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Promote Amazon Business through Tiktok - Amazon Seller Tips with Gracey Ryback - Part 1
August 30, 2021
Promote Amazon Business through Tiktok - Amazon Seller Tips with Gracery Ryback - Part 1
 Things we discussed in this session:

A.Part 1

B. Part 2

Things we mention in this session of Seller Round Table:

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Transcription in this episode:
[00:00:01] spk_0: Welcome to the seller roundtable e commerce coaching and business strategies with and er, not and [00:00:07] spk_1: Amy Wiis. [00:00:11] spk_0: Hey, what's up everybody? This is Andy are not well And this is still a round table number 100 [00:00:18] spk_1: and six [00:00:18] spk_0: and we have Gracie right back on today. Welcome [00:00:21] spk_1: Gracie thank you so [00:00:21] spk_0: much for being on [00:00:24] spk_1: Hi, Amy and Andy thank you guys so much for having me very excited to be here. [00:00:28] spk_0: I'm excited to, I'm like Tiktok ins, you know, I mean, it's been out for a while, but for most of the, the amazon people, you know, we're not like, you know, 16. So we're having to be brought into the fold. I mean, you know, we're not, we're not young and hip. So, um, you know, we're gonna, I guess I should speak for myself, Amy, you know, maybe you're a little more up than I am, but uh, I am not. So I definitely need braces help. So Gracie thank you so much for being on uh, liberals like to start with a little background, we know where you live and where you were born and raised, but everybody else doesn't. So [00:01:01] spk_1: give us a little background, [00:01:02] spk_0: you know, where you're born, raised school, uh, kind of your street cred up to today. [00:01:07] spk_1: Okay, sure, sure. So my name is Gracie. Hello? Hello. I guess I would call myself an influencer in the amazon space amazon influencer for the sake of a name. Um, I actually, just to give you a little personal background about myself. I grew up in the south of the United States. Um, and I, I, in college, I studied psychology and public relations. So we see where my, my degree went. But um, I, after college, I was working for Jordan Belford. If you guys are familiar with him, he is kind of big in the sales world. So I kind of got my start in um kind of a traditional sales sense And then um late in 2020 I started a Tiktok account um where I would just share promo code, the stuff that I found on amazon and I never started it with the intention of growing it to the size it is, I really just started it because I personally would shop on amazon every day. I would look for these promo codes, I would find them and I'd be like, oh I got such a good deal, I would want to share the deal with my friends and they'd be like, oh I don't care, whatever, like they sell well, whatever, I don't care. So I was like, wow! Like maybe some people online might benefit from these people, these promo codes and um, so that's how I started the account and um shockingly I was able to pretty quickly grow a following their um people really love the promo codes. I love that I was able to help people save money and afford the things that they might not otherwise be able to afford. And so the community started growing and um at the start of 2021, I was able to kind of leave my 9 to 5 and start content creation full time. And since I was able to do that, I started working with amazon live to be like a live streamer or like live creator with them um which is just another kind of outlet where I can talk about, amazon products, promotes deal stuff like that, um kind of an extension of my Tiktok family And also grow on other platforms. I have a Facebook group of 80,000 members and growing um an instagram which is kind of a, another platform. I'm not Prioritizing enough which is uh like maybe 24,000 followers and like a Twitter account with just small $2,000 but moral of the story. Um I have a community where I can share amazon promo codes and deals with and um that's kind of where I'm at right now. Content creation and sharing codes. That's kind of where I am [00:03:39] spk_0: awesome. So that sounds like fun because like pretty much anything you buy an amazon you can write off, right? So like that's a [00:03:45] spk_1: business experience [00:03:46] spk_0: if you put it online right? You're [00:03:48] spk_1: like who? I actually didn't know that I actually had. Yeah. Yeah [00:03:53] spk_0: it's a business expensive. You reviewing it Like I mean you could appreciate it. You can, I mean, you know, I don't know just saying that's [00:04:00] spk_1: right. That is smart, That is smart. I didn't think about that but noted. [00:04:05] spk_0: Yeah, it's your business. You can write it off. So, um, [00:04:09] spk_1: yeah, [00:04:10] spk_0: so just make sure that if you sell it or trade it off, that you robbed that as well. But yeah, yeah, that's right [00:04:15] spk_1: off. That can [00:04:17] spk_0: be just physical assets depreciated. So [00:04:20] spk_1: yeah, you know [00:04:20] spk_0: me, I'm a geek, uh, learn more every [00:04:22] spk_1: day [00:04:23] spk_0: awesome. So, uh, so what kind of products, you know, I'm always talking about this in terms of, I know that like visual products always work the best. Right? But like what are some of the best products that you've maybe personally uh, reviewed or demo that people like lost their mind over? [00:04:44] spk_1: Yeah, Yeah. So, uh, I specialize in not technically having a specific niche. I'm not specifically fitness or beauty or tech or anything. I kind of specialized in deals and trending products, for example. So especially on Tiktok, you know, that's like the home of all where trends start. Um, so there's a couple of products that, um, if you are on Tiktok, you will be familiar with them. If you're not, maybe it'll be kind of like, oh, interesting. Had no idea, but I'll name a couple of products. My first viral products that I posted on Tiktok was actually a massage gun, which can be controversial because of the name and like some trends on Tiktok, but um, that was the first product that went viral and kind of catapulted my growth people. I think, I think the really important factor there was that It was kind of an expensive, high value product. It was going on Amazon for $90-150, sometimes 200. I found a promo code to bring it down to like $35, and people thought that was such an amazing deal, they sold it out a couple times over. Um they were so happy, they've been wanting it for a while and they were like, oh, finally thank you, I got it with the promo code, so that was the first fiber products and since then a couple of other ones have come up have come along and um of course there are the, the Tiktok leggings, which are literally what they're referred to as the leggings that make your butt pop. Those are really good, they've gone viral on my account. Um the Galaxy projector, that kind of just, you know, has the light makes the room very like Galaxy very vibe. Um and then maybe like recently there was the weighted hula hoop that, you know, a some people were like, oh, it makes you lose all this uh stomach that and whatever, it's really cool. Um and one more, one more recently, it was chlorophyll and that was kind of a funny product for me because I had had this chlorophyll um that I had before, um but it went viral on Tiktok and so all of a sudden I went on amazon to kind of find more chlorophyll that I could maybe buy and maybe do like a video about um every single chlorophyll brand, not just one brand, every single brand sold out on amazon, the entire chlorophyll, like industry was like sold out back ordered all because of Tiktok. So that was, that was just a couple of products that stand out in the, the viral Tiktok world and I had a direct correlation with the market on amazon, [00:07:24] spk_0: right? Yeah. It's one of those things where, you know, if you, if you get, you know, something trending on Tiktok or celebrity buys your product or something like that, you know, that's always like the jackpot when it comes to, you know, somebody who's selling uh consumer products, um either has anybody approached you to promote their product where you're like, uh, sorry, no, I will not promote that product. [00:07:45] spk_1: Yes. So when I first started my Tiktok account, I was like basically promoting all the cool products. I didn't think too much about like the product uh that I was promoting, because I wasn't technically in front of the camera, I was kind of just like showing the product page, the product listing, putting the code in and showing the price drop. And that's kind of my original format of video. As I started growing, I started putting more of my personality. I started, you know, doing voiceovers with my own voice, I started putting myself in front of camera and that's kind of changed the vibe of my account. It's more personal now. But in turn now I have to kind of be more seriously vetting the products that I posted out because if I, if I posted something and I promoted it, I am now standing behind it and that is a lot more important just to make sure that I'm not promoting something that could potentially be dangerous or bad quality or will eventually blow back on me if something happens. So now I I tried to that the product by looking at the reviews um just look at the product itself. I don't want to promote any, like sex sketchy, like, you know, weapons or stuff like that, that could be considered weird. But um there are a couple of factors that I look at, such as reviews. Sometimes I ask for a sample of the unit just so I can try it myself and familiarize myself with it. Um I, I don't love products that are like very clearly inflated in price and then brought back down like 80 or 90% to like a reasonable price, like we all know this shirt is not actually $90 and that's pretty transparent for my audience because my audience will call me out, they will be like, what the heck is this crazy? Like they, they're not shy with calling me out, so I do have to kind of be responsible with what I promote. [00:09:35] spk_0: Yeah. So, um I know like, like you're talking about products, how like, you know, you can get some bad apples on products, but [00:09:42] spk_1: the same thing goes [00:09:43] spk_0: for influencers, right? So like [00:09:45] spk_1: if somebody's [00:09:46] spk_0: looking to work with an influencer, like how should they vet somebody, how should they know that, who they're working with is legit and not somebody who's buying like, you know traffic or followers or likes or you know, any of those kinds of things. [00:09:59] spk_1: Yeah, so I think as influencer marketing grows and I think ever since 2021 it has absolutely boomed and I'm so happy to see it because I think, it's actually now like a serious career choice for something that people can make a full time living off this and that's just amazing. Um, I think when a brand is trying to find or vetted influencer, I think um there are a couple ways I would recommend first, like searching out the influencer and there is a certain amount of research involved with this, um, a good way to find them is going on social media, like instagram tiktok facebook stuff like that, using hashtag maybe finding facebook groups. Um, hashtags are a really good way to find influencers and then, um, I think as a brand owner to be, you know, familiar with your product, is this a very niche product? Is this like a fitness product or is this like a certain niche? Um, is the selling point? The price or the deal? Like what is the selling point of your product and based on the selling point? Find the influencer that matches your product because the brand product and influencer match is very important. Um you're not gonna find like a fitness influencer to rep Mcdonald's for example, so that's a good vetting process, Luckily for brands, there are a lot of websites that can kind of expose influencers that are buying fake likes or fake followers? Um, a lot of influencers do. It's very transparent nowadays. If somebody has 100,000 followers on Instagram, why are they getting 200 lights on their picture? That's just not, it just doesn't make sense. So there are a lot of like websites you can go to to kind of like search for a specific accounts engagement and they will expose and say like, oh, they're engagement rates really low or um, their followers aren't necessarily legitimate. Um, so luckily for brands, there are good ways to vet in that process, so to kind of make an extension off that point um, as an influencer, once an influencer decided, like, okay, I'm gonna start taking this seriously and I'm gonna really work on getting these brand deals and reaching out to brands. Um, the next step would be to get a media kit and with the media kit, the three things to focus on is engagement rate, conversion rate and um, basically proven sales or content that has driven proven sales in the past. And I think those are the three most important things to focus on from an influencer standpoint, but also a brand should be able to ask for those three things when searching for an influencer. [00:12:42] spk_0: I love it, but we're going to make you spill the beans whatever, like a couple of your favorite websites that people can go and run that query. [00:12:49] spk_1: Okay, okay. Um, okay. Yeah, So later. No, there's, there's one that I can basically get off, get off the top of my head. I think it's called you put me on the [00:13:09] spk_0: spot. You'll tell us at the end, [00:13:12] spk_1: yes. [00:13:13] spk_0: At the end we'll tell you what those are so that you stay till the end, right? [00:13:17] spk_1: Yeah. Up until the end to get them like it. I love already hooking them in. So, I mean, my next question for you was actually how to find those influencers and you kind of talked about that during Andy's last question where you talked about using hashtags. So you talked about using the products selling point and the promotion that you're going after. So you know, for an influencer like you, you share coupon codes. So if I'm running a really great launch deal, I could look for, even if I have a fitness product or any type of product, I could reach out to someone like you because you're, there's a lot of deals, influencers, right? So just when I'm launching and I have a really good deal, I could look out to deals influencers to help me get the word out about my deal. But after that, when I'm looking to grow my product, you mentioned um hashtag that I should be using. So can you give me some examples of how we might look for hashtags for? Let's say I'm selling a oh, I sell cat products. So let's say I'm selling a cat product. How do I find hashtags that are related to my product? Okay, then use those hashtags to find influencers? Yes. Good question. So if you are looking for, I'll make two examples. I'll make like a deal's example and related to myself and then I'll answer your question about the cat product. Okay, so if I was a brand and I had a really good deal and I wanted to, you know, share this deal with like an influencer with big following, I would go on instagram and Tiktok and I would search the hashtag amazon deals or online deals amazon fines, amazon must have um, there's also a couple of other hashtags and other creators have, um, created and it's kind of like, um, amazon finds you didn't know you needed or you know, cool amazon finds stuff like that are like, uh, deals coupons, extreme couponing, um, something like that, amazon promo codes amazon coupons, just like any kind of keyword hashtag that any kind of influencer might use. Those are good hashtags to use. So those are in the deal space if I was a cat brand and I was like, okay, I don't necessarily have a deal. I have a little discount and I want to find an influencer, I would say hats of Tiktok or uh, you know, cats of instagram, um, or like cute pets, pet owners. Um, you know, pet products, um, something like that, just like related hashtags to whatever niche you have and try to go for a couple of broad ones. I would assume cats of Tiktok or cats of instagram would be pretty broad, millions or billions of views. Yeah, Yeah. So I would have a hard time than narrowing it down. Right? So then once you kind of get that broad hashtag and kind of see what's under there, then you can kind of start snitching down the hashtags. You could then be like, okay, like, um, cat products or that's pretty big still. Um, I would say like, uh, Gosh in the Pet Nish, so I'm not super familiar with like pet hashtags, but uh, I would just niche down as well and uh, try to see if you can just find a couple of influencers just through those big hash tags because they, people like using big hashtags and because people know that niche hashtags, like it might be easy to rank under them, but they're also harder to find and less common to use. So, um, I think even though the hashtag is broad and big, um you can still find a good number of people under them that like match your niche and fit your product. Do you have any hashtag research techniques that you like to use to find specific hashtags, any platforms that you like to use? So I don't necessarily have any outside, like platforms that I use for my hashtag, I'm more so for myself as an influencer, I like going onto my social media channels like Tiktok instagram, um facebook even I like looking for influencers that are similar to me and in my niche already seeing what hashtags they're using and maybe if they apply to me, I'll use those as well. Um, my favorite to hashtag or three hashtags are amazon fines, which is very big. Um, amazon must have and uh, deals and then I'll also put maybe one or two like very niche hashtags depending on the product that I'm currently talking about. If I have a projector that I'm talking about, for example, I'll be like hashtag projector, like hashtag projector window trend because that relates to the trend of why people would even want this product in the first place. So I'll try to relate it to the, this is for Tiktok specifically, but I'll try to relate it to, you know, the most popular uh, part of the product. Um, I just did a video on a projector for example, there's a Tiktok trend that kind of goes with it where you project a window onto your wall and it looks like, you know, it's snowing outside or it's a beach outside when it's not. Um, so I'll say like projector window trend and so people know like, oh, if I want to do the trend by the projector. Well, the other thing that people can do, you know, uh Tiktok and instagram and facebook are all search engines so they can always start typing in a hashtag and then suggested hashtags will come up. And so for example, they could type in projector and then they might see projector window trend and if they don't know what that is, they can pull it up and see what the results say. Exactly. That will help them. You know, kind of like, for example, if I'm looking for cat products and I hashtag cats and I see what the suggestions are on insta, on facebook, on Tiktok and then I look at the search results. I can kind of start mission down and digging down in. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Great. I love that you aren't really using a research platform for your hashtags and you really are just kind of using the platform itself and searching and looking for other things, because I think that if we also use those techniques it will be helpful for us as well. Yeah, how should we approach an influencer? So I'm digging in, I'm fine, I'm doing my research and I find this really great cat influencer, I love what they're doing, it's really cool. Maybe they don't have a lot of products that they promote yet that I've seen in their in their stuff, but I really want to approach them with my product. How do I do it? Should I do it directly through the platform messenger, or should I go through one of those influence or websites like shout cart? How should I do it? Yeah, so I would say the best way to reach out to an influencer, once you, like, say like I'm interested in working with this person, they're a good fit, how do I reach out? So I do want to say that most influencers should have a way to contact them, whether that be an email in their bio or um, if not then like maybe D M s um or you can find them on a different platform, if they have their other platforms listed and there's a platform, it's easier to get touch with them. For example, if you're looking at a Youtuber for example, um it's, there's no direct message function on Youtube and if they don't have an email, then I would say try to go to their instagram and try to slide into their DNA, but I do want to make a point to say that um, if this is an influencer of notable size, if they do have a good following already, which they probably do. If they're influencer it's safe to assume that they probably do already have a couple of brands reaching out to them through their D. M. S. So then it's a question of how do I frame my message? My outreach message the best to catch their attention and um start the conversation of how do we work together? And I've gotten this question a lot, it's like oh I've emailed these influencers didn't respond or whatever their blah blah. Um It could be called unprofessional for example, I've I've heard that before. Um So I would say as a message to brands when doing the outreach try to um put out as much information in the first message as possible. Um I know amazon sellers are a little iffy about like sharing what product they sell but keep in mind this is an influencer, they're not trying to you know, encroach on your territory, They have a separate job. So I would, I I get emails sometimes and they're like, I have a product, I want you to promote it, thanks. And then I have to come back, then I have to come back and be like, hi, what is your product? Can you link it? Are you able to provide a coupon code for how much? Um Then I have to follow up with a bunch of questions and then it just kind of makes the process a lot longer for both parties. So I would say like, side not to move forward with you, then you've just wasted all of your time and you spend all this time with them where if they were to approach you and say, hey, gracie, I love what you do. I love your show. I have a really great product. Here's the promotion I have coming up here is the link. Um, what's the process for sharing it on your channel? But that word, that's it, that's it. Like share your product. I mean, you don't have to do a whole history of your company or brand. You don't, that's okay. Leave it short, but just say like, hi, we are a company that sells this. Maybe provide a link where we love to share our product on your channel. We're able to provide a discount code of this for this much. Um, if you can mention budget, please do so say like we, I mean, if you're reaching out to a small influencer and you're just trying to do a gifted collab and you could be like, we currently don't have a budget, but we are willing to offer this. Does that work for you? Are you willing to work with us for this? Um Maybe in the future we can make it a long term cooperation and we could, once we have a budget then we can pay you but for this first one and then you can start getting into like the details of like what you can offer them as well instead of like products promoted. Yeah like uh look and then um then the influencer when they get that message they can make an educated decision or educated answer about like okay, I like your product um like I'm willing to do it for gifted or whatever budget um and then you can start talking next steps but the more information you put up front, the more, the faster you can kind of get through that information to get to a decision or answer whether that be yes or no. Um and it just saves time for both sides because I feel like I feel like managing my inbox is like a full time job within itself. Yeah. And it's because I'm like, it's always like a, what's this information? Can you tell me this? It's like a fight of information on both sides. Well, I think that the hard part is the hardest part for us. Brand owners is that we don't understand the budget side of things, right? We know how to set up advertising because there's a form there that walks us through it and I know that my keyword is this and that's where I want my ad to show up. So it's very easy, but then when we're dealing with influencers and they don't have a form or anything for us to fill out, maybe some of them have a website and that's great. Like, hey, you wanna work with me, here's my form and then, yeah. Or they could say, like, hey, what's your budget? You know, here's our typical, the different things that we do and here's the budgets for it. But I think that's the hardest part honestly for brand owners is we just don't know, we don't know what to offer and we don't know what to expect. So it's very helpful, um, to understand what we can expect and what that looks like, and, you know, that way we can set aside a budget for it. But I think people are just so clueless on the budget that they're just like, I don't, I don't know like, what am I supposed to offer and looking I expect as a return on my investment. You know, we can see, like the level of engagement, I always tell people when they're looking for influencers that they should look at their engagement on their post, look at other products that they've promoted and see, you know, how much engagement there was, that kind of thing and and see what's going on there. But it's also hard, even if a product was promoted and there was decent engagement, It's hard to know if that lead to sales, right? 100%. Yes. Um, I think when I completely understand as a brand, like you don't exactly know what to offer, where to even start when talking about budget. And I've had a lot of conversations about this topic about like what is a good industry standard, what should I expect, what should I charge as an influencer and what should I budget out for influencer market as a brand? Um, I think the answer that we have decided on is unfortunately there is no industry standard because every influencer is different. I'm in the Tiktok deal space and my engagement looks like this, but somebody else might be more in the amazon space and they might have a completely different conversion engagement rate and different. So there's no industry standard unfortunately, but I definitely think that the brand can make some kind of judgment on that based on the influencers statistics and their presence online already. For example, if somebody is just starting out as an influencer, a couple of 1000 followers, they're just getting started. They would probably be more willing to do a gifted or just like no budget, like just products collaboration with the brand because they want that experience of making content relating to like selling a product. Um, and they just want to get started in it. And when I say gifted, does that mean like, okay, I'm giving you my product as a gift be correct? Like I'm giving you a free product in return for you. Making content about it and there's no actual like, money being exchanged. Got it. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that we have had that term and whether or not it was like multiple products that we were giving them. I know sometimes I've seen people do giveaways for their followers to like, hey, I'm going to give you a gift, plus I'm going to give you a couple of extra ones that you can do and give away with your followers and just want your feedback, that kind of thing. Um, so I love that and I totally understand that every influencer is going to be different and it's also on the brand to, because brand has to come up with, you need to have a really great looking product, you need to have a good quality product. If you're driving them to your amazon listening, your listing needs to look good, right? Like you can't leave that on the influencer right? You can't say, well, they didn't convert. Well, you do need to have a good product and all of that. So I like that. So, let's talk about the different ways that influencers can promote products. So your deals influencer, how are the different ways? What are the different things that you can do to promote products and to promote the deals? Yeah, So, I currently, I'm just basically making a video that sharing the deal. Like I'll they like, oh, I found a deal on this, I'll point out some, like, talking points or key points about the product, it does this, it can be used for this and that, and then I'll be like, and if you want 50% off or 60% off or even 40 32 then I put the code in the comments. I link in my bio pure interested and these are affiliate links, which I make it very clear everywhere. Um, and then if people are interested then they can take advantage of the deal. And I love when people are like, oh, I got it, I wanted it for so long. Thank you. I was able, and then like, I love that. So there's that way of how I share content and then there is a more like lifestyle influencer way of sharing content, which is more so like, oh, like look at this product, I'm using it in my daily life and there's no deal or coupon involved, but this is my experience with it. So if you guys want to check it out, it's linked in my bio or whatever, whatever, it's more of like a organic, like this is something I use in my daily life type of content and that could be on instagram, instagram story, um even take talk a lot of times um and then there's kind of a different way of promoting products, which is um not really new per se, but growing very rapidly as of this year, which is live streaming. So I'm an A list amazon live streamer, so basically I'm able to work with brands in that capacity as well, and as an A list amazon live streamer. My amazon live streams are do get posted on the amazon dot com home page, which you know, it can only imagine how much traffic that gets. Um and I do believe amazon Live is more for brand awareness um as opposed to just sheer volume of sales, which I would probably refer to talk more for sure, volumes, volume of sales. And Amazon live for more brand awareness and maybe like somebody doing a demo of your product or somebody just talking about their experience of it, like unboxing or something. So that's a different way of talking about products as well. And Amazon Live creates a really good way of like this is the product you want to just click right there and you're already there. Like it's, it's a very seamless process and I think amazon, um, compared to other real retailers make it like very good for impulse purchases. Um, you literally just the, you know, switch apps, scroll a bar and it shows up at your door and there's nothing easier than that. And so, and so I think that like kind of plays into the culture of like, oh, impulse purchase and that's kind of a really good way of selling. Yes, definitely. I think I definitely want to talk about amazon live today a little bit um but I know it's still very new, it's still very kind of up and coming, there's not a lot of brands doing it and for that reason the brands that jump on early can do very well because there's sometimes the only live videos out there, but also on that note, you know, it's it's but still growing, they're still, I agree to be done. So it's like, it's great that you're also doing that stuff on tick tock and other platforms as we're growing the amazon live, but I love that amazon is doing that. That's awesome. [00:32:14] spk_0: Thanks for tuning in to part One of this episode, join us every Tuesday at one PM pacific standard time for live Q and A. And bonus content after the recording at cellar round table dot com, sponsored by the Ultimate software tool for amazon sales and growth seller s c o dot com, and Amazing at home dot com.