Hey,
Hope you’re having a productive week so far. I’m writing this as I’m sipping on my cold brew (Starbucks of course, never Dunkin).
If you’ve been on Twitter in the past two weeks, its hard to escape the hype around TikTok for marketing your brand...
And you know what?
It’s founded in truth, for the most part. Like we talked about 2 weeks ago, brands like Muddy Bites have been pulling MILLIONS of organic views for their products.
How would you like that for your brand?
Easy answer. Of course you would. But, one problem...
Organic content is hard... especially as a branded account.
You’ve seen the meme, right?
On social, humans follow humans. There’s less desire to engage with a faceless brand account (Duolingo may be the exception, LOL).
And if you’re trying to refute that statement in your head, look at your own behavior. How many brands do you actually follow and engage with on social?
Exactly.
And even then, brands like Duolingo are already firmly established... what if you’re starting a brand from scratch?
All good. Here’s an idea:
Have the founder (or any high-level employee, really) create a personal TikTok account.
Do all the things you would do on the branded account, just from the POV of the founder.
Educate your customer, tell your brand story (why you started), answer FAQs, overcome common objections, lean into TikTok trends...
And of course, document the journey of building your brand. Both the highs and the lows.
Sounds great, but does it really work?
Yes, yes it does. On an account I’ve managed, we rebranded from the brand name to our founder. And guess what happened:
2 videos later, a video popped off to 182,000 views.
That one video carried us from 134 followers to 1800+ over the span of 4-5 days.
Again, people connect with people.
Another account to study is Marcus Millione. He’s the founder of Minted New York, and has used TikTok to build a community of loyal fans for his brands. Study him, if you haven’t already.
What’s interesting about his account is that it’s not just content pushing his brands. It’s more focused around:
day-in-the-life vlog content
health & fitness content (which is related to his pre-workout product, but not in a salesy way)
his personal fashion (again, related to his apparel brand, but not in a salesy way)
In short, he creates content around the topics relative to his brand to build an audience of potential customers, without constantly plugging his products.
And one unique thing that he’s done exceptionally well is using TikTok to improve the customer experience in his brands (and thus gets the community to support him even more).
For example, in this video, a customer bought a product that ended up being too small. Not Marcus’ fault. He could’ve ignored it.
Yet, he chose to fully refund the hoodie, and trade the other hoodie to someone else in need.
This isn’t a “tactic.” It works for Marcus because he’s genuine. The audience appreciates that.
And look, it’s a small sample size. I get it.
This approach is absolutely not a “golden ticket” to virality. There isn’t one. But... I’m willing to bet that this is an approach worth testing.
Obvi CMO, Ash Melwani is doing exactly that (this piece was inspired by his move).
If you want to watch this strategy unfold in real time, head over to TikTok and give the account a follow.
Maybe I’m right about this, maybe I’m not.
The numbers won’t lie, though.
If you’re a founder and have an active personal TikTok, hit my line. Would love to know how this is working for you!
1 resource that’ll make you a better marketer
In 2022, i have a goal to become an exceptional copywriter.
The first place i started this week came highly recommended from other marketers:
The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert
Dude wrote these letters while in prison, wild. I’m 7 chapters in right now, and have learned a ton. The writing style itself is worth studying.
You can find ‘em for free right here.
Highly recommend reading if your serious about marketing.
1 account to follow to get better at marketing
Earlier in this piece, i mentioned Ash Melwani — CMO of Obvi.
Ash is constantly posting DTC marketing insights on Twitter. If you’re a founder, or a marketer, follow him now.
One more thing 👇
If you’re new around here, i publish these newsletters every Monday and Thursday to help your brand make better content (and get more customers).
If you enjoyed this, and want to stick around for future editions, you can sub for free here:
Talk to you on Monday at 9am,
Tommy
PS - working on Monday’s case study right now... it’s a good one 👀