What are the specific methods of selling products on Douyin?

From Haidilao to Daancha, Douyin has demonstrated its super strong ability to bring goods. The author of this article analyzes the causes of this phenomenon on Douyin and summarizes the key factors of short videos on Douyin that can bring goods.

TikTok has become popular, and many marketers are asking how to advertise on TikTok. Immediately afterwards, the Douyin platform released its standard publishing price, with no discounts and very touching prices.

Marketers and clients also have different views on new delivery channels:

1. Skeptic: "Does TikTok really work? I'll see..."
2. Channel-only theorists: “Ah! The effect of advertising elsewhere is not good, the new channel must be good! Invest in it now!”

So today, in response to these questions about Douyin, I will talk to you about this channel from the perspective of promotion and marketing: Can it really bring traffic? And how to bring traffic?

1. Does Douyin really have the power to bring goods?

The reason why Tik Tok is so popular is because of its powerful communication and sales capabilities. These two points are determined by Douyin’s own platform genes and the user’s state when using Douyin.

When users enter other platforms, their purpose is often to "read information" or "complete tasks"; but Douyin is different. Its underlying logic is to help users "kill time."

If you ask someone who frequently watches TikTok: “Why do you watch this?”

He will most likely answer you: It’s fun or funny or there are beautiful girls and boys or it’s fresh…

All of these are important elements for killing time.

This also determines the user's state when using Tik Tok, which is relaxed, random, and unconscious. In this state, it is very easy for them to receive the information that advertisers want to implant in them.

The reason why users can achieve this unconscious state of relaxation is due to the following characteristics of Douyin:

1. Tik Tok is a 15-second short video:

Video is a multiple stimulus of text, vision, sound and dynamics. It is more likely to stimulate the user's senses and trigger the user's emotions. And 15 seconds is not a long time. As long as users know how to shoot, they can basically see the end after opening the video.

2. Simple cut shots, special effects, and filter effects:

Don’t underestimate these effects. These tasks that originally required professional post-production can now be completed simply and roughly with the help of Tik Tok (don’t expect to do better than professionals, but it is good enough). This reduces the difficulty of recording and increases the watchability of the video. The freshness brought by these effects makes the video less boring and more rhythmic.

Those who know how to play can also use cutting shots to create montage effects and various special effects. When TikTok first started to spread last year, we wrote an article titled "I made a TikTok video for Coca-Cola...", which briefly introduced how to use TikTok's built-in tools to create montages. Those who are interested can take a look.

3. Grassroots:

Tik Tok encourages users to record short videos with their mobile phones. If you do it exquisitely, users will be amazed; if you do it roughly, users will not dislike it.

In fact, users prefer to see the small highlights in the ordinary lives of ordinary people. They will feel more intimate and closer to their own lives, and therefore will believe more in the information conveyed by the video.

4. Sense of the present moment:

The recording conditions of Tik Tok determine that its short videos have a strong sense of "the present moment": most of the videos seem to be impromptu and made on a whim... This sense of the present moment makes users feel more real, as if they were seeing it with their own eyes.

Therefore, a 15-second short video that makes users feel very real, interesting, and not procrastinated, does not take up too much of the users' time and is easy to make, all these characteristics have stimulated a high sense of participation among Tik Tok users.

For some brands that want to sell products through Douyin , as long as you plan well, your videos will easily make people watch them over and over again unconsciously - this is the "magic" of Douyin.

While watching Douyin, users will unknowingly receive information from video producers. Even if you are selling goods, as long as it is interesting and attractive enough, users will be happy to accept your recommendation.

2. How to shoot a “magical” Tik Tok video?

After learning about the powerful sales power of Tik Tok short videos, are you also eager to give it a try? Don’t worry, listen to me: before you start, you need to understand that not all “short videos recorded with Tik Tok” have this capability.

Douyin's genes determine that it has the ability to record "magical" short videos, but we also see that most short videos are still below the level where users will delete them before finishing watching.

Therefore, it does not mean that you will be successful just by choosing Douyin. You also need to know what key elements a short video with its own sales power should have:

1. At the very least, make users willing to finish reading

Although 15 seconds is not a long time, if you cannot attract the user in the first second, your short video may slip through his fingertips.

There are many points to attract users. For example, if you know how to use camera language or can capture the user's emotions, you can use a static camera to keep the user engaged for 1 to 2 seconds or even longer.

In our previous tweets, we have also described in detail the elements that advertisements can use to attract attention and build user "favorability", as well as related cases and usage methods. Due to space limitations, I will simply list the common elements that can attract users to Douyin:

1. Beautiful women and handsome men;
2. Cute pets become spirits;
3. funny;
4. It goes against common sense;
5. New and unique;
6. Potential current tasks;
7. Fast pace.

A short video that can keep users glued to the video must have at least one of the above features. If one of the features is perfected or if it has enough elements, it will become a "magical" short video that users can't stop watching and will watch it over and over again.

The most distinctive feature of Tik Tok is the last point: fast pace. The finger dance that has become popular on Tik Tok uses a fast rhythm to dazzle users, making them stay on the short video for a long time without realizing it.

If you are unable to capture the user's emotions for the time being, you can also use Tik Tok's unique fast recording and shot cutting to create a fast-paced atmosphere and make users obsessed.

2. Make it so attractive that users can’t help but watch it several times

As we said just now, achieving the extreme of a certain sticky element, or having enough sticky elements, can make the short video more "magical".

For example, fast-paced dance or sports videos performed by beautiful women or handsome men will be more magical than those recorded by ordinary people; cute pets plus funny elements will be more sticky... Of course, if it is cute pets + funny + beautiful women and handsome men + fast pace + current task + novelty... it will be even better! Whether you can do this depends on the attributes of your product, available resources, and your planning capabilities.

3. Implantation should be clever

We have said before that whether an advertisement’s copy is qualified depends on whether the copy can connect user goals and product attributes. This is universal regardless of the form of advertising.

So, if you want to promote on TikTok, the first thing you need to consider is that the tone of your video should match your product. If it is just a simple beauty + fast-paced video, it is difficult to implant the product.

Like the finger dance of the handsome guy below, it is very magical and pleasing to the eyes. We can see that there are more than a thousand likes and more than a hundred comments, and it is estimated that there are at least tens of thousands of impressions. But what users are attracted to is his overall handsome appearance and movements, not the camouflage uniform he is wearing. If the attention is not on the clothes, it is naturally difficult to arouse the user's desire to shop.

We know that opposites attract. Handsome men and beautiful women can attract the opposite sex as their target users, and in many cases, the target audience of the products they are good at endorsing is the same sex. The target audience for their products happens to be the opposite of the target audience they themselves can attract. From my experience in promoting influencers, many small influencers have this problem.

Therefore, when planning a video, it is necessary to reasonably attract users to the implanted products. If you are not good at planning, you can just make the advertisement a little "harder", which can also play a certain role in "bringing products". As mentioned before, the “grassroots” nature and “sense of the present” of Tik Tok can bring users a stronger sense of reality and favorability, which can partially offset the discomfort that hard advertising may bring to users.

For example, this video:

It just used the fast-paced function of TikTok to showcase the products: a convenient pencil sharpener and an automatic eraser. It doesn't even use any shooting techniques, but this does not affect everyone's attention to the product at all.

Because it meets the requirements of "fast pace", "novelty" and "potential current tasks", it has the magic and ability to bring goods.

If I am a person who needs to use pencils and erasers frequently, such as an art student, or I need to draw sketches frequently, or I have an elementary school student at home... such product display meets my "potential current tasks", I will be interested and then search for related products. For example, as a former art student, I couldn’t resist the love for drawing tools, so after watching this video, I immediately went to find the product purchase link.

When facing users like me who have already shown interest, what you need is to predict my next possible action path.

For example, if a user is interested, he or she will search on Taobao. If your product is exclusive or ranks high, you don’t need to take any other action. If not, for example, there are many similar products on Taobao and your ranking is very low, then you need to find a way to direct traffic to the purchasing channel in the video. For example, setting up a purchase link (ordinary users do not have this permission now), or guiding people to follow Weibo and WeChat, and then further directing them to sales platforms, etc.

If you have an offline store, then shooting an interesting Douyin video for your products will be very helpful for promotion. Especially the catering industry. The previously popular Haidilao hidden menu and Starbucks hidden menu fully demonstrate the sales power of Douyin.

You can create your own hidden menu to showcase your best-selling items, or it can be props and backgrounds suitable for selfies, as well as showcasing the features of your products and the fun of the event... and so on, all of which will be effective.

3. What should I do if my Douyin has no traffic?

No matter how good an advertisement is, it can only be effective if users see it.

Even if we have done all of the above, short videos have a certain degree of sales power, but the dissemination requires sufficient creativity and planning to support it, which is difficult to do for the vast majority of small and medium-sized advertisers; and our own Douyin accounts lack sufficient fans, so the dissemination becomes very embarrassing.

So in this case, how can we use Douyin to attract traffic and sell goods?

1. The easiest way is, of course, to buy advertising

The Douyin advertising platform is now open, and the CPM charge is between 200 and 240 yuan. There are neither discounts nor precise targeting. This makes it difficult for many advertisers - even on Toutiao and Baidu, which have precise targeting, it is not easy to achieve good conversions. Douyin simply does not have precise targeting and is so expensive. Should they chase this traffic trend?

In my opinion, the reason why Tik Tok does not do precise targeting is related to its platform genes and its current stage of development. Unlike other platforms, Douyin users prefer the "freshness" brought by "random" viewing recommendations. Under this mechanism, it is difficult to make accurate targeting given Douyin's current development cycle.

However, most advertisers do not have the ability to control the huge amount of targeted data when placing ads on platforms with a precise targeting data base. If Douyin opens up "precise targeting" for them, it will actually not benefit advertisers. It is more effective to rely on good planning and let the content attract relevant users.

In fact, the earliest advertisements did not have targeting skills, but professional advertisers could still make good advertisements that impressed users: because the advertising content itself is the best targeting.

As an advertiser, if you have professional planning capabilities and your user base tends to be younger, then advertising on Douyin is a good choice. The products that have been placing the most advertisements on TikTok recently include mobile games, Vipshop, and MissFresh, all of which fit this positioning.

Therefore, if the short videos you produce meet the users’ instinctive demands, have stickiness, and the product placement is reasonable and clever, then it will naturally impress the relevant consumers and achieve a more precise targeting effect than big data targeting.

2. Use the magic of Tik Tok to attract traffic from outside

If the overlap between your user base and the mainstream users of TikTok is not high, does that mean you cannot use TikTok to sell products?

Of course not.

As we have said, Tik Tok short videos are “grassroots” and “present” in nature, as well as being less than 15 seconds in length and having a fast pace, which are the key points to impress users. When we are unable to attract enough traffic from within Douyin, we can use Douyin’s “Fans+” function to link Toutiao, Xigua, and Wukong Q&A accounts. The content will be published simultaneously on the related platforms and fans can also share it.

If you have a Toutiao account with good traffic, you can publish the sticky and trustworthy Douyin videos to the Toutiao account simultaneously, and you will naturally have a source of traffic.

If your Toutiao account is certified, you can also use Toutiao's external app to precisely deliver your short videos so that your audience can see them.

Even small businesses can simply record a magical promotional Douyin video and post it to your circle of friends, which will bring you effective traffic.

Just two days ago, I encouraged a close friend who sells children's fever-reducing patches to record a product video.

The fever-reducing patches she sells rank high on Taobao searches, and there are only three other companies selling similar products. They are very useful. So I only taught her to pay attention to three points: use fast video to ensure that enough information is conveyed, make full use of cut shots to prevent users from getting bored, and remember to show the outer packaging. Then I took a minute to record a demo for her:

She referred to the sample I gave her, quickly recorded a video and posted it on WeChat Moments. In less than 5 minutes, someone placed an order for 9 boxes.

This is the powerful driving force of Douyin's "magic", "grassroots" and "sense of the present". You deserve it!

Author: Weiwei

Source: Precision delivery of information flow advertising