For any businesses targeting younger customers, TikTok is not only the next frontier of social media marketing, it’s a key platform to include in your overall strategy.
And the sooner you can work TikTok into your digital marketing, the better.
TikTok consists of 15-second-max video clips (that can be combined for up to a total of 60 seconds), where people interact with videos by scrolling through their feeds.
It’s a popular app that has been downloaded more than 2.6 billion times worldwide and features about 100 million active monthly users in the U.S. Engagement also ranks highest on TikTok than any other social media platforms.
But despite what most assume, TikTok doesn’t only appeal to younger audiences. About 38 percent of TikTok users in the U.S. are older than 30.
Therefore, there is an emerging benefit to market on the app no matter who you’re targeting.
The following are 15 tips to help you market effectively on TikTok, where competition is still low (but can be easy to misstep).
Switch your account to a business account
Some businesses might not realize that there is a business account profile option on TikTok.
To switch over, click on “Manage Account” and then “Switch to Business Account.”
This offers the possibility of adding your website URL to your profile and directing that traffic to your website. It also offers TikTok analytics tools that show statistics about your audience and the performance of your videos in views, likes, comments and shares.
Become a native user
Success on TikTok is intertwined with regular usage and engagement on others’ videos.
The more familiar you are with the platform, the more natural your content will look and feel for others. Figure out who is popular and why they are popular. What are people saying? What are people actually interested in?
Answers to these questions can be found by scrolling through your “For You” page daily, following popular creators and consistently browsing the “Explore” page.
Traction for your brand will be hard to come by on TikTok if you only occasionally use the app.
Find your niche
While TikTok has a large and growing audience, its power truly comes from connecting with niche groups.
Hopefully, your brand already lends itself to a content angle on TikTok (and elsewhere). If not, think about who you would like to reach. Think about their age, lifestyle and even hobbies and interests.
Your niche lies in the cross section of your expertise and your target audience’s needs. From that is the specific content angle you should be approaching all your videos from.
Consistent posting on the topics that appeal to your target audience will help you reach them over time.
Stay on top of the trends
TikTok is big on trends, and some trends can come and go within a day. So, it’s critical to pay attention and jump on whatever trends may be relevant for your brand.
Some trends are tied to current events, while others appear out of seemingly nowhere.
The benefit of jumping on trends (even daily) is that it takes the onus out of thinking up constantly new content. In addition, other users are likely searching for and watching content within a trending hashtag, so it’s more likely you’ll get seen.
Be the first when you can
On the flip side, there is immense value in being the first to do something on TikTok, especially if it catches on with others and even starts a new trend.
Easier said than done, right?
You can start by exploring current trends and then doing something different with a trend that no one else has done before.
Of course, as you get more comfortable on TikTok, the sky’s the limit with your creativity. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. This app is all about innovation.
Storytelling is key
Just because a single video clip is a maximum 15 seconds long (with the potential to be strung together with other clips, totaling 60 seconds maximum) does not mean you can’t tell a story.
It does mean that you want to be innovative in order to find new ways to tell stories. Following other creators can help with inspiration.
Of course, text on image is a great tool to help communicate with viewers and enhance your storytelling.
Authenticity rules
On TikTok, authenticity is valued over the production value of your videos. Especially when representing a brand, it’s important to decide how your brand will represent itself on this platform and just have fun with it.
You may have already nailed this down on other platforms, and what has worked elsewhere is a good place to start here. But remember that TikTok is a different platform with different expectations. Allow yourself to evolve.
Mix up your branded and organic content
Whether it’s easier to have fun and entertain your audience or more tempting to tout the perks of your brand, balance is key.
Since many TikTok users will blatantly ignore advertisements anyway, it’s even more important to have a light branding touch. Many businesses address this by focusing on people using their products in videos, not the videos being solely about their products.
Experiment with what might work best for your content mix and monitor engagements closely.
Hashtags are discoverable
While hashtags might not be as important on some social media platforms (like Facebook), they definitely matter on TikTok.
There are definitely some consistently well-used hashtags on the app (where the hashtag #love is also popular on other platforms). Hashtags are also used to create the trends that you see take off on the app and can change and shift just as fast.
You also can create your own branded hashtags, just like you would on any other platform.
Hashtag usage will help your content be discovered by more users, so do your homework and use the hashtags that make the most sense for your video and your brand.
Consider working with influencers
While this might not be a method you’ll want to dive into immediately, influencer marketing is definitely something that can be used once you feel more established on the app.
However, TikTok influencers can be different from Instagram or YouTube influencers, so do your research before approaching a potential partnership.
Check out our seven tips to know before starting your first influencer campaign for more insights.
Practice makes perfect
TikTok isn’t just about video clips. There is an emphasis on the creative use of editing and effects. So much so, that a style of editing could in and of itself become a trend.
Think of TikTok transition videos, where the subject starts the video in one way (a particular outfit, for example) and ends the video in another way (another outfit, in that same example). And the magic happens with a quick slice edit of the video.
No matter what trend you’re looking to join or what video effect you’re looking to achieve, simply practice until you feel confident about the results.
Post frequently
Like Twitter in a way, it’s basically encouraged to not only post daily on TikTok but more than once per day.
On such a fast-moving platform, frequent posts help you understand what resonates and what doesn’t with your audience. In addition, frequent posts can be viewed favorably by the TikTok algorithm.
But keep in mind that the algorithm’s mission is to present content to users who are most likely to engage with it. Frequent posts without any engagement could eventually look like spam, so always think quality over quantity as much as you can. You never want to annoy your followers.
Once you find something that is working for your audience, then you can ramp up the frequency of posts.
Track your performance
With a business profile, you’ll have access to how your posts are performing and who your audience is.
It’s important to not post in a vacuum. Take the time to review what’s working and what’s not regularly. This can help you pivot your strategy when you see something spike as well.
TikTok ads an option
As a result of TikTok’s popularity and evolution, brands can now advertise on the platform in three ways:
- In-feed native ads, which are the closest to what one would think of as a “traditional” advertisement on the platform. Website links and “Order Now” buttons can be included, but they are skippable by the user.
- Hashtag challenge ads are banner ads that take users who click on them to a page describing the instructions and rules of the featured challenge. This type of ad can be used to target specific users.
- Brand takeover ads use a mix of images, video clips and/or GIFs that link to a landing page or hashtag challenge.
We recommend establishing a foundation of organic posts first before diving into advertising since your account should look well-used and authentic.
Beyond that, monitor your ad’s performance. TikTok users are known for ignoring ads, so if the ROI (return on investment) just isn’t there, then your budget could be better spent on resources for your posts.
Stick with it
This is true about marketing on all social media platforms. Success does not happen overnight.
Consistent effort, experimentation and community engagement over time can help you achieve your goals.
TikTok is no different. Set your goals, plan out your strategy, execute and monitor your results. All you need beyond that is time.
As you begin to explore branding your business on TikTok, consider where else you can level up your digital marketing. Schedule a free demo of DailyStory, which features automation, segmentation, email marketing capabilities and more.
