How to Build a TikTok Marketing Strategy for Your Business?

Almost half of the users on TikTok say the platform has helped them make purchase decisions. This makes it clear: with the right TikTok marketing strategy, TikTok can become marketing heaven for businesses. 

TikTok algorithm also makes it easier to get more traction. How? Unlike Facebook and Instagram, TikTok can make an account with zero followers go viral. This means that even with no followers, you can become popular on the social network, which translates to a wow moment for marketers.

 

Read-Up: How To Go Viral On TikTok?

Today’s post is about TikTok marketing, what it is, and how you can build an effective video marketing strategy. Let’s dig right into it.

What is TikTok Marketing?

TikTok marketing refers to using TikTok for marketing your brand and its products. This includes organic and ad-based techniques for increasing brand awareness and achieving other business goals.

For instance, TikTok marketing covers influencer TikTok marketing, TikTok ads, following TikTok challenges for increasing viewership, etc.

What is the target market for TikTok?

TikTok is most popular among Gen Z, which now prefers it even over Instagram. According to Forrester Research, 63% of this age group uses the video application weekly. 

However, the target market for TikTok also comprises older adults. Where 36% of Gen Z users have made purchases based on what they’ve seen on TikTok, 15% of seniors have done the same.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the users on TikTok according to Statista:

• 25% of TikTok users fall in the 10 – 19 age bracket
• About 22.4% of TikTokers are in their twenties
• 21.7% of users are 20 – 39 years old
• 20.3% of users are in their forties
• Even folks above 50 are using TikTok, with their share being 11% 
• Approximately 56% of TikTok’s worldwide user base comprises females

So, if your brand’s target audience consists of people anywhere between the 13 to 60 age range, you should be on this video platform too. There’s no specific age that TikTok is limited to. If you create engaging content and target a custom audience, you can easily attract customers to the platform.

Get Started with TikTok for Business

It’s easy peasy to get started with a TikTok business account. First, head to your ‘Me’ page and click on the horizontal three dots in the upper right corner.

Next, select Manage Account > Account Control > Switch to Business Account in the menu. 

From here, pick a category for your business and then optimize your profile with a profile picture, a short bio, and a link in your bio.

Thus, you have succesfully switched to a Business account.

TikTok Marketing Strategy for Brands & Businesses

Once your business profile is ready, focus all your attention on developing a winning TikTok marketing strategy. Below are 12 tips to help you do this.

1. Set goals that align with your business objectives

Like any other business that aims to make it big, yours must have many goals. These can include:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Winning customer loyalty
• Advertising your products
• Getting more active on social

Using TikTok, you can accelerate your efforts to achieve your business goals. 

Put another way, what you want to achieve with your TikTok marketing strategy should sync with your business objectives. 

For example, collaborate with influencers if you aim to get people to talk about a new product. Similarly, create videos showing your brand’s ethics if you want to improve your brand’s voice. And, if you want to increase customer loyalty, consider offering incentives to regular viewers and work on engaging with your audience better and more humanely.

2. Define your target audience

Create a buyer persona if you don’t already have one to create videos that target people who could be interested in your business. You can gather buyers’ information using surveys or your existing database. 

A buyer persona will help you better understand your potential customers’ likes and dislikes. And with such a goldmine of customer info, you can easily create videos your target audience will likely engage with.

By understanding your target audience, you can also collaborate with influencers in your niche who target your market.

If your audience is younger folks, you can also participate in challenges or create challenges on TikTok that they’re likely to join. You can also create behind-the-scenes (BTS) content showing off fun moments of your team to grab your audience’s attention. All in all, the goal is to be relatable to your target customer.

Don’t forget to check your TikTok analytics to see whether the videos you’re making are attracting and resonating with your target market.

That said, knowing your audience also helps with TikTok advertising by helping you create a custom audience to target. 

To set a custom audience, TikTok lets you select the age, gender, location, etc., of your target buyer so that your ads are directed towards similar people. After all, a targeted TikTok marketing campaign gives you a higher chance of success.

Also Read: How To Get Rid Of Shadowban On TikTok?

3. Conduct competitor analysis

Peek at what your competitors are currently focusing on to gather ideas on what type of videos your customers will like. 

Competitor Analysis aids in understanding what types of videos are helping your competitors win their audience’s attention, analyzing the gaps in their content that you can fill.

To start with, see if your competitors are on TikTok. If most aren’t, TikTok can help you get ahead of them. 

Once you find a few of your main competitors on the social application, zero in on their videos with the highest engagement. Here’s where you need to put on your detective hat and analyze:

• What type of content is bringing them more views? (Are these influencer videos, user-generated content, BTS moments, etc.?)
• What hashtags and other trends are your competitors using?
• Which influencers are your competitors working with?
• How are they engaging with their viewers?

Remember to also pay attention to their videos that fall flat — getting little to no engagement. This way, you’ll know what you shouldn’t do and where you can do better.

4. Gather & feature User-Generated Content

Unlike branded content, user-generated content (UGC) is created by people who use your product. To explain, when someone uses your product and posts pictures or videos showing it, this is UGC. 

You can repost this content on your TikTok to increase brand credibility.

UGC TikToks performed 22% better than TikTok branded videos on the Real eyes Quality Score, as per a fresh study. This means UGC videos capture and retain attention better and deliver a brand’s message more effectively. 

That’s not all, though – UGC is also cost-effective and convenient. It’s more authentic, showing viewers that real people are interested in your brand.

Apart from reposting UGC as is, you can also repost videos by responding to them using the Duet or Stitch features.

Heads-up: there might be a closet full of UGC TikTok videos that you may not have even noticed. This happens when folks don’t tag you when they create content featuring your brand. And naturally, if you aren’t tagged, you aren’t able to keep track. So, your first step should be to encourage people to create videos using your product and tag you in those posts.

Important tip: Don’t forget to credit the original creators of the UGC you post on your TikTok business account.

5. Post regularly

To be more memorable and to get more followers, you need to post regularly on TikTok. The question now is: How many times should you post each day? About 1 to 3 times. However, ensure that the videos you create are high quality.

It’s only valuable to post regularly when your videos are creative, unique, and engaging. You don’t always have to brainstorm ideas for videos to create though. You can also make duet and stitch videos to show your twist or reaction to others’ content. 

Also, study what others are doing to get more ideas, but ensure you always create videos in your niche.

To simplify posting, consider creating a content plan to remember what to post and when. ContentStudio can help you create a digital calendar that you can easily edit and share with your team. 

And finally, create a channel in your company Slack where members of your creative team can pitch in ideas and discuss them. You can also use Slack to delegate tasks to different team members to keep your TikTok marketing strategy running smoothly.

6. Schedule TikToks

Scheduling your TikToks is another helpful way to stick with your posting schedule on the app. Instead of only noting down posts and timings in a content calendar, schedule final posts using a content scheduler such as ContentStudio.

ContentStudio’s scheduling automates the process of posting so that your posts are sent out at the right time, even if (and when) you’re busy.

It’s also more convenient to schedule posts – you can sit down to do so at once rather than post throughout the day. 

With your posts in a scheduler, there’s little chance you’ll forget posting and stretch out the space between two posts by too long a time. Also, you enjoy your holidays without worrying about having to post on a consistent schedule, as all posts are automated.

To add, when you schedule posts at once, you:

• • Have more control of your content strategy
  • Don’t have to worry about last-minute typos
  • Can maintain better work-life balance
  • You also save more time

7. Engage with your audience

The TikTok algorithm considers your user interactions when deciding which videos to share with a bigger audience. It’s why you need higher engagement to get a front seat in the For You Feeds (the TikTok homepage) of your target audience

So how can you boost your engagement? Spur more conversation, get people commenting on your posts, and engage better. It’s also a good idea to:

• Create catchy content that gets people talking. Example: you can participate in a challenge.
• Use relevant hashtags to make your videos more discoverable.
• Write enticing captions, so people watch your TikTok videos or ask a question in the video to get people to comment.
• Respond to comments and leave comments to build a community.
• Collaborate with influencers to get their followers to engage with you.
• Follow TikTok trends to get noticed. For example, you can use trending sounds in your videos.
• Post your TikTok on other social channels such as Facebook or Instagram to attract more eyeballs.

8. Use TikTok Advertising

Owing to the platform’s broad reach, TikTok Advertising has a lot of scope. 

Fortunately, you don’t even need to shoot a new video to post it as an ad on the video application. Instead, analyze your existing videos to find high-performing ones, lightly tailor them and send them out as part of your ad campaign.

To get started, you’ll need the TikTok Ads Manager. 

For creating a TikTok Ad account, go to ads.tiktok.com > Create Now. From there, fill in the required information to get started. 

Once you’ve decided on your ad content, set an objective and your budget. Next, select your placements and target audience. Finally, develop your bidding strategy and add your ad to the template. Then, you’re all set to run ads on TikTok. 

9. Collaborate with Influencers

TikTok influencer marketing comes with a handful of benefits, such as increased reach, brand awareness, social proof for your brand, and sales. This is why 45% of marketers have used TikTok for collaborating with influencers in their niche in 2021.

Admittedly, influencer marketing on the video-sharing social network can get more people interested in your brand or product. 

So, search for influencers in your comments section or see which influencers your competitors are working with. 

Once you’ve noted down the influencers, you want to pair with, set a budget. Next, communicate your requirements, expectations, and budget to the influencers in your niche to sketch out a plan with them.

Can’t find any influencers within your budget? Don’t worry; you can also join hands with micro-influencers. These are TikTok creators with less than 10k followers, which makes them less costly. And no, TikTok marketing campaigns with micro-influencers aren’t going to be useless just because they have fewer followers. That’s because micro-influencers typically have better engagement and a more loyal audience.

@ourplace spring rolls for Easter! @GNOCHGNOCH put a Vietnamese-Chinese spin on the classic fried snack ???? #easter #spring #springrolls #recipe #yummy #cookwithme #cooking #kitchen #dinnertime #CatOnALeash #HPSustainableSounds ♬ original sound – Our Place

10. Follow TikTok Trends

Jumping on the bandwagon of TikTok trends can help you stay relevant as well as help you entertain your audience. 

To this end, apart from following TikTok challenges, you can also follow the sound and other TikTok trends. For instance, make videos with trending sounds or use trending filters in your videos.

But how would you know what’s trending on the app? For this, go to the Discover page. Then, filter your search by popularity. You can also follow popular influencers to know what’s on the platform these days.

Here are some more tips to find what’s big on TikTok:

• Check hashtags in the search tab and use relevant ones.

• Check the views of sounds to see which are trending. You can also find trending audio in the TikTok Creative Center or Sound Library.

• Keep an eye on your ‘For You feed’ to see any trending filters or effects.

• Take part in community challenges such as “#OwnTheCurve” challenge at the time of Covid-19:

@yazicole Make sure to do these 3 things when you step outside. Join the #OwnTheCurve ♬ I Gotta Feeling – Official Sound Studio

Normally, a TikTok trend goes on for five to seven days. So make sure that you don’t follow a trend any longer. Because, let’s admit it, following a dead trend will gain you little to no engagement.

11. Go Live

TikTok Live, like Facebook and Instagram Live, allows you to interact with your followers in real time. 

So consider going live once in a while as part of your TikTok marketing strategy,

Keep in mind: TikTok only gives you the feature to go live once you have at least 1000 followers.

Tap on the middle ‘+’ (camera) icon to go live. You can select ‘Live’ from below and add a topic and a cover photo to your session. You can also apply filters before hitting the ‘Go LIVE’ button.

 

To make your live session engaging and to get more followers through it, follow these tips:

• Make sure you’re prepared and your topic is interesting as well relevant to your audience.
• Host your live session at a time when your audience is most active.
• Make sure the session isn’t so long as to be boring. Cap it at 30 minutes.
• Record a high-quality video with apt lighting and minimal background noise.
• Be interactive. Ask questions to get people talking in the comments.
• Add a call-to-action at the end to guide people regarding the next steps.

To make interesting Live TikTok videos, you can record behind-the-scenes videos, host live interviews, or promote new products. There are many creative ways of conducting live sessions to help you reap more from the feature.

Also Read:  How to Change Phone Number On TikTok?

12. Track your progress

To ensure your efforts aren’t going down the drain, you can use TikTok Analytics to see where you stand. 

Use them to check your profile views, video views, likes, comments, shares, and more. These will give you an idea of how much you’ve grown on the video platform.

With the help of TikTok analytics, you can also see which videos are gaining better engagement so that you can create more such content. But, on the other hand, you also get to know which videos are not performing well so you can avoid making similar content. 

Put, analytics help you build up and refine your social media content strategy.

Click on the three lines in the upper right corner to access your analytics. From there, go to Creator Tools > Analytics. 

If you’re new to TikTok Business, it’ll take seven days for the app to pull out your analytics, so make sure you post tiktoks during this time.

Analytics on TikTok is broadly divided into four categories:

• Overview: shows overall engagement and follower details
• Content: gives you detailed metrics of popular videos
• Followers: shows information regarding your audience
• Live: gives data of live videos

Winning Marketing Strategy of Brands on TikTok

Talking about TikTok marketing, here are three brands that you can learn from:

1. Nike

Nike sure knows how to attract an audience on TikTok. The shoe giant collaborates with athletes often to bring unique and engaging videos.

Case in point: Nike created a trend named as “Ask Athelete”, which received a massive positive response. It also paired up with footballers to lead the campaign authentically.

@nike Whats your #favorite ♬ Hip Hop with impressive piano sound(793766) – Dusty Sky

2. Chipotle

Do you know which food brand is topping the TikTok charts? None other than Chipotle. Chipotle is giant on maintaining a human voice and targeting its audience by creating light-hearted and entertaining content.

The restaurant has become the most followed one on the platform by staying on top of TikTok challenges such as the #bottlecapchallenge.

@chipotle Is this what y’all do with our Tabasco bottles? #bottlecapchallenge ♬ Mario – JJD

3.Fenty Beauty

Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty was among the first brands to join the TikTok party in 2017. The beauty brand posts TikTok videos focusing on makeup tutorials, showing off new products, and even sharing BTS content for some light-hearted fun.

Fenty Beauty managed to triple its views between 2018 to 2019 by creating viral branded challenges, such as the #SoStunna challenge. 

It follows other TikTok trends as well. For example, the makeup brand quickly adds viral TikTok music to its videos.

@fentybeauty Reply to @gregrakestraw And that’s on AMBER #MATCHSTIX SUPREMACY ???? All new #contour ♬ In the Air – Official Sound Studio

Ready to create a Winning TikTok Marketing Strategy? 

To put it briefly, your brand needs a solid marketing strategy to achieve business goals on TikTok. Start by defining your audience and making a TikTok business account. 

Feature user-generated content, collaborate with influencers, follow TikTok trends, tap into TikTok ads, and engage with your audience to make the most of TikTok for business.

Don’t forget to plan and schedule posts in advance with ContentStudio to stay consistent on the platform. 

Quick FAQs

1. Which is bigger Facebook or TikTok?

In terms of popularity, Facebook is more significant than TikTok. While Facebook is the most popular app, TikTok stands at number 6.

2. How to get TikTok followers fast?

The fastest way to get followers on TikTok is to follow TikTok trends and challenges. Working with the TikTok algorithm can increase your chances of going viral.

3. Is TikTok advertising effective?

TikTok ads are very effective. According to a Kantar survey, TikTok ad receptivity is 10% better than other platforms. 

4. How did TikTok promote itself?

TikTok became popular in a fairly short time as it was advertised almost everywhere young people hang out virtually, including YouTube and Snapchat.

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