Newsletter #61: TikTok Must Sell or be Silenced 🤫

| Brief Builder | Case Studies | TikTok Mastery |

_{Reading Time: 3 min XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX This Week’s Ad Spend: $4,126}

_{Readability: Grade 2 (If you can read this…. you're overqualified!)}

The newsletter that's more reliable than R2-D2... We've got your back with secrets and updates, no Sith tricks

In this edition:

• 🚫 SELL OR BE SILENCED... ByteDance's Critical TikTok Decision

• 🔄 HALF OFF... TikTok Engagement drops, Opportunity Remains

• 🔮 FUTURE OF RETAIL...Is TikTok Shop Your Next Move?

• 👶 PARENTING HACK….. Thank me later

Let’s get started.....

🚫 SELL OR BE SILENCED

ByteDance's Critical TikTok Decision

So things are not looking good for TikTok…… here I am with a TikTok Agency 😞.

Lawmakers are trying to force Bytedance to sell TikTok or they won’t be allowed on the US App store.

But I am not worried…..

TikTok has been battling these lawmakers for over a year and they always find a way…… like those hijackers.

‘Cos let’s be honest…. they are smarter than us and several steps ahead.

My advice is to avoid the doomsayers and react if anything does happen… I doubt it will and even if it does, I predict we have a year before the true impact.

🔄 HALF OFF

TikTok Engagement drops, Opportunity Remains

TikTok’s average engagement rate dropped more than half…….

But overall engagement is still higher than all the other platforms.

This is due to algorithm changes and behaviour shift…. I would assume TikTok Shop is a factor.

With these levels of engagement, tons of opportunity lies in the brands that ‘get it.’

🔮 FUTURE OF RETAIL

Is TikTok Shop Your Next Move?

I aim to be balanced….

The majority of this newsletter is why you need to get on TikTok Shop.

But… is it the right move for you?

Here’s why joining TikTok Shop may not be the best move for your e-commerce business:

• Data Ownership. On TikTok Shop, you don’t get to keep customer data—including e-mails and SMS. Exact same as Amazon.

• Influencer marketing. Success relies heavily on influencer partnerships. While powerful, this approach may not work for many brands, especially if a brand is new to influencer marketing.

• User demographics. TikTok's user base skews younger. Brands targeting older demographics might find TikTok Shop less effective for reaching their core audience.

• It caters to lower-cost items. If your products are higher-ticket, it’s going to be harder to harness the impulse buy environment that TikTok Shop lives off of.

Take this with a grain of salt, though: There are many people ready to buy on the app, and it has a notoriously easy checkout process.

So you might not want to write TikTok off before you try it (sourced from Stacked Marketer).

👶 PARENTING HACK

Thank me later

Spoiler Alert: This has nothing to do with TikTok or Amazon.

But any parent that reads this will nod their head in appreciation…….

It started like this:

My kids asked me to buy a “Where’s Wally?” book (they know how cheap I am, so the odds of me saying yes were slim).

I replied: “What a waste of money! I have tried losing you and your mother keeps finding you. It’s of no use to me”

I take photos of my kids in crowds and then photoshop them out…. so when my wife asks me what the kids and I did on a day out, I show her the photos…..

The record is 30 seconds……

30 seconds until she demands asks where the kids were the whole day (it never gets old…… although I may have aged my wife 🤷‍♂️).

So I decided to create my own version of “Where’s Wally” for my kids:

Apparently I made it too difficult:

Here’s how you can create your own (takes 5 min)

1. Use this Custom GPT I created.

   Mention any scene and it will produce it with the hidden items.

2. Take a pic of your kid/animate a pic

   Remove the background with this.

3. Used Canva to create the image

   I use Canva, but you can use any image editing software.

   Overlay your kids photo in the image to ‘hide’ them

I created 4 images in around 10 min….. entertained the kids for 5 min 😞.

They loved it and I saved a ton by not buying the books! But the printing was more expensive that the retail book…. Did I really save?

But the kids loved it and showed it off at school……. I am edging closer to being the ‘favourite parent’….

That's it for this week 👊

But I need to ask a favour...

Thanks for reading.

- Paul

PS.... Here are the previous editions if you want to catch up