If you don’t take steps to build anticipation before the product is in stores, you’re likely to miss many opportunities to captivate potential customers with your new offering. That’s why the first step in setting up a product launch is to generate intrigue.

 

What’s the best way to generate intrigue and promote a product launch on Instagram?

 

• Announce new products on Instagram’s broadcast channels. These channels offer the advantage of sending content directly to subscribers’ direct messages, which increases the likelihood that ads will be seen. While subscribers cannot comment on broadcast channels, they can react to and share content in their stories. 

 

• Instagram Stories is the ideal format for generating buzz about new products. Stories stickers offer nearly a dozen options for creating interactive content related to your upcoming launch. It’s also advisable to use Instagram polls and questions to start conversations about upcoming products. For example, you can use polls to ask your followers what features (such as flavors, colors or other qualities) they would like to see in the brand’s next product.

 

• Instagram stories also support reminders and countdowns. With reminders, you can create in-app events (such as product launches) and promote them in stories and in the feed. With reminders, users can opt to receive alerts about the launch date so they are more inclined to join and buy.

 

On the other hand, it is not enough to generate user interest in new products. It is also essential to facilitate the purchase of the products.

 

• Create Highlights. There’s no need to let stories disappear after 24 hours. To highlight a new product launch on your Instagram profile, add relevant stories to a single Highlights folder. You can add any active or archived story to a highlight by tapping the Highlight button at the bottom of the screen. 

 

• Posts in Carousel format. Your Instagram feed is often the best place to feature new products, as Instagram carousels have the highest average engagement rate, making this format a good choice for a major announcement. Also, since carousels support a mix of images and videos, they’re ideal for showcasing multiple products in a new line. They also work well when you want to walk customers through the newest features of a new product. 

 

• Reels can be a smart choice for product launches. While carousel posts tend to have higher engagement than reels, short-form videos tend to reach the most users who don’t yet follow your Instagram account.

 

• When you want to increase the visibility of your new product beyond your current audience, influencer marketing is another option that works. By partnering with influencers, you can leverage their authority to connect with their audience and showcase your product. Unboxing videos and influencer reviews often work well to introduce your product and raise awareness of your brand. But when you want to motivate followers to interact, giveaways can be more effective. Another interesting option is to create specific discount coupons for that influencer, so you can measure the return on that collaboration.

 

• Make your products easy to buy by adding Instagram product tags. If you are launching new ecommerce products, with product tags, you can make any reel, feed post or story shoppable. This will incentivize customers to make a purchase directly in the Instagram app or visit your ecommerce. To enable product tags, you’ll first need to set up a store on Instagram and upload inventory into Meta Commerce Manager. Once you’ve completed these steps, you can add product tags to virtually any product launch content you post on Instagram, including posts, reels and stories, as long as the product is available in your Instagram store.

 

We encourage you to use all these tools to get the best results. It is important to keep up to date with all the news about the functions offered by the platform and make use of them, since in addition to showing the products and services of the brand, it is a way to improve the reach of the account and get Instagram to give more visibility to the content. Featured stories, carousels, reels, tags, broadcast channels… are services that the platform did not offer before. This is because it is increasingly adapting more and more to business accounts and offers them more facilities to grow.

 

And now it is your turn: do you already follow all these recommendations in your social media strategy?