Over the past few years, “drops” have replaced new product launches for many creators and companies. You’re now likely to see musicians dropping EPs, artists dropping NFTs, fashion brands dropping buzzy new lines, and even huge companies like Nike, Ikea, and McDonald’s dropping special products with celebrity partners, or dropping meme-worthy items as a way to drum up PR and generate social media buzz.
But what makes a drop different from a launch, exactly? And as a creator, how can you get in on the action? This post covers the ins and outs of drops—and shares simple tips for how to create and sell out your own drops using Tellie, for free, with no code required.
What is a drop, exactly?
A drop is basically like a release or a launch, but with more hype, and with more “special sauce”—i.e. some element that will be perceived as ultra rare, meme-y, exciting, and/or cool by the community of people who care about the brand behind the drop.
In the ‘90s, the brand Supreme basically invented drop culture. By offering limited-supply skateboards and merch that aligned with the values of skate culture, they were able to cultivate a huge community of loyal customers. In this way, the company succeeded in creating its own subculture—something that super-powered their drops, and ultimately paved the way for other brands to begin using drops to cultivate their own communities of hyper-devoted fans.
By the 2010s, “sneakerhead” culture was in full swing, with many (if not most) sneaker and streetwear brands emulating Supreme by dropping ultra-hyped limited-edition goods. As social media grew in prevalence and ecommerce followed suit, the hype cycles surrounding these drops were exponentially amplified. What started as niche, store-based drops became globally accessible, resulting in huge media moments for brands that could pull off the most hype-worthy drops.
Today, with Instagram and TikTok fueling social buzz culture, with mobile-based commerce at an all-time high, and with web3-based technologies bringing powerful new tools to the table, the drop has become an even more powerful way to sell products, build community, and generate buzz.
So, as a creator, you might be wondering: How can I pull off a drop on my own? To find out how to master the art of the drop, we can look at the ingredients used by Supreme, Nike, and others.
What key ingredients go into a drop?
To make a successful drop as a creator, you’ll need a few key ingredients:
Drop key ingredient 1: An in-demand product.
To make a drop, you need something new, exciting, and (ideally) limited-edition to sell. Things that work great as drops include:
- Flash sales
- Product presales
- Limited-edition merch
- NFTs
- VIP tickets/experiences
- Exclusive digital access
If you’re planning to launch one of the above any time soon, keep reading to find out how to package it as a drop to capitalize on extra buzz, community engagement, and sales.
Drop key ingredient 2: An engaged community of fans.
If a tree drops in the forest but nobody’s there to hear it, does it make a sound? Err, maybe not the best pun, but you get the idea. To make a drop pop, you need to have a community of loyal fans and/or customers who already love your product, art, music, shows, etc.
How can you tell if you have the community you need to make a successful drop? Look for these signs:
- You have lots* of engaged social media followers, and when you post, you get plenty of likes, comments, and shares. (*You don’t need thousands of followers. Really, you don’t—even if you just have a few hundred followers, as long as they’re hyper-engaged, you’re on the right track!)
- You have an active email list. Again, you don’t need thousands of subscribers. You just need a solid group of fans, customers, or other loyalists who you can count on to open your emails, click on your offers, and (ideally) buy your goods, products, or services. (Bonus: Tellie helps you build your list! Read how here.)
- You have a track record for selling out your work. Drops work best when what’s on offer is truly in-demand. Last time you released an NFT collection, did they all get bought? Did your last T-shirt run sell out within a week? Maybe that EP you released got 1,000 downloads on the first day? These are all signs that your community is psyched about your work, and will be eager to get in on your drop.
Drop key ingredient 3: A buzz-worthy promotional strategy.
Drops don’t (or at least shouldn’t) happen overnight. On the contrary, the best drops are planned and hyped well in advance. The key here is to tease what’s coming to your community at least a week or two before it goes live. Get your followers’ interest piqued, then make it clear exactly when and how your drop will go live—giving your most loyal fans the chance to mark their calendars, and be first to scoop up what’s on offer.
On the day of the drop, blast your announcement loud and clear! Have great visual assets on hand and fun, straight-to-the-point copy written in advance so you can push everything out as soon as the drop is live. Be sure to post across your social media, website(s), and newsletters—and say why this drop is exciting, what’s extra unique/rare about it, and (ideally) how fast you think it might sell out.
Here’s a rundown for how to use Tellie to supercharge your promotional strategy:
- Set up a Tellie link-in-bio so that when you’re ready to make your drop, it’s easy to promote the link across your socials.
- Make a teaser landing page where you can hype the impending drop. Include a countdown, and use a tool like Laylo to embed an RSVP form so your fans can add their emails and be notified as soon as your drop goes live.
- Bonus points: Put your drop on an exclusive-access page, and require your fans to hold a Tellie Drop (a kind of digital key) to gain access to your offering. This works as a kind of pre-sale, allowing you to hook customers into your drop before it even goes live.
4. Bonus: Add extra special sauce!
The best, most buzz-worthy drops go above and beyond by bringing something truly special to the table. This might mean including a partner creator or brand to help power up your offering, or going all out with the most unbelievably perk-rich, deluxe experience or product you can dream up. Dropping a slightly more exciting version of what you normally offer your community will only take you so far; on the other hand, offering something that’s gasp-worthy will be a sure way to flip your fans into ultra engaged customers or collectors.
What are Tellie Drops?
As drop culture takes the internet by storm, Tellie is your one-stop shop for building custom landing pages and link-in-bio pages that will make your release a breeze to set up. Beyond these powerful capabilities, Tellie Drops are quite literally the key to making your drop pop.
Tellie Drops digital keys that can be used to unlock your exclusive content, products, experiences, and more.
You can create a Drop in minutes using original artwork, music, or videos. Each Drop is totally customizable, meaning you can use Tellie Drops to drop anything we’ve talked about in this post: release an EP, sell limited-edition merch, launch an exciting new product, pre-sell VIP tickets, offer rare digital downloads, and more. And, you can do all this directly from your Tellie Site—meaning it will be easy to set up using our drag-and-drop interface, beautifully branded with custom fonts and all your best images, videos, and audio, and, most importantly, fun for your fans to engage with.
Tellie Drops make it easy to drop anything.
With Tellie, your Drops are minted on the blockchain, which means that they fully belong to you and your collectors (not Tellie), and you can take them anywhere, forever. This is powerful, as you are ensuring that all the value you generate by promoting and dropping your creative work comes back to you as the creator.
How do I create a Drop on Tellie?
To learn more and start your first Tellie Drop, go here.
