The MUST-HAVE Social Media Checklist for Retail Launches

gooood morning, everyone! coming at you live from my couch as I write today’s edition watching last week’s episode of Industry, which I personally feel like people don’t talk about enough, but we can get into that later.

if you’re reading this, hope you had a great week and crush your Friday!

before we revisit the topic of how to use social media to help your retail launch and sales, a few quick things:

• if you’re new here (thank you for joining!), you can read all of the past editions of the newsletter right here to catch up

• if you don’t follow me on instagram or twitter, i announced for the first time this year that I am accepting a very limited amount of brands to work with on doing social media audits, revised strategy decks, or consulting calls heading into Q4 due to having some bandwidth. if you’re interested, please reply back to this email for more details.

ok! let’s get into it.

for today’s email, being that it is a fun-time for retail launches heading into Q4 whether it’s new product launches that your brand might have or if you just want to remind your customers that you’re on shelves, we’re discussing how you can use influencers to support your retail launches so that your feed doesn’t have to become a mix of logos and back to back to back announcements.

BUT BEFORE WE GET INTO IT…

Y’all, if you’re a brand heading into Q4 and looking to:

• drive more user-generated content for specific retailers in local towns or bigger retailers (Target, Walmart, etc) in specific cities like Austin, Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, and many more.

• work with more talented female creators, especially parents, to champion your product and brand experience

• drive more velocity offline to create repeat shopping behaviors and drive overall brand awareness at these specific retailers

Then you better make sure to add HUMMINGBIRDS to your stack ASAP.

I am very excited to say that today’s edition of the newsletter is brought to you by Emily, Callie, and the rest of the amazing team.

Hummingbirds could be your solution to unlocking local influence and producing more content to support your retail announcements and internal initiatives. Brands like Olipop, Goodles, Sauz, Bachan’s and more utilize the “birds” as part of their ongoing internal initiatives to support retail, expand in the “momfluencer” demographic, and improve their awareness in cities and spaces where many may not (yet) be familiar.

Say I was managing a creator program for a brand, here’s why I would want to use Hummingbirds to help work smarter in conjunction with internal efforts:

First of all, getting local and dedicated support for a brand can be a bit difficult these days unless you’re investing a ton into a sourcing tool to understand their demographics and follower base. Naturally, I might invest in a few “retail-branded” accounts like this or this, but I would want to find real people who are frequenting these retailers as part of their lifestyle outside of just posting only the newest things.

Currently, Emily and the team have upwards of 19 cities where you can find creators ranging from Columbus, Ohio to Austin, TX to St. Louis, Missouri and now Chicago, Houston, AND Detroit, which literally just went live this week!

Besides being able to get granular to support your regional markets, you can trust that these creators who are going out there to get content for you are actually (!!) located there and that their audiences aren’t in other places where the content won’t have a full impact. I can’t tell you how many times I had to learn this or have had to ship product that was available in another region to a bigger retail promo account that didn’t live there and would have to put it on the shelf for content. Writing that even sounds stressful.

Second, we all know the parent category is massive and underutilized. When you mix the power of the 25-45 year old female demographic + repeat shopping behaviors shown on the internet, a lot of beautiful things can happen. Brands that have used the birds have seen up to 16X (!!!!)  in some retailers during active campaigns, but have continued to sustain that level for months after as a result of the content created.

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING TO SEE CONTENT MADE FOR BRANDS LIKE HALFDAY, OLIPOP, BACHAN’S, and ALEC’S ICE CREAM (a past client of mine!).

Looking to leverage the content once it’s live? That’s super easy. If you’re a brand, you have organic usage on the creator’s content to be able to leverage it for your own owned social channels. If you want to go the extra mile and look into whitelisting or using the creative for your paid media, you get that usage as part of your campaign.

If you just want to chat with the team, tell them I sent you right here.

LET’S CHAT RETAIL

When your brand is about to hit shelves at stores like Whole Foods, HEB, or Costco, you cannot assume your audience will just stumble upon your products. Like your old social content, people need constant reminders that you’re there or why your product is something they need in their lives.

A brand that has always crushed product launches that I have looked up is Truff with their investment in super-engaging, highly produced creative using CGI and other mediums like this. However, I know that not everyone has the budget or resources to make that happen so that’s why I also look to brands like Graza (i’m biased since I had to make them hahaha) or Sauz who personify their products and put them in retailer settings using a graphic designer OR Goodles who went viral for their launch into Target.

Now, once again, you might not even have a team who can help just make some videos in a location or a designer so that’s why it’s always a great reminder to know that sometimes simple is better (and that it’s okay!) like whether it’s a quick founder photo in front of a retailer like this from my client, Laoban Dumplings.

From working on brands, especially Graza, the last 3+ years that have a heavy retail presence, I’ve really been able to learn alongside these awesome teams and produce successful retail launches because they should be a 360 (said in the Charli XCX voice) approach, if i’m being honest.

If retailer announcements are big enough to have a full buildout (Ex. Costco or Whole Foods) and you want them to start off successfully, you should be prepared across:

• Social Media (Paid and Organic)

• Influencer

• Website

• Email

And you want to make sure that all of this is starting far enough out, especially if you’re investing in creative and creators to support your launch. You have to remember that one hit is not enough. The goal should be for your brand to get the message out on your channels and then have others that can talk about it for you, whether it’s influencers or customers tagging you because they went on your website to find a store near them and go get your product.

Being that my focus is always social and influencer when it comes to my work, I am going to focus on that. When it comes from ideation to execution, I personally split the process from ideation to execution into a few parts so we’re going to break down what needs to go in from pre-launch to launch and after launch.

RETAIL + SOCIAL MEDIA

If you have a new announcement for your brand, the first place people will go is going to be your social channels since it’s easier to remember than your website URL.

Before you launch:

• Content Brainstorming! Production takes time and being ahead is a nice feeling and one teams should want to strive for. Although I do believe the phrase that “pressure makes diamonds” and probably live by that a little tooooo much. For example, I will never forget when I decided to scrap Graza’s launch post for our Whole Foods nationwide announcement at 10PM the night before and brief a whole new concept that randomly hit me and it absolutely crushed. Is anyone else like this so I know I am not alone?

  I would be brainstorming what I want the “launch” (example) post to be across platforms. This is where I would also want to plan if I want to “tease” the retailer that the brand is going into to help boost engagement going into the announcement.

  Similarly, I would want to dump any ideas for after we announce so that production can go into action.

I like to ideally have a heavier frequency for launch week so making sure most concepts can be done before then.

Launch Week + Beyond:

• It’s time to announce your launch on social! What should it cover? Well, it should of course announce with store you are in (and tagging them), if you’re only in a specific region and what states, and driving your audience to a store locator to be able to find the product near them, which means you should make sure that your website is updated accordingly!

  • Once again, when it comes to the creative, there are a few formats:

    • Original Content — The concept and ideation comes straight from your team to form something completely new from scratch so something like the CGI from Truff for their Sprouts launch for one of their flavors or this announcement for Magic Molecule in Ulta.

    • The Founder or Product + Store Front Photo or Video — Ex. Sauz or Chubby Snacks

    • You can also do simple text treatments that get the point across super clearly like how HoneyMamas did here

  • The Channels: I usually focus on Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter/Threads (note: I know the latter aren’t super active/worth the time for some brands!).

    • Instagram: I always like having an In-Feed IG Post, IG Story Sequence with a link to store locator. Also, you may want a teaser post for Instagram, which I would account for hear as well.

      • Frequency: I like having our launch post + one other retailer related post that may be more entertaining (see examples below) during launch week. I also like making sure we have a sequence that goes live launch day to send people to our store locator and so that we can save that retainer in our Instagram Highlights. On an ongoing basis, I usually aim to get a post up once per week with IG Story support once a week to the store locator heading into the weekend as people start grocery shopping.

    • Tiktok: Similarly, I like having one launch post and one entertaining post go live during launch week with a mention of retail once per week since if you’re a brand heavily in retail, that should be in your list of content pillars no matter the platform. Note: Remember that Tiktok should not always be treated as your repurposing platform. If your team is investing in it, create content that is made for that platform and that audience accordingly.

Based on the performance of this creative, I usually like sharing any launch creative in-feed on Instagram and Tiktok with the paid media team or individual so that we can boost it or if they want to run it as their own independent ad creative to get more reach on the message and announcement.

When it comes to examples of some ongoing launch creative and inspiration, here are a few trends/concepts that I’ve enjoyed that either celebrate a launch into a retailer for a brand, a launch into a food chain, or just trends that I think are low lift and can potentially be repurposed across platforms if it makes sense for your brand and how your audience engages.

• Poppi x Chipotle — You can use this sound to highlight your ride or walk to the retailer that you’re launching in and maybe have a cart filled with your product to show that you stocked up.

• Graza x Whole Foods — Easy way to repurpose any shots of your product on shelves that you might receive from your merchandising team. I also love do photo dumps every month of product on shelves if we know it sticks out or is an insane display.

• Magic Spoon x Target — Scurry to whatever retailer you’re in.

• Laoban Dumplings x Costco — Finding a way to take a notable part of a retailer, like Costco’s food court or specific items, and finding a way to get your brand involved.

• Canopy x Sephora — My first brand client ever 🥺 Love that their team took to the streets with a format AKA @dudewithsign that people know and love, insert themselves outside the retailer that they were going to launch in with a message that makes people take a second to think about.

HOW TO USE INFLUENCERS TO HELP RETAIL AWARENESS

You should view influencers not only as a channel for brand awareness, but a way to unlock creative that you may want to leverage for paid ads to drive to that retailer with an offer on a platform like Aisle or your store locator, creative you may want to use for your organic channels, a way to build community, and a way to keep a consistent cadence around your launch for weeks to come without you having to post about it non-stop.

If you’re a product that can be easily shipping to creators, I would be planning a specific seeding out to creator affiliated with that specific store. The beauty is that you can get granular with these by finding creators who live in that region to bring awareness there or nationwide. I usually like sending to around ~15-25 people.

Here’s what I would add in the box if we were announcing a brand’s launch into Whole Foods nationwide:

• Your Product, whether it’s a specific SKU (in that case throw a few in there) or your whole line.

• A custom insert with the logo lockup of your brand name and the retailer with a note in back talking about your launch (bonus points if it’s handwritten!!)

• (Optional) A Whole Foods gift card so they can pick up extra groceries so that they can use or enjoy your product accordingly

• (Optional) Merch that would be make sense to receive like a reusable tote bag

  I would want to get this box in the hands of majority net-new creators to the brand who might do hauls at that grocer often, are retailer-adjacent, or fit the demo we need to support the launch with a mix of our OG and most supportive folks.

  If you have a budget and this retail launch is a major deal, you should be wanting to creator support from those dedicated accounts I mentioned above to be part of your strategy to get dedicated in-feed posts to help with awareness and that you can leverage for paid media. In some cases, it might even make sense to collaborate on the in-feed post to boost engagement.

  Now, if you’re launching in a specific region first, well that’s where a company like Hummingbirds can be super duper helpful to save the guessing work for you of finding creators, getting content and more, but you can also leverage your existing creators in those areas to help product content for the brand so that the impact is even stronger.

  • You can see an example here of when I worked with HoneyMamas for their Costco Roadshow here.

  • See examples of Laoban’s launch into Walmart and Costco

As the launch nears, the packages from the seeding above are landing the day of the announcement or in waves throughout the month after the “launch” day to keep the good word spreading. I would like to have a dedicated paid and collaborative influencer post where I can within a few days of the launch to gain instant validity and awareness. Once again, this means you have to plan in advance since influencer inventory can be tricky.

Despite the one seeding you may have done, I like to have an evergreen approach to extending the word around specific retailers as more dedicated accounts pop up who are associated with that retailer or trying to just seed to more creators in a specific region that you’re trying to earn a name in. Therefore, if a brand can handle it, I would like to be sending a specific amount of boxes out every month that might be dedicated across a few retailers vs. letting it just be a one time thing.

Now, once again, If you’re paying creators, I would ideally have a post going live per week for a few weeks after the launch to keep the announcement coming up in waves. One company who I love and have written about before with their ongoing approach is Toom, a garlic spread company with placements in Costco, Whole Foods and more. They do a great job at collaborating with creators across different niches to introduce their audiences to the spread.

Dang, I think all of that was like 2,000 words. As you can tell, I can go on about it.

BRAND OF THE WEEK: NUTPODS

Brand of the week is when I write about a product I either enjoy and use or love what they do online. This week it’s a product I have used for YEARS. If you’re caffeine consumer, you need some Nutpods in your life. As someone who tries to not have dairy, they are a plant-based creamer that taste deeeelish. Being that it’s fall and Whole Foods was running a sale, I bought about 5 cartons of their Pumpkin Spice Creamer so that I can be a bit basic. If you love fall, coffee, and tasty things, here’s my rec to treat yourself. I also love their Toasted Marshmallow and Cookie Butter flavors.

LOGGING OFF

That’s all I got this week folks. Next week, we’ll be back on Thursday to talk about how AI is changing the game for finding creators alongside of my favorite brands in the social tech space.

If there are any typos or this was all over the place, I literally just wrote it since I fell asleep at 9 PM and dreamt that I wrote it, which made for a great surprise when I woke up.

Anywho, if you enjoyed this or have specific questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

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See you next week!

Peace, love, and KPIs,

KD

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