Guide To Brands Marketing on TikTok: TikTok has turned out to be one of the most powerful social media platforms that contributes greatly to establishing trends and creating informative value ever since the time of its endowment.
While it’s not necessarily yet rivaling other platforms for direct conversions, TikTok offers some great opportunities for brands. As its audience continues to grow, businesses are increasingly considering how to tap into its potential to drive marketing success.
Building a strong presence on TikTok requires brands to understand the unique characteristics of the platform, including the primary demographic and content preferences.
In this complete guide to brands marketing on TikTok, we’ll explore how businesses can begin using TikTok for marketing and how to unlock the full potential of this short-form video platform for your brand success.
Why Brands Need To Use TikTok for Marketing?
TikTok has entered the US market in 2018 and is growing to be the fastest social media platform in history. With over 1.6 billion monthly active users, it is ranked as the fourth most used social media platform across the globe.
It was established and became prominent for members of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. People use TikTok for many different things, like finding products to purchase or learning all new things they previously use Google for.
The Key 2023 Insights:
- One-third of U.S. adults use TikTok, while nearly two-thirds of users under age 30 actively engage on the platform.
- 62% of US adult TikTok users look for product reviews and recommendations on the platform.
- 17% of adults report using TikTok to get news – that’s five times more than in 2020. Of those under 30, close to 39% use the site regularly to get news.
- Users are mostly following mid-tier influencers and smaller accounts, which allows for more authentic interactions with brands.
TikTok’s High Engagement Rates
What really puts TikTok in a different league is its phenomenal engagement: 46% of users don’t use it because of distractions or multi-screening and that makes it a premium platform for focused attention.
This makes TikTok very powerful in product reviews and news, especially among younger audiences. Partnering with nano influencers can be a strong way to reach such an engaged and attentive audience.
You can also read: The Benefits Of Using TikTok For Business
By understanding and leveraging the strengths of TikTok, brands can unlock some great opportunities to connect with a dynamic and growing user base.
How Does TikTok Works?
TikTok offers its users a personalized feed, thanks to its strong algorithm. Rather than focusing on videos from accounts you follows, it is developed for personalized information flow. TikTok bases its contents on user preference or interaction. This feature simply shows that you view topics similar to your likes or content you have participated in.
This is an open opportunities for businesses as it create trend-aligned content or taking up popular formats that raise their chances of reaching a wider audience or even going viral.
Besides, brands can always reuse the short-form content they create for TikTok on other platforms, such as Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts in other to maximize its value. Businesses are allowed to seamless cross-posting their content for greater reach with the TikTok features to directly link social media accounts.
TikTok for Business helps brands target users effectively through paid content by providing tools such as the TikTok Ads Manager and analytics.
The platform integrates ecommerce through TikTok Shop, which allows businesses to create listings of their products to sell in the app. In this way, the user experience can take the customer journey more seamlessly, guide through the user experience, from discovery to purchase in just a few steps.
How TikTok is used in Marketing
Businesses can use TikTok in various ways to fulfill their marketing objectives. Here is how business can make use of TikTok for Marketing:
- Online Community Building: Establish a strong network of loyal customers and brand ambassadors who will start communicating back with your content on a regular basis.
- Brand Awareness: Build your reach by exposing your brand to a larger audience.
- Showcase of Product/Service: Showcase new or popular offerings to attract prospective customers and stir up interest in them.
- Customer Testimonials: Positive reviews and feedback help build trust and enhance brand credibility.
- Educate Your Audience: Always educate your audience with the industry frequently asked questions or showcase your expertise and the value your brand can provide.
- Entertaining Your Audience: Take advantage of TikTok being a home for light-hearted, fun content, one of the most used sides of social media.
TikTok allows you to execute all of the above mentioned strategies given that the platform focused on short-form videos, stories, and visually engaging content.
You can also read: Social Media Marketing: How to Grow on TikTok
The visual-first format makes TikTok an adaptable tool for brands to meet different marketing objectives by connecting with their target audience in a variety of creative and meaningful ways.
Types of TikTok Content That Drive Attention
-
Discussion-Based Content
The best way to extend the reach of your profile and content is by asking questions that encourage your audience to participate in discussions. According to the algorithm, TikTok loves posts that drive active engagement in the form of comments.
Use some creativity that can spark and fire up your threads with comments that get viewed by so many more people.
-
Comment-Driven Content
Whenever someone comments on any of your posts, you reply with a separate piece of content to continue the conversation. This is done especially by makeup brands and other similar businesses that love interaction.
Individual responses to user comments can further flesh out the initial posting or spark completely new postings. For example, if a user requests you explain or expand a video that you’ve already made, you can create a new post from their inquiry, which could also be quite interesting.
-
Behind-the-Scenes Content
Invite your audience behind the curtain, and it often makes content more relatable and engaging. Show behind-the-scenes moments, outtakes, or a candid look at operations adds authenticity and personality to your brand.
This type of content humanizes your business because it will gives users a sense of connection while providing entertainment they will enjoy. It’s a great way to build trust and foster engagement.
-
Trend-Based Content
Tapping into trending topics or current events is a powerful way to capture user interest while adding your brand’s unique twist. The trends on TikTok change in the blink of a second, really, offering businesses a never-ending range of ways they might jump in.
TikTok’s Creative Center houses a trend intelligence tool that helps track trending hashtags, songs, and videos in real time.
You can also read: 5 Most Popular Social Media Platforms in 2024
Success lies in the appropriateness of the content feeling true to both the trend itself and the voice of the brand publishing the content. Any content perceived as forced will have the very valid risk of seeming “cringe” to your users.
-
How-To Content
Creating concise video tutorials is one of the best ways to give your audience something truly worth their time. The guides can be anything from how to use your products or services to general tips related to the industry that would appeal to your target audience. Users find tutorials by brands credible and, therefore, a reliable source when seeking to learn something.
-
Shareable Content
TikTok derives its social power through content to be shared by its users. Posts that are relatable to people, or highlight experiences you may have gone through, are more than likely to be shared with those who understand it best.
Developing content meant for sharing can exponentially broaden the reach and build a community of viewers your business may attract.
Efficient Ways To Create A TikTok Marketing Strategy
Step 1: Set Up Your TikTok Business Account
You needs to create a business account on TikTok and makes sure that your brands profile reflected your bio and brand profile picture.
Here’s how to switch to a business account:
- Open the app and tap the Profile icon at the bottom right corner.
- Tap the hamburger menu, represented by three lines, at the top right corner.
- Go to Settings and Privacy, then select Account.
- Tap Switch to Business Account; choose a category that fits your business.
Now, make your TikTok profile is the same as any of your other profiles on other social media platforms; refresh the section in the bio, including where customers should be pointed for anything.
Step 2: Get Familiar with the Platform
To use TikTok effectively, you have to know how it works. Spend time browsing your page and other brands accounts to see what content goes viral, search relevant hashtags to find out what’s trending in your niche, and other creators for inspiration and insight.
Understanding TikTok’s algorithm is key to creating content that gets noticed. The algorithm determines the ranking and display of videos to users in relation to engagement and relevance.
TikTok’s Business Learning Center is a great resource to learn about ad formats, analytics tools, and features designed to help businesses succeed.
By familiarizing yourself with the platform and its tools, you’ll be better equipped to create engaging content and effectively reach your audience.
Step 3: Set Your TikTok Goals
Like other social media platforms, success on TikTok starts with goals. Determine what you want to achieve so you may monitor your progress appropriately.
You can choose to incorporate paid advertising into your strategy or increase your budget once you see positive results. On the other hand, you may want to focus on creating trending content, which will take time to research and participate in current TikTok trends.
Step 4: Define Your TikTok Audience
After setting up your profile and familiarizing yourself with the platform, identify your target audience. While Gen Z is TikTok’s largest demographic, the platform hosts users across various age groups and interests.
Consider the following as the key characteristics of your audience:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Interests
Dig deeper by building customer journey maps. Understand what may drive your audience to buy, what pain points they could have, and what information about your brand would be needed.
Step 5: Run a Competitor Audit
Because the popularity of TikTok is so current, there are many active brands on the platform. Running a full competitor audit allows you to find out where your brand fits in and identify opportunities.
You can analyze your competitors using the following:
- Observing how they use TikTok.
- Evaluating the types of content they produce.
- Identifying the content that resonates with their audience.
While competitors provide valuable insights, it’s crucial to maintain originality. Avoid replicating their content entirely. Instead, use their strategies as inspiration to create unique and authentic content for your brand.
Follow the trends and hashtags outside of the immediate competitors. TikTok works well with creative and trending content that helps your brand be in the limelight and may just go viral.
Step 6: Explore Different TikTok Ad Types
As a TikTok business account, you have a variety of ad types. Understanding these options will help you make the most of your TikTok marketing efforts.
Step 7: Running Paid Ads on TikTok
Paid ads are easier now to create with the TikTok Ad Manager. Instead of depending wholly on organic posts, you can allocate a budget for video or image promotions to allow TikTok to deliver them to more audiences.
This increases the visibility of the content as it targets new users who might have never seen it. Detailed analytics about impressions and engagements are also provided by the Ad Manager.
Besides, TikTok Promote allows you to promote your existing content and livestreams for follower growth and traffic to your profile.
Step 8: Partner with TikTok Influencers
TikTok influencers are users with huge, active followings. They range from micro-influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers to celebrity-level influencers with millions.
Influencer partnerships are a really strong way to introduce your brand to new people. Mid-tier influencers will often have some of the most engaged followings, making them a great candidate for partnerships.
Choose an influencer that has an audience aligned with your target demographic. Consider using tools like HypeAuditor’s free Audit Checker to find a great influencer for your business.
Step 9: Affiliate Marketing on TikTok
One of the best ways to ensure that your brand can reach a high number of users is affiliate marketing. Admittedly, affiliate content will not be able to capture as much personal authenticity as influencer marketing, although discount codes and endorsements can still enable conversions.
Affiliates help with brand visibility; their recommendations go on to influence users into making customers by adding incentives to creating a purchase.
Step 10: Create Your TikTok Marketing Calendar
You need to know exactly who your audience is, what kind of content you are going to post, what hashtags to include in your posts, and if or how you will invest in paid advertisements or influencer collaboration.
While you can introduce paid content at any time, this may be especially effective in making your profile more noticeable in its early stages.
With all that in mind, you can start planning your content and publication schedule, hence having an overall picture of your TikTok marketing calendar.
An organized plan will help make sure content is created and posted on a regular basis. Consistency, like with any social media platform, is vital in order to keep audience engagement.
You can also read: TikTok Introduces the Ads Transparency Library
Step 11: Track Your Profile’s TikTok Analytics
Once your strategy is up and running, it’s time to begin monitoring the analytics that TikTok has to offer. Tracking your content’s performance will offer valuable insights that can guide future adjustments to your TikTok marketing approach.
However, don’t feel the need to drastically change your strategy if metrics aren’t ideal initially—new profiles often take time to gain traction.
Instead, focus on identifying which content has performed well, spotting new ideas that could work for your brand, and recognizing areas for improvement.
Go back and revisit these insights periodically in the course of strategy evaluation. Use them to refine your goals and keep moving toward success.
How TikTok Can Benefit Brands
The best way to get started is by experimenting to find out what works for your audience. Try different types of content and see what works the best.
It might take some time getting used to the platform if you are not using it personally. Take a cue from popular brands and engaging TikTok-adding your creative touch to it.
If your budget allows, you can mix up organic TikTok with paid for maximum reach.
You can build momentum by keeping a balance of organic and paid posts, building consistently high levels of quality into your branded content.
Finally, what will help you win on TikTok is authenticity, creativity, and embracing current trends.
Would you like to read more about Guide To Brands Marketing on TikTok-related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!
Use our Internet marketing service to help you rank on the first page of SERP.
