New to launch products can sometimes face a two edged sword on social media. On the one hand, it’s one of the most simple and effective ways to actively promote a product line. But the key word is promotion. And promotion doesn’t necessarily lead to a conversion.
Even trickier is optimizing your product launch to match the right platform. LinkedIn and Twitter are great for general announcements, but they’re hardly friendly to visually rich campaigns. Nor, despite recent efforts from the latter, are they suitable for eCommerce. But with over 1 billion active monthly users, Instagram is ideal to launch your new product line. And they’ve just made it easier to showcase product launches with a new feature called Instagram Drops.
What Are Instagram Drops?
The Drops feature on Instagram is designed to help you create instant buzz among both your existing followers and entirely new shoppers. By showcasing your new product lines in the weeks prior to launching, you can build excitement and anticipation before they’re even launched, helping to ensure you have a steady stream of eager followers waiting for their availability—especially for limited edition products.
With Drops, followers can view upcoming launches, as well as sign up for reminders about products they’ve previously viewed and look through similar products from other drops that recently took place. And it’s just one more way Instagram is becoming increasingly more eCommerce-friendly. The network previously rolled out Instagram Shopping in 2019, complete with secure checkout and payment options as well as connectivity to Facebook pages, product tagging and actionable content.
How Do Instagram Drops Work?
Drops have their own destination in the Instagram app at the top of the Shop tab which collects all notifications about new launches in one convenient place, allowing existing customers and new ones to browse and review both your product lines as well as similar launches.
To qualify for Drops, sellers need to be previously registered to use Instagram’s eCommerce tools (the Product Launch feature is accessible from Instagram’s Commerce Manager section.) From there, sellers can use product launch stickers to tag their own posts as well as Stories, Reels and IGTV. The Drops feature is currently accessible through mobile devices, and only available for sellers and brands in the US.
By using Drops, brands can schedule live shopping to align with the feature, reminding and alerting interested followers when the product goes live through an on-screen countdown and confetti animations. During the launch, products will be available for purchase only in countries where Buy on Instagram is available. To avoid the risk of overselling, Instagram recommends the Drop feature only for Instagram-exclusive products.
Color More Lines provides white glove, global account management of your eCommerce platforms so mission-driven companies can focus on new product development, branding and growth strategies. Find out more at Color More Lines.