- Think Z
- Posts
- TikTok is Taking Over the World
Social Presence, Ecommerce, and Fulfillment in one place
The TL;DR:
Let’s Chat D2C: SMS Deliverability during periods of high volume like BFCM and how the iOS16 updates will impact your SMS marketing program.
What I’m Thinking about this Week: TikTok In-App Shopping and their bet on Ecommerce.
The D2Z Podcast: I sat down with the CEO of Textdrip to chat about SMS marketing, how to address business problems without bias, and creating a culture of innovation and growth.
App Highlights - Recharge & Rebuy Updates: Recharge passwordless login, Recharge training academy, Rebuy Smart Cart Updates, and Rebuy with Shop Pay.
Random tip: Create long-form content that can easily be broken down into smaller, short-form pieces and distributed across your channels. For example, this newsletter, PDF guides, and long-form Youtube tutorials I put together are the foundation for my Linkedin, TikTok, and Twitter content which is much higher frequency.
Let's Chat D2C: SMS Deliverability during BFCM and iOS16
SMS Deliverability during BFCM
Here are some things to watch out for and tips/tricks to follow during the highest volume period of the year:
Double and triple-check that your SMS program is compliant. Make sure your Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and the way you collect consent are up to snuff.
Just be cognizant that sending speeds are typically delayed due to the increased volume.
Avoid using opt-in keywords that have yet to be approved.
MMS (Gifs, images, etc.) will slow down sending speed.
Send campaigns earlier in the day to get your message out before the carrier queues get backed up.
What’s iOS16 mean for SMS Marketing?
Apple has added additional support to filter messages from unknown senders. It automatically filters SMS into Transactions, Promotions, or Junk. They also have sub-categories within Transactions and Promotions.
Now, Apple users still have to download a filtering app and set up their settings, so there is still quite a bit of friction, but I expect Apple to make this more manageable and easier to use over time.
Privacy changes for SMS are going to continue. Now more than ever, you need to focus on segmentation and personalization in your SMS program and closely monitor your unsubscribe rates.
Contact Cards
The best way around filtering is to get your subscribers to save your contact information, so make sure to create a contact card and include it in your welcome messages to all new SMS subscribers.
When creating your contact card, include your store name, logo (or image of your choice), and a short description of your company.
What I’m Thinking About This Week: TikTok In-App Shopping & Ecommerce
TikTok is the most valuable social media platform for DTC brands and continues to make inroads into shopping. Gen Z also continues to use TikTok as a search engine, demonstrating how short-form videos have become the preferred source of information for the younger generation.
TikTok Shop
The company began testing its TikTok Shop feature this week in the US market, which allows users to purchase items directly inside the TikTok app. They’re also making multiple investments into live shopping features.
These developments will allow brands to connect with their consumers in a new way and also enable TikTok creators to start monetizing their channels via ecommerce offerings.
TikTok as a Landing Page?
Gen-Z is prioritizing TikTok over Google more and more for discovery and search.
TikTok continues to invest in its shopping functionality.
Why send your customers to a traditional website landing page with a bunch of copy when you can send them to an engaging TikTok where your value prop is clearly explained?
Also, driving traffic to your profile will increase your awareness and reach on the platform.
TikTok Fulfillment?
TikTok has also been recruiting for jobs related to US-based fulfillment centers that would provide warehousing and returns for customers. One of its listings states, “With millions of loyal users globally, we believe TikTok is an ideal platform to deliver a brand new and better e-commerce experience to our users.”
Maybe TikTok as your Website?
Is there a world where creators and brands start and build their social presence and e-commerce store on TikTok? With all warehousing and fulfillment handled by TikTok? 👀
This Week's The D2Z Podcast
#36 - Text Marketing, Compliance, and Building a Culture of Innovation and Growth
🎧 Listen Now 🎧
In this week’s episode, I sat down with Philip Portman, CEO of Textdrip, a text marketing platform. Specifically, we explored the following:
💰 The power of automated text messaging
📲 Keeping up on SMS compliance
😎 Addressing business problems with a Gen Z mindset
🚀 How to build a business culture where innovation thrives
App Highlight - Recharge Passwordless Login, Recharge Training Academy, Rebuy Smart Cart Updates, Rebuy + Shop Pay
Some exciting updates from two of our top app partners going into BFCM week!
Recharge Passwordless Login
This has been an issue for customers of brands using Recharge since I can remember, and I’m super excited that customers can now access their portal without needing to sign into their Shopify account.
Recharge’s new training academy is packed with resources on its product, how to use bundles, RechargeSMS, and the Klaviyo V2 integration.
I’d highly recommend anyone in ecommerce go through these.
Rebuy Smart Cart Updates
There are two updates I’m excited about that are going to help us maximize AOV on our client's sites:
Tiered Progress Bar for Smart Cart: Brands can now offer multi-tiered rewards, including 4 tiers (one free shipping tier and up to 3 free gift tiers). We can now easily incentivize customers to continue adding to their cart to unlock the next tier.
Buy More, Save More: Brands can now add up to 3 tiers of discounting to incentivize buying more of an individual SKU that will display in the cart. For example, you could offer 5% off if a customer purchase 2 units but offer 10% off if a customer purchases 3 units.
Rebuy & Shop Pay
I love Shop Pay, but I’ve always had one big complaint about it. None of the Rebuy AOV-boosting tactics we leveraged in the regular Shopify checkout worked with it. Now, with Shopify Checkout UI extensions, brands can include their in-checkout cross-sell widgets on the Shop Pay checkout page!
Book of the Week - Building a StoryBrand
This book was one of the main factors behind Electriq’s pivot in service offering, strategy, and messaging to a retention-as-a-service agency. It forced me to take a step back from Electriq and evaluate our positioning without bias.
The Seven Big Ideas:
The customer is the hero, not your brand.
Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems.
Customers aren’t looking for another hero; they’re looking for a guide.
Customers trust a guide who has a plan.
Customers do not take action unless they are challenged to take action.
Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending.
Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them.
Above all, the #1 thing I took away from this book is that you need to look at your company, the website, and the messaging, all from the perspective of someone who has NEVER heard of your company before and doesn’t understand what you do. When I started to look at Electriq through that lens, I realized that more than 50% of what we were saying would make literally zero sense to anyone who didn’t work at our agency or who wasn’t innately familiar with what we did.
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