Please read this section with these questions:
1. Why is operation not a chores?
2. What are the transaction scenarios of TikTok?
3. Have you established a good operation system and transaction closed loop? How would you rate your operation ability?
At first, I always thought that operation was a chores, and I didn’t pay attention to it. As a result, I got traffic, but the transaction conversion was very poor, which made me very distressed. Later, I began to pay attention to operation, learn operation and improve the operation ability of the entire team, and then I found that this part is indeed very important, and there are ways to learn it.
1. How to understand TikTok’s operations
The operational power in TikTok is our ability to undertake and close deals with traffic. Operations require understanding of products, content, and traffic. The most important thing is to be able to close deals with users on a systematic basis. If there is no deal, no matter how much traffic you get, it will be equal to zero.
In 2021, my friend Lao Mei, who does cross-border business, recruited a “very powerful” pitcher, claiming that he had invested hundreds of millions of dollars, and that he would definitely be able to bring a lot of traffic to the company if he joined the company. Lao Mei was very “high” when he heard about traffic, and he recruited this person, offering a very high salary and commission, and invited him to dinner and drinks, saying that the future of the company depends on him. The other party also said: Don’t worry, I will take care of all the traffic. Two weeks later, Lao Mei told me that the “powerful” pitcher had invested all the 20,000 US dollars in his account overnight, and the number of views soared. At first, Lao Mei thought that the order was a hit and was super happy. But when he opened the backend of PayPal (foreign payment platform) and Shopify (independent website building platform), he was stunned: there was not a single order! This is really the real version of “operating like a tiger, but the result is zero to five”.
This pitcher has just joined the company and has no understanding of products, content, and operations. He set up an advertising group to invest in traffic, which will definitely cause problems. As a boss, you must also have a systematic thinking of operations. You can’t grab a certain employee and think that it is a life-saving straw that can save the company. Operational strength is accumulated, polished, practiced, and summarized in a solid way. It takes ten years to sharpen a sword, not “getting 100,000 fans overnight.” Have a correct understanding of operations and take transactions as the ultimate goal on the road to TikTok, so as not to deviate from the direction.
2. TikTok’s transaction scenarios
If you choose to sell goods on TikTok, your fans can complete the purchase in the following three scenarios.
1. Direct transaction: Xiaohuang Car
Some countries and regions have opened the Xiaohuang Car function, and Xiaohuang Car can be hung in the video and live broadcast room, just like Douyin in China. Placing the purchase entrance directly in the video and live broadcast room will reduce the transaction link and reduce the difficulty of users’ purchase. Therefore, we generally prefer Xiaohuang Car as the transaction scene. Users in some countries are not familiar with Xiaohuang Car. When we guide transactions, we need to give users action instructions at any time to remind them to click on the Xiaohuang Car below to buy.
2. Private domain chat and transaction: Photo Wall, WhatsApp, etc.
I mentioned many times before that we can directly bind the TikTok homepage to the Photo Wall account. So even though Photo Wall is a platform with more public domain traffic, it has private domain attributes for receiving TikTok’s traffic and chatting. We guide users attracted by short videos and live broadcasts to the photo wall to receive gifts or discounts, and then understand which product the user is impressed by one-to-one, and then give attractive discounts based on the products the user likes. Finally, we send the link of this specific product to him, so that he can buy it directly without having to find it in the independent station. At the same time, it is more convenient to do secondary marketing for users who are already in our private domain.
3. Home page link transaction: After the independent station, Amazon and other third-party links become merchant accounts on TikTok, we can hang our links on the homepage of TikTok. Users go to the homepage and click on the link to jump to the third-party website. The link of this transaction method will be longer than the first one, and it is not direct enough. The user is interested in the product mentioned in your video, but when he clicks in, he finds that it is the homepage of your independent station. The user has to find the product he just liked from a large number of products. There are many paths. Every additional step will lose some users. This kind of transaction method requires very high product strength, content strength and operation strength. If this product really impresses users, they will not buy it or even have trouble sleeping, then they will definitely overcome all difficulties to buy it. If it is difficult to do this, then we should improve our operation strength and work harder on the transaction link. This is the TikTok transaction operation six-step method I will talk about next.
3. TikTok transaction operation six-step method
After experiencing the false prosperity of traffic, I realized that there must be a complete and feasible operation method to improve the transaction conversion rate. I summarized the TikTok transaction operation six-step method. Whether it is through short videos or live broadcasts, you can refer to these six steps to help yourself improve conversion.
1. CTA (Call To Action, action command)
Whether it is a short video or a live broadcast room, we need to cleverly place the action command in each link. Users have no conscious awareness of buying, and we need to remind them all the time:
It’s time to place an order! The method I use most often in short videos is to add action instructions at the end of the video to remind users to buy, follow, and like.
When live streaming, we need to repeat action instructions every minute: follow the live broadcast room, like, comment, buy, etc., and use repeated and high-frequency action instructions to tell users what they need to do now (which will also be mentioned in the preparation of live broadcasting techniques in Chapter 5). No matter how exciting the product display is or how popular the event is, the CTA part must be repeated the most in our live broadcast, otherwise we will waste the traffic we have worked so hard to obtain.
Tips
This ending is just a case explanation of the action instructions for the seller, but not every video must have such an ending. If you pursue the completion rate, you can also end it directly at the most attractive part to make users willing to watch it again.
2. “Show your muscles” and social responsibility at the right time
In the process of conversion, users will have many doubts. In addition to whether they really need this product and whether this product is good or not, another very important factor is the user’s trust and recognition of us. Why choose you when there are so many sellers?
In addition to building a brand over time, we also need to quickly dispel users’ concerns during the sales process and give users a reason to quickly convince themselves to place an order. For example, one of my projects selling pet oil paintings: our oil paintings are priced very high, and it costs hundreds of dollars per painting. Users like our products very much, and after seeing many works, they also recognize that we paint very well. However, because the price is not cheap, many users will hesitate during one-on-one chats and have no motivation to make a final decision. At this time, I will tell him: For every painting we sell, 80% of the profit will be donated to the Stray Cats and Dogs Foundation. The pet painting project is because we want to rescue more stray cats and dogs. Many users heard these words and decided to buy immediately. This is because the users who want to buy must be people who love cats and dogs and have love. This method is very touching to them. What they buy is not just a product, but also a feeling and a heart for charity.
Therefore, expressing our sense of social responsibility and our strength to users in a timely manner can give users one more reason to convince themselves when they are struggling to buy or not.
3. Use real buyer shows to resonate
Some users hesitate to buy because they don’t know whether the product is really suitable for them. They will think: “The product is good, but what does it have to do with me?” At this time, we can show them buyer shows of similar people based on the user’s crowd portrait. For example, in a customized sticker project I did: we showed that the product has good waterproof effect, great color, scratch resistance, and no glue residue when torn off. Users also believe that this product is really good, but they may not think of what they will use such a customized product for a while.
My strategy is to show different buyer show scenes to different users. For business owners and office workers, we show photos of our users customizing their own LOGO into stickers and sticking them on their product packaging; for skateboard experts, we show the effect of other skateboard experts sticking stickers on their skateboards; and so on. Once users see the usage scenarios related to themselves and feel that “this is good to use” or “it can actually be used this way”, they can basically be impressed.
4. Use price anchor and value anchor to anchor the user’s mind
First, you must repeatedly throw out the value anchor to let users recognize one thing from the bottom of their hearts: you really get what you pay for. Because users like high-quality and low-priced products, we need to repeatedly emphasize the value of the product.
In addition to emphasizing the overall goodness of the product and comparing it with similar products in detail, you can also break down each step and each link to tell users why it is good.
For example, when we were making short videos and live streaming of diamond wearable nails in the United States, before talking about the price, we would first raise the sense of value: “Our wearable nails use the best quality acrylic diamonds. Each diamond is carefully selected high-quality diamonds and some relatively large diamonds, and the cost alone is $1 per diamond. The whole set of wearable nails has 10 nails, and we used raw materials worth more than ten dollars just for the diamonds. Moreover, each nail is purely handmade. It takes the manicurist about 20 minutes to make a nail, and it takes two or three hours to complete a whole set, and the labor cost reaches $20. Whether it is materials or workmanship, they are very attentive and strive for excellence.” This is the value anchor, which makes customers feel: “Don’t underestimate this small nail piece. The raw materials and labor costs are the best. This is the luxury of wearable nails!”
Let’s talk about the price anchor: let customers agree from the bottom of their hearts that this product is expensive and worth the price. In the same example, when we give customers the price anchor, the first thing we emphasize is that it costs $100 to make a solid color nail in a physical nail salon. If you want to put diamonds, you have to add $10 to $20 for each nail. Others spend a lot of money and still can’t make such beautiful nails. The second thing we emphasize is that in order to make high-end diamond wear nails, all the costs add up to at least $30.
When these two anchors are deeply thrown into the user’s mind, and then a limited-time discount is given later, the discount will really make people excited.
5. Use limited-time activities to promote transactions
Limited-time activities mainly tell users when the previous value anchor and price anchor are well laid out: I am giving a special price today, only for 1 minute, or only for the top 5. Or today, when I start broadcasting my new account, I am willing to give this product as a gift to my fans. As long as you follow me, give more likes and interact more, you only need to pay the postage today, and I will give you a product worth $69. We make full use of the user’s loss aversion. When he has already agreed that our product is really good and expensive, he can get such a good product by paying only $10 for postage. He will feel that he will definitely lose if he doesn’t grab it! Therefore, foreigners will also be stimulated by limited-time activities to make transactions because of their loss aversion. 6. One-to-one private chat reduces the difficulty of transaction. I mentioned in the transaction scenario that we can use limited-time discounts to guide users to the private domain during live broadcasts. Our customer service can ask users which specific style they like in the private domain chat scene, and then send the link of this style to the user separately for him to buy directly.
In addition, you can use all the five methods I mentioned above to promote transactions in private domains, and use them again in private domain scenarios. It is easier to send different chat content to different customers in one-on-one chats, such as buyer shows. Therefore, the transaction rate can be increased and the difficulty of transaction can be reduced in the private chat link.
The above is the six-step method of TikTok transaction operation that I use the most and is the most effective in practice. We need to use these six steps repeatedly in practice. After mastering the essence, we can use them flexibly according to different products.
Fourth, the evaluation criteria for operational power
The following is my scoring rules for TikTok’s operational power. You can see how many points you and your team can get in terms of operational power according to your different levels in each stage.
1 point operation ability: have transaction awareness, but are not clear about the transaction link closed loop of their own TikTok project;
2 points operation ability: have set up the transaction closed loop of the project, and have initially run through the transaction closed loop, but have not refined operations;
3 points operation ability: maturely run through the transaction closed loop, master and be able to use more than three of the above-mentioned “six-step transaction operation method”;
4 points operation ability: have a small-scale operation team, and standardize, process and refine operations;
5 points operation ability: have a mature and stable operation team, proficient in the “six-step transaction operation method”, and have a high conversion transaction rate.
Please record your score, and I will analyze the comprehensive score with you at the end of this chapter.