Let’s talk about launching your enamel pins! There are lots of different ways to launch a product. I mean, people teach courses on it. But today we are going to be focused on three of the most common types of launch strategies that I see in my pin circles. We’ll be talking about what I call the WIP, the Work-in-Progress Launch, the Preview Launch, and the Surprise Drop Launch. So let's get into it.
WORK-IN-PROGRESS LAUNCH
Okay, so for the Work-in-Progress Launch, it's all about showing your audience the whole process. You show them sketches of your pins, mockups, and maybe even time-lapses of you sketching out designs. You can also share when your pins come in the mail with an unboxing video and document all your packaging. You show the end to end process of the whole thing. I think this can be fun because you can get people's feedback while you're making the pin by using polls on Instagram or have people comment on your feed with what they like best. That way the pin is more tailored to what your audience likes and is more likely to buy, which is always helpful!
I do think that this approach can get a little tedious sometimes. If it takes you forever finish a design and that’s all you post, then your Instagram feed can stagnate and your audience can get bored. But if you do it right, then people will get really excited when they get to see the final product and they'll buy it up! So I think that can be a fun way too launch.
PREVIEW LAUNCH
Okay. So my favorite way to launch is what I call the Preview Launch. So, shortly before I put them up for sale, I will preview the pins that I’m launching. I like to share a photo of the back of the pins, so you see the outline and have people guess to see if they can tell what it is. Then over the course of one or two weeks, however long you choose, you just reveal one pin at a time or a collection at a time and talk about your process to get people excited.
I will say you want to give people enough time to be excited, look forward to the release and set their alarms for launch day, but you don't want to give them so much time that people stop buying from your store altogether because they're just waiting for that launch. That was something I learned the hard way! So pick a timeframe that works for you and your audience. Test the waters and see what kind of timing works best for you in the Preview method.
I actually provide my entire launch calendar and break down exactly how I use this launch for my own pins in my course! If you’d like to know more, click here!
SURPRISE DROP LAUNCH
Okay. And the last one is a Surprise Drop. This is when you don't show anyone anything and then all of a sudden you debut a new pin that’s available in your shop. These can be a fun surprise for your audience, but I do think it can be frustrating for a couple of reasons.
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Since most of us use Instagram as a way to market our business, it can be hard to get immediate sales from a surprise drop because the algorithm shows people different posts at different times. The people that see it immediately on Instagram are more than likely the people that are super into your stuff, but that’s a smaller subset of your following. To counter the fact that not everyone is going to see your post right away, you can send an email to your list and your subscribers will know about it right away.
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The other frustrating part of surprise drops for me is that there needs to be more follow up after the launch. After any launch you're going to want to follow up and remind your customers, "Hey, don't forget I just launched these pins, check them out." But I think there needs to be more of that with this type of launch because you don’t have a backlog of work-in-progress content or preview content that you can rely on people having seen. The other two types of launches guarantee that your audience knows what’s coming and when they can buy, but surprises can catch people off guard.
We've talked about Work-in-Progress launches, Preview launches, and Surprise Pin Drops. So if you have any questions at all, please let me know. There are lots of different ways to approach launching pins and I hope this has been helpful!
