Are you on TikTok? Even more importantly, are you using it for your business?
TikTok has remarkably evolved into one of the most popular social media platforms globally, with over 1 billion monthly active users.
Although TikTok is known as a dance and trendy lip-synching platform, businesses can grow from utilizing TikTok because it’s a discovery platform.
TikTok connects you with new audiences and promotes your products and services at a lower cost!
TikTok’s meteoric popularity, especially among younger generations, has allowed businesses to tap into the app’s large user base. By creating a business profile on TikTok, companies can share short-form videos to raise brand awareness, authentically showcase their products, and engage with current and potential customers. The videos that perform well on TikTok include behind-the-scenes footage, product tutorials, employee highlights, and interactive challenges. Brands should aim to post new content on a consistent schedule to stay active in the community and keep audiences engaged.
With TikTok’s growing popularity, now is the perfect time for businesses to start creating video content for the platform. By posting authentic and engaging content, utilizing key features, and interacting with followers, brands can build a strong presence on TikTok and reach more customers. While the app is still relatively new for businesses, early adopters have seen significant success and growth. With the right strategy, TikTok has the potential to become a valuable and powerful marketing channel.
- Create a Business Account
Creating a business account is a simple process that requires you to sign up with your email, phone number, or social media account. Once you’ve created your account, you must optimize your profile by adding a profile picture, bio, and link to your website or other social media accounts. Make sure your profile is visually appealing and accurately represents your brand.
Example: Here’s a great example of a TikTok business profile from gymwear brand Gymshark. They use their logo as their profile picture and have a concise bio highlighting their brand values and products. They also link to their website and other social media accounts to make it easy for followers to connect with them on other platforms. - Understand Your Audience
Understanding your audience thoroughly is essential to developing content that deeply resonates with them. As previously noted, TikTok’s user base trends younger, so if your target audience is older, you may not experience the same level of engagement on the platform. It is also crucial to research what types of content are popular on TikTok and what your competitors are doing to succeed on the platform.
For example, Sephora, a makeup and beauty brand, has a strong presence on TikTok and creates content tailored to a younger demographic. They leverage hashtags like #makeuptutorial and #beautyhacks to reach their target audience and collaborate with influencers with a large following on the platform to boost their reach. By researching the types of content, hashtags, influencers, and trends that are popular with their target audience on TikTok, Sephora can create highly engaging content that attracts more users to their profile and increases brand awareness.
Other brands looking to establish a presence on TikTok should follow a similar approach. Analyze what short-form videos, filters, effects, and sounds are trending on the platform and resonating with your target audience. Collaborate with similar audience influencers to spread awareness and build credibility. Engage with your followers by liking and commenting on their content as well. Most importantly, post authentic content that reflects your brand’s personality and values. By deeply understanding their audience and the TikTok platform, brands can create memorable content, build brand loyalty, and achieve their key business goals on TikTok. - Create Engaging Content
TikTok is a social video platform that creates short but captivating videos that quickly grab viewers’ attention and keep them engaged. The key to success on TikTok is developing visually striking, informative, and compelling content. Leveraging popular trends and challenges on the platform is an effective strategy to boost engagement with your videos creatively and memorably.
For example, Chipotle, a popular fast-casual Mexican grill, utilizes TikTok to promote brand awareness and connect with their followers through entertaining content. They create videos showcasing their delicious food items and participate in trending TikTok challenges, like the “Guac Dance” challenge where users dance with a bowl of guacamole, to make their content more engaging and shareable. By joining in on the fun of popular TikTok trends and challenges, Chipotle can spread their brand messaging to new audiences and boost customer engagement in an authentic, lighthearted manner.
In summary, the key to TikTok success is developing short videos that are visually interesting, capture attention quickly, and utilize the platform’s most popular features like trends and challenges. Brands that can creatively incorporate their messaging into this style of content authentically will see significant benefits from TikTok. Chipotle is a prime example of a company that has mastered the TikTok strategy and is reaping the rewards. - Use Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is an increasingly popular social media strategy, especially on platforms like TikTok, that involves partnering with influencers with a large following. These influencers can help promote a brand’s products or services to their many followers, expanding its reach and perceived credibility. When selecting influencers to collaborate with, brands need to choose those who share the brand’s key values and have an authentic connection with their audience.
For example, the skincare company Olay worked with popular TikTok influencer Brittany Tomlinson, known as “Kombucha Girl,” to promote their products on the platform. Tomlinson created a video detailing her skincare routine using various Olay products. This video went viral, greatly raising awareness of the Olay brand among TikTok users. By collaborating with an influencer already beloved by her followers, Olay could tap into Tomlinson’s existing fanbase and gain many new potential customers.
Influencer marketing partnerships on TikTok can be an effective way for brands to reach younger consumers, but brands must be strategic in selecting influencers who are the right fit. When done well, these collaborations can significantly boost a brand’s visibility and credibility in the eyes of influencers’ followers, resulting in increased interest and engagement with the brand’s own TikTok profile or other social media pages. Overall, influencer marketing is a strategy that, if executed thoughtfully, holds a lot of promise for brands seeking to expand their presence on TikTok and similar platforms. - Run TikTok Ads
TikTok provides various advertising options for businesses looking to promote their brand, including in-feed ads, branded lenses, and sponsored hashtag challenges. Running ads on TikTok can be an effective way for companies to reach a larger audience and boost brand awareness on the popular social video app.
For example, the fashion retailer ASOS leveraged TikTok’s sponsored hashtag challenge feature to increase their brand presence on the platform. They created the #AySauceChallenge, which encouraged TikTok users to create and share videos showing off their favorite ASOS outfits. The challenge quickly went viral, helping ASOS achieve greater brand recognition and visibility on TikTok.
In particular, the #AySauceChallenge campaign highlighted how companies can utilize TikTok challenges and hashtags to actively engage users and spread brand awareness in an authentic, native way. By encouraging users to create and share content featuring their products, ASOS was able to organically spread their brand message while also fostering a sense of community built around their fashion brand. The viral success of the #AySauceChallenge illustrates the potential for brands to reach new audiences and drive real business results through creative TikTok ad campaigns and marketing strategies tailored to the TikTok experience. - Track Your Results
Tracking your results and performance metrics on TikTok is essential to gaining valuable insights into your content strategy and understanding what types of videos resonate most with your target audience. TikTok’s comprehensive analytics dashboard provides in-depth insights into key metrics like your video views, engagement rates, follower growth, and demographics, all of which can help digital marketers and content creators adjust their social media strategies accordingly.
For example, a sports retailer that posts videos highlighting their latest products may notice through TikTok Analytics that their videos featuring new sneaker releases are getting significantly more views and engagement than other content. Based on these insights, the retailer could increase the frequency of their sneaker release videos and explore other types of sneaker-related content that would likely resonate well with their followers. By continually monitoring analytics and fine-tuning their strategy, the retailer can achieve an optimal mix of content and engagement on TikTok.
In summary, TikTok Analytics is an invaluable tool for any brand or influencer looking to maximize their presence on the platform. The metrics and insights provided through TikTok’s dashboard can help content creators of all kinds refine their content strategy, gain valuable audience insights, and boost key engagement metrics to take their TikTok profile to the next level.
In conclusion, while TikTok’s emphasis on short-form video and viral challenges may seem frivolous, the app offers real opportunities for businesses to engage customers and drive growth. TikTok represents an exciting new platform for businesses seeking to expand their reach and connect with potential customers. By crafting memorable and shareable content, collaborating with influential TikTok creators, utilizing the app’s advertising options, and closely monitoring key metrics, companies can leverage TikTok to raise brand awareness and engage with their target audiences in an engaging and creative manner.
