Nomadtable · B2C · app for meeting fellow solo travellers
Borrow a hit text hook from another niche, react on camera, then demo the app
His first viral video, pre-launch; a creator's version got 74K likes and 30K saves
What they did
What happened
In their words
Jay Raavi - Copy This UGC Strategy, It'll Make Your App Go Viral
JosephAnd then you you just immediately say like, "Oh, you can plan activities with with nearby solo travelers." And then, "There's a chat to figure out the details. Where was this when I had the most unsocial hostel in Thailand?" Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, what's the approach for this?
JayYeah, yeah. So, this is actually my like first ever viral video that I had. Um, so that was pretty cool. It actually It's funny, 'cause, um, I made this when the app wasn't even out yet. It was still just, um, for preorder, I think. Um, and like the UI is totally different now, which is funny. Um, but yeah, I I think the thought behind this was, um, I mean, this is a hook that like I mean, I did not invent this one. Um, there's definitely ones that I feel like I've probably like invented, but this one like totally took from a different niche.
JayUm, I forget what niche it was, but there was some other kind of niche, um, not like travel, but it was the same kind of idea like, "I've been doing like X for, you know, X years and now I found out about this." I think this is like a very versatile hook, and I think I still seen I still see it being used to this day. Um, it probably works for like any niche, honestly. It's like a It's a good one.
JaySo, I just saw that, and then I thought, you know, "Hey, this might work for for my niche. Um, how can I like, you know, fit this?" And this one was pretty simple, didn't take too much thinking. Just kind of replaced like the other thing with solo traveling [laughs] and just hooked demo just bam. So, yeah.
Joseph… "unsocial hostel in Thailand," what what was the purpose of this? Was this just a Like are you making it feel a little bit more organic so that, you know, people still share or comment and like Otherwise, it seems like kind of like the whole video feels It doesn't feel like an ad, but it it does like people might get suspicious. I don't know. Like, are you, um, kind of just adding a little bit more personality into it and making it like organic?
JayExactly like you said. I think, um, adding details like this makes it feel a lot more real. Um, I think that goes with like across the board. Like, when you add details about things, like it makes stuff more believable. That's what people want to hear. That's what makes it real. You can always just say some general thing, but, um, I think it really starts to stick and become real when you add details like this.
JayUm, so yeah, you know, I I'd said some specific thing like about some unsocial hostel in Thailand. Like, maybe I could have even said the exact hostel name, um, to make it more real. Um, but yeah, I think these small details go, um, a long way.
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More from this episode
- Make the videos yourself until they go viral, then hire creators to copy themFirst 50-100K downloads from his own posts; now 60-70 creators and 30-44M views a month
- Test every new hook on your own account; give creators only the ones that hitA good hook works for nearly every creator; founder is the top-viewed poster for 2-3 months
- Run all 60+ creators yourself in a WhatsApp group, with one-on-one feedbackFounder credits hands-on management for much of the success; no numbers
- Keep a video format if 75-80% of viewers watch past 3 secondsFormats at that rate average 4-5K views and go viral eventually; about one hit a month
- Film one-take hostel videos with clickbait hooks like 'never staying in a hostel again'Up to multi-million views, but poor engagement (300K views, 174 likes); dropped
- Pay creators only $1-2 per 1,000 views, after showing them your own viral videosSigned 60-70 creators with no retainer; top creator earned $8K in a month
- Always be doing something in the opening, like drinking or tying a shoeNo clear impact; dropped
- Build a 12-15K waitlist before launching a social app, so it isn't emptyAbout 6K downloads on day one; enough people in hotspot cities for it to work
- Put your face in every early video and share each signup milestoneLaunch users were invested fans who stuck around through early flaws
Tags: instagram, tiktok, hooks, hook-demo, borrowed-hooks, reaction-hook