Charlotte Tilbury Instagram Launch Toolkit: From Grid to Checkout for Product Drops

As a makeup enthusiast, I love Charlotte Tilbury products. But what I love even more is the humanized Instagram presence, which is especially important for eponymous brands like this one. What got me to buy the Hollywood Flawless Filter was seeing Charlotte Tilbury herself demonstrating the foundation’s flawless finish, with her magnetic on-screen presence just drawing me in.

Even when it comes to product drops, the brand makes the most of Instagram to launch full-funnel promo campaigns that get results. In this post, I break down Charlotte Tilbury’s multi-phase Instagram launch strategy and show you how you can replicate it. Let’s get into it.

Instagram Launch Funnel: Awareness to Conversion

Before I get into the brand case study, it’s important to get a better understanding of the role that different content formats play throughout the Instagram launch funnel. This will help you map out how to use each format at different stages of the funnel, gradually taking audiences from awareness to conversion.

Reels

With Instagram pushing Reels visibility, this content format is great for maximizing reach. In fact, Reels outperform all other types of content and accounts for 37% of total content reach. Moreover, the ability to use trending sounds and tap into the latest content trends make them perfect for cultural relevance.

Best for: Awareness, Consideration

See how Charlotte Tilbury shares creative Reels to build anticipation for an upcoming product drop.

Feed Posts

Feed posts include both single image and carousel posts. They create an opportunity to go more in-depth with the information you share. Carousel posts in particular see the highest engagement rate among all Instagram content types. So they’re effective for brand storytelling and providing essential information about the launch.

Best for: Awareness, Consideration

Charlotte Tilbury creates a carousel post featuring an enticing promo video along with close-up product shots and videos showing the product in action. The caption serves as a space to share detailed information about the product’s content and shade.

Stories

Stories show up prominently at the top of a user’s feed, making them enticing to engage with. Users can tap through multiple Stories from your brand and engage with them through interactive stickers. They can even go directly to your landing page by tapping on the link sticker, helping you drive traffic to your site.

Best for: Consideration, Conversion

Charlotte Tilbury adds link stickers with compelling CTA text to drive product purchases through Stories.

Collabs

Instagram Collab posts show up across the profiles of multiple collaborators, which means that a different set of followers gets to see them. This makes it easy to expand your reach and drive more engagement, giving you a much-needed algorithm boost. Plus, you earn instant trust with the followers of your collaborators – whether it’s a celebrity, influencer, or expert.

Best for: Awareness, Conversion

The Charlotte Tilbury created a Collab post with Kim Cattrall during the Pillow Talk Beauty Soulmates promo campaign. This post alone generated over 22k likes and plenty of engagement.

As you can see, the Charlotte Tilbury team manages to leverage various types of content for a full-funnel Instagram launch campaign. They consistently roll out Reels, feed posts, Stories, Highlights, and Collab posts in phases to engage audiences at various stages of the funnel. Their campaigns are often tied to celebrity MUA content or creator tutorials to further amplify reach and resonance.

Reels Strategy: Your First Impression = Scroll-Stopping

As highlighted above, Instagram Reels are the perfect content format for increasing reach. That’s why you need to make a good first impression, with scroll-stopping content that gets users to pay attention.

For instance, Charlotte Tilbury creates enticing Reels to build anticipation for upcoming launches and promote new product drops. The following Reel is a case in point.

Beyond visual appeal, don’t forget to perfect the audio aspect of your Reel. Use trending music for momentum or relevant branded audio to immerse viewers in the experience.

Reels are also an excellent format to demonstrate how your product works. Use them to show before and after transformation and build trust with the audience. Additionally, you can also share application tips to guide them and improve product understanding.

Charlotte Tilbury regularly encourages makeup artists and creators to create Reels demonstrating their latest product drops. The following creator swatches the different shades of the Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Stick to show it looks on her skin.

Get more out of influencer-generated content by using branded ads to enhance visibility beyond your existing follower base. This helps you maximize reach exponentially and build trust using authentic, creator content.

Collabs: The Growth Hack Brands Still Underuse

Charlotte Tilbury often uses Instagram Collabs with MUAs, celebrities, or skincare creators to co-post new product drops. This doubles your organic reach as the post shows up on both feeds, meaning more people get to see the content and engage with it. Plus, it’s not just “sponsored content,” signaling authenticity to enhance trust.

Create Collab posts to instantly maximize reach on launch day. But make sure to approve content together to ensure tone and aesthetic alignment. This will help you create Collab posts that fit right within the usual grid of each collaborator. So your content doesn’t feel “off” or out of place.

Stories and Highlights: Where the CTA Lives

With their limited lifespan, Stories are the perfect place to “spam” without crowding up your regular grid. That’s why the Charlotte Tilbury team uses them to share individual product or shade highlights from their latest collections.

What’s even better is the variety of  engagement tools available on Stories. You can use polls, quizzes, and emoji sliders to drive audience interaction and get them more invested in your launch. 

Stories are also one of the few places on Instagram where you can share product images and directly link to an associated landing page. So they’re great for sharing CTAs and driving instant purchases. Notice how Charlotte Tilbury adds a custom CTA to the following Story, encouraging customers to try the virtual try-on tool and see which Unreal shade matches them.

The temporary nature of Stories is what makes them effective. At the same time, you may still want the content to be discoverable after launch. Consider saving the Stories from  your launch campaign into a Highlight. So customers can still find the info and links they need. For instance, the Charlotte Tilbury team creates a dedicated Highlight for every new collection and saves campaign Stories.

Beyond these basics, you need to sequence your Stories strategically to support your Instagram launch. Here are a few tips:

• Phase 1: Build anticipation through countdowns and teasers featuring close-up of product swatches.
• Phase 2: Make an official announcement on launch day with complementary Stories to back up your feed posts. Provide individual product highlights with links to shop.
• Phase 3: Nurture continued engagement and trust with tutorials and influencer takeovers. Answer FAQs to improve product knowledge and further boost buyer confidence.
• Phase 4: Repost user-generated content for social proof and community engagement. Swipe-up offers and limited discounts could further drive more sales.

Analytics and Metrics That Matter

An Instagram launch strategy should go hand-in-hand with robust analytics to gauge campaign success and pivot accordingly. The data from your campaign can show you what works and what doesn’t. This gives you the insights to adjust your campaign approach and messaging accordingly, or even optimize future launch campaigns.

Make sure to have a clear idea of which Instagram metrics you should track to measure campaign success. Some of the most important performance metrics include:

• Saves and Shares: To understand which content resonates most with your audience and whether they find it valuable.
• Story Exits: To gauge Story engagement and see if audiences tend to drop out after a specific number of Stories.
• Link Taps: To see if your campaign is driving traffic and action and determine which Stories or CTAs tend to be the most impactful.
• Collab Reach vs. Solo Post Reach: Comparing the reach between your solo post and Collab post will help you see how collaborators make a difference to your campaign.

Besides your native Instagram analytics, make the most of influencer performance tracking tools like Influencity to enhance your measurement efforts. This provides you with in-depth insights into the performance of specific campaigns, influencers, and posts. Use these reports to see how your branded post performs in comparison to creator content.

Pull up campaign-level reports to see your performance in terms of reach, engagement, and earned media value. You can even integrate with your affiliate marketing efforts, with built-in tools to create unique audience discount codes and  track their performance.

Dos and Don’ts for Instagram Launch Success

Planning an Instagram launch involves a lot of moving parts, and it’s easy to make mistakes. So let me break down some pro tips to streamline the process and some of the biggest mistakes you should avoid.

Do:

Plan your Instagram grid so every post from your launch campaign creates a cohesive look. See how Charlotte Tilbury’s posts for the Unreal launch campaign creates a soft, dreamy aesthetic.

• Brief influencers to create Reels that feel native to the feed instead of looking like commercials. You want content that feels authentic and relatable, so it resonates with the audience.
• Make the most of link in bio tools or Instagram Shopping features for quick shopping access. That way, customers can quickly go from discovering the new product to buying it, which speeds up the buying journey and drives more sales.

Don’t:

• Launch with a single feed post and call it a day. Instagram moves quickly, and users will easily move on from a topic after seeing it once in their feed. They need constant reminders to get them to truly engage with the campaign and eventually take action. Posting multiple times will do exactly that and even improve your chances of engaging users who missed it the first time.
• Let creators publish without agreeing on CTAs or product tags. You want customers to go from awareness to action after seeing the product in an influencer’s post. Decide on the CTAs and product tags creators need to use, so you can effectively drive customers toward a specific action.
• Skip Collab posts. They’re your easiest visibility win as they instantly get your content in front of multiple sets of audiences, so you can maximize reach organically. 

Brand Case Study: Charlotte Tilbury

Charlotte Tilbury is a masterclass in Instagram campaign orchestration. Their use of celebrity makeup artists, timed Collab posts, bold Story CTAs, and polished yet authentic Reels helps create anticipation, social proof, and conversion — all within the same channel.

Let’s look at the promo campaign for the Unreal Summer campaign, for example. On the days leading up to the launch, the brand shared multiple teaser posts to build anticipation.

The following carousel post features a set of high-quality graphics that fit the campaign aesthetic. It includes a launch date and a caption that encourages people to join the waitlist on the brand app for early access to the drop.

The brand continues to post almost daily, building excitement through a series of Reels and feed posts. One of the Reels features Charlotte Tilbury herself telling her “darlings” to get ready for an Unreal Summer.

As they got closer to launch day, the brand shared a Reel featuring products from the collection encased in ice with an audio of crackling ice. The caption talks about “defrosting for an unreal summer” to get fans excited for the launch.

On the day before the official launch, the team shares a carousel post with an announcement about early access to the products only on Sephora. This is an effective way to drive sales by creating a sense of exclusivity and urgency, compelling customers to buy the products before it’s available everywhere.

Their launch day promo strategy includes an engaging Reel with Charlotte herself explaining the product’s features, along with various models swatching the shades. They also shared a series of Stories announcing the release and showing the various shades.

Even after launch day, the brand continues to share Reels and Stories promoting the new collection. This includes a Reel dedicated to each new shade, with a diverse cast of models demonstrating each shade. So they can effectively continue to engage customers and encourage them to try the products.

Toolkits to Support Execution

While you may have an excellent Instagram launch strategy in place, pulling it off can be a bit more challenging. Here are a few tools that will help you execute your plan more easily.

Influencity

For launch strategies that involve influencer partnerships, a platform like Influencity streamlines campaign management. You can keep track of influencer-specific performance and see how your creator posts and Collab posts are performing. 

It also gives you a comprehensive view of your entire campaign performance, tracking key metrics related to visibility, engagement, and action. You can even create promo discount codes for influencers to share with their followers and track their usage over time. Additionally, Influencity supports post scheduling, so you can strategically time your promo posts to go out in the right sequence. 

The link in bio tool further streamlines the sales process once your launch goes live. Customers can easily shop the new products from a curated feed.

Canva/CapCut

When it comes to creating content for your Instagram launch, make the most of tools like Canva and CapCut. You can use Canva to create Stories templates to easily customize for your promo campaign. Meanwhile, CapCut helps you create Reels mockups and put together seamless transitions to engage your audience.

Get Set for Instagram Launch Success

A successful product launch on Instagram involves perfecting your timing and making the most of different content formats at various phases of the funnel. Use the case study I shared above to replicate Charlotte Tilbury’s strategy and prepare for a successful Instagram launch.