Mastering IG: Tips to launch a brand on Instagram
Learning how to launch a brand on Instagram can be one of the best ways to rapidly raise awareness of your company, products, and services, on one of the world’s most popular platforms. Instagram isn’t just the “OG” visual social media platform, it’s also one of the most active online communities.
With more than 1.4 billion people using the platform worldwide, you’re almost guaranteed to reach members of your target audience on Instagram. Plus, with the right content strategy, you’ll be able to generate hype on launch day, and constantly grow your online presence.
The question is, how do you actually launch a brand on Instagram, and set yourself up for success?
After working with countless companies to help them build powerful brands, launch campaigns and social media marketing strategies, I’m sharing my top tips right here.
What is an Instagram launch strategy?
An Instagram launch strategy is marketing campaign that introduces your business to the world, through the Instagram social media platform. It’s a great way to introduce a new product and brand identity to a thriving landscape of engaged Instagram users.
Plus, it offers potential customers a fantastic behind-the-scenes look at your company, its values, personality, and unique value propositions. While you can host brand and product launches on a range of social networks, Instagram does have a unique edge.
As the world’s leading visual social media platform, Instagram gives you an excellent way to really showcase what makes your business unique. Plus, it’s worth noting that Instagram users have pretty high levels of purchasing intent.
Instagram’s own statistics show 44% of users use the app to shop (often weekly), and 62.4% use it to research or follow brands, products, and services. Even better? 2 out of 3 active users say they use the app to build meaningful relationships with brands.
How to launch a brand on Instagram
Getting started
There are quite a few steps involved in figuring out how to launch a brand on Instagram. Start by creating your account. The main thing you’ll need to worry about here is choosing the right username for your company. If you already have a great business name, the best strategy is to use that.
If you don’t have a business name yet, work with a professional branding company, like Fabrik, to choose a name that’s easy to remember, evocative, and descriptive. Here’s a quick insight into how we chose amazing names for companies like Checksy, and Lumeon.
Once you have an account I recommend switching to an Instagram business account. You can do this by signing into your profile, clicking on the “menu” icon in the top right corner, and scrolling to Settings and privacy. Scroll until you see Account types and tools and click Switch to a professional account.
Follow the instructions given by Instagram to upgrade your account. You don’t need to pay anything for a business account, but you will gain access to extra features, such as analytics, access to Instagram ads, and the ability to add a contact button to your profile.
Building your Instagram brand profile
Now you’re all set up with your Instagram account, it’s time to complete your profile. Your profile needs to be packed with information, and look professional to attract and convert new audiences.
I’d advise starting with a simple, but effective bio. You only have 150 characters to work with, but that’s more than enough space to tell your customers what you do (or sell), and what makes you special.
You can also include a link to your most popular website pages, using a tool like Linkin.bio.
Here’s a great example from IBM. It’s succinct, straight to the point, and immediately tells customers what makes the company unique:
Pro tip: You can get some ideas for your Instagram bio content using a generative AI tool like ChatGPT, but I recommend looking for creative ways to really make your voice stand out. Make sure your personality and brand values shine through in your bio for the best results.
Once you’re happy with your bio, focus on the following components:
Instagram bio components
Your profile pic
A great profile picture is crucial for any new business on Instagram. I’d recommend using your logo, if you’re launching a brand-new company, as this will help to draw attention to one of your most valuable brand assets.
Remember, your profile will display at 110 x 110 pixels, in a circle, so keep it simple.
Contact information
Adding your contact information, and a “contact button” is a great way to connect with customers instantly from the moment of your official launch. It can help you build your email list and connect with Instagram influencers.
Add action buttons
Depending on your business, you might find it helpful to add a button to your profile that allows customers to book an appointment or request a quote from your company. You’ll need an account with one of Instagram’s partners to do this.
Your story highlights
Story highlights are another excellent way to boost your Instagram strategy and share more information about your brands, products, and collections. In the IBM example above, the highlights section offers a great insight into the focus points of the brand.
Two other things I’d recommend doing during this “set-up” stage are:
Deciding on your look and feel
Based on your existing brand identity guidelines, plan an official theme, or look for your Instagram profile. Ask yourself what colors you’re going to use in your visual content. What kind of filters will you use to enhance your Instagram feed?
A consistent “theme” on your Instagram profile can boost brand awareness, and help customers to instantly recognize your posts on their news feed.
Connecting your product catalog
Even if you don’t want to use the Instagram shopping features for your company just yet, it’s a good idea to set yourself up for creating shoppable posts. Making it easy to purchase your products, or visit a product page straight from Instagram can increase your conversion rates.
To connect your product catalog, go to the Commerce Manager section of Instagram, then click on Start now, followed by Create a catalog. Instagram will guide you through the process of connecting your ecommerce platform, or uploading product info for your launch items.
Your first post on Instagram for business
Launch post ideas
Since this guide covers how to launch your brand on Instagram, the first post you create is going to be very important. There’s no one-size-fits-all guide to creating your first post on Instagram for business. However, I do recommend doing some research into the trends and stats on the platform.
Around 50% of Instagram users love funny content, while 46% say they want creative posts, so ensuring your personality shines through is key.
Here are some other quick tips for success.
1. Define your target audience
Like most social media platforms, Instagram has a unique target audience. It appeals mostly to younger customers who love visual and authentic content. Of course, there’s a lot of variety in the types of people who use Instagram.
On average, most of the users on the site are between the ages of 18-34, but your specific target audience might be older or younger than most. Taking a closer look at your customer profiles and personas will give you an insight into your customer’s demographics and behaviors.
You should be able to identify what kind of content they’ll be attracted to, based on their goals, pain points, and the other accounts they follow. You’ll also need to think carefully about what sort of messaging strategy will resonate most with them.
Nike knows its customers are looking for inspiration and motivation, so most of its Instagram posts are extremely motivational:
2. Drive traffic to your account in advance
By the time you launch your brand on Instagram, you want people to already be visiting your profile. A successful product launch or brand launch relies heavily on your ability to build hype. That’s why so many business owners guide customers to their social accounts from other platforms.
I’d recommend adding a link to your Instagram profile to your email marketing newsletters, including an Instagram button on your blog, and even generating excitement with blog posts.
The popular app “A Color Story” was initially announced on a blog post, by parent company “A Beautiful Mess”. The content encouraged customers to follow the company’s Instagram account, for insights into product launch features.
They even gave their customers sneak peaks into what the app would do.
3. Learn about Instagram’s algorithms
Here’s another valuable tip that should boost the impact of your launch posts, and future Instagram content strategies: get to know the algorithms. Instagram’s algorithms are what controls which content shows up in people’s feeds, and on the Explore page.
As Instagram says itself, it doesn’t have a single algorithm, but instead uses a variety of processes to choose the right content to showcase on its app.
However, your posts are more likely to rank if you:
- Create relevant, engaging content specific to your users.
- Interact with your customers and other big brands, to boost engagement levels on your Instagram profile.
- Avoid sharing any restricted content (not allowed on Instagram).
- Learn about the different algorithms used for Instagram Reels and Stories.
- Use relevant hashtags in all of your posts (including location hashtags).
Launch posts ideas: Designing your first post
Your first post needs to do a lot of things. It should introduce your new brand in an engaging way, show customers what type of content you’re going to share on your platform, and offer an insight into your mission and vision.
That’s a lot to fit into one post.
Don’t worry though, you can build your brand equity, and deepen your connection with your community over time.
First, I recommend starting with the basics:
Introduce your business
Your first post on Instagram is a great opportunity to introduce your customers to your company, what it stands for, and what it does.
You can showcase your business name and logo, as well as creating a caption that highlights:
- A link to your website.
- The difference between your company and other brands.
- The products and services you offer.
- Your main goal and purpose.
- Relevant hashtags.
Here’s an example from one of our clients, Dobeo.
Let your personality shine through
Remember, your first post on Instagram needs to be more than just informative. It needs to connect emotionally with your target audience. My top tip is this: tell your customers “What’s in it for them”.
Identify why they should consider working with you, or buying your products. Highlight what caused you to start your business, and what you want to accomplish for your customers. Use colors and images in your post that reflect the core components of your brand identity.
When writing your caption, remember to:
Get to the point
Today, most people have an attention span of around 8 seconds, and the number can be even lower on social media. Get to the point quickly and highlight what makes you special in a succinct way.
Use a consistent tone
Think your brand personality and the language or tone of voice you use on your website and other marketing channels. Follow the same editorial guidelines to ensure your messaging feels consistent.
Avoid blocks of text
Heavy blocks of text can be overwhelming on Instagram. Break things up with line breaks, and emojis that make your brand seem fun and playful. If you want to include a lot of hashtags, add them to your first comment, rather than including them all in your caption in one huge block.
Include a CTA
Let customers know what you want them to do next. Ask them to contact you via your contact button, visit your Instagram shop, go to your link in bio, or comment on your post with their thoughts.
Get the visual content right
Your caption is an important part of your first post when learning how to launch a brand on Instagram, but ultimately, this is a visual social platform. That means you’re going to need an incredible image, video, or carousel to really grab customer attention.
Based on the research you’ve done into your target audience, and your competitors, ask yourself what type of visual content your first post should include. Are your customers more likely to enjoy a carousel where you can showcase your top-selling products?
Do they love creative fast-paced videos, with original audio, like Sephora’s post here?
Think carefully about how you can make your image or video content stand out:
Work with a graphic designer
If you don’t have the best creative skills, consider working with a designer to create a series of posts for your brand or product launch campaign. This will help to ensure you make a strong impact on the visual platform.
Edit images carefully
Make sure your first images look clean and professional. While you can share more “raw” posts later, your initial post is your chance to make a first impression as a highly professional organization.
Consider adding tags
Consider adding a product tags or links to your products on your image. This will help guide customers towards your products.
Quick tips for your first post
I know publishing your first post on Instagram can be a daunting prospect. The last thing you want is to work on building a great brand, then find no-one actually sees you on Instagram.
Here are some tips and best practices to boost your visibility:
Consider working with an influencer
Working with an influencer to build hype among your community before your launch date can be a great way to draw attention to your brand. Even micro-influencers can help you reach thousands of new customers.
Promote your upcoming product launch
Promote your launch on Instagram on other channels, such as your blog, your other social media channels, and through your email marketing efforts. Make sure your audience is aware of your launch date.
Use Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories can be an excellent way to complement your feed posts. You can even add a sticker to your Stories that directs customers to your Instagram profile, or your first “announcement” post.
Know the best time to post
Based on your knowledge of your target audience, and when they’re most likely to be online, schedule your first post for the right time. This will help to boost your chances of attracting customers.
Try a countdown
Your first post doesn’t have to be just one post. You could consider creating a whole count-down series of posts, leading up to your brand launch.
I’d also recommend checking out new features on Instagram. Sometimes, the algorithm promotes newly-released types of posts more aggressively (like Reels), giving that content an edge.
Developing your content strategy for Instagram
Unfortunately, the work of learning how to launch a brand on Instagram doesn’t end with publishing your first post. There’s a lot of community building and content creation to do really cement your brand in the minds of your customers, and drive a return on investment from Instagram.
Here are some of the best practices you can use to develop your content strategy for Instagram.
1. Decide on your content mix
If you’ve followed the earlier steps in this guide, you should already know who your target audience is. Now, you need to figure out what kind of content you’re going to share to resonate with them. Let’s take some inspiration from another client we’ve worked with, Accurist.
This luxury watch company knows their audience is searching for authentic, high-quality content that showcases the value of the brand’s products. It shares content carousels, videos, and image posts that really draw attention to the unique features of every product:
Depending on your target audience, you might combine posts directly promoting your products, with user-generated content (such as reviews and testimonials), content created through influencer partnerships, and content based on industry trends.
I recommend using a mix of content to ensure you’re informing, educating, and engaging your audience, rather than just consistently promoting your latest products. This will help you to strengthen your connections with your customers.
2. Create a social media content calendar
Once you know what type of content you’re going to be creating, you need to decide when and how often to publish it. Timing and frequency matters on Instagram. The more often you post fresh content, the more likely you are to increase your organic reach.
According to Later.com, most companies will publish 3-5 posts per week on Instagram, but your publishing strategy could vary based on a range of factors. Our client Sight Scotland publishes content more frequently when they’re ramping up to a big event.
When you’re just getting started, it might be worth creating more content to fill your Instagram feed, then experimenting with schedules and frequencies.
I do recommend using a social media scheduling tool to help you out, though. Using a solution like HootSuite or Sprout Social will ensure you can build a comprehensive content calendar in advance, and keep fresh content flowing (even when you’re busy running your business).
Plus, a scheduler ensures you can publish content at exactly the right time to reach your target audience, even if that’s outside of your regular business hours.
3. Give customers a unique experience on Instagram
As I mentioned above, there’s more to launching your brand on Instagram than simply leveraging a new channel to promote your company. Instagram gives you endless ways to connect with your customers and build long-lasting relationships.
It’s these relationships that will help you to earn advocates for your brand, lifelong customers, and engaged community members. If you want to build strong connections, don’t just share the same content on Instagram you share everywhere else.
Consider experimenting with Instagram-only incentives, rewards, and sale announcements, that make your customers feel excited to be part of your community.
Here’s a great example from ColourPop:
You can also create interactive experiences on Instagram that help you grow your brand, such as:
- Running competitions and giveaways: Ask customers to follow your profile, like your posts, and tag friends in the comment section for a chance to win something. This will generate excitement around your brand and extend your reach.
- Asking questions and sharing polls: Use the sticker and question polls to learn more about your audience, what they want from future products, and what they like most about your brand. This should give you the insights you need to grow in future.
- Asking for user generated content: Ask your customers to share their reviews of your product, or create posts with a specific hashtag relevant to your brand. The more genuine user-generated content you can share, the more trustworthy your brand will seem.
4. Keep experimenting with different formats
After you launch your brand on Instagram and find a content strategy that works for you, don’t fall into the trap of taking a “set it and forget it” approach. The trends and features on Instagram are constantly changing, so be ready to experiment.
Consider trying out a livestream with a thought leader as part of your influencer marketing strategy, or design a series of Instagram Stories, complete with stickers and unique images.
Run live shopping experiences on Instagram, to gather pre-orders for an upcoming product launch, or draw attention to your latest deals. I particularly recommend experimenting with Reels, as they’re currently the most “engaging” types of content on Instagram.
You can use Reels to share tips, how-to guides, unboxing videos and more. Or you can just showcase influencers and customers, like our client Seraphine does here:
It can also be a good idea to boost your top-performing posts, and even your first post on Instagram, with a paid ad. Although paid advertising can be expensive on social media, it should help push your business in front of the customers you want to reach.
5. Monitor and track everything
Finally, this is one of the most obvious tips I can give to anyone launching a brand on Instagram. You need to monitor the performance of your posts and campaigns to find out how to optimize your content strategy for Instagram.
Tools like HootSuite and Sprout Social will give you in-depth insights, but you can gather some useful metrics just by using your Instagram Business account. The performance of your posts shouldn’t be the only thing you’re tracking either.
Use social listening tools, and examine the comments shared on your Instagram posts, as well as @mentions discussing your brand, to see what customers are saying about you. Keep a close eye on how your reputation and brand equity changes over time.
Grow your brand with Instagram marketing
Learning how to launch a brand on Instagram can seem a little daunting at first. There are a lot of steps to take, even after you’ve identified the core elements of your brand, like your logo and name. However, the right strategy can generate amazing results.
If you need help building a brand that’s ready to thrive on Instagram, contact Fabrik today. We can help you design a personality, visual identity, and even a marketing strategy that ensures you connect with the right target audience online.
Fabrik: A branding agency for our times.
Alyssa is a regular contributor to Brand Fabrik, covering topics from the role of social media in marketing and branding to the importance of search engine optimisation, self-promotion, and building one's own personal brand.
