I went viral on TikTok… but I was ready.
I posted my first video to TikTok less than two years ago. As a logo designer, I would often create short, time-lapse videos of myself working in Adobe Illustrator. I’d design a logo, record myself putting it together on screen and post the video to all the social platforms to try and show off my design skills.
I had about 50 videos on TikTok, all faceless (meaning no videos of me, or anything with a voiceover). I was simply posting my work, and hoping the quality of the content would help the account take off.
Then I decided to change tack for one video.
And that video exploded.
As of this morning, it has 3.1M views. And that single video has completely transformed what was a struggling freelance logo design business, into a successful one.
In a single day, the video led to 80 sales leads, jumped my follower count from a few hundred to 15K, and brought in clients from all over the globe.
I am now booked out for three months, working with tech startups, biotech firms, lawyers, a small motor racing team, an NFT project, a 3D print artist, a TV chef and so many more.
The traction and recognition I received after posting this video has transformed my life. But the real-world success I’ve had was only possible because I was geared up and ready for the fallout.
Here’s what happened…
The video that went viral
My TikTok that blew up was a stitched video. This means I took the first few seconds of someone else’s video, where they asked a question, and answered that question with my own video.
There are a few reasons why I think my video was so successful:
I had a genuine, excited reaction
I was bragging about a niche
I explained the situation clearly
It had a baby in it
I made the video while I was looking after my 9-month-old son. He was practising pulling himself up on the sofa, and was interrupting me while I was talking. So the video had a genuine quality to it, which I think appealed to a lot of people.
A seemingly common conundrum with TikTok is the video that you put the least amount of effort into is often the one that goes viral!
It also had a hook, thanks to another user’s question in the first few seconds of the video. It kept people watching, which led to more views.
[Edit: There’s another reason I forgot to mention. A huge amount of my American audience thought I was saying ‘Lego’, not ‘Logo’. So they stayed until the end of the video expecting to see award-winning Lego designs!]
The real-world benefits of going viral
What happened over the next few days (the sales leads and the influx of genuine, paying customers) was only possible because of almost a year of work prior to that video taking off.
Lots of accounts go viral with a single video, but unless you are ready to reap the rewards of that sudden increase in audience, your five minutes of fame will be just that.
You can see this when you look at some of the accounts that have had a viral video. You might see an account with a video that has more than 5M views, but only a few thousand followers.
That video may have been a one-off. And the rest of the content on their page wasn’t consistent.
But my video was about my industry. And it was geared up to serve me.
I had made the decision to niche down from generic graphic design into branding a couple of years prior. And since then I‘ve been positioning myself as an expert in the field. And I had implemented the following steps in order to reap the rewards should one of my posts ‘blow up’.
My website contained good quality, premium-looking content, and was up to date.
I had a clear landing page with a sales funnel and multiple ways to contact me.
My design packages were explained and itemised, without pricing, and designed to lead to enquiries.
My website contained articles with various forms of content regarding my industry.
My TikTok profile linked to my website and all other social profiles, where there was lots of similar content about my niche.
So when a new user found me because of this video, there was more of the same for them to see, which lead to an immediate follow.
Keeping the hype train going
In the four months since that video exploded, my TikTok following has grown from ~15K to ~44K. And about 80% of my sales leads now come directly from TikTok.
Growth tracking (from March - May) on TikTok analytics
This is because I have made a concerted effort to build momentum on the platform.
I post regular explainer videos, tutorials and funny titbits about the business of logo design. I run live streams where I design logos in front of an audience, taking in feedback directly from the comments, and printing things like t-shirts for my audience to buy.
On top of this, my other social accounts have grown directly as a result. Not quite as strongly as TikTok, where organic growth is almost guaranteed if your content has worth. But an unmistakable uptick.
Going viral as a repeatable model
I won’t deny it, I’ve been attempting to repeat this experience ever since it happened. Replicating the success of the video, and discovering the perfect format/hook to achieving 1M+ views is something that has eluded me.
I’ve since had six videos with 100K views or more. So my content is appealing to people inside my niche, but nothing on the kind of level that appeals to a global audience.
However, all of this growth has led to a bit of an issue.
My freelance business is now at crossroads. I’m starting to lose business because my waitlist is too long. Quite rightly, a lot of people aren’t willing to wait more than three months for a good logo.
Do I hire someone to pick up the slack, but potentially lose a bit of control? I’m worried about quality/standards slipping if I have to manage someone. Sometime soon I need to make the decision to either keep going as a ‘lifestyle business’, where my income is capped, but I can keep my current hours and freedom to spend time with kids.
Or do I expand and start an agency?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons of this.
Either way, I owe a lot to TikTok and my followers. If you focus on building a TikTok brand, generating quality content that serves your audience (and not just you) then when that viral video finally happens, you’ll be ready to exploit it. And the influx of traffic it comes with.
In a nutshell, TikTok for business is a gold mine!