Summary

23-year-old Kanita Ramaxhiku successfully leveraged TikTok to turn her brownie business, Browniegod, into a lucrative venture, earning over $1,000 a day.

Abstract

Kanita Ramaxhiku, a young entrepreneur, capitalized on TikTok's unique algorithm to skyrocket her brownie business during the pandemic. Despite dropping out of university, she and her mother founded Browniegod, which now generates significant revenue, with earnings reaching up to £40,000 in a month. The business's success is attributed to the viral nature of TikTok content, where even casual, behind-the-scenes videos can lead to substantial exposure and sales. Kanita's approach to marketing, which involves showcasing both the polished final products and the real, unfiltered moments of running a business, has proven to be a cost-effective strategy that resonates with TikTok's growing user base in the UK.

Opinions

Kanita's success on TikTok demonstrates the platform's potential as a powerful marketing tool, even for small businesses without a large following.
The authenticity of content, such as showing the realities of business mishaps, is seen as a key factor in engaging TikTok users and building a loyal customer base.
TikTok's algorithm, which favors content with viral potential over the number of followers, levels the playing field for creators and small businesses.
The informal and conversational nature of TikTok content is perceived as more authentic and engaging compared to highly edited content on other social media platforms.
The success of Browniegod suggests that businesses may need to adapt to a more transparent and relatable form of marketing to thrive on platforms like TikTok.

This Woman Earns Over $1,000 a day Making Brownies on TikTok

How TikTok is shaking up the marketing game

Photo by Nicole Michalou from Pexels and edited by author

23-year-old Kanita Ramaxhiku dropped out of university when she realized if she was going to pursue her passion for baking, it was now or never.

Now she owns and operates Browniegod, which creates “beautifully designed brownie boxes,” and makes over £1,000 a day, equivalent to over $1,300 USD. Kanita and her mom founded Browniegod right before COVID hit and turned to social media when the pandemic stunted business.

Kanita said TikTok catapulted her business, and as of April 2021, has had four videos that have surpassed 1,000,000 views. In her best month, she saw earnings in the range of £30,000 to £40,000 and on Valentine’s Day, she made £10,000 worth of sales in just 40 minutes. Now the mother-daughter team of two has expanded to seven to meet the growing demand.

So how did this young entrepreneur not only found a small business but transform it into a successful one — in the middle of a pandemic — when 20% of small businesses fail within the first 12 months in a normal year?

Leveraging The Power of Social Media

Kanita used social media to get the word out during lockdown. Her instagram currently has just over 20,000 followers, but her TikTok, with almost 450,000 followers, really took off.

Launched in 2016, TikTok has rapidly grown in popularity over the last year. Unlike other social media which often requires a large following in order to gain traction, TikTok is unique in that it shows users “content it thinks could go viral,” regardless of number of followers.

This helps creators like Kanita. Before she posted the viral TikTok video, the most orders Browniegod got in a day was 10. After the video, this number skyrocketed to 100.

So what was so special about the video? Nothing really. Kanita describes the video as a “very random” behind-the-scenes clip of her spooning out Nutella from giant tubs.

Now this seemingly random video has over 4,000,000 views. And all it took was pulling out a phone and filming a normal task she did every day. This key to virality on TikTok — not putting much effort into a post — seems to be common among creators.

In a recent episode of her podcast, The Real Reel, content creator/business owner Natalie Barbu expressed that unlike Youtube videos or Instagram photos, the TikTok videos that go viral are usually the ones she puts little to no effort into.

Unlike a heavily edited YouTube video or Instagram post, TikTok videos are not static glimpses into a creator’s life.

For Kanita, this means she can show her followers — and prospective customers — the behind-the-scenes of her business, like the process she uses to crack eggs or pour brownie batter into trays, both videos with over 1,000,000 views.

But the more casual, connective nature of TikTok also allows for the creation of more conversational and raw content. This translates into authenticity, not only for Kanita but for her business.

Though she often posts clips of the beautifully baked final products, Kanita also captures and posts about her mistakes — like when she overbaked 200 brownies pieces or dropped a knife into a pan of brownies.

With her TikTok videos, Kanita engages her followers and gives them a sneak peek into the Browniegod business model. Instead of just showing them the Instagrammable, picture-perfect end product, Kanita shows her followers the how and why behind what she does.

In posting about her business process — from brownie batter pouring, packaging, to photographing the final product — Kanita has stumbled across a cost-effective and time-effective marketing strategy, as she doesn’t need a giant marketing budget or campaign to reach the estimated 13 million TikTok users in the UK, where Browniegod is based.

With a projected 16.8 million users in the UK by 2024, it’s safe to say TikTok is here to stay. With the 60-second time limit and stripped back formality of the app, TikTok is shaking up the marketing game.

Businesses, sometimes hesitant to show the “recipe to their success” will have to accept that doing just so on TikTok may be exactly what helps their business thrive.