48: TikTok Ban: What to do if your Income and Community Depend on it

Today we're talking about something that could literally change everything in your content creation business and I'm not even being dramatic. We are talking about the potential of TikTok being banned in the U. S. 

If you are not a U. S. creator, This is still going to be a valuable episode for you because, spoiler alert, I'm going to teach you how to set up an email list and why it's going to change your life and is far better than any sort of social media strategy you could put together. It's all going to be okay, let's chat through it and create a game plan you can't lose in. 

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Transcript

Laura Haley: [00:00:00] Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of the Travel Creator Podcast. I'm Laura. I'm a content developer for travel influencers, and I support them through newsletter creation, content repurposing, and blog writing. Today we're talking about something that could literally change everything, and I'm not even being dramatic.

We are talking about the potential of TikTok being banned in the U. S. If you are not a U. S. creator, This is still going to be a valuable episode for you because, spoiler alert, I'm going to teach you how to set up an email list and why it's going to change your life and is far better than any sort of social media strategy you could put together.

Let's get into it.

 So in case you missed it,

on December 6th, a New York Times article was published. the news came out that TikTok is one step closer to disappearing in the United States. And it will go away if it is not removed. sold to a non [00:01:00] Chinese company by January 19th, it is going to face a ban in the United States.

And while you're freaking out, let me guide you through what the heck to do. So For some creators, this might not mean anything. And for others, this could be your entire income or community just going away quite literally overnight. Luckily, we have at least some advanced notice that this could potentially be happening, and what I'm going to walk you through is going to be beneficial whether TikTok actually gets banned or not.

If you're in the camp where you're making a ton of money from TikTok or it's the platform you're primarily show up on and have a lot of following and community engagement on, this is the episode for you.

We're gonna chat through what to do and what you can do if your audience is on TikTok even if it goes away, okay? So if TikTok doesn't go away, like I said, you can still apply these [00:02:00] lessons as you should, since you shouldn't have your community all on one platform. Just like you shouldn't put your eggs all in one basket.

It's just not a good idea. It's too heavy. It might break. Here's why you should prioritize diversifying your community to other platforms. The first one is exactly for this reason we're facing right now in the U. S. TikTok might go away. This might really happen and it could quite literally be your only source of income.

And that is a major issue. Two, you can always make more money if you put your time and effort into growing multiple platforms. And yes, this can take some time, this can take some patience, this can take some strategy, but it does give you multiple streams of income or at least avenues of income on the internet, especially if you're at that stage where you're reaching out to brands and you want to tell them, hey, not only do I have a TikTok, but I also have a newsletter.

Where I can reach x number of people and here's my open right to prove that they are actually seeing my content. Because unlike social media, when you press send on an email, it goes to every single person. You know [00:03:00] every single person is seeing, having the opportunity to view your content, where that is not the case on social media.

You don't know how many people are seeing your content. Third reason is we never know when something TikTok in the U. S. right now is going to happen to other social media platforms you show up on. It is A reality we are now facing people talk about it all the time. Oh these platforms could go away But like now it might actually happen if anything let This be a kick in the pants to take steps to do something about your platforms and where you show up online.

Now let's get into what you can do to move your community from TikTok or another platform that you haven't diversified your sharing on yet. My first and my best suggestion is to create an email list. Okay, and no, this doesn't have to be a huge daunting job. So even if you don't plan on sharing any newsletter content right now, this doesn't mean you can't start collecting email addresses of those in your community.

in [00:04:00] fact, I think you should be actively creating content that pushes people to sign up for your newsletter as a CTA to tell them What they can find within your newsletter, even if you don't send one already, Of course if you're not writing any newsletter content and just want to push people to sign up It can be hard to tell people what they might expect to receive in their inboxes I recommend keeping it generic Yet intriguing.

For example, you can say things like keep up to date on XYZ niche you share about, or receive tips and tricks and even more insight into XYZ niche or content you share about. Just be creative. Let people know what you anticipate sharing or want to share in your newsletter. So for example, if you're a budget backpacker, you could say, sign up to receive tips on all of my best budget, backpacking resources.

And another better word for tips, just keep it interesting, yet a little bit open ended so that you still have opportunity to play with what you really send. [00:05:00] Another great way to get folks on your email list is to create a piece of content and share half of the tip or the solution to the pain point in that piece of content you're sharing about and state the other half say that the other half can be found in your newsletter.

This essentially gets people to want to give you your email address to receive that extra information or the second piece of the puzzle. If you are ready to kick off the newsletter train right away, you're going to want to pick a platform to share your emails on.

I love Kit because it's so simple to use and honestly, it's so easy to use. is more than just an email software manager. But I always recommend using a software that you're already familiar with. So, don't learn or use something new just because you think you have to. below is linked for you my free newsletter template.

It has sections and tips for you to get started if you're like, I know I need to create a newsletter and I just like haven't done it yet. And if you've tried to start the newsletter thing and you haven't continued, it's time to schedule a call with me as we enter the new [00:06:00] year.

In 60 minutes, we can have a strategizing session to create your newsletter dream goals for the new year. First, one of my clients, I created a 52 week newsletter template, 52 weeks. That's an entire year. And we can do that. Of course I can't write the content. I can't write 52 weeks of content in 60 minutes, but I sure can strategize and plan it with you.

This is something I do for creators and is something I can help you do to stay consistent with. So if you want to stay consistent with what Start a newsletter in the new year or it's something you know You've been needing to do and you just haven't freaking done it The link to book a call with me is always in the show notes for you If you're not convinced email marketing is something you need to be tapping into as a travel creator in 2025 Let me share some stats with you from constant contact I still recommend using convertkit.

Okay, I used i've used constant contact before I think it's fine You That's what I think about it, but that's not the important part here. Okay. 88 percent of people check their email every day. That is a lot of people. [00:07:00] Also people in the U S send the most emails every single day, which means they are some of the people who are on their email the most.

So if we want people to opt in to things we are buying or selling, wouldn't we want to show up where they're spending time?

In 2024, 361. 1 billion emails were estimated to be sent globally.

And unlike any other sort of marketing channels, growth is something we can predict in email marketing. So, experts say that by 2027, we predict that there will be 408. 2 billion emails sent every single day. So, if you're not hopping on the email train right now, You need to because it's just going to get bigger and brands are going to see it as more valuable Okay, the overall of this report for open rates for all industries Is 32.

55% So, imagine you're following right now on [00:08:00] your biggest platform. Think about if 32. 55 percent of every single person followed you saw your piece of content, it would probably do pretty well. And remember that people in their inbox expect to be sold to and people on social media expect to be entertained.

So, if you have 32. 55 percent of people in your inbox, opening your content and then taking action, it's likely you're going to see far better results. It's not even likely. There's literally math that says so. Far better results of people not only opening your content, but saying yes to what you're offering.

Okay, get ready for this one y'all. 79 percent of Millennials and 57 percent of Gen Z are contacted by Brands via email. Imagine if you could reach almost 60 percent of your social media audience. Well, you can't, like you can't do that. You cannot guarantee those results. But like I said with email [00:09:00] marketing, when you press send, it goes to people.

It literally shows up in their inbox in front of their face. When you press send on social media. we don't even know who it's going to we really don't we can't predict it. It can't be tracked It can't be measured exactly how many times xyz person has not only seen your piece of content but interacted with it But those are the statistics we can see consistently on email marketing software If you send a campaign, you can go in and look and see, Oh, Marie opened my email and this is what she clicked on and this is what she did.

And we can see how many times she's done that. It's fascinating. Just like the data points itself. So I'm telling you, if you were sleeping on newsletters, now is the time. to set one up. Okay, this is why I offer strategy sessions. 60 minutes, we can sort out your newsletter to feel good, to feel like you're finally on track with being able to work with the brands of your dreams in [00:10:00] 2025.

40 percent of small business owners said that one of the reasons they were procrastinating on email marketing tasks is because they don't have time. And I want to tell you that we never have enough time. But once you set aside a little bit of that time to put together an email marketing campaign, not even a campaign, just a newsletter, it is going to give you back so much more of the time that you don't think you have so you can be doing more important things.

And when you work with me to create a newsletter strategy, I'm doing all the hard part. You're just approving the content. So that it's already going out on its own. And you can be spending time elsewhere on things in your business that require your expertise and you don't have to worry about perfecting every social media post because we've already harnessed, we've already gotten the attention of your community in your newsletter.

So if you're listening to this and you are still creating content on TikTok, which we are, Might go away. I encourage you to one, grab my free newsletter [00:11:00] template linked in the show notes to set up a strategy call with me three, go back and listen to episodes on the show about repurposing your content, because you have incredible content already shared on tech talk.

That we can look at your analytics to see what has performed the best for your audience and recreate that in an effective way to perform well on other platforms and in your email newsletter. Don't totally freak out if TikTok does go away. It is not the end of everything, but I really want you to take the strategies now to be successful if it does happen so that all of a sudden you're not up a stream without a paddle.

If you have questions about email marketing, go ahead and schedule that 60 minute session with me. I love email marketing and I want you to succeed and I want you to have multiple streams of income just as badly as you do. Happy creating, send that damn email, and I'll see you next week. [00:12:00]