The Ultimate Checklist Before Your Brand’s Social Media Launch

Good morning, folks! I am writing this newsletter to you post-E-Tail from the guest room of one of my best friend’s homes in West Hollywood. i am happy since I am 1) tan 2) eating silly little treats from Erewhon 3) new Love Is Blind episodes are officially live.

I hope to see some of you at the Snax for LA event next week if you’re around before I head back to NYC. I unfortunately will not be at Expo West, but I expect you guys to send me the craziest things you try, okay? Deal.

This week’s topic is something that I haven’t written about yet here: my checklist for launching a DTC/ CPG brand on social.

I am going to breakdown what my usual checklist is before I launch a brand on social from pre-launch content to launch content and from knowing how to activate creators correctly and thoughtfully.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

By the way, this week, I spoke at E-Tail, one of the biggest conferences around the changing landscape for marketing in retail, both in-store and online. I spoke on a panel around harnessing the power of creators whether it’s for brand awareness, conversion, or content. 

One of the biggest questions that was asked to me by people one on one after I got off the stage was “Kendall, how do we get our brand in the hands of everyone, especially influencers, and for the best bang for our buck?”

Well, this week, I am excited and grateful to the team at AdFairy to help me show you just how you can do that. 

AdFairy has been in my tech stack for Graza and has been heavily referred to by me to friends at other brands I’ve worked on for almost a year now. You have definitely seen me mention their work before. If you’re new here, AdFairy can be your go-to product placement solution if you’re a brand that is tight on bandwidth, but wants to work with creators at scale to build strong organic brand and/or retail awareness across Instagram, Tiktok, and Youtube.

If you’re wanting support in running your influencer marketing awareness campaigns without a headache and actually get seen, AdFairy might be a tool for you to leverage.  

If you’re looking for:
A) a way to discover new creators that you may have never seen or that other brands are not in the hands of yet, especially those that are on the come up

B) easy and smooth systems to reengage the creators that have worked the best for you brand and campaign in the past

C) looking to get eyes on your brand, especially if you have a strong nationwide retail presence, at scale without having to spend hours negotiating, making contracts, handling invoices, and more

D) a way to do all of the above without you fully having to manage it

E) All of the above

AdFairy can help. You know I don’t speak about anything unless I use it myself. Since working with their team, I’ve been able to not only watch videos from creators on my wish list, but also collect over 200M+ organic views across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts for Graza.

Here’s how:

AdFairy focuses on working with emerging creators, allowing your brand to work with new incredible talent month over month and keep activating those that keep working well, too. The process is also seamless for the creators you want to work with, which we sometimes forget is essential when getting someone to work with you. Creators can complete an ad via the AdFairy iOS app in 3 simple steps without ever needing to send another email again.

1. You upload your budget to the AdFairy platform, and generate a brief for creators.

2. AdFairy will generate a list of creators ranging in size and reach. You approve and shuffle creators if needed, the rest is handled from shipping product and more.

3. The content comes in for approval. You approve it in less than 60 seconds, and it’s posted on social media immediately.

It’s only right to show you some of the amazing work they have done for Graza from a few of my favorite creators:

1. @heyimsuie

2. @dabrionne 

3. @leiahwithdacamry

If you’re looking to make your life easier when it comes to getting creators using your product or content highlighting ideal use cases or in retail, you can learn more about AdFairy for Brands HERE and tell them I sent you.

A Quick Braindump About Launching Your Brand on Social Media

This week, a project I have been working on named GOB officially launched after being on pre-order for a bit. This made me realize that I just usually have a framework for how I go about launches, as one should. So, I am writing it out to you today.

I know you’re probably excited to get going, but don’t be too quick with it. You must be thoughtful.

Before you hit “publish” on that first post, make sure you’ve covered all the key steps. A solid foundation ensures a smoother, more effective rollout and sets you up for long-term success.

1. Establish Your Brand Identity

Before posting anything, clarify your brand’s unique identity - please. Do not wait to do this until after the fact. Sure, you might refine as you go or add to it, but if you don’t know who you are and what you stand for how will anyone else?

• Define your brand values, mission, and vision.

• Establish a tone of voice (Is it playful? Professional? Conversational?).

• Design brand visuals (logo, colors, fonts) for consistency across platforms.

• Craft a compelling brand story that connects with your audience.

• Define a social strategy that focuses on your channel selection, content pillars + types, channel-by-channel strategy, how influencers support your organic social media goals, and more.

  • You need to know what success looks like per channel in this:

    • Short-term and long-term objectives (brand awareness, engagement, conversions, etc.).

    • Key performance indicators (KPIs) like follower growth, reach, and website traffic for each of your channels

    • A channel-by-channel content strategy that will highlight your goals for each social platform you are using, the types of content that will belong on that platform, and more.

    • The number of influencers you want to send product to every month.

Once a strategy is done and formatting that can be a whole other newsletter or a series, you need to:

2. Optimize Your Profiles

Your social profiles should be polished and ready for visitors as traffic comes creeping in.

• Make sure all profiles have clear profile pictures whether it’s your logo or a clear photo of your product so that people know it’s your account, especially if you’re running paid ads.

• Write a compelling bio with a clear call-to-action (CTA). In some cases, you might have a welcome offer, but I wouldn’t discount yourself before you even start. If you’re not launching immediately yet and are in #stealth, I would use this to drive traffic to your email sign-up.

• Make sure any links that you have on your social platforms that drive to your site have UTM codes to track your efforts in Google Analytics. You can set-up codes here. UTMs are one of those tools that help show the power of social media. You are able to see how much traffic might come from your Instagram bio, how much $ you made every month through Tiktok, and more.

• For Instagram, make sure you briefed out and designed your foundational Instagram Highlights (the little circles underneath your profile) just so it’s one less thing to worry about. These can end up being your first Instagram Story sequences doing launch week whether it’s about your brand, your product suite, how to use, etc.

3. Develop a Content + Influencer Strategy [Pre-Launch, Launch, Post-Launch]

Content is the backbone of your social media presence as we know. However, I know this can also range per brand. Some brands may want to tease early, some not, etc. In this case, we’re going to focus on two main platforms: Instagram and Tiktok.

PRE-LAUNCH:

SOCIAL:

• TIMELINES: I like to make sure that if I have the pleasure of kicking a brand off early that I can at least introduce the brand about a month or so out from the actual launch date. This post might just be a logo lock-up with a very cryptic message just so the account is alive an active. During those early times, the timeline matters and determines what else I do and how I act. If I had 2 months until launch, I would be probably just posting one a week to keep it alive and educate a bit on what I can without giving too much away. So in that case, more curation than anything.

• TEASERS: No matter what, I always have teasers going live across all platforms about a week out from the brands that highlight certain functions or formats around the item that is launching.

  • You can see an example I came up with and filmed for GOB here around Brooklyn right here.

  • I like having a strong teaser going one week out from launch, especially if you’re a new brand, then 5 days out, 3 days, 2 days out, 1 day out. Keep in mind that this concept would be way different if you’re launching just a new SKU. In the beginning, you need to keep reminding even more that you’re on your way. I like making these teasers a mix in the sense of not all of them have to be made to go on the Instagram Feed so that it’s not too much. This is usually a mix of in-feed Instagram Posts, Instagram Stories that lead into a countdown so people get notified about when we launch or a link to our email sign-up, and then the content that can get repurposed to a platform like Tiktok can or at least be recycled in some way.

  COMMUNITY: Get started early. Show up in comments, on other people’s posts who would use a product like yours, engage with other brands. There’s no harm in getting seen. Also, it jumpstarts the practice of having to do outbound community management (getting off your own account) vs. just tending to your inbound.

  INFLUENCER: If you’re a brand who can ship easily, is affordable, and will have inventory in advance, I don’t think it hurts to get early awareness via product seeding. In most cases, I start sending product around 1 month before launch so that people are receiving in for those 3-4 weeks before the site is turned on. This way, we drive traffic to the social page and get people excited, we secure more newsletter sign-ups, and more. However, WHO you send to is important. For example, you don’t want to only send to the big folks in your niche when your site isn’t live and miss out on traffic. I usually try and get out like 50-75 packages before launch.

LAUNCH: Your first impression is everything. You cannot just press post one day, say it’s live, and expect a bunch of people to buy. You also cannot just post on social and expect that to be your main channel for sales. Please remember that e-mail and other channels are equally important and things you can own.

• SOCIAL:

  • Instagram: Keep it simple. Why do you exist, what do you sell, and where do they get it and a CTA to purchase. You can see the recent launch post from GOB and then, of course, the OG Graza launch post that I actually designed lolololol. You should also have a story sequence as well that does that the with active links to click to get people over to your site.

    • Tiktok: In most cases, I like doing a carousel for launch on Tiktok that repurposes slides. Ex: Graza just did that for their new Frizzle launch (130K+ views), Fishwife did it for their new Tuna launch (40K+ views), and more.

• COMMUNITY: SHOW UP! Be on top of every comment and do not just “like” them. Let people know who were excited during your teaser days that you’re now live or surprise and delight a few who were excited to try your product that send it to them.

  • Also, internally, encourage team members and supporters to engage and share.

• INFLUENCER: This is the week where I would want to make sure the heavy hitters are receiving product or people who I know hold a lot of equity in the niche I am working within. Ideally, this list would have been prepared weeks before, addresses already secured, and boxes going out so that they arrive starting AFTER the day of launch to avoid anyone breaking the announcement.

POST-LAUNCH: The hard part begins now.

SOCIAL: After you launch on social, that’s where it begins. I like making sure that at least 2 weeks of content is planned and 90% complete so that I can spend time and take any learnings from early content so far past that date. Posts after the day of launch or example of a week might look like highlighting the background story of why you started the brand, how to use the product or the differences in your SKUs or best use cases, a press hit to show validation, BTS content (old photoshoots, production, etc.), and the product in action by way of UGC.

COMMUNITY: Always on, never off. Commenting on your on account’s posts and showing up there, commenting on others across platforms, just be seen and do not be afraid to show up.

INFLUENCER: Another “always-on” approach, if it makes sense for you. I like thinking about influencer via community. Send to a majority of one community and build those relationships, move to the next. For example, I’ve been focusing on sending product to basically any influencer or creator who grills, is a pitmaster, or loves to BBQ for Zab’s this past month. I try and send out anywhere to 50-75+ units per month.

• As time passes and if you’re a brand that wants to have an affiliate program because it makes sense (important!!!) then you can use this time to build out your pages and within a few weeks, you can backtrack early seedings and see who loves the product and invite them in.

• If you have some budget, I would also make sure that you have collaborative posts going live to highlight your product with some folks who have some pull in the areas that you’re in. For example, GOB’s CEO partnered with Plastic Pollutes and got a collaborative post planned to educate people around the dangers of plastic earplugs seen here.

Hopefully, this all made sense. I realized it’s kind of hard writing your own brain into words lolol.

It’s time for Ahead of The Trend.

A quick, snappy ode to the fun things I’m seeing online across creators, social, and brands. Sometimes, it’s a trend. Sometimes, it’s just a tip I want to share about marketing. TL;DR: just cool things I’m loving right now or things you should know.

Brand of the Week: GOB, the newest and first sustainable hearing solution on the market. If you’re a frequent flier, concert goer, light sleeper, or have a partner that you desperately want to stop snoring, GOB can offer you unparalleled comfort without the guilt. I’ve had the pleasure of working on this and when I tell you we’ve been making MOVES, you just have to wait to see. If you’re in NYC mid-march, let me know. That is all I will say.

Products of the Week That I Can’t Stop Using, Eating, Reading…You Get The Point:

• Using: Being an adult is getting excited about things like toiletry bags. Before coming to California, I picked up this bag from Dagne Dover and I just feel more put together now in life.

• Eating + Drinking: It’s not much, but it’s something. With conferences and hotels, it’s hard to get some healthy options in. So, for the last 4 days, a KOIA Cacao Bean Shake + a Starbucks Turkey Bacon, Egg White, and Cheddar Sandwich is what I lived on. So, if you’re traveling, and want that #protein for the #gains - that’s my hack.

• Reading: Always a good one to revisit: How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Influencer of the Week: This guy who eats every criminal’s death row meal and ranks it for all my fellow crime lovers out there.

A Random Mix of Things You Should Definitely Know About: I’ve been loving this trend lately, Reels might spin out to be it’s own app (via Social Media Today), Youtube reaches 1B Monthly Podcast Listeners (read here) which is why you really should not be sleeping on it.

That’s a Wrap!

As always, thanks for spending some time with me this morning. If you liked it, I would love to hear more about you, what you’re working on and any questions you’re dying for answers to whether you’re launching or been around the block a few times.

My goal of this is to similarly take feedback (like you should be doing on social media) and making sure you get something in your inbox every week that you want. Sure, I have tons of ideas, but it’s a team effort.

If you have a friend or coworker who you think would love to join the part, just shoot them this link - would mean a lot 🙂 https://kendalldickieson.beehiiv.com/subscribe

See you next week!

-KD

This week’s edition is brought to you by: