Quickly laying out TikTok for cross-border sellers, understanding these is enough!

Here's the condensed version Understanding these is enough to quickly lay out TikTok for cross-border sellers!

Summary: “Account operation is a long-term process. With the basic construction in place, you can start. Only by constantly discovering and solving problems in the process can you continuously improve your account.”

TikTok

Recently, we received a call from a customer in Fujian who wanted to find influencers to shoot videos on our platform. As a seller who has just started to lay out on TikTok, this customer’s goal is to sell swimsuits to the Philippines. You may ask, since there are channels and goals, why not just do it directly, what is there to analyze? But in fact, his current concern is whether to build a brand image on TikTok by partnering with a fixed influencer or to work with different influencers to publish videos. After more than 20 minutes of communication, he stated his current idea: to have different influencers create various videos and publish them on his personal TikTok account to test the effect of the videos, and then select the most outstanding one to cooperate with the influencer, forming the style of product video promotion and marketing.

In this process, we can vaguely see several key points for cross-border sellers to lay out on TikTok: the product area has been locked, the account has been registered, and the content positioning needs to be discussed. Speaking of this, as cross-border sellers, our focus has always been on product operation. Although we have had some contact with short video operation and live broadcast operation, if we really want sellers to operate social media independently, there may still be room for learning.

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I. Replicability of TikTok

There has always been a saying in the industry that TikTok now is equivalent to Douyin two or three years ago and is still in the stage of barbaric growth, with various mechanisms being continuously adjusted and improved. If you are familiar with Douyin in 2019, you will know how easy it was to enter the market compared to the now fully-closed Douyin. For sellers, there are ready-made benchmarks and professional personnel in China, and compared with foreigners who are also exploring, entering TikTok is undoubtedly a good choice.

So, in addition to these basic operations, the ultimate goal of getting started with TikTok quickly is still to sell products. How is “overseas version of Douyin” TikTok different from Douyin in China in terms of e-commerce? In fact, there is not much difference from China, mainly three modes of short video plus Xiaohuangche product promotion, Xiaodian product promotion, and live streaming product promotion.

Product Promotion Modes

Douyin has built a very complete e-commerce ecosystem and revenue environment. From its content transformation and development process, it is not difficult to summarize its main revenue models:

1	Xiaohuangche product promotion Xiaohuangche product promotion is to add links below short videos, and users can click the links to directly purchase the products they are interested in. Currently, there are three conditions that need to be met to hang Xiaohuangche in TikTok: one is that the account has more than 1000 followers, two is that the TK store is bound to the video account, and three is signing an MCN agency. Meeting one of these conditions can allow Xiaohuangche to be hung in short videos.
2	TikTok Shop The TK store requires a business license and a minimum deposit, with amounts ranging from £400 to £4000 depending on the category. However, Xiaohuangche does not require this, only 1000 followers are needed to open it. TikTok Shop includes a shopping cart function, which, like some music in China, allows sellers to insert product links in short videos and live broadcasts. In addition, TikTok Shop has back-end management functions, allowing direct product placement, order tracking, and other settings, and comes with an affiliate marketing entry. Sellers can set marketing methods and find influencers for product promotion (TikTok only charges a 2% handling fee when influencers withdraw).
3	Live streaming product promotion Currently, TK is still in the early stages of development, and live streaming rewards are generally very low. However, for cross-border sellers, this does not affect our ability to promote products through live streaming and convert private traffic. Similar to the conditions for hanging Xiaohuangche, opening live streaming also requires an account with more than 1000 followers (specific situations vary depending on the region), and the anchor must be at least 16 years old. If you want to add TK store products during live streaming, you need to apply for a whitelist through a customer manager.

2. Layout of TikTok

So, as a beginner, how can you quickly get started with TikTok? What do you need to invest? This article will simplify the layout and guide you through “three steps” to quickly get started with TikTok!

1. Adapt product selection to local conditions

In the cross-border industry, there has always been an unspoken rule for product selection, which is to follow the trend instead of going against it. This means that selling products that people have a high demand for or a high demand volume for, and making adjustments in marketing, is more likely to create explosive products. In simple terms, opening a store may not require the eloquence to sell refrigerators in the Arctic, but it definitely requires a good product.

Before determining the region and product, market research must be conducted in the early stage to adapt to local conditions. You can choose products based on your previous experience on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, AliExpress, and Shopee. Of course, here is also a more direct method to share with you. Through the TikTok Creative Center, we can see that in the past 30 days, the top-ranked products in all categories in each region are still perfume, skin care, hair care, mobile phone accessories, women’s clothing, makeup, and so on.

(Image source: TK popular product ranking)

For example, if you randomly click on the top-ranked perfume, we can see related creative insights, related videos, and related topics. By analyzing and studying the data and video examples provided by the official, we can largely find our own product selection direction and video content.

(Image source: TK popular product ranking)

2. Account matrix

In the previous article, we have already understood the construction and use of the matrix account. I believe that friends who have read our article have a more in-depth understanding. Mentioning this again here is to tell sellers the importance of operating multiple accounts, which is the key to increasing revenue.

3. Cultivate a sense of the internet

The process of cultivating a sense of the internet is actually a continuous optimization of the account, which can be summarized as “more browsing, more observation, and more adjustment”. “More browsing” means watching a large number of short videos on TikTok to understand the current trends, hot topics, popular effects, popular music, etc. in short video creation. “More observation” is to compare with similar accounts and observe their operations, methods of operation, etc. “More adjustment” is to constantly adjust and optimize your own account based on the insights gained from “more browsing and more observation”, adopting good ideas and learning good practices. In addition, the cultivation of “internet sense” is a long-term process, just like network terminology, which is updated iteratively. Today’s hot topics will be completely different from those of tomorrow or a few days later. In other words, to do well on TikTok, you must have a deep understanding of it.

Actions speak louder than words. Account operation is a long-term process. Once the basic structure is established, you can start working on it. Only by constantly discovering and solving problems in the process can you continuously improve your account.

Attracting traffic is the first step in product marketing, and sufficient marketing activities require various types of product videos to enrich them. Whether it is grounded, more in line with local cultural habits overseas, or lower homogeneity rates, both should be mutually satisfying. VIKOC short video creation platform can meet this demand. After reaching a cooperation with creators, you can communicate directly with them on the details of the video and have Amazon KOLs promote and publicize for you. Whether you need to shoot unboxing, testing, display and other types of videos, or shoot low-cost overseas local videos, VIKOC can solve it all in one stop!

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