9 proven tactics to scale your brand (with Nik Sharma)

Overview

Nick Sharma (CEO of Sharma Brands) shares 9 growth tactics he says have worked for multiple consumer and software brands over ~7 years, emphasizing:

• Full-funnel growth: top/mid/bottom aren’t always separable
• “Setting up for the best possible at-bat”: remove friction and optimize the entire journey

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9 proven (underrated) brand-scaling tactics

1) TikTok (beyond just ads): Live, Shop, affiliates, creators

Framework / approach

Treat TikTok as full-funnel (halo effects across Facebook CPMs, website conversion, Amazon traffic, etc.), not purely “awareness.”

Playbook elements

• TikTok Live: Examples include NeuroGum, I Her(b), Olly using Live to drive results that ripple into other channels (e.g., lower Facebook CPMs, higher website CVR).
• TikTok Shop
  • Reviews are harder to fake than many other social proof sources.
  • Social proof acts like a purchasing gate before checkout.
• TikTok affiliates
  • Use for upper-funnel while still targeting people already interested.
• Creators (product seeding at volume)
  • Example “creator distribution” model:
    • Seed 1,000–4,000 packages/week
    • One apparel brand example:
      • ~1,000 posts/day from creators
      • Each morning, select top 400 by engagement/views
      • Put ad spend behind winners
      • Give creators ~2% of ad spend

Targets / KPIs mentioned

No specific TikTok-wide numeric KPIs, but claimed measurable “halo effects” into:

• Facebook CPM
• Website conversion rate
• Amazon traffic

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2) Advertorials (ad → editorial content → product page)

Framework

Make the paid journey “entertaining first”:

• Social users don’t want to immediately “open a product page”
• They want emotion / story / entertainment

Core process / funnel redesign

Replace a typical social ad (“buy now” and discount) with:

1. Click to an editorial article on a publisher site (or your own publisher)
2. Article page optimized for UX
   • “Grandma test / drunk test” for readability and ease
3. Article pushes to a landing page or product page

Key metrics / KPI ranges

• CTR: reported ~7%–12% (example: Hint flavored water founding story advertorial)
• CPA improvement: 20%–40% lower CPA on average (claimed)
• Advantage: creates “permission to educate” while still capturing intent

Concrete case examples

• Hint (2017): Founding story advertorial on The Hustle
  • Shift: Facebook ad → emotional founding narrative in article form
  • Claimed strong engagement leading to trials
• Other cited “best channel” examples:
  • Eight Sleep
  • Cadence
• Incrementality note: Advertorials can lift other channels too—run an incrementality test for halo benefits.

How to set up advertorial publishing

Options:

• Partner with/pay publishers
• Create your own publisher using:
  • WordPress
  • a ThemeForest theme
  • hosting

Inspiration approach:

• Look at the commerce sections of major publishers (e.g., Business Insider on Facebook, BuzzFeed Shopping, Refinery29 Shopping) and copy what drives likes/shares/comments.

Frequency

No strict cadence provided—run once you have a winning format, then test and iterate.

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3) Influencers (not binary: whitelist + content leverage + seeding)

3-part influencer strategy

• Whitelisting
  • Use influencer handle to run ads (often to landing pages using their face / branded bundle).
• Content creation (beyond organic boosting)
  • Repurpose influencer content across:
    • retail signage
    • brand social
    • website
    • emails
    • text messages
• Seeding (“seating/seeding”)
  • Small brand approach: DM/bot outreach to find creators likely to post
  • Bigger brand approach: seed influencer’s likely audience using “seed it to their friends”
    • Example: if it’s an LA wellness influencer, seed to friends likely to match profile to increase posting probability vs “brand-only” seeding

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4) Volume-based creative testing (small brand or scaled accounts)

Framework

If most accounts scale on <10% of ads, you need more creative swings to find scalable angles.

Process

Avoid overly complex spreadsheets; instead:

• Answer 25 reasons someone buys
• Turn each into ad variants (UGC, static, selfie video, etc.)

Implied testing cadence:

• Load new ads weekly (example: “every Monday”)
• Test across:
  • engaged audience
  • warm/cold segments
• Measure which variants reach scale potential

Metrics mentioned

• Typical “scale reality”: <10% of ads hit scale (benchmark cited).

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5) Landing pages + PDP optimization (answer 5 questions repeatedly)

Process

• Don’t send paid traffic to generic Shopify theme pages
• Landing pages can produce faster ROI than sending $/click traffic to non-optimized PDPs

The “5 questions” conversion framework

1. What is the product? (simple explanation; “grandma/drunk filter”)
2. How will it benefit me?
3. Why trust you? (credibility, social proof, brand authority)
4. How does it compare to alternatives?
5. If I like it, how soon does it arrive?
   • If I don’t like it, what happens? (returns/warranty—especially reduces male-gift fear)

KPIs

• “Conversion rate goes up immediately” (no numeric improvement provided)

DPA / catalog relevance

If you use DPA/catalog ads, optimized landing pages/PDPs are critical because DPA creates a favorable “carpool lane”—but conversion can still fall if the page doesn’t carry intent through.

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6) Internal content creator (build capability in-house)

Playbook / ROI claim

• Assign an internal content creator; assumption: ~10x ROI
• Benefits:
  • lower external content production cost
  • faster production and iteration
  • stronger organic tail (TikTok/IG)
  • faster paid ad launch velocity (flash sales, new angles, faster subject-line learning)

Cost

Example framing:

• internal creator at $100k/year (used for ROI math; actual pay may vary)

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7) Post-purchase / upsell offers via merchandising (e.g., Rebuy-style)

Principle

Post-purchase upsells aren’t “scammy” if they:

• feel like convenience
• reduce “scavenger hunt” behavior

Offer optimization process

• Segment targeting:
  • household vs single recipient
• Understand variant “variance of variants”
• Ensure:
  • fast delivery
  • product freshness

Concrete examples

• Hint keeps the same offer example:
  • 36 bottles for $36 (“$1/bottle”)
• Everyday Dose
  • starter kit + subscription framing
  • effective offer value claimed: ~50% off on PDP

Cross-sell logic examples

• Bought pineapple water → suggest peach
• Jeans → suggest socks/underwear
• Meal kits:
  • intro offers perfected for consumables
  • complementary add-ons after cart add

Post-purchase test claim

• Best cross-sell method: offer the just-bought product again at ~30% off to raise take rate (highest take rate claimed).

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8) Customer reviews (collect + syndicate strategically)

Process

Don’t “set up reviews and forget.” Top brands build review foundations intentionally.

Why it matters

Marketing headline examples (noted as high-performing):

• “50,000 five-star reviews”
• “10,000 five-star reviews” These headlines reportedly drive highest CTR and conversion.

Syndication channels

• Landing pages
• TikTok Shop
• Retailers like Target/Walmart

Tool mentioned

• Okendo

AI automation option (playbook extension)

Use AI agents to extract review themes, e.g.:

• weekly Slack summary of top traits mentioned
• generate listicles based on top traits (claim: ~50% CTR to product page)

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9) AI agents (Slack-based ops for growth execution)

Positioning

AI agents should run 24/7 in Slack. Nick emphasizes building them internally because brands have the most context.

Timeframe claim

In three months, teams will question why interns were doing anything manually.

Agent ideas (actionable examples)

• Trend intelligence agent
  • scan Twitter/X, TikTok, Reddit daily
  • synthesize emerging angles
  • daily Slack updates on ad angles to test
• Competitor intelligence agent
  • scan competitor ads (TikTok ad feeds, Facebook Ad Library, Taboola library, etc.)
  • identify angle shifts (example: from 10% to 40% of competitor ad library)
• Offer optimization agent (Rebuy mentioned)
  • route different landing pages/assortments based on device/network/user context using historical conversion data
• Reviews + customer service agent
  • detect recurring issues (site bugs, promo problems, code leaks, etc.)

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Additional Q&A takeaways (execution notes)

• Advertorial vs press release
  • Advertorial = ad + editorial
  • Goal: sell via editorial storytelling, not just “PR credibility”
• Advertorial publishing
  • Large publishers like Forbes are expensive and may include distracting elements (banners, autoplay)
  • Often better results come from publishers without heavy ad clutter
• Subscriber acquisition vs one-time buyers
  • Improve retention via:
    • messaging over 30/60/90 days (vision for why to stick)
    • routine-based positioning
    • subscription offers that are cost-effective vs one-time purchase
• TikTok Shop vs affiliate tracking
  • TikTok Shop may not provide the same customer email/identity data as affiliates
  • Recommended approach:
    • keep affiliate program working
    • add TikTok Shop for spillover
    • use tools like Bridge (plus data/matching tactics) to reconnect and drive incentives back to owned channels

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Presenters / sources

• Presenter: Nick (Nick Sharma), CEO of Sharma Brands
• Mentioned companies/tools/brands:
  • Hint Water; NeuroGum; I Her(b); Olly; Okendo; Rebuy; TikTok Shop; Bridge; Experian; The Hustle; Dig.com; ThemeForest; Business Insider; BuzzFeed Shopping; Refinery29 Shopping; Eight Sleep; Cadence; Caraway; Hexclad; Target; Walmart; Shopify; Taboola; Triple Whale; Motion; Lei; Everyday Dose; Marsmen; Jolie (showerhead); Upromote