#698 – TikTok Shop Video Secrets From A 7 Figure Seller

Join us on this TikTok Thursday episode as we explore the transformative impact of TikTok Shop on business growth and brand visibility. Today’s host will be Shivali Patel, Senior brand evangelist at Helium 10, and our guest Ryan Maya, an accomplished entrepreneur with two successful brands, Beyond Braid and Professor Pickleball. With over 400,000 followers, Ryan shares how TikTok Shop has become a game-changer, contributing to a remarkable 100% increase in revenue year over year. Discover how creating viral content on TikTok can lead to a “halo effect”, boosting sales across other platforms like Amazon and the brand’s website.

Listen in as we discuss effective content creation strategies that drive engagement and sales on TikTok Shop. From crafting clear calls to action to utilizing the power of raw, unedited content, I share insights on how simplicity can captivate audiences. Ryan and I also explore the iterative process of refining video-making skills, highlighting the importance of persistence and experimentation. Whether you’re creating your own content or collaborating with influencers, engaging with the platform can unlock significant potential for your brand.

Finally, explore the strategic aspects of optimizing your TikTok Shop presence. We touch on authentic content creation, leveraging affiliates, and the integration of Helium 10’s suite of tools for TikTok Shop sellers. Learn about the challenges and opportunities of collaborating with influencers and the power of live shopping. Ryan’s experience with pickleball products on TikTok Shop offers a glimpse into the potential for success, underscoring the importance of creative content and compelling offers. Tune in to discover how TikTok Shop can revolutionize your E-commerce sales strategy and propel your Amazon brand to new heights.

In episode 698 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Shivali and Ryan discuss:

• 00:00 – Leveraging TikTok Shop for Sales Success
• 03:55 – Creating Effective TikTok Shop Videos
• 16:30 – Maximize TikTok Shop Sales With Authentic Content
• 20:21 – Content Creation and Strategy Insights
• 24:50 – Influencer, TikTok, and Advertising Strategies
• 29:48 – TikTok Shop Sales Strategy Discussion
• 35:39 – Video Performance Sustainability and Success

Transcript

Shivali Patel:

What if I told you, the videos you think are too awkward to post could actually be the very thing that takes you to over a million dollars in sales? Today we have with us a special guest who’s going to tell you exactly what he did to get his brands generating over eight figures a year.

Bradley Sutton:

How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I’m your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world.

Shivali Patel:

Today’s special guest knows a thing or two about this, because he owns not one, but two sports brands in fishing and pickleball that are doing over eight figures a year. His brands have amassed communities of more than 400,000 followers, and he still makes a lot of the content himself. Having built his businesses from the ground up and worn many, many hats in e-com, I believe he’s the perfect person to pitch in on almost any aspect of running a brand on TikTok, so let’s go ahead and invite him up. Hey, Ryan, how are you?

Ryan:

Doing well. How about you?

Shivali Patel:

Good. Thanks so much for being here. We’re excited about all you have to share and to pick your brain a little bit. I know you have two successful brands that have amassed over 400,000 followers. Could you tell us a little bit about them?

Ryan:

Yeah, so one is a fishing brand, which is this one called Beyond Braid. Another one is a pickleball brand called Professor Pickleball. Basically we sell physical products. This is our bestseller in the fishing brand. It’s literally just fishing line. We now sell a bunch of other products but yeah, started on Shopify six years ago. Five years ago, then Amazon, then eBay, Walmart and now that TikTok shop has become a thing, we’ve taken it super serious and we are the number one fishing brand and the number one pickleball brand on TikTok shop for those specific niches. So yeah, we just make a lot of videos. We take it very seriously, because some people try TikTok shop and they look at it as like another shiny object and I’m like, no, this is like a really big, serious thing, like a seven, eight, nine figure opportunity. So that’s how we’re looking at it and it’s, knock on wood, gone super well so far.

Shivali Patel:

Maybe you could share a little bit about how I guess TikTok shop being listed on TikTok shop has impacted on your other platforms, your revenue or the volume that you’re doing?

Ryan:

Yeah. So for last year, both brands did about eight and a half million dollars combined, which both brands basically almost had 100% increase year over year, and I think that has mostly to do with TikTok Shop. Reason being is you have what’s called the halo effect. When you get millions of views on TikTok Shop and you go viral, not everyone’s going to trust TikTok Shop because it was such a new platform that naturally people would go over to our website, they would go over to Amazon and they would purchase there. So literally, TikTok Shop has changed our business year over year and we’re still seeing that happen, where we’ll go viral or we’ll get a video that works really well and that product will just rank super high on Amazon. We’ll see spillover sales to some of our retailers that we sell to online.

Ryan:

So it has a true halo effect because, at the end of the day, you’re reaching more people. More people are finding out who you are. Whether they purchase on TikTok shop or they go to Amazon or your website. More people are learning about your brand. So it’s just a way to get eyeballs on your product and now the added benefit is there’s just a little buy it now button right on TikTok shop for less friction.

Shivali Patel:

Yeah, 100% increase year over year is awesome. I did wanna ask. On the same note is that attributed to influencers or is that content you’re making? I know you wear a lot of hats.

Ryan:

Yeah, so it’s both. We definitely have a, I don’t wanna say a super large selection of affiliates that we work with, but a decent amount of creators. That’s something that the TikTok shop platform does super well is it makes working with affiliates so much easier, where in the past you’d have to negotiate prices, do reach out, all that kind of stuff where now it’s all integrated in their platform. So we definitely use affiliates, but at the same time we make a lot of content in-house which actually converts the best for our brand and that’s what I’m going to talk about today in my presentation is how to actually make TikTok shop videos that sell, because I am the owner of the brand, but I act almost as the face of the brand as well, through my own affiliate channels, through the brand channels, and we make a lot of the content in-house and that seems to be converting the best, which is, I think, the split right now. It’s like 70-30 or 80-20 percentage of revenue coming from our own in-house videos and the rest is the affiliates.

Shivali Patel:

I’ve heard a lot in this space that you have to make 100 videos before you’re really improving or seeing any sort of maybe numbers take off. That’s especially true if you don’t know what you’re doing or you’re just getting started for the first time. But I’m excited to see all that you’ve learned in the process of getting started and doing content creation and scaling your brands. So, with that being said, let me go ahead and pass it over to you.

Ryan:

Cool. So, yeah, I’ll run through this and basically show you, guys exactly how to make TikTok shop videos that sell. There’s a very simple breakdown that I’m gonna give you a very simple formula and it’s not rocket science. A lot of the videos that I’ve made are literally selfie style videos with my iPhone camera. My most viral video that has produced the most sales took me the least amount of time to make and it was the easiest rawest video that you can make. So just keep that in mind. But in this video you’re going to learn all things how to make videos, how to make TikTok shop videos that sell. So before we get started, there is a disclaimer on content creation. I’ll just read this so you can understand what I’m saying.

Ryan:

You’re going to suck at your first 10 videos if you’ve never made a video before, maybe even your first 100 videos. Your friends and family will make fun of you. They will laugh at you. You will feel awkward on camera. You will sound terrible, you will sound like a robot, but it is all okay, it’s part of the process. Just accept it. You’ll be fine, you won’t die and you’ll be on your journey to making a million dollars a year on TikTok shop or more. So that’s basically saying you’re going to suck at your first videos. Just get over it. The sooner you can accept it, the quicker you’re going to be on your way to actually being successful with making videos. So I want to show you right. I talk about how easy it is to make videos. This is my first video ad I made. 10 can see that I just I’m really awkward. The words were really choppy, I look like a dork in the video and all of my teammates this was back when I played baseball in college they all made fun of me. So much Like. And again, this was the first video ad I made and I just got better. I just ignored it, I accepted it and I just got better. I just ignored it, I accepted it and I actually got way better. And that is the sole reason I became successful in eCommerce was because I started making video ads for Facebook and Instagram, and that’s how we actually scaled our business. So I suck too. You just get better as you go with practice.

Ryan:

So what I want to focus on today is what I call the hack formula, and each letter stands for a portion of the TikTok shot video, your vertical video format that you’re going to make. So it all starts off with a hook. Now these are some hooks that are working right now in my business. Again, I have a pickleball and a fishing business, so this is the generic template that you guys can screenshot and use. I have some real life examples here, but let’s just walk through these. So some hooks that are working right now is this is the blank. This is the newest blank cheat code. So, if you’re selling beauty products, this is the newest hair product cheat code.

Ryan:

Okay, I need to show you guys something and then get into your pitch. If you’re a fisherman, you should be using our fishing line or I’ll show you the next example stop doing blank and switch to blank. Attention, shout out your target customer’s name, or just say your target customer’s name or say, hey, check this out. So here are some actual examples of how this works in my business. This is the newest pickleball cheat code, talking about a pickleball paddle. If you want to play like name or say, hey, check this out. So here are some actual examples of how this works in my business. This is the newest pickleball cheat code talking about a pickleball paddle. If you want to play like a pro level pickleball player, you should be using a raw carbon fiber paddle, which is our product.

Ryan:

Now for fishing, stop using old traditional fishing line and switch to braided fishing line, which is our product. For a fishing line ad, I can say, hey, attention, fishermen. And then show them our product. Fishermen, do you need new line? Check out this fishing line that disappears into the water. So you’re using these opening lines, the first three seconds of your video, to hook in the customer.

Ryan:

Now, if you want a little bonus, you can add in a visual hook on top so you can have your verbal hook, which is the first lines that you actually speak, and then, as a bonus, to actually get those viewers to keep watching, you can have a visual hook as well. So I’ll show you an example. The words that this person is saying, since you can’t hear the audio on this is this is the newest pickleball cheat code. So what makes that video so attractive and that video, I think, got like 60 million views is the verbal hook. This is the newest pickleball cheat code. And then the visual hook of hitting the ball around the net just doesn’t happen in pickleball. So you’re like what just happened, right and it makes you want to keep watching. So if you can mix a verbal hook one of these right here literally just steal these and plug in your industry and add a visual hook. That’s how you lead to a massively successful video that gets millions of views. I literally do this all the time and say, hey look, this fishing line is the newest fishing line, or this fishing line is this is the newest fishing cheat code, is this fishing line? I have multiple videos like that that. I’ve gotten millions of views. So that is the H in the hack formula.

Ryan:

Now let’s move on to A. This stands for attributes and this is essentially all the features and benefits of your product or service, in this case, just your product. And here are some actual examples again of this product right here. So the feature this is our blue camo braid. It has you can see in the camera blue, white and black color pattern. The benefit of that is it blends into clear water, so the fish won’t be able to see it, so the fishermen will be able to catch more fish. So you literally state this in your meat of your video. So if you’re hook now, you’re into the meat section and you literally state this in your meat of your video. So if your hook, now you’re into the meat section and you literally say this. Another feature braided line has super thin diameter. So it’s this very thin line allowing you to cast the line further audience, a reason to want to buy the product. This is where you’re actually selling the product. The hook is just meant to grab the viewer’s attention. Now you’re actually selling the product. That is an extra line.

Ryan:

And then the C in the hack formula stands for call to action. You literally tell them where to click, how to buy, what to do next, what the offer is On TikTok shop. You’re always going to say, hey, tap the orange cart below or it’s available in the TikTok shop below. It’s 50% off in the TikTok shop below. It’s the cheapest on the TikTok shop below. Click the link below and it gets repetitive. But you literally need to say this. And at the end of every single video we have a call to action, or at least put text on screen if you forget to do it in video and you’re editing it after. So I’m going to show you guys examples of videos that are actually converting right now that basically put together the same process. So this video has 170K views in three days. It’s a brand new product we launched had 100 units sold in three days, $2,000 of GMV. Essentially, all I’m doing is say, hey, check out these pliers showing all the features and benefits. And then at the end of the video I say, hey, these are awesome. Click the link below and I’m also demonstrating how they work. Cutting the fishing line.

Ryan:

Another video 3 million views, $7,000 of GMV in the last 28 days, and I’ll walk you through it. So it has a visual hook, stacking colors of line. It has a verbal hook which at the beginning of the video I should be able to click here so you can see I was responding to a comment that said but it’s cheaper on Amazon, so that also can work as a visual hook. And then the verbal hook is also just reading the comment, saying, hey, it’s cheaper on Amazon, and immediately disagreeing with that comment, and that creates curiosity. Why is he immediately disagreeing with this comment? And again, 3 million views, $7,000 of GMV. And it’s literally made with an iPhone that I set up a tripod in my office studio and was just showing off the colors of our fishing line. Nothing fancy, no edits all the way through.

Ryan:

This was one of these raw videos that I was talking about, which is super easy to make. And I have one more example for you guys, or two more videos In the last 28 days 7,600 and 6,400. Literally saying fishing cheat code revealed. I literally just said, saying, hey, this fishing line is the fishing cheat code revealed, it’s on sale, get it below. Literally, selfie video in my office. And then this video I literally just went to a retailer and said, hey, stop overpaying for braided fishing line, which is our product. This isn’t even our product. I said, hey, look, it’s $29.99. You can get it cheaper in the link below. So I’m not editing these videos, these are straight through one takes and you can see how simple and easy they are. And then I want to do one live for you guys so you can see what it actually looks like.

Ryan:

So this is another product we sell. It is a fishing line sheer and basically this is the somewhat kind of script. But honestly I don’t even need a script because I can. I can riff off the top of my head. So I’m going to take my phone, I’m going to set it up against my computer and make a real-time ad really quick. So I set up selfie, I click record and then I’m literally going to go. I’ll use the hook right there.

Ryan:

Okay, I need to show you guys something. These are the most badass shears I’ve ever seen. They cut braided fishing line like absolute butter. They have serrated blades, a bottle opener and a screwdriver. So they’re a multifunction tool and you can get them on sale in the TikTok shop. Click down below to get it before they run out of stock.

Ryan:

And that’s all I did. I recorded it. I will literally post that video on TikTok shop and I guarantee you it’ll get sales. So that’s as easy. That’s like literally as simple as it is. I’m not going to say it’s easy, but it’s as simple as that, and you just got to practice and make loads and loads of content until you get really good at it. I’ve made thousands of videos and I think that’s why I’m so comfortable on camera now. So again, just look back at the disclaimer. Know you’re going to suck at your first videos, but once you master this skill, this could literally change your life overnight, or over a period of time when you get good at this skill and start making money actually selling your products. So that’s it.

Shivali Patel:

Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that. Yeah, TikTok shop is a really exciting space right now and I agree with you, I think it does take a lot of videos. I’m finding that out for myself right now because I’ve also just started posting. But how about you guys those of you that are watching this? Have you started posting videos yet for your own brands, or are you using influencers? What is the case for you? I also see Whitney has a question for you. She asks do you remember the moment when it felt like it clicked for making content?

Ryan:

I wouldn’t say there was one particular moment. There actually was like one style of video that I’ll never forget. Right, me and my girlfriend at the time in college, we went to this little like bridge there was good lighting, everything like looked good. I said, hey, like just film me really quick. And I said, hey, guys, check out this fishing line. And I, like had my fishing rod and that simple video just like looked really good. We ran it as an ad and it absolutely crushed. That was the first ad that did super well. Before that I still had probably made a lot of videos I don’t want to say hundreds of videos, but I was very early on in my career, so I had probably made a few dozen videos, or maybe 20, 30, 40, 50 videos, but that one video, I remember, just absolutely crushed it. And then we just started making more videos very similar to that.

Shivali Patel:

Yeah, I saw this thing online that said you can screen record yourself as you’re scrolling through TikTok and then not the day of, but the next day or the day after go back and take a look at the screen recording to see where you slowed down, like what caught your attention, what didn’t and I think that’s a really interesting practice to use if you’re building content for yourself and you’re just getting in to the space. But I’ve also seen a lot of people say post your content and that’s based off your perspective, but it might not be somebody else, because people like the relatability aspect.

Ryan:

Yeah, it’s like I don’t know what’s been happening on the TikTok algorithm, but like I keep getting videos on like how to grow your account and everyone is saying like, yeah, just treat it like it’s a FaceTime call, which is kind of what I do. Right, the more real you can be, the more natural you can sound, which comes from just making videos over and over. Typically, the more native it looks, the less like an ad it will look, the better it will convert.

Shivali Patel:

Yeah, I see we have some more questions jeff asks, you mentioned making your own videos work better for you, but what if you’re just getting started on TikTok? Would it make more sense to lean heavier on affiliates for content?

Ryan:

I mean, if you’re just getting started on TikTok like, literally just do what I said and make the videos like to me. I get some kickback whenever I say that, because I’m actually part of a big Amazon seller group where a lot of people they’re a lot older than me they don’t like to get on camera, but I’m like this could literally change your business. Yes, you can, definitely. If you’re absolutely petrified you’re never gonna make a video, then yes, you have to lean on affiliates to make sales on TikTok Shop. TikTok Shop is a content first platform, right? The only way you’re gonna sell stuff is if you have videos of your product in the algorithm and if you refuse to make it as your page or a brand owner, then yes, you have to lean on affiliates heavily. I suggest, do both. We lean on affiliates and we make our own content. Our own content just happens to convert better, but we’re working with thousands and thousands and thousands of affiliates.

Ryan:

If you’re just getting started, for sure, send your product out to affiliates. But I also encourage you to make videos. It doesn’t cost you anything but your time to make videos. That’s the cheapest way. You already have your product in hand. You know your product better than these affiliates. So I truly encourage you just suck it up and make videos. It’s okay if they suck.

Shivali Patel:

Yeah, with practice comes perfection sort of.

Ryan:

Not even, you don’t even have to strive for perfection, it’s just do it.

Shivali Patel:

Being authentic, yeah. Samantha asks I sell a dry bag, and I never know if I need to address the audience kayakers or paddle boarders or just say the word dry bag. Am I overthinking this?

Ryan:

You 100% are. Literally make three videos. Say kayakers, that’s one video, that’s one hook. Dry, dry baggers, that’s one video, that’s one hook. Dry bag or, I’m sorry, paddleboarders, that’s another hook. And then people who want a dry bag or do you need a dry bag, is another video.

Ryan:

So I was actually literally studying this this morning, which is how to mass create and how to batch content. I batch content where I’ll just sit down with my phone and I’ll just record 100 videos just basically saying the same thing, where another version of that is you can sit down and record 50 hooks just saying hey, kayakers, do you need this dry bag? Paddle boarders, do you need this dry bag? Fishermen, do you need this dry bag?

Ryan:

Then you record three to five meet or attributes and then you record three call to actions and then you can make a combination of like 150 videos by stitching out the different hooks with different bodies, with different call to actions. So that’s one way to batch create and you just have to test. You have to test so much. I’ve made thousands of videos and of the thousands of videos there’s probably a small two to three percentile of videos that actually convert and work, and then you just double down and make those more so if you find that the paddleboarders or calling out the paddleboarders and kayakers, or just calling out people who want a dry bag works the best, the only way you’re going to find out is by actually making the videos and testing it out to see which converts better.

Shivali Patel:

Since you’re both creating content, have you leveraged AI at all for content planning? Or do you just know your brand so you just do it off the top of your head?

Ryan:

I’ve definitely used ChatGPT to say spit me out some hooks based on my Pickleball brand for this product or fishing brand. Vice versa, in terms of actual content creation, I’ve used the VO3 with all the Yetis and making the Yetis and gorillas talk on camera. We did that. They got a lot of views, but I just found it got For me personally. It just got kind of old really fast. But in terms of using a chatbot like ChatGPT to spit out 10 hooks, yeah, it does it in like 2 seconds and literally just read them. I’ll do that when, let’s say, I’m going somewhere, let’s say I have a boat and let’s say we’re going purposely to film on the boat, I’ll print out or save like those 50 hooks and then just go through them as I’m on the boat. It helps to have that ready when the camera is set up, because once the camera is set up you kind of lose your train of thought, so having something to bring you back in really helps.

Shivali Patel:

Let’s chat a little bit about cadence as well. How many videos are produced and published per day, or what do you recommend, especially for somebody who’s getting started versus somebody who’s able to spend a little bit more time on it?

Ryan:

So personally, in our brands we’re posting between one and three videos per day from our channel. I do have a social media manager who helps with that. I do have someone on our team who also does content creation with myself. If you’re just getting started, I would aim to try and post two to three times a week. That’s like Sunday to Sunday. So if you can post one Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, start with that.

Ryan:

Ideally, it’s hard to get into a content creation mode. I don’t create content every day. What I do is batch create. Like I said, I’ll have 30, 40, 50 drafts saved and then I’ll just go ahead and post them once a day. And same thing with my social media manager. I’m not making content every single day because you really have to carve out time. You got to get kind of into character, get your energy levels up to speak on camera. So that’s how I find it best is like batch record, save them to your phone, save them in drafts and then post them throughout the week. But try to do a couple a week If you can really get good do one a day.

Shivali Patel:

All right. Denny asks how did the video you shot in the store convert? I love that one.

Ryan:

In the store. Okay, that one absolutely crushed. We showed one of our competitors and said, hey, this is too expensive, just get it cheaper in the TikTok shop. We actually got a violation for that video because one of the criteria of TikTok shop is you have to show your own product in the video, which I didn’t do. But I was able to submit an appeal and it got passed somehow and the video continued to get views. I think that video now has like 5 million views and has done multi five figures like 20, 30, 40, $50,000 of GMB. And it was literally because I was at a Dick’s Sporting Goods and I always just go check the fishing section just to see like what’s out there. I told my girlfriend like, hey, can you just record me two seconds? I’m like don’t overpay for this, just check the tick tock shop. I know our prices are lower. And it did super well.

Shivali Patel:

The next question is everyone says you have to send 200 samples per month to influencers to make sales on TikTok, but our margins are too tight to support that. Do you post the videos on your own TikTok account with little to no followers? I’m assuming that says and could that make sales? How often do you post? How long does it take to see traction?

Ryan:

So that’s a very good point, right? If you have more expensive products, it doesn’t make sense usually to send out a bunch of samples. We have products that our cost of goods are $2 and to ship it to a customer is an extra three, four, five bucks. So all in it costs us six, seven bucks to send a sample. I’m okay with that. On the flip side, we have some products that it costs us $60 to send to someone. I’m usually only sending that to the best of the best influencers that I know will convert. So just take that with a grain of salt for your own business. If you have the margins and an inexpensive product to send a lot of samples, I would. There is no magic number. It can be 50, it can be 200, it could be 1,000 samples a month. It’s just up to you and how your product actually converts on the platform.

Ryan:

And then the second part of the question is do you post your videos on your own TikTok account with little followers? Followers do not matter on TikTok shop or TikTok anymore. I’ve seen small accounts go absolutely viral on one post. I’ve seen big accounts with big influencers, someone with millions of followers. We send them our product, they post it, it gets 300 views. So followers do not mean anything. It’s all about the creative. It’s all about the offer that you have in your video saying hey look, Beyond Braid is running a massive deal, guys, it’s only available today. Like that urgency allows videos to convert. We had a creator. He had like 5,000 followers. It was around Black Friday time last year. He made a video saying hey look, this is a great gift for fishermen. It was like a backpack for fishing and he sold 3 000 units. It was like 70 000 in sales in three days and we sold out and he had. He was like a small creator, so followers do not matter. It’s just all about the creative and the timing and the offer.

Shivali Patel:

Can you offer any tips for a vitamin brand, for example, what group do we call out?

Ryan:

It depends. I guess vitamins can be for anyone right. What I’ve seen work really well, specifically in the supplements category is they literally set up like these three cups in front of you and they’re like if you’re deficient in this, take this pill. If you’re struggling with sleep, take melatonin, if you’re right, so you can do that and then your product like combines a few of those and is like a better solution. And that video format has worked. And I actually took that for my fishing line brand and said, hey, if you fish freshwater, use this color, if you fish saltwater, use this color. And it actually worked. So look at what other brands are doing, even if they’re not necessarily a direct competitor of you, or if they’re selling the same product, and try to look at the format they’re doing and see how you can apply that to your very own product. So with vitamins, I would just go look at what’s currently converting and then try to do something similar.

Shivali Patel:

For health nuts. The absorption videos also do really, really well. When you have a liquid and you drop the vitamin in and you compare it to competitors whose pills maybe don’t dissolve as well in the digestive system, that converted me years ago. Really hard really.

Ryan:

Yeah, and it’s like, look, look at what, like look at what you’re getting targeted with and what you’re interested in buying, and like that is like the secret sauce right there. If an ad is good enough to get you to buy something, that’s a, that’s a green flag of like hey, whatever they’re doing is working. I want to try and recreate that crazy story. This brand called Thursday Boots. They were a leather shoe brand. They had an ad that worked so well.

Ryan:

It is the sole reason I actually started the Pickleball brand was because I created the entire Pickleball brand based on that one offer that I basically stole from this shoe ad, which was they said these leather shoes, they’re the highest quality leather shoes at the lowest possible sustainable markup. And that was the hook. And they had a visual hook as well and I literally bought from that ad $100 pair of shoes. And I was like that was genius and I literally took that and said this is the highest quality pickleball paddle at the lowest possible markup. So I was selling a high quality paddle at a low price and that offer that was a seven figure offer that offer crushed it.

Shivali Patel:

Next question Emily Kennett says are all the post videos that you’re recommending to post paid posts or just posting in general to have new content flowing in?

Ryan:

So by paid posts, I’m assuming she means running some sort of ads behind it. Does that sound right? Yeah, so TikTok. The method of advertising on TikTok shop is something called GMV Max ads, which is the only way to advertise right now. We currently have that turned on for all of our products.

Ryan:

It is tricky I’m not going to lie, because TikTok is not as transparent as we want them to be on where the direct sales are coming from. Basically, this is like literally something we’re trying to figure out, like in real time. The way I look at it is yes, our ads are on all the time. We have a certain ROI budget which, if we’re doing above three, we’re good with right. We spend a dollar, we’re making $3. We spend $1,000, we’re making $3,000 back. The way I look at it whether that’s organic or coming from paid or they’re blending it somehow in some secret machine that we can’t see I’m still good with that. I’m good to spend $100,000 or a million dollars knowing we’re going to get $3 million back, because that’s the metric we have and that’s the metric our posts are hitting. I’m cool with it. So, GMB max ads you should definitely have them on once you have enough content in the ecosystem from affiliates and your own brand uh, your brand presence have you found a sweet spot for the time length of videos that do best?

Ryan:

Nope, we have some videos that are eight seconds that have converted super well, and I have some videos that are three and a half minutes that converted super well. So, like I mentioned, it’s just all about the creative and the offer, the hook, the ability to sell. In that video the one that was three minutes I basically told the story on the Pickleball brand about how big brands are charging obscene amounts of money for absolutely no reason, and explained to them that our paddles use the same materials, the same construction process, and really educated them on why they should buy ours and save money. So that was a long video. And then another one is literally simply saying this is the lowest price we’ve ever sold these for. Check the link below and get them.

Ryan:

And that’s a seven second video, and that one crushed as well. So again, it’s all about testing and finding out what works. Typically, most of our videos, I’d say, are between 20 and 40 seconds. That gives you enough time to have a hook, explain a few features or show how it works, and then a call to action.

Shivali Patel:

I believe what you just said also answers this question, which is are all the posts product-based? And I think it can also be value or education.

Ryan:

Yeah, I mean at this point, all of the posts we’re making feature a product in on TikTok Shop, because TikTok Shop is a sales channel for us. Now it’s not just a social media platform. But in terms of what kind, it could be a story, it can be a demonstration, it can be a problem awareness video, it could be a solution, awareness video. So there’s tons of different kinds of videos you can make.

Shivali Patel:

Is there a process you suggest or prefer setting up for a TikTok Shop to have Amazon Fulfill the order?

Ryan:

So that is using MCF. I believe Helium 10’s tool can help.

Shivali Patel:

Yeah, I can comment on that. So we actually rolled out with this not too long ago. But you can set up everything inside of Helium 10. So, if you have a Helium 10 account, you go in the top right-hand side where you have your name. You’ll click it, click connections and add TikTok shop. From there we have everything in the platform. You can literally inventory, map your products and link them. So your TikTok shop listings can be created through a bulk convert feature as well as linked to Amazon MCF, so that way it’s automatically pulling every time you have an order placed.

Shivali Patel:

Yeah, it’s really cool. Inside of Helium 10, you can, like I said, bulk convert your listings, so I would start there, and then you can go in, link the products and then you also have an influencer finder for TikTok as well as well as for Amazon. But since we’re focusing on TikTok shop specifically here today, you can go in, find the influencers, check out their links, check out their pages, input in parameters that you might have in mind that you’re looking for, and then, from there, contact and do your outreach. Do you edit your videos in the platform or edit somewhere else with a different app or software, before uploading to TikTok? Does the algorithm favor one over another.

Ryan:

So right, CapCut is owned by TikTok or ByteDance. I’ve heard they can favor that, but I don’t think it’s true. I edit on Final Cut, which is on my Mac desktop. I edit on CapCut sometimes and then I edit directly in the TikTok app as well. At this point in time, I am doing very minimal edits. It’s like shortening the front of the video, shortening the edge of the video, sometimes cutting out pauses in between and then adding text on screen which, literally, to give you an answer, 95% of the stuff I’m editing is directly in the TikTok app and it’s super minimal. That’s just because the video takes. I’m normally doing it all the way through, so there’s less editing required. If it’s a heavy video that I need to cut out a lot of pauses or need to do some other stuff, I’ll use Final Cut on the desktop, but 95% of the videos require minimal editing, just like trimming the beginning, the end and adding text on screen.

Shivali Patel:

When you say you’re adding text to your videos, is that captions or is it like a hook versus middle frame, end frame, CTA.

Ryan:

Yeah, both. So I think 95% of my videos have captions. Sometimes I’ll just be like I don’t know, I don’t want to put captions on this video, and then most of the time we’re putting text on the first three seconds of the screen, basically kind of giving them like a headline of what the video is going to be. So the one with the fishing cheat code I literally had it at the top of the screen saying this is a phishing cheat code revealed. Or the other one was stop overpaying for phishing line. So I find that to be working, because while people are scrolling, their eyes kind of go to the text immediately and if it’s something that works like a hook, it catches their attention. It’s an offer, it’s something unusual. That’s just another way to hook them in is with that text on screen.

Shivali Patel:

If you’re making one to three videos a day and have great sales, can you scale back on videos and maintain the sale level, or is it really necessary to keep up the cadence?

Ryan:

No, we have some videos that are the top performers and I’m confident if we stopped making videos for the next week, those same videos will continue to be the top performers and get the ad performers and get the ad spend and get the views and convert. So, yeah, you can take your foot off the gas once you have, we’ve posted. I’m curious to see the number, but I know on Instagram, I think it’s over 5,000 videos and we’re cross-promoting on platform, so we probably have thousands of videos on TikTok as well. So if we took a break for a week, I’m sure we won’t see that much of a dip.

Shivali Patel:

But, yeah, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your knowledge and answering our questions and, yeah, we hope to see a lot of those of you that are watching your videos, for your brands take off and find much success as well.

Ryan:

Thank you guys for having me. It was a blast.

Shivali Patel:

We’ll catch you next time.

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