With the rise of the use of social media comes the rise of different and uniquely intriguing applications with distinct features to offer to their users. One such unique application is TikTok.
As much as this Chinese video-making platform has seen the hype in the last few years — we presume you either know, have used, or at least have heard of this application.
Statistics told that almost 1 BILLION users used TikTok in the year 2021. Talk about the fastest-growing social media platform, right?
There can be various reasons for such massive growth in such a small time frame. People use TikTok for fun, art, portraying their talent, making short videos, lip-syncing, and… For MARKETING. TikTok can also be used for marketing. How so? How can you use TikTok marketing services?
What Is TikTok Marketing?
TikTok marketing is another way of generating a potential clientele through another social media platform — TikTok. Marketers use various methods to gain recognition from TikTok. Such as using hashtags, influencer marketing, collaborations with digital creators, making their business channel on TikTok, making short video content to tell the audience more about their products, and keeping up with the trends and videos that are trending.
These ways help digital marketers gain more traffic and sales for their products. For example, if you have, let’s say, a crockery business – you can make videos that involve your business items. Wise use of hashtags can bring those videos into the trending sections. This would help you generate sales from a platform you might have ignored up till now.
Why Should Marketers Opt For TikTok?
TikTok, formerly Musical.ly, provides a chance for marketers to reach out to younger consumers worldwide in a fun and creative way. Many social media memes and fun posts start on TikTok first, and being at the frontline of these trends may help companies gain credibility.
TikTok does not need large resources or equipment for video content development; spontaneous footage that might be shot in an everyday setting has just as much chance of succeeding. Many TikTok videos are shot in bedrooms, parking lots, and gardens – places that are widely accessible to users.
Imagine a platform with young and enthusiastic users who frequently make videos — how can you turn these youngsters into a potential market?
If you were wondering why you should opt for TikTok as a marketing tool — you’d be happy to know — according to Hootsuite Digital Report 2022, android users use TikTok for an average of 19.6 hours per month. Not only that, as of 2022, TikTok happens to be the most engaging social media application with a massive number of 1 Billion users — how mindblowing is that?
Furthermore, According to Hootsuite’s 2022 Social Trends Survey, 24 percent of marketers said TikTok was beneficial for achieving their business goals. Hence, considering utilizing TikTok marketing, you might be on the right path!
How Can Marketers Start With TikTok Marketing?
Social Media Marketing has risen over the years with the increase in internet use and the introduction of different social media platforms. Social media platforms have revolutionized digital marketing. Hence, marketers have also shifted to TikTok for the same marketing purposes.
But the question is, how can you start with TikTok Marketing?
Here are some initial steps you might take to start marketing your Business on TikTok.
1. Create a TikTok Business Account
A TikTok business account is a terrific way to keep up with the latest trends and learn how to become a TikTok Professional. The platform includes a commercial music collection with over 500,00 tracks, performances, audience analytics, and a web business suite for brand owners.
Here’s how to set up TikTok for business. It’s very simple! Go to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and download the TikTok app. Then create a TikTok account and follow these instructions:
- Go to your Account’s profile page.
- Select Settings and privacy from the options menu in the upper right corner.
- Tap Manage account under Account.
- Under Account Management, tap Switch to Business Account.
- Select a category that best reflects your business, such as Clothing & Accessories, Gadgets, and Pets.
- Then fill out the rest of your profile.
2. Build a TikTok Marketing Strategy
To market your brand on TikTok, you can use different TikTok marketing strategies that might help you attract more audience and customers. These marketing tactics may include collaborating with other brands or creators, being a part of a hashtag challenge, or doing TikTok Advertising.
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Collaborating with Influencers of Creators
On TikTok, influencers are extremely relevant. In 2021, there was a 325 percent increase in interest in establishing influencer advertising campaigns. Almost 68% of marketers currently desire or intend to use the platform for marketing their brands to a vast audience.
TikTok responded to this by launching the Creator Marketplace (TCM) in 2019 to enable collaboration between advertisers and video artists easier. Brands use the marketplace to find registered content providers, run campaigns, pay creators, and create reports and analytics.
Businesses can manage numerous influencer initiatives from a single dashboard and keep track of everything with the Creator Marketplace. The Creator Marketplace brings a lot more openness to the table.
Accurate reporting is pretty hard when working with influencers, but it’s built into the Creator Marketplace. Consequently, marketers can quickly discover which influencers are helping them achieve their objectives and which aren’t.
This allows corporations to get rid of influencers who aren’t working out and provides them with influencers who have the knowledge they need to run successful campaigns.
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TikTok Advertising
TikTok advertising is a great fit if you sell to young adults, particularly women. Almost 43% of TikTok users, almost half, fall from 18 to 24 years of age. Women account for roughly a quarter of TikTok’s advertising viewership (24.7 percent) in that age group.
If you are trying to reach and expand your business to a global audience, TikTok advertising is a great way to go.
So, who should spend money on TikTok advertising? While companies with a diverse audience may find it useful to attempt a short TikTok campaign, TikTok advertising is most effective for:
- Brands that target customers aged 35 and under.
- Brands that cater to women, particularly those between the ages of 18 and 25,
- Brands with a significant presence in Asia or the Middle East (or seeking to do so)
So, if you want to expand your business reach — TikTok marketing might be a good idea to try and attract a vast majority of customers worldwide.
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Branded Hashtag Challenges
One more TikTok marketing campaign can be Branded Hashtag Challenges.
On TikTok, hashtags are really important. Hashtags let people identify videos they’re interested in, join relevant conversations, and form communities around their passions. More crucially, they raise a post’s exposure in the For You stream, where users spend most of their time, which can help it go viral.
A Branded Hashtag Challenge is when a business sponsors a hashtag challenge, and it’s a fantastic way to raise awareness, create interaction, and grow your fan base.
The TikTok Branded Hashtag Challenge is changing the way people think about advertising. The hashtag challenges transform businesses’ communication with their audiences by leaning into consumers’ desire to express themselves.
Hashtag Challenges enable marketers to go where their target market already is, learn their language, and participate in their culture. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to intensify your brand’s voice and provide engagement in a new way.
So, brands often sponsor a hashtag challenge which users eventually join in to create content on the sponsored hashtag. This lets the brand know more about their audiences’ interests and make a marketing strategy that caters to their likes and dislikes. This is why opting for a branded hashtag challenge can help you gain a major audience on TikTok.
3. TikTok Marketing Tips
Apart from the TikTok marketing strategy, there are certain TikTok marketing tips that you can utilize while marketing your content on TikTok.
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Be a Part of Existing TikTok Trends
TikTok’s algorithm distributes the content on its platform depending on how popular or famous it is or how many views it has. This is why the marketing teams of any company should generate more relevant content that attracts their target audience using trendy hashtags and memes.
Unlike other social media networks, TikTok demands your staff be actively involved in staying up with the current or running trends. Users on TikTok will search for content using trendy hashtags, which may help your company reach a new audience.
Taking advantage of current trends might help you broaden your ideas and tap into information that you currently know attracts viewers.
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Keep a Balance Between Promotional and Entertainment Content
While TikTok educates and entertains your target audience, it also enables you to market your brand.
Viewers tend to skip through a video if it looks too much of an advertisement. When starting, it’s essential to enlighten and entertain your viewers so they’ll interact with your videos.
After you’ve built up a following, post additional promotional content, such as product demonstrations, people engaging with items, or special discounts. By finding a balance between entertainment and advertising, you can establish a relationship with potential consumers.
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Use CTAs In Your Ads
What’s the point of advertising if your Call-To-Action is not clear in your posts? A Call to Action (CTA) included in the advertisement establishes a relationship with your target audience & provides a clear next step after seeing your video.
Clickable CTAs are also available in TikTok’s Ad Manager.
Depending on your brand’s aim, customers may click to shop for bargains, see offers, learn more, and discover a location. Clickable buttons can increase traffic and audience to your website and link your product to the audience seamlessly.
Furthermore, the audience will have a more participatory experience as they will be able to discover more about your brand beyond the content of a short movie.
Including a call to action in your ad will help you convert more customers, a common feature of high-performing ads.
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Authenticity
With so many users on TikTok, it’s crucial to be authentic and make your content stand out. You don’t want to publish videos that sound like commercials.
You don’t want to publish videos that sound like commercials – TikTok users do not want to be marketed to or advertised to; they want to be entertained. It is a good idea to spend some time on TikTok before you start marketing your business on TikTok.
Once the algorithm has an idea and has figured out what you enjoy, it will provide you with high-quality content that you might find inspiring. This might help you come up with new ideas for your videos.
TikTok was created to build a community of individuals sharing authentic and relevant information. Users may be turned off by 4K videos, elaborate edits, and “cinematic” or “corporate” TikTok videos.
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Consistency
Sticking to a publishing schedule has yielded incredible results for many creators. If you want your brand to grow on TikTok, you should publish one to two times per day and go live several times per week. This rhythm keeps your material relevant and new without bombarding your fans with videos.
Check your statistics to identify when your target audience is most active, which fluctuates based on who you’re speaking with and where they are.
Consider doubling up postings on certain days of the week if your viewers are more active on those days of the week. Since the platform is continually adding new videos, it’s critical to keep providing the algorithm with new and engaging material of your own.
While determining a “required weekly output” of TikTok material is practically difficult, one thing is known: the algorithm likes consistency. Make sure you and your team can stick to whatever tempo you choose for the coming future. But do remember that consistency is the key.
What’s Next For TikTok Marketing Strategy For 2022?
The year 2022 has been shaping up to be an exciting one for TikTok. According to AppAnnie, the app is expected to draw over one billion users over the year, with the potential to reach 1.2 billion users globally.
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Longer Videos
TikTok plans to introduce much longer videos in contrast to its previous niche, which only focused on short videos. These longer videos would be a turning point, given that more and more audiences are starting to watch long videos by the day.
TikTok is believed to be working on a feature that would allow producers to create far longer movies, up to three minutes long, implying that the site will witness even more innovation.
Many more instances of businesses using TikTok to reach new audiences will emerge, from creating creative and dynamic challenges to exploiting the platform’s flourishing creative influencers.
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Effect House
TikTok was developing its own augmented reality (AR) development platform, Effect House, that would allow creators to create AR effects for TikTok’s app.
The beta version of Effect House is now available. According to TikTok, the platform has been in closed beta since last autumn, and it has been used by over 450 artists who have posted their results on TikTok, where they have been utilized in 1.5 billion videos with over 600 billion views.
As more social media-focused companies have entered the augmented reality (AR) world, TikTok has also left no stone unturned in entering the AR. This AR allows users to create different augmented realities with their creativity and imagination, and other users can use these AR filters further.
However, all these effects should follow a certain guideline and set of rules introduced by TikTok, such as no hate speech, bullying, violent extremism, misinformation, or any other illegal activity.
Furthermore, the created AR filters cannot include QR codes, can not violate personal property rights, and a warning sign will be included in case a video has something that might be emotionally triggering to a certain group.
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Brand Safety
TikTok maintains that emphasizing the safety of creators and the community provides a favorable atmosphere for brands.
It continues to show its commitment to safety by providing a variety of policies, products, and projects, such as age-appropriate privacy and safety settings, tools to encourage kindness, counter bullying, and stop the spread of misinformation, and campaigns to raise awareness about bullying.
Advantages Of TikTok Marketing
Visibility is the most important thing that company owners seek from social media. Companies need more people to see their products, services, or brands.
To be entertained, four billion individuals (including 100 million in the United States) have downloaded TikTok. As a result, marketers and company owners have the potential to reach a large audience with their message. Another advantage of TikTok is the ease with which small videos may become viral.
Furthermore, TikTok’s algorithm is highly responsive to each user’s actions. TikTok will offer you additional food videos if you watch a video about foods all the way through. TikTok will not show you numerous food videos if you watch 3 seconds of a food video and then continue scrolling.
So, if someone sees your video on TikTok, there’s a strong probability they’re engaged in what you’re doing or saying.
TikTok’s hashtags function similarly. If you use a hashtag, TikTok will expose your content to individuals interested in that hashtag and show you more hashtag-related material.
Lastly, the For You stream frequently offers people material from producers they’ve never heard of, so your message is likely to be seen by new people.
Final Word
Until 5-6 years ago, the probability of a video-sharing app that would take social media by storm was unexpected.
TikTok came in as a pleasant surprise for those interested in social media marketing to market their business and brands.
TikTok, with a whopping 1 billion monthly users, has been one of the key social media platforms to market businesses and brands. Hence, many marketers opt for TikTok to gain visibility, recognition, and brand traffic.
TikTok is not just a fun way for Gen-Z to pass their time; it is also a powerful and brilliant tool for TikTok marketing. It allows companies to raise brand recognition, build connections, and make more sales. TikTok marketing makes it very easy for businesses of any size to begin advertising on the app through collaboration with creators or by creating a TikTok marketplace. This helps them in marketing their business on yet another social media platform.
Have you also wondered if social media marketing would be the right fit for you? You may want to know and learn more about it!
