A Guide To Using TikTok For Marketing Your Business
Marketing

A Guide To Using TikTok For Marketing Your Business

Between its growing popularity and presence on various social media channels, it’s completely likely that you’ve heard of TikTok by this point. A video sharing social network that has exploded over the last four years, more and more young users are finding themselves engrossed in this app.

So, what exactly is TikTok and how can your business benefit from using it? If you’re thinking of ways your business could incorporate this app into your marketing plan, some steps are more beneficial than others. Read on for more about TikTok, starting up, and how this trailblazing new app can benefit your business or organization.

Here’s a short breakdown of how to use TikTok for marketing your business:

About TikTok and Its Users

Before it was what we know as TikTok, today’s hottest app started off its life as Musical.ly. You may or may not have heard of it, but this was the foundation of TikTok as we know it, today. Chinese development company ByteDance acquired the app back in November, 2017 for $800 million, along with its 60 million userbase. After implementing a few changes and rebranding, it was rereleased in August, 2018, as TikTok.

The growth of TikTok, since then, has fascinated marketing and technology professionals alike, having been the first major social channel to originate in China. Due to its worldwide growth, TikTok’s users are a diverse audience that often see their content spread across the globe. Most users are young, typically under the age of 30 and, in fact, the app was the most downloaded app between 2018 and 2019. 

TikTok statistics
TikTok app store world-wide downloads.

Not only that, but TikTok has surpassed major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat in terms of Apple Store and Google Play installs. TikTok is not too different from most of the other apps we are already used to, which adds to its appeal. In fact, for many, it brings back memories of Vine, the platform that failed hard because they refused to change and adapt to this fast-moving industry.

TikTok did a fantastic job, enhancing their app and capturing younger audience who proactively watch short and engaging video content. The content is so addicting because of its short duration. You’ll be sitting on your phone for a few hours at a time, scrolling and refreshing, over and over again.

The content here never gets boring. Even if you do happen to come across something boring, the chances are pretty good that the next video you watch will be something you actually love.

On top of all this, many brands are capitalizing on the app’s remarkable success, putting their marketing dollars right into influencer campaigns. This platform is the ultimate influencer platform, so it makes sense. Any brand can turn their boring products into creative and spark an interest in potential buyers, and that’s what marketing is truly about: finding fun new ways to connect your brand to your consumers.

Do Your Research

If you’re considering incorporating TikTok into your marketing strategy, it’s a good idea to do some research, first. It’s crucial to evaluate whether having a presence on the app makes sense for your business or brand. You’ll also need to consider your resources and reporting to decide who’ll be able manage it properly, and how success will be measured. 

Here are some TikTok statistics you need to know:

  • As of 2020, TikTok has over 1.5 billion users.
  • 60% of their active users are based in the United States
  • Americans have spent over $23 million on TikTok’s in-app currency since 2018
  • Just 4% of the U.S.’s social media marketers actually use the app
  • 60% of active users are 16-to-24-year-olds
  • 43% of TikTok’s userbase is based in India
  • The average user spends about 52 minutes, per day, using the app
  • The FYP hashtag has over over 650 Billion views on TikTok
  • TikTok is more popular among Android users than it is with IOS
  • There are more than 6 million videos posted under the tag #InMyFeelings challenge, compared to Instagram that has just over 1.7 million
  • TikTok’s average engagement rate is 29% while Instagram is 3%
  • TikTok is the only global app in the top 5 apps that is not owned by Facebook
  • TikTok allows users to drive ads on competitor platforms
  • Men are more likely to use TikTok than women
  • TikTok has over 600 million active users
  • More than 1 billion videos are viewed on TikTok, per day
  • They have implemented the In-app eCommerce feature for sponsored challenges
  • TikTok’s website gets over 150 million visits per day

Evaluate Your Audience

There are several reasons why joining TikTok is a good marketing move, but the most important reason is if your business lines up with the TikTok user. Because it is a social media platform, first of all, and that means specific people are using it. That’s not to say 80 year old grandmas can’t discover it late in their lives (and probably go viral doing it), but you want to make sure you’re speaking to the right people.

If your target consumer is under age 35, you have visually stunning products, or have a trendy brand voice, TikTok can be a great tool. TikTok is also great if you’re an artist or performer, as you can easily share your talent and content.

Delegate Proper Resources

If you’ve determined you have the right staff and budget for TikTok, it’s a good idea to begin with a test with a proper team, all assigned to the job, you can gauge your ability.

By doing a three-month test, you’ll save time and resources. It’s also less risky if your channel doesn’t work out as hoped. There are three types of marketing options available on this app:

  • Paid Advertisement
  • Organic Advertisement
  • Influencer Marketing

Paid Advertisements on TikTok

TikTok is still in the process of growth, development and enhancement for better user experience. The cost of advertisement is a lot cheaper than other social media platforms, which is a big reason to try it as it may not stay that way forever.

This low threshold can be associated with its predominantly younger user base. But this is just part of the growth of any growing platform. They capture the younger audiences, first, and slowly age it up for all users. All the other success stories out there have done the same thing.

Split test your ads by setting up a few different campaigns. I’ve seen some people who have head great success generating sales using TikTok.

Organic Advertisement on TikTok

A lot of brands have successfully generated more followers, virality and sales by creating organic content on this platform. TikTok is all about having fun, and any brand that approaches the app with unique content will strike gold every time. Your videos will start building a loyal fan base around your brand and you can turn those users into dollar signs.

Influencer Marketing

It’s becoming more difficult for brands to gain attention on the Internet because of all the competition out there. There are so many people competing with each other using paid ads, it’s like a digital marketing war-zone. There are so many ads out there and so many users have been tricked into buying crappy products or services, it has made consumers extremely skeptical about brands that focus on self-promotion. They’re savvier, now, which means you can’t beat them with a blunt object and expect them to stand there and thank you for it.

While the world focuses on paid ads, another opportunity is born: to promote your brand through the voice of those whose followers trust them. That’s right: influencers. Many brands are executing different types of influencer campaigns across all of the major social media platforms and, in-fact, they have higher conversion rates than you may think.

TikTok was made for influencers, and they don’t cost a lot of money. In fact, they might be cheaper than the ad campaigns and other content you produce for your brand.

Consider That Your Content May Travel

Unlike many other social platforms, TikTok allows users to share their videos in other places. Because of this feature, users can share your content on other sites and platforms if you have the setting activated. This in and of itself means your content has the potential of being distributed organically through users. 

In fact, the more users who share your content, the more brand awareness you’ll bring to your brand, since TikTok already trademarks your video with your own username. Also, the TikTok team focused on this awesome feature, ensuring that every other platform could be compatible, and for users to be able to easily share videos on other social media channels, including embedding in blogs and other types of websites.

Create Your Account

Creating a TikTok account and posting is relatively easy to handle. The upload system will give you the option to create 15-second or one-minute videos. The app gives you the choice or either recording a video in the moment or uploading an existing one. 

One great thing about TikTok is that it lets you edit videos, adding special effects, modified speeds, and switching points of view as you need to. You can also trim your videos and use different filters, transitions, and other cool effects. In fact, one of the most popular effects with users is the ability to layer sound or music over the video. 

You can add all sorts of filters, captions, stickers, tags, hashtags, compelling effects, live music, live streams, and timers to automatically record a video if you don’t have anyone helping you. You can also use their in-app-build templates to make your content standout without having to handle all of the technical stuff yourself.

Switch Your Account to TikTok Pro

There are many benefits to using a TikTok pro account. It was made to let you track your performance statistics. If you switch over from personal to pro, it will help you improve the quality of your content. You can compare your last month’s first week to next month’s first week. What videos did better than others. Which videos got the most engagement. How your follower growth is progressing and how many likes your videos received.

This is all important data for your brand, and the best successes are created through continuous analyzing of your performance and improving based on facts. As someone who is creating content, you always want to improve your performance for better exposure. TikTok Pro accounts help you to do just that.

Examples of businesses using TikTok

Scores of different businesses and organizations have taken to TikTok to expand their marketing and have done so successfully. From bakeries showing off stunning decorating, to musicians like Lil Nas X sharing their art, to universities making sports hype videos, the platform can truly boost your marketing and name. Even e-commerce shops and law enforcements have gotten in on the app and generated hundreds of thousands of fans and hearts.

Great example of marketing software via TikTok:

@entrepreneur365

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