Over the past couple of months, I’ve been spending some time on TikTok and silently observing. 

If you haven’t quite realized it yet, here’s a truth bomb: TikTok and Reels are the new TV. People have literally traded their typical television time and are simply consuming social media videos instead. 

What does this mean? People are looking for exceptional storytelling, entertainment, hacks and tricks and skills, and they are loving the way TikTok delivers those to them. 

If you are wanting to use TikTok to gain followers and advertise, you have to create the content the platform and users want. Based on your business, how do you produce what they are looking for? 

If you have considered (and you should!) using TikTok or Reels as a means for promoting your business, tune in to hear why your ability to tell stories and create incredibly engaging content is a must, and how this shift in digital marketing will impact you. 

WANT TO WORK WITH TEAM HIRSH?

Honestly, we’re more than a marketing team — we’re a tactical partner who will care about your business growth just as much as YOU (maybe even more)! We’re here to play the long game and help you create a powerful impact!
APPLY NOW!

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW THE NOT FOR LAZY MARKETERS PODCAST!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the Not For Lazy Marketers Podcast! If this podcast has added value and helped you in your business journey, please head over to iTunes, subscribe to the show, and leave us an honest review. Your reviews and feedback will not only help us continue to deliver great, helpful content, but it will also help us reach even more amazing entrepreneurs just like you.

READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

The reality is social media, especially TikTok, but also reels on Instagram, are the new tv like truly and that it’s been that way for a while. It’s probably been that way since co, since TikTok launched, maybe before, but especially since TikTok launched and people literally do this instead of their tv.

You are listening to the Not for Lazy Marketers podcast, episode number 460.

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. And if you celebrated Thanksgiving, we released this one on Friday after Thanksgiving and I hope you had amazing food and an amazing day relaxing with family or whatever you ended up doing. We did a Friendsgiving here in Austin. My mom came to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving because she was gonna be with her parents for Thanksgiving. So we were here and we are going to do as I’m recording this before Thanksgiving, but we were going, we are going to do a Friendsgiving and we’re not hosting it, which my husband actually wanted to host it, but I was like, I’m kind of glad we’re not. We just make a couple of dishes and get to show up at a house and enjoy it. We usually host something over the holidays with our friends. I think we’re gonna host Christmas Eve.

We do like to host dinners and I never do the cooking, but it’s fun to have people over. So I’m looking forward to a day of cold weather, cooler weather in Texas. It’s been cold for the last like two weeks and there’s a lot of like local Texans who are like, it’s so cold, I don’t like this. And I’m like, are you kidding me? I love this. This is exactly how it’s supposed to be in November <laugh>. So we’ve had a really nice November of weather, which it actually was not like that last year at all. It was like 80 degrees on Christmas. So I also have an exciting announcement. We are doing a Black Friday sale this year. That’s super cool. So I’m gonna share it for a second before I get into the content for today. So it’s like a combo sale of everything is on sale, but we also launched some new products, digital products that we had never launched before and they are all digital products, resources from past things I’ve done and charged a lot of money for.

So if you’ve been around market like a pro or the cash infusion 30 day experience, we’ve taken that content and put it into crazy good priced digital products. Like for example, the cash infusion product. I sold that for 9 97 for the content plus obviously like the 30 day experience and it was live, but I took that content and I’m selling it for $97 for Black Friday. Like super amazing deal. My motivation with my digital products was just make it the best deal out there because I don’t have anything to lose with it and I really want people to get access to the content to make progress. So basically everything we have is 20% off. So all of our digital product options and there’s some new ones in there and then it’s also 20% off signing up to work with our agency, 20% off your first month.

And anybody who buys anything from us through Black Friday, which it’s only through Monday the 28th. So today through Monday the 28th, if you buy any digital product, if you sign up for the agency to work with us, done for you, if you buy anything from us, you get a free access pass vip ticket to my live workshop in December. And this is going to be a three hour long super deep dive into creating your 2023 marketing strategy. Like every single detail month by month, what you’re gonna do, what your funnel is going to be, what you need, you know, what your todos are, what you’re gonna focus on, what your budget is, what your projections are. We’re gonna do breakout rooms, deep dive into things and the VIP ticket is gonna be sold for $200 and it includes an audit of your 2023 marketing plan by me via like a screen share video.

I’m gonna review it. And so you get access to the v i p ticket for free if you buy anything from us through Black Friday. So if you go to hersh marketing.com/black Friday, there’s a page that has all the options for the different digital products that we’re selling. And then all you have to do is fill out an application and book a call. And that kind of qualifies you. If you do that within the, this promo from Friday through Monday, then you’re qualified for that discount, that 20% off and the v i p ticket if you sign up on that call. But your call can be later on this week, that’s totally fine. You just have to get your application in during this window. And then if you buy any of the digital products, you get access to that workshop, which is going to be an intense and insanely valuable deep dive workshop into planning your next year’s marketing strategy.

 And like I said, there’s gonna be a lot because I’m pricing this one higher last month my paid workshop was only $37. This is going to be 97 and 1 97. It’s going to be more intimate, which means you’re going to get a chance to ask me more questions and get more of that one-on-one support. And that feedback, I’ll probably have some of my team on there supporting too in different areas, but it’s gonna be amazing. And so you get a free v i p ticket to that which also includes an audit of your marketing plan for 2023. So if you go to hersh marketing.com/black Friday, you can see all the options. They’re all 20% off and they all, any of them that you buy, you get access to the v i p workshop as well. So I’m super excited about this and like I said, we have some new digital products as low as $97 for sale that I sold previously for like a thousand dollars.

So access to this content is at a very low price and I’m super excited about it. We’ve been working really hard to get all this together for you guys so we can serve you. Okay, I’m excited about this episode. I am very excited this is going to be an episode where I’m not giving very tactical strategies. I’ve done a lot of that recently, but it’s going to get you to think. So as I’m talking today, I want you to just think about your marketing, about what you’re prioritizing and really question, am I doing the same thing I’ve done all year or for multiple years or have I thought about where the direction of digital marketing is going? And I’ve spent the last really couple of months doing a lot of, I guess you could call it research, but more so just observation.

And I feel really excited and intrigued by where things are going because things have have shifted a ton in the last year and they’re gonna continue to shift. And so I, you guys know me like I don’t love consuming social media, but I find it super I find it super intriguing to watch how other people consume it. And so I started to get on TikTok because I just needed, like, I wanted the experience. I wanted to like watch what people are putting out there, watch what content, like I wanted to experience it as a user and experience what videos are getting those millions of views and what it, what it’s like and look at the ads on there. And so I’ve been doing it for like the last month consistently going on there at night, which is basically like my TV and that’s one of the things I’m gonna talk about.

And I am so intrigued by the content on there that becomes the viral successful content. And I’m fascinated by how these everyday people can get millions of followers by creating these so basic videos but showcase their skill set to be able to tell stories. Storytelling is huge humor and connect with with people through this and this platform. And I’ve seen these creators who, like one person that I follow, she’s like, she’s so good at telling a story and she tells these like hilarious stories and over the course of her having her TikTok and getting all these followers, she started doing like standup comedy cuz people were like, you should do this. And I just thought like how cool is that? That whatever we think about social media, whatever we think about Ted Talk, I know there’s a lot of people who still hate it and refuse to go on it.

My husband is one of those people. But it’s given, it’s given individuals an opportunity to showcase talent that in the past they couldn’t. Like it’s not that they could have gone and been in a movie or on a show and now these accounts have millions of followers and you know, hundreds of thousands of views, sometimes millions of views on their videos and they have this opportunity to have this reach that they never had before and this platform. And so I find that really fascinating and I’ve been looking at the ads on TikTok and like what, you know, it seems to be working based on like what either doesn’t look like an ad, I think that’s an important piece to it or you know, has a lot of engagement or is by a big company for example just to really look at it. Cuz we started offering TikTok ads for our highest level clients in the agency and they are cheaper than Facebook but it’s an art, you have to do the content right and it has to be for the right audience cuz TikTok definitely has a twenties and thirties audience.

There’s still a lot of people in their thirties on TikTok, but I think about 60% of the users are in their twenties, but 40% of the users is millions and millions of people. So there still is a lot of opportunity on there and I think about four months ago, five months ago we decided to start offering it. And I haven’t really announced it because we’ve been testing it and it is cheaper than Facebook. But again it has to be very specific creative and a very specific strategy in order for it to work because it’s not the same at all as Facebook ads like your video in order for it to not just be like scrolled past has to fit in with the TikTok content. So that’s what I wanna talk about today is the direction of digital marketing. And there’s a lot of ideas I have for things I wanna test because of this, because I’ve just been observing this for the last month and one of the biggest things is the reality is social media, especially TikTok but also reels on Instagram are the new TV like truly and that it’s been that way for a while.

It’s probably been that way since co since T launched, maybe before but especially since TikTok launched and people literally do this instead of their tv. And so what does that mean? They’re looking for good storytelling, they’re looking for entertainment, they’re looking for potentially learning a, you know, a hack or a trick or a quick skill. There’s a lot of videos like in the cooking and like health space that are like quick recipes or something that do really well. And so you have to think, okay, if this is the new tv, what are people looking for on these platforms? And then based on your business, how could you create that? And here’s where it’s going to get difficult because the best, the best creators on TikTok getting attention are ones who have the ability to go on video and tell a really great story or create really good content.

And that is, that can be a learned skill for a lot of these guys. It’s a natural skill and they’ve blown up with that. Now there is for sure an argument to say, okay, somebody who’s blown up with, you know, 3 million followers cuz they’re him and her and their mom, there’s somebody that I follow that’s hilarious, her and her mom make hilarious videos, right? Okay, how are you gonna monetize that? Sure, that’s not something that a business needs to go replicate. But as a business, if you wanna gain followers for your business and then you wanna use TikTok as ads, you have to figure out how to create the content that the platform wants, which is that really great storytelling, entertaining TV like content. But the thing is, it’s not overproduced tv. The best videos on TikTok are literally in someone’s car while someone is doing makeup.

Like so relaxed and, and no production to it essentially. And that’s also why it’s given these people who don’t have nice cameras and microphones and all those things, a platform to go create content and blow up. And so the thing that I’ve been thinking about a lot is when I look at my business or when I look at clients’ business, especially ones we’re working on TikTok and we’re probably going to be offering more things related to this as I figure this out like around content creation. Because it’s also relevant on reels, like the direction that Instagram is going is just copying TikTok. So I’m not saying like, oh guys, everybody jump over to TikTok. I’m honestly not saying that at all because for most people I’ve had, we have some people who are having success with the ads, but for most people I still think Facebook and Instagram is the place to be to prove your funnel, to get consistent sales to be profitable.

And there’s a lot of plane and testing going on in TikTok, but there’s no question that the format of content and the format of ads is the same. Like essentially that’s what’s gonna do the best Facebook, Instagram. And so there’s a lot of testing that needs to happen right now. And I, and I, I haven’t seen someone like master it as a business on TikTok. I’ve looked at some pretty big accounts and I can tell they’re struggling to master it because business content is so different or, or even if you’re like in the B2C space, but trying to monetize the content for business is so different than just putting out entertaining or storytelling videos, right? And so there’s this thing that has to happen. So then it got me thinking, okay, if that’s, if that’s the direction that content is going, then isn’t the goal going to become visibility with things and your ads?

Like if you can get someone to consume your videos, even if they’re not directly related to your webinar or to your lead magnet or to your offer, well now you have their attention and you’ve pulled them in and you can send them other places. Which again, this is always, these things are not new that I’m sharing about marketing, it’s just they’re new in the way that we have to do it. And so I feel like with Facebook and Instagram, you know, seven, 10 years ago what happened was digital marketing went into this direction where content and visibility kind of lost its importance because lead generation was so cheap and working so well and so the focus became drive a straight to the webinar, straight to the wa opt-in, get people in the funnel, get them to buy. And that’s still valid. But I think during that time, especially like past two years ago and, and for the, you know, like five years ago during that time like when I started my business, that was the best use of your ad dollars and it still is again, it still is and I still have clients successful with this.

But in order to build your full brand and marketing, I feel like the attention, the percentage of attention and weight that content and visibility has has massively increased. Because the reality is people want to connect with you in that way. They wanna hear a good story, they wanna consume your content and they’re gonna go to the people who are capturing them that way. And that’s kind of like the first step. And if you can do that and if you can use content in this way that people are consuming it, then the second step can be lead generation and now they trust you et cetera. Which is the same concept of visibility and brand awareness that I, you know, teach and that we put five to 10% of the budget into. But I think that the consistency of this and especially over on TikTok using it for that purpose is the new direction that we are going in and where we need to put focus.

So when you look at Euro marketing and you think about like, am I doing this? Like am I creating content that is telling a good story that someone would want to consume and that really fits into the direction that this platform is going. And so let me give you an example how I was thinking about this because I’ve done a lot of videos for Instagram reels that are like marketing tips, one minute marketing tips and I saw this you know, this started to blow up like Alex Hermo did it, there’s a lot of people doing it on Instagram and it does work on Instagram. It’s interesting that the trending audios of like lip syncing or you yeah like lip syncing over someone’s audio has really gone down. Which that was something I predicted six months ago happening and it is definitely going in that direction.

But so the difference between Instagram and TikTok is those videos where you’re doing like that one minute, here’s like a tip or a trick type of thing and you’re putting the captions on it, like what I’ve done on my Instagram, those don’t work on TikTok. Like people don’t want those. You know, here’s a way to improve your Facebook ad conversion. What I feel like people would want and what I’m gonna eventually test soon is people want the like behind the scenes they want a video of like, I did this call with this client and then this happened or like this happened with my team or like I’m trying to work and I have my kids in my office. Like they want the actual like behind the scenes. It’s kind of like reality tv. Like that’s the content that people want. And so I think we have to shift our mindset a little bit because that’s what’s gonna hook someone in to build connection with you is showing that.

And it’s also why something like Instagram stories is such a highly consumed piece of content because people want to see inside of someone’s life that they look up to or that they feel connected to. And Instagram stories provides that. Tiktok provides it in their videos where you get to see this story and this person’s personality and they make you laugh. And so I think looking at content from that perspective, it’s the question of how do I create connection in that way with my audience? And the way you’re building trust with them in that way is by showing them you and getting them to connect and trust you. Now here’s the interesting thing. Every brand and business out there is not gonna have a founder who wants to be the face of the brand and wants to do this. And everybody out there isn’t good at this.

And I do think that people who struggle with this or don’t wanna do this are going to struggle and that people are going to have to start hiring these influencers to make videos for them. So here’s like the fascinating thing I saw the other day. I saw an ad on TikTok from Uber Eats was their ad and they had hired one of these TikTok influencers who I had previously seen his videos and he like talks in a funny voice or something, I don’t know, he’s like this funny guy and he has millions of followers on TikTok. So Uber Eats hired this guy to make them a video ad that is where what these big businesses are gonna start doing. So number one, if you have a personality that’s great at storytelling and you’re funny and you can do this, like get on there and start doing it and make it relevant to your business but also just be you.

Because if you naturally have that ability, you have a ton of potential and just go be you on there and go do that. Number two, if you don’t have this, you may in the future consider having somebody make videos for you. And I know that sounds crazy right now, but I really think in the next few years, like these, these big influencers on TikTok were who have these millions of followers who maybe aren’t fully monetizing it right now, who knows how they’re monetizing it. They all have like their email and their profiles so they probably get requests but companies are gonna start hiring them to create their videos because that’s the content people want. So it’s just something to think about and I feel like I’m doing this episode like I don’t have it all figured out yet because there’s a lot of testing that needs to happen and I look at it all as fun.

I’m like let’s play, let’s do this. Like let’s see what works, let’s see what doesn’t work. And I’ve been watching for the last few months and so if I was to like recap a few things in the direction that Digital Marketing’s going is number one, content creation is going in the direction of storytelling. Letting someone see the behind the scenes real raw. That’s another thing, let me share this. If you haven’t seen the new social media app called Be Real, I’m actually on there. It’s R e a l and I love it all it is, it’s the simplest thing. All it is is at the same time every day the app sends a notification to everybody on b r and says, take a photo of you of what you’re doing right now. And it’s like you take a front and back photo. That’s it. It’s literally so simple.

You can’t upload a photo, there’s no filters, you can’t like doctor it, it takes it at the same time so you’re like front and back of your phone camera and then you can’t see anybody else’s photos until you post that. And it’s super fun. You’re friends with all these people and you get to see like what they’re doing at that moment in the day and you can put a little caption and comment or you can react to their photo. That’s it. So simple, you don’t spend a lot of time scrolling on there. Okay, so here’s the interesting thing. Tiktok copied it, now there’s a TikTok now it’s the exact same thing. Mark my words in two to three months from now, Instagram’s gonna have the same thing. What does that mean though? It means people wanna see the real be real. They wanna see no filter, they wanna see the mess, they wanna see the chaos, they wanna connect.

They don’t want highly edited videos, they don’t want perfect content, they don’t want filtered stuff. And so the content creation that’s doing well right now is as much as you can make it feel like real life and have people relate to you. Because the reason why is people now use content as their tv, as their reality TV as their shows where they connect to the characters and they wanna see this thing play out. And this story that is now social media and attention is currency. So using ads, using social media as the main goal, obviously you wanna get your ideal client to pay attention to you. Like if I just went and did a bunch of like random TikTok joke videos, I’m not gonna get my ideal client but I need to figure out how to capture the most attention. Some of these people on TikTok I go end up watching like they show me one part video, it’s three, the max media is three minutes.

I end up going to their profile and watching like five of these videos to watch their whole like five part story that is like 15 minutes that I just gave this person time. Imagine if you could create that. That’s amazing. So, so through micro content the platforms are getting people to give even more attention if the person does it well, if they can do good storytelling, if they can capture you in and you know, either humor you or make you fig, be like what’s gonna happen? And that can be created in multiple industries. I can do that as a marketer to show behind the scenes of my agency or whatever storytelling and I’m still gonna work on what that content is. But capturing that attention comes through micro content that then people go like binge the rest of the content or they’ll watch all the other parts.

It’s so fascinating. And then the last thing on this kind of like prediction of the direction is that ads and content, especially paid ads, I feel we’re moving in this direction where if you are not running any sort of paid ads, if you are not getting your content, your lead gen, your your different ways to get people into your world out there, if you’re not doing that consistently, you are going to really struggle to grow because organic is great but it’s very slow and I think ads are just as much today for the purpose of brand awareness as they are for like immediate return on ad spend. And I have been saying this for the last year, but I do really think businesses who don’t have a non-negotiable marketing budget that they’re not able to put into marketing through the form of paid ads in one way or another, whatever platform, however you do it just to get new people paying attention to you are going to really struggle.

That’s how I’ve always looked at marketing as like here’s our monthly budget, we’re gonna spend it the best we can and we’re gonna do the best with it and try to get the best cost per leads and put money towards brand awareness and visibility. But we are spending it because if we don’t, that impacts the business in 3, 4, 5, 6 months from now. And I see people all the time who haven’t grown in the last year and they’re just trying, you know, to post content and to get something to work and if they just committed to getting new people to see their stuff with ads, they would grow. So I think ads, you know, if you look back 20 years ago it was magazines, it was billboards, it was the radio. You didn’t, you couldn’t say like, oh that person came in from the radio and in seven days they went through my funnel and they bought like no it was for awareness.

It was so that you heard the company’s name that they stayed top of mind, that it captured your attention. That’s still the purpose of ads. We’ve gotten luckier in the sense that we can track better. It’s not always accurate, but we can track better and we can put someone through a more intentional customer journey. But it’s still like the purpose of ads is that brand awareness. It’s that constant visibility cuz you don’t even know who has seen your ad three times and then ends up going to your Instagram and messages you or goes on your website. Like that’s not actually gonna be attributed directly back to an ad cuz they maybe didn’t even click on an ad. But how many times do you see someone’s ad and then what does that do? It puts their name in your mind even if it’s for three seconds because attention is currency and that is what marketing is to do.

All right you guys, I’m sure I’ll have more updates for you on this. I just felt like sharing this and, and my goal with this is to really get you guys just thinking and marketing is just fun too. So have fun with it. See like give yourself space, give yourself an hour to be like, what could I do based on all this, based on the direction of digital marketing and of content? Like what could I do? What could I try? And it might totally fail. I might look like an idiot, I might look silly, I might mess up. Who cares? Just try something new. Because you never know what’s gonna stick and that’s how you get to what’s working and that’s how you connect with like what’s in alignment with you and what portrays your skill sets and the way that you show up with your audience.

It’s not gonna be going on TikTok and seeing these people with millions of followers and doing exactly what they are doing because they are being them. And that’s why it blew up. And you have to be you and figure out what is that for your business. And so just don’t be afraid to try things. That’s the best thing I can say. So all right everybody, don’t forget to check out hersh marketing.com/black Friday, just check out all the options. It is going to be our biggest craziest sale of the year. All those prices will go back up after Monday. And if you have any questions about it, you can always message me on Instagram and I’ll talk to you guys next week.

Thanks for listening to the Not for Lazy Marketers podcast. If you love this episode and want deeper support with your marketing, head over to helpmystrategy.com to see how Hirsh Marketing can help take your marketing to the next level no matter where you’re at today. We help our clients scale faster than ever, find hidden leaks in their funnel, experiment with new creative marketing strategies, and help their business explode and be more profitable than they ever dreamed possible. Head over to helpmystrategy.com and see if you qualify for a free strategy audit with Team Hirsh.

♥ LISTEN ON SPOTIFY