We’ve all watched the rise of the short video behemoth TikTok since its inception in 2018. Along with its sixty-second videos has come a whole new wave of opportunities for visual brand marketing to fuel your business growth.
The craze isn’t just for tweens and dancers. Just under two-thirds of TikTok’s demographic are all under 35 years of age. While it’s become the chosen procrastination station for more than one generation of users, it’s also simultaneously creating a new perspective on sound, music, and engagement in social media culture.
It’s not just another social media platform. It’s a movement.
If you’re not taking advantage of what this dynamic platform offers, here’s a few reasons why you should and insights into how you can get started.
Why You Should Market On TikTok
While the monthly active user count is still just under Instagram, TikTok’s video platform boasts 167 million videos viewed every minute, and more than 90% of users access the app more than once a day.
To tip the scales even further, as of January 2022, Tik Tok announced a partnership with LeadsBridge. This application automatically connects your social media accounts to your CRM. Now you can create a seamless integration process and eliminate the need for tedious spreadsheets.
Using TikTok to promote your brand, product, or service could include paid advertising, leveraging influencers, or creating your own original, engaging content. Whatever strategy fits your brand, they can all help your business:
- Boost brand awareness
- Build a community
- Increase sales
- Provide a new avenue for customer service and feedback
The Algorithm
The algorithm was designed to amplify viral content. It’s equally possible for accounts with few or zero followers to reach thousands or even millions of views with their original videos. On TikTok, your brand has a level playing field making it an ideal platform for marketing to fuel your business growth.
Like Instagram’s home feed, TikTok offers the “For You Page.” This is where users will find content explicitly curated for them based on the algorithm’s findings. Their algorithm evaluates signals from each user, including the user’s location, language, hashtags of interest, and account engagement statistics.
Content TikTok deems interesting, highly engaging, and trending for each user is what is generally placed in an individual’s “For You Page.” That’s where you want to be!
TikTok Marketing Roadmap To Fuel Business Growth
Create Original Content On Your Branded Channel
While not every 60-second video will go viral, you can create engaging content your target audience wants to see if you know what they want. You can be more or less playful with filters, transitions, templates, music, and production value based on the expectations of your target demographic.
If your target market is real estate agents, create content relevant to their desires, goals, and struggles. A video featuring a home buyer trying to buy a castle for a pittance but rejecting every proposal within their budget would resonate with this demographic.
Or a video about road safety and how to practice for a driver’s test would resonate with a younger audience that’s excited and ready to hit the road. Knowing what your target audience wants to see, learn about, and laugh at is crucial to a marketing strategy centered around creating original content.
Unlike other short video platforms (Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts), TikTok Clips offer a greater number of filters, effects, and templates to make your videos more engaging. You have more creative freedom here than on those other platforms.
Test different content types to see what your target audience responds to when starting your TikTok marketing campaign with a TikTok ad agency. Research relevant hashtags and trending audio or visual elements.
Get involved in the latest movement! Regurgitating your standard marketing jargon will not be successful on this platform.
Leverage Influencer Marketing
Influencers have the unique ability to connect with audiences and prepare content that resonates with viewers. Leveraging their existing reach and communities is a clever way to increase your own brand credibility and impact.
TikTok influencers are already familiar with available tools, settings, hashtags, and trends. Their expertise can promote your products or brands and help you achieve your campaign goals much sooner. TikTok also offers the Creator Marketplace, a hub designed to connect brands with creators for collaboration.
Run Paid TikTok Ads
Paying for ads is a guaranteed way to get more eyes on your brand without depending on an influencer to deliver. The sheer number of different types of ads you can run is mind-boggling. There are two separate ad categories that we’ll cover here:
- In-Feed ads
- Managed Brand ads
They each accomplish a different objective, and some are not available without TikTok first allowing you access.
In-Feed Ads
These are ads you make yourself and are the most cost-effective. This would include images, videos, and Spark Ads. These ads boost your existing video content to help you reach more viewers.
For example, if you previously created a video about driving tips for truckers, you could later create a spark ad to boost that content and reach people trying to get a CDL license.
According to TikTiok’s website, setting up your first ad is essentially a simple, four-step process:
Choose Your Goal
What do you want this ad campaign to help you accomplish? Connect with viewers, generate more website visits, or collect customer leads are available options.
Select Your Audience
You can choose automatic or manual and then select a scale. This is a gauge of narrow to broad.
Set Your Budget
Choose the amount of money you want to spend over a specified time (daily, weekly, etc.).
Design Your Ad
Upload your completed video and submit!
Managed Brand Ads
These appear similar to in-feed ads but are only available to brands working directly with TikTok’s sales team. These include full-screen, unskippable TopView ads, branded hashtag campaigns, branded stickers, filters, and effects.
TikTok Marketing Techniques To Fuel Business Growth
Take this roadmap of simple strategies and start leveraging your brand on the world’s fastest-growing social media platform today!
About the Author
Tim Waldenback is the co-founder of Zutobi, a gamified e-learning platform focused on online drivers education to help teens get their license. Tim founded Zutobi to make world-class driver’s education fun, affordable, and easily accessible for all.
