The Audience Funnel from TikTok
Plus, how the San Francisco Chronicle created audio tours of San Francisco
Hi there,
I came across a profile of Her First $100k, a personal finance brand with a large TikTok following and nearly 400,000 email subscribers.
I was intrigued because much of its growth has come through a combination of TikTok and a single quiz linked in its bio. The quiz generated more than 100,000 email subscribers in its first week, and it’s been taken nearly 800,000 times.
For many publishers, TikTok & social video are mostly a side experiment. The Economist, for example, views the platform as “another sandpit to play in, even if commercially it doesn’t yet deliver the goods,” according to digital editor Adam Roberts.
One problem is that many publishers don’t yet have a strong funnel strategy from TikTok. The Economist’s TikTok bio, for example, links a sign-up form that asks for a credit card. A better strategy would be linking a lower-commitment request, such as a free email newsletter.
Many other media brands, even those with significant TikTok followings, aren’t making good use of their valuable real estate in TikTok bios. Here are some examples of what some other brands are linking right now:
Morning Brew: Nothing
Business Insider: A long list of links
Forbes: Website homepage
Glamour: Links to past stories
Buzzfeed: Full-length videos
Her First $100k combines TikTok-native content with a call-to-action that matches the fun vibe of TikTok and also brings users into an owned channel. For publisher’s honing their vertical video strategy, it’s useful inspiration.
Case Studies:
The San Francisco Chronicle created audio tours of San Francisco. Some background on their approach:
They used an audio tour app called VoiceMap.
The audio is triggered by GPS location.
Chronicle journalists wrote and narrated the tours.
The Economist’s Adam Roberts shared some insights about their digital approach:
Content about military equipment has been surprisingly popular. “Like everyone, the Ukraine war became an obsession for us and still is. However, we had not expected quite such a nerdy obsession with military hardware but it turns out we have a hugely committed group of subscribers who are very excited about this stuff.”
Content from Espresso now gets more attention outside the app. “We brought Espresso into the core Economist app, put it on the website, on Spotify, a newsletter, and we’ve had a bunch of actors recording it thrice a day, because we update the app more often. Ironically, it’s on all these other platforms that it’s far more successful than in the app.”
And here’s the latest news in digital media:
WaPo CEO Fred Ryan is leaving. Patty Stonesifer, who was CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will be interim CEO and lead the search for a successor. Ryan is departing after many top executives also left the Post. Ryan’s next role will be leading the nonpartisan Center on Public Civility at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
The Athletic cut roughly 4% of its newsroom, or around 20 journalists. It’s moving away from having one reporter per team, instead “telling the most compelling stories for fans across the teams in a given league.”
More on publishers:
Many staffers at The Telegraph are happy they’ll get a change in ownership.
The Guardian apologized & changed internal processes due to sexual misconduct by one of their columnists.
Fox News sent Tucker Carlson a cease-and-desist letter.
More on platforms & the market:
Reddit moderators took their communities “private” to protest the platform’s new policy of charging for API access.
GroupM expects digital advertising to grow 8.4% YoY in 2023.
Apple plans to release a cheaper headset as early as the end of 2025.
Long Read: NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger gave an interview to the New Yorker.
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