As predicted by the Visual Contenting resource back in 2020, TikTok has since raised to the top of all social media charts gaining more than 1 billion users and becoming more popular than Instagram as a platform for posting short videos. This makes it one of the most valuable resources for promoting your business to younger audiences and a trend in online advertising that your company cannot afford to ignore. Below, you will find 10 steps for leveraging TikTok marketing for your business.
1. Use Paid Content More Creatively
A recent post from the platform itself suggests that devoted customers are the best kind of brand advocates. Why not offer your support and resources directly to them instead of using third-party influencers who may not be trusted by your followers to the same level? The example of the BM Collagen brand shows that offering tangible incentives to users shooting their videos of unboxing and using company products may be a good idea to get 5 million impressions followed by a 200% increase in sales. Offering tangible incentives to users shooting their videos of unboxing and using company products may be a good idea to get 5 million impressions followed by a 200% increase in sales. Share on X
2. Develop Good Timing
Experienced TikTok marketers know that perfect timing defines whether the ad reaches the targeted audiences. If you want your video to go viral, launching it at 9 AM on Tuesday may be a horrible idea according to a recent study. The following infographics from the Influencer Marketing Hub resource suggests the optimal periods allowing you to gain access to the largest number of users simultaneously. According to it, your TikTok ads can reach most audiences at 9 AM on Tuesday, 12 PM on Thursday, and 5 AM on Friday EST time.
3. Be Entertaining
While your main goal is to use TikTok to sell something to your audiences, they do not use this platform to watch advertisements. You need to entertain them before they decide to like you, trust you, and buy things from you. In most cases, the use of brand-related hashtags and other humble promotional methods may be sufficient to drive loyal audiences to your website and e-store. You can always publish longer posts in your Facebook groups or shoot longer promotional videos for your YouTube channel.
4. Follow the Trends
If you are capable of producing high-quality content but your brand is not certain what emotions, values or ideas it wants to focus on, following the crowd may not be a bad starting strategy. There always are some trending contests, hashtag campaigns or influencer campaigns gaining popularity at the moment. Following them can be a good way to go viral, establish new connections with customers and other brands, and gain valuable experience for launching your own trends in the future.
5. Be Right on Time Every Time
In the wise words of one movie character from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, every king has his reign, and then he dies. This inevitable and universal quote is equally applicable to TikTok trends. While the previous recommendation implies the need to follow the crowd, a latecomer to the party misses all the fun. If some trend is entering its decline phase, it may be more reasonable to wait for the next wave in the ocean.
6. Choose Unconventional Influencers
In November 2021, the Talbots brand selling women apparel, footwear, and fashion accessories started a partnership with 72-year old Barbara Costello. While this TikTok star is a global wonder appealing to millions of young platform users, she is not genuinely interested in high fashion. However, Barbara Costello is a long-term fan of Talbots who contacted the company to become its brand ambassador. This seemingly unconventional partnership has already proven fruitful since both parties have positive attitudes towards each other and are willing to engage in proactive cooperation.
7. Focus on Emotions, Not Facts
While TikTok has recently increased the maximum video duration to 3 minutes, the average length of top-trending videos rarely goes beyond the 15 seconds originally offered by the platform. Many marketers accustomed to Facebook, Instagram or YouTube view it as a challenge to cram a lot of company- or product-related information in a short period of time. On TikTok, the optimal strategy is to focus on the emotional content of the video and to pique everyone’s curiosity. If your video makes people laugh or provokes some deep thoughts and emotions, they can easily find your company website or social media to learn more about you.
8. Be Consistent
In the beginning, you may need to engage in a lot of experimentation to find out what works for your audiences. However, make sure that you can keep up producing the type of content that proves successful. Many firms fall into the trap of investing excessive resources into high-quality third-party visuals and failing to maintain the initial interest with their own materials. If your firm can only afford short videos from its premises in the long-term perspective, it may not be a good strategy to waste your budgets on expensive promotional videos right from the start. Start small and experiment with various topics, hosts, and ideas. You can always employ professionals later when you find out more about your audiences and their preferences.
9. Consider the Opportunities of Online Training
TikTok has hundreds of influencers earning their fame through the provision of short educational content. Your company can also use the popular #LearnOnTikTok hashtag to launch some interesting content demonstrating the optimal ways to use your products or some valuable tutorials on any related topics.
10. User-Produced Content Is King
As opposed to paid influencers, your followers usually have a genuine interest in your brand and share a deep affection towards it. Engaging them in various contests, hashtag campaigns or other forms of content creation is a powerful tool for letting them feel a part of it. Even the simplest form of offering rewards for sharing brand-tagged photos of people using your products and services may substantially increase your brand exposure while also introducing you to the creator community. Keep in mind that you can always contact the authors of the best ideas to create new advertising materials together or get some valuable recommendations from them.
TikTok still remains a ‘dark horse of online marketing’ since few marketing experts could predict its growth in popularity over the previous years. This also means that few of them have well-designed and thoroughly tested universal solutions that work for all audiences and fit most brands. While this may be viewed as a serious barrier to success, this is also an opportunity for the companies that feel limited by traditional YouTube algorithms and are tired of conventional marketing based on strict guidelines from platform owners. TikTok also has a lot of influencers who have raised to popularity on this social media, which makes it easier to recruit ‘new faces’ in your unique niche without breaking the bank. Overall, a good strategy for a marketer beginning to use this platform is to start small, mirror the interests of the audiences, follow popular trends, and use the resources available in the long-term perspective. Regular contests and campaigns for content creators may also allow your company to find supporters with a genuine interest in your brand who know how to help you create your unique representation on TikTok using the specific features of this social media. Staying genuine, building your team as you go, and developing solid competencies will get you to the other side sooner than you think.
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