I love talking to fellow marketers who not only teach marketing but actually walk the walk, experiment, and try things themselves. They don’t think they’ve figured everything out or have some magic formula they just rinse and repeat. That’s why I’m so excited to bring you today’s guest. She knows exactly how to turn Instagram into your most powerful launch asset—and more importantly, if you’re rolling your eyes about launching on Instagram, bear with me. She’s found a way to make it simple and pretty low lift using Close Friends Stories!
If you haven’t met Brittany Roberts yet, she’s an award-winning social media manager and creator of Instagram Launch Lab, where she teaches her show-stopping, scroll-stopping strategy for transforming casual followers into paid clients. She’s led organic strategy for multiple six- and seven-figure women-led brands, creating standout campaigns for names like My Muscle Chef, Royal Caribbean, and Later. Since starting her own brand in 2020, she’s coached hundreds of women internationally while growing an engaged Instagram audience from scratch.
In this episode, she really pulls back the curtain on the exact Close Friends Stories launch strategy that made her most recent launch both her simplest and her most successful. You’ll hear how she set it up, kept it low lift, got people into her Close Friends stories, what she used to lure them in, and how she executed it. She does not hold back—which I so appreciate—and gets granular enough that I could envision myself doing this. You guys know I don’t have a launch model per se, but the way she described it made me think, “I could do that.” It is so good.
She really knows how to create an experience for people and get into the weeds with them. Sometimes I feel like marketers—especially those obsessed with data—forget to treat people like humans and add nuance, but she manages to do both.
As you can probably tell already, I really appreciated this conversation. Stick around until the end because Brittany shares extra tips for testing the strategy in your own business so you can hit your next launch with confidence and momentum. And remember—this doesn’t even need to be a launch. You could use it to pitch anything, grow your audience, build engagement, or nurture your community. I loved absolutely everything she said.
So, without more blabbing from me… let’s get into it.
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Table of Contents
Who Is Brittany Roberts of The Social Britify?
My name’s Brittany, and I also moonlight as “The Social Britify” over on Instagram. I’ve been working in the Instagram world for about five years. I started out as a social media manager, and like many of us, I eventually transitioned into consulting with businesses and then moved into the coaching space.
When the online business world really took off, I created my own course, and eventually launched my own membership. As I scaled with those one-to-many offers and moved away from one-on-one work—and from social media management altogether—I realized the part I loved most about my programs and courses was launching them.
While I did enjoy working with clients, I found myself drawn to the strategy side of launching: planning campaigns, setting goals and targets, digging into the numbers, and blending that with creative elements. That combination of analytical and creative work is where I thrive.
Now, my specialty is helping other course creators, coaches, and membership hosts launch their programs—specifically by leveraging Instagram.
Why did you decide to do something different for your most recent launch?
There were a few different reasons. Part of it was honestly a selfish little experiment, because I knew this format was already working in more deconstructed, less formalized ways. And by the way—what I’m talking about here is leveraging your Close Friends list.
So I thought, what if I flipped the traditional model? Take something like a webinar launch—probably the most cut-and-paste format out there—identify what works about it, and then change the mechanism so it feels easier and lighter. I wanted it to be more accessible, less pressured, and a little different for my audience—something that would surprise and delight them in a new way.
The core premise stayed the same: “This is the topic I want to share with you. If you want to learn more, you can join in, and toward the end I’ll share how you can work with me.” That part didn’t change. The difference was simply taking it out of Zoom and delivering it in a way that was more enjoyable for me—and, as it turned out, also more enjoyable for the people attending.
Can you walk us through a high-level view of your Close Friends Stories launch?
I had already been using my Close Friends list to create a really intimate, exclusive space. Every so often—completely unstructured—I’d do little mini trainings, private Q&As, and even deep-dive audits when people submitted their Instagram profiles. In my niche, that kind of close connection makes a lot of sense. Over time, I realized I had this hot, engaged group of people, and I thought, “I could add more people to this and really make something of it.”
In the past, I’d run three-day training series on Zoom with a Facebook group and all the bells and whistles. It was great and converted really well, but people naturally dropped off over days one, two, and three. Plus, the logistics—sending Zoom links, managing emails—were a lot.
So I thought, “What if we just switch Zoom for Close Friends?” I marketed it the same way: “I’m hosting a three-day training series. Here’s what I’m sharing each day, who it’s for, and the problem it will solve. If you want to join, I’ll add you to my Close Friends list—that’s where it’s all happening.”
I always tell anyone trying this to think about whether it makes sense for their audience, but I honestly believe it can work for almost any niche if you market and position it well.
The process was simple: people commented a keyword or DMed me, I manually added them to my Close Friends list, and I did a little pre-teasing there. Most of the promotion still happened on my regular stories. The list kept growing daily. I announced the training dates, and then hosted the three-day series entirely in Stories. Aside from filming in my office, I was basically sitting on my couch posting content—and that was it.
Can you explain the timeline for your Close Friends stories?
I’d been using Close Friends stories on and off for probably about 12 months. It wasn’t something I was actively trying to grow—just every so often, if I wanted feedback on a podcast episode, input on a new offer, or to run a quick mini training, I’d do a pop-up inside Close Friends stories. Since Stories only last 24 hours, people would join, watch, and that was it.
When I decided to run the free training series, I cleared the list entirely—it had maybe 40 or 50 people at that stage—because I wanted to build it intentionally. My goal was to have people opt in so I’d know exactly who was interested in the topic, and potentially in the related offer. I wanted warm leads who genuinely wanted to be there.
So I started fresh. Just like announcing a live masterclass, I promoted it as a three-day training series—April 20, 21, and 22. I told people to DM me the word “CLOSE” to join, and I manually added each person. That list grew to about 250 people in roughly a week of promotion.
While it was growing, I nurtured them right away, because people love seeing that little green circle pop up—it feels VIP. If you cultivate it the right way, it stays exclusive and doesn’t feel like something they could’ve just seen in your regular Stories.
Did you do anything else to build the audience for close friends stories?
I did send emails to my list, but it was essentially the same message. There are pros and cons to this approach—it’s not about ditching other launch strategies altogether. For me, it’s just a way to keep things fresh throughout the year. Yes, you lose the ability to collect emails, track Zoom attendance, and gather that kind of data, but I was fine with that for this experiment.
In the emails, I simply said, “Hit reply with one word and I’ll add you.” I also asked for their Instagram handle so I could find and add them, which added a little bit of logistical work—but again, this was new for me and part of the experiment.
Most of the promotion still happened on my feed and regular Stories. I sent one or two emails, used Threads a bit, and that was it. My focus was on activating and engaging my existing audience, not on growing my email list or pulling in a huge wave of new leads.
I wanted this to feel like a way to give back to my audience: “Here’s a free training you can literally watch on your phone in bed or while waiting to pick up your kids.” My goal was for it to be fun and easy for both of us—and my audience responded. It felt different, it felt light, and they could learn something without handing over their email address. All they had to do was watch Instagram Stories.
Close Friends Also Lets You Know Who You’re Talking To!
I’ve had the exact same experience. I was going through recent opt-ins and realized so many people are using burner accounts now. Totally valid—there’s so much we’re all downloading, testing, and signing up for. I get it. I even thought, “Maybe I need my own burner email.” The truth is, I don’t think collecting “real” email addresses has the same value it used to. Many people have an inbox specifically for this kind of thing—not that it’s junk, but I’m adding to that pile just like everyone else.
And when you add extra fields to an opt-in form—asking for email, Instagram handle, phone number—it creates more friction. If you’re marketing on Instagram and your audience is already there watching your Stories, they want the easiest possible way to join in.
For this launch, I used the keyword “CLOSE” so people could either comment or DM it to join. But what worked even better was the little emoji reaction sticker in Stories. All they had to do was tap it—no typing, no extra steps. That made the process feel even lighter and more anonymous if they wanted.
From there, I’d open my Story metrics, see who tapped the sticker, and manually add them to my Close Friends list. You could also use a poll or quiz sticker the same way. This approach gave me the most opt-ins and, as a bonus, it helped me see exactly which people in my audience were paying close attention.
How long were you promoting your close friends stories for?
It was about a 10-day promotion period. I treated it exactly like I would if I were announcing a live masterclass or any type of free online event—Stories going out, feed posts going out—but instead of “Join me live on Zoom,” it was “Catch me on Close Friends.” The only real change was the location.
I still mentioned the dates, but I didn’t need to set a time because each daily training was available for 24 hours and then gone. Only one or two people messaged me saying they missed a day. Since this was an experiment, I’d been saving everything to my camera roll anyway so I could show my clients the structure and process. So, when someone messaged saying, “I missed Day 2 and was really enjoying it,” I just sent them a Google Drive link with the slides so they could catch up.
The way I see it, there are always trade-offs. Yes, you make sacrifices with this approach, but webinars have their own sacrifices and things that don’t go to plan too.
What did the 3-day training look like in your close friends stories?
I knew I had to think carefully about how to make this engaging without slides or a big screen. Just like any Stories content, you need to keep people watching all the way through. I asked myself: should it be all face-to-camera? Should I use static slides so people can hold and read? I decided to ask my audience directly—polling them inside Close Friends. The results were a perfect 50/50 split, so I went with a mix of both.
I prepped my notes just like I would for any training, but I also used prompts I’d created for myself to structure Close Friends content. With Stories, you don’t want to ramble for 60 seconds in every clip—that gets boring fast. Instead, I broke things down: which sections would be face-to-camera, which would be diagrams or lists, and which could just be text.
A lot of my content was simple: notes typed in my phone’s Notes app, screenshot and uploaded, sometimes with a quick Canva graphic. The style was intentionally lo-fi—it wasn’t meant to look like a polished Canva deck. I wanted it to feel raw, like I was right there on my phone, training this small group.
I created a slide-by-slide outline for each day. I filmed one day at a time, though I learned you could easily batch the full three days in advance. Each day’s set took maybe 30–40 minutes to put together: filming, adding captions, adding a bit of text, occasionally pulling in a Canva graphic. I’d upload everything at the same time each day so the 24-hour expiry was consistent, and then post the next set the following day.
I added engagement stickers throughout and thought about gamification to keep people watching until the end. The idea was to make it interactive and fun, so they’d stay engaged from the first slide to the last.
What did you do in your regular stories during the launch?
It was a bit of everything—kind of like showing what’s behind the curtain and what’s in front of it. I leaned into the “this is what you’re missing out on” angle. For example, I’d screenshot the row of little white dots at the top of my Stories—there were quite a few each day—and post that to my regular Stories saying, “This is what you’re missing—20 dots of training every single day. You can binge it, screenshot it, whatever you want.”
I played on the exclusivity factor, the fact that it all expired in 24 hours, and kept adding people every day of the training—not just beforehand. That way, even during the series, people could still join in and catch part of the experience.
Because it was so meta—I was teaching this strategy while using it—it was fun for my audience to watch it unfold in real time and also experience it from the consumer’s side. During one of the trainings, we even brainstormed together: how could this work for their niche? How could they make it feel exclusive and intimate? Because while a training series can be powerful, it doesn’t look the same for every business.
What elements did you use to keep it lo-fi?
I was playing with it in the moment, thinking, “Should I add this element?” but it never got much more complicated than that. I did end up adding a ManyChat automation—but since you can’t automate adding people to Close Friends, that’s something to keep in mind. If you’re expecting a big wave of sign-ups, you might want help with the manual part.
For example, I recently had a student with about 1,300 followers who ended up with around 70 people on her Close Friends list. That’s very manageable. She was promoting it every single day and loving watching her list grow.
My ManyChat automation was just for comments and DMs. I wanted to make sure people knew exactly what Close Friends was and how to access the training, especially if they’d never used that feature before. The automation didn’t add them—it simply sent a message saying, “Hi, you’re in for the training. You’ll be added within the next 24 hours. When you see a little green circle pop up, you’ll know you’re in.” That helped cut down on FAQs. But honestly, it’s not essential to have this in place—it’s just a nice extra.
If someone is thinking about launching through close friends stories, do you have any last pieces of advice?
I would definitely experiment with a Close Friends list before diving into a more structured approach. It’s a great way to learn how to manage it logistically—and one of the easiest mistakes to make is accidentally posting the wrong content to the wrong list. It sounds silly, but it happens. You want to be sure you can still market on the front end while nurturing and engaging on the back end. Practicing that duality is important.
You could start small with a pop-up training—not a big push to get as many people as possible, and maybe without pitching an offer at the end. Just test it out, see how the feedback goes, and gauge whether people understand the format. Many people have never been on a Close Friends list before, so this can help them get familiar with it.
Once you’ve tried it and it’s gone well, you can formalize it: give the training a name, set clear dates, and promote it more widely. Or, if training content isn’t the right fit for your audience, you could use Close Friends as a waitlist or “build in public” approach for a new offer—giving your most engaged followers VIP first access.
Connect With The Social Britify
You can find me on Instagram at The Social Britify. I have a free masterclass coming up very soon. If you want to see firsthand how these Close Friends–style launches—or Instagram-centric launches in general—can work for you, definitely join in.
This is perfect if your past launches have started to feel a little tired and boring, either to you or your audience, or if you want to learn how to leverage Instagram more effectively with the audience you’ve already built. I’ll be sharing more insights on this exact strategy, along with opportunities to join my new program, The Instagram Launch Lab.
LINKS MENTIONED
- Learn more about working with Brittany
- Follow Brittany on Instagram
- Learn more about working with our marketing agency here
- Follow me on Instagram
