The 7-Step Roadmap to using Instagram Story to create buzz, launch, and sell a product.

Launching a new product or online course is exciting but there are a thousand different ways to get in touch with your audience. In today’s post, I am going to share with you how to utilize Instagram Stories to launch a product.

1. Prime Your Audience

The first step is to prime your audience. Avoid the mistake of publishing your product online without teasing it online. Nowadays, customers don’t swipe up to purchase your product just because you told them to. Instead, you have to start by priming your audience, only a warm audience is more likely to convert.

Two weeks before the launch, start talking about your product and outline the features. Share your excitement and provide value. Let your followers know how your product can solve their problems. Consistently talk about your product and the benefits without asking your followers to purchase it. You can remind your followers that your product will be available on Date X.

During the prime phase, you want to share value daily with your viewers that ties back to the product you are anticipating to lunch.

2. Involve Your Audience

The key to success is to involve your followers in the creation process. Let your viewers be part of your latest launch, by asking them to suggest names for your product, color scheme or ask for their preferred lunch date.

You can either ask them to suggest names or you can provide three names and let your followers choose what name they prefer.

Involving your audience in the creation will give them the impression that they are part of it and therefore more likely to convert.

Involving your audience in the process also humanizes the brand because your followers have a say. This is also a great way to build trust and increase engagement.

3. Include Testimonials & Reviews

Testimonials are social proofs and gain more and more importance in the decision-making process of your customers. Studies have shown that 90% of potential customers seek testimonials before making a purchase. Do not only include testimonials on your sales pitch website but also in your stories.

How do you get testimonials from a product that hasn't even launched yet?

Select a small group of people and let them try your product for free in exchange for a testimonial that you can use online. For example, if you are creating an online course share the course with a handful of people and use their testimonials to convince others to buy your product.

You can ask for written or video testimonials, I suggest a mixture of both. Include a name and image when sharing the testimonial to add authenticity.

On Instagram Stories you can include the testimonial in written form or share the video testimonial. You want to share the testimonials after you primed your audience to add social proof.

4. Involve past customers in IG LIVE

Instagram live.png — Go live on Instagram. Now that you have primed your audience, involved them in the process, and shared social proof, it’s time to show up live.

During your Instagram Live, you can answer any questions your viewers might have. If you have launched the products in the past, you can invite one of your previous clients to share their product success stories with your audience. This strategy is often used by course creators who open their course enrollments twice a year but don’t change the curriculum of the online course. This will allow the online course creator to invite previous clients to share their experience with your product. Similar to testimonials, these clients will further strengthen social proof and build trust.

If this is the first time launching a product you won’t be able to include previous customers in your Instagram Live. In this case conduct the Live on your own, answer questions from the audience and explain how your product can solve their problem.

5. Ask for barriers

Use the “question” sticker in your stories to ask what is holding your customers back from buying. Answer their questions in another story, I recommend the “talking head” where you record yourself answering the question. This way it’s more personal than simply replying to a DM. Plus, there might be more customers who have the exact same barrier. In order to be profitable, you need to overcome these barriers.

6. Turn your Lives into IGTV

Instagram live’s are valuable content you don’t want to vanish within 24H, so turn your Instagram Live into an IGTV video. This way future followers have the chance to take a look at your video and current viewers have the chance to rewatch it.

7. Challenge

Create a challenge five days before the launch so your followers can experience transformation and are more likely to convert. If you show a follower a small change that they can immediately implement to see results your conversion rate will increase because people trust you.

Create a challenge around the product you want to launch. Let's use an online course about Instagram as an example. You can create a challenge where every participant would have to do a certain action each day for example 5 to 7 days to see a result. Whether this is increasing direct messages, increasing view count on stories, or post engagement.

You want to make sure to provide a challenge outline and encourage followers to tag you for a chance to be reposted.

Challenges are a great way to increase engagement and convince followers to buy your product.

Thanks for stopping by!