TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media apps in the world – and not just among teens. The app has a significant impact on modern culture, and brands are taking notice.
While brands recognize the value of TikTok, they’re not all on the platform yet. Whether they assume their audience isn’t active on the app or don’t know where to start, it’s a missed opportunity to connect with potential customers and build a strong presence.
Numerous businesses have found success on TikTok, including Crocs and the NFL. In fact, some of the most influential campaigns happened by accident, such as the #DreamsChallenge that caused Ocean Spray’s sales to skyrocket in 2020.
Fortunately, you have greater control over your brand's presence and success on TikTok when you use the right marketing strategy.
Benefits of TikTok Marketing
Like other social media platforms, TikTok can be leveraged to promote a brand, product, or service.
You can use a variety of tactics, depending on your audience and brand personality, including TikTok paid ads, content marketing, and influencer marketing. The benefits are virtually limitless:
- Building engaged brand communities
- Increasing brand awareness
- Gathering feedback from customers and audiences
- Providing customer service
- Selling products or services
- Advertising to target customers
How to Set Up a TikTok Business Account
- Sign up for TikTok
- On your profile page, open the Settings and Privacy tab
- Click Manage Account
- Using Account Control, choose Switch to Business Account
- Choose the category that’s most appropriate for your brand, such as Fitness or Arts & Crafts
- Add your business website URL and email address to your profile
TikTok introduced TikTok for Business and TikTok Pro in 2020. Initially, TikTok for Business was designed exclusively for businesses, while TikTok Pro was used for creators.
Both options offer similar benefits to account holders, including real-time metrics, audience insights, and more profile fields.
The Steps of a TikTok Marketing Strategy
TikTok may appear as if it runs on random and fleeting trends, but that doesn’t mean you have to throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.
You can take steps to increase your chances of success on the app and make the most of its unique features.
1. Understand TikTok content
TikTok is unique among social media platforms. It doesn’t work like Facebook or Instagram, so you shouldn’t use the same tried-and-true marketing strategies.
You need to treat TikTok as the marketing channel it is and leverage its trends, features, and user behavior to your advantage.
To boost TikTok view engagement, it's crucial to actively engage with your audience by responding to comments, participating in challenges, and collaborating with other creators.
Pay attention to trending TikTok sounds, as using them can help your videos go viral. These may involve a song or dance that others have to recreate. For brands, this means more user-generated content.
You should also research the TikTok algorithm and how the app indexes and ranks content. Once you know this, you can use it to inform your content and hashtag strategy.
2. Define your target audience
What audience are you hoping to reach on TikTok? Is it on the platform?
Before creating content or investing in TikTok, ensure you understand its demographics and the share of your audience that is active on the app.
While TikTok has many active teen members, that doesn’t mean you should avoid it if your audience is slightly older. In general, the next age group eventually follows what teens are doing, including TikTok.
For example, a teacher on LinkedIn may be interested in a gamified driver’s ed app for teen drivers, as would a parent on Facebook. Then, if the teen is on TikTok, you’re reaching several broad segments of your audience through your social media strategy.
3. Use TikTok Ads
Creating an official ad on TikTok will get your content in front of more people.
TikTok ads come in two formats:
- In-feed ads: These are ads that you create yourself, such as image ads, video ads, or spark ads, which boost the content you already created.
- Ads for managed brands: These are similar to in-feed ads in appearance, but they offer additional formatting options that you can access by working with a TikTok sales representative.
TikTok also offers Topview ads, which play the moment a user opens the app and can’t be skipped or shut off, and branded ads. These include branded hashtag challenges and effects, such as stickers and filters connected to your brand.
For businesses looking to maximize results, a TikTok ads agency can help fine-tune ad formats and strategies to drive better engagement.
For example, Microsoft did a branded hashtag challenge, #StartUpShowUp, with sponsored videos. Eventually, other creators joined the trend, promoting the hashtag and Microsoft for free.
4. Research your competitors
If you have competitors on TikTok, it’s a strong sign you should be there too. If they aren’t, you may still have an audience and an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.
Search the platform to identify a few similar brands or competitors and review the types of content they share. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t to inform your own strategy.
This is also a good opportunity to check out the influencers and creators in your niche. TikTok has provided a platform for many rising stars, and these personalities could be valuable to your marketing strategy.
5. Set realistic goals
TikTok is a fun platform, but if you’re entering it as a brand, you should have goals aligned with your overall business objectives to maximize your time and budget.
Consider your goals for getting on TikTok. You may want to reach a new audience or improve your brand image. Maybe you’re trying to showcase your new product or service or connect with your customers more directly.
Choosing the right starting point, whether launching a new profile or buying an existing TikTok account with an audience, can significantly impact how quickly these objectives are achieved.
The SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goal framework is always helpful for ensuring you’re setting realistic, appropriate goals that are neither too difficult nor too easy to achieve.
6. Create new content regularly
One of the vital components of TikTok marketing is consistency. The app rewards consistent content creation.
Consider creating a content calendar with all your plans weeks in advance. Consider upcoming events or holidays you can use to guide your topics.
For instance, at Zutobi, we believe National Teen Driver Safety Week, a week dedicated to parents talking with their teens about safe driving, is an excellent opportunity to start a conversation and push our content to parents and teens alike.
Remember to leave space for impromptu content, however. Trends move quickly on TikTok, so you may need to increase views and engagement.
7. Monitor analytics
Analytics are valuable to your TikTok marketing campaign and help you see what’s effective and what needs tweaking. Ideally, you should review your analytics monthly to see whether you’re meeting the goals and objectives you set.
If you’re not hitting your targets, consider trying different types of posts or even purchasing TikTok likes. For example, a traditional ad-style video promoting the learning and retention benefits of driver's ed training is better suited to parents than to teens on TikTok.
Conversely, posting a video challenge with a hashtag like #AceYourPermitTest, or sharing a demo of how the practice test is taken, could be more appealing to your audience.
8. Experiment often
TikTok is a highly organic, non-traditional platform, so there’s no formula for getting viral content and success. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, however.
Leave some room in your TikTok marketing strategy for fun and creativity. The app is ideal for experimentation, giving you space to learn and grow to deliver better content to your audience.
One excellent example of how this is Mucinex. Historically, pharmaceutical brands have struggled with fun campaigns on social media and with brand and influencer content.
Mucinex took a chance and used creators to promote its product with transitions, a slick edit that moves from one video to another.
Users posted a video of themselves being “too sick” and then “so sick” to highlight the glamor of their Halloween costumes, using the hashtag #TooSickToBeSick. This campaign was highly successful and leveraged TikTok features, viral challenges, and common slang for the audience.
Get Started on TikTok
TikTok isn’t just for kids – it holds much value for brands. If you’re not on TikTok yet, or you are and aren't getting much traction, try these marketing tips and techniques to boost your brand awareness and make the most of the hottest new social media platform.
Author Bio
Leo Waldenback co-founded Zutobi, a gamified e-learning platform focused on online driver education to help teens get their licenses. Leo founded Zutobi to make world-class driver's education fun, affordable, and easily accessible for all.
