TikTok has completely overturned the world of social media as we know it. This platform has a phenomenally high user growth rate. In fact, the average TikTok user spends almost one hour on the app every single day.
And guess what – TikTok is not only an entertainment social platform for Gen Z. It is an excellent advertising venue where you can drive tangible business results.
In fact, small businesses are now all over TikTok. Why? Because their content is getting billions of views!
In spite of all of this, many brands are still doubtful about investing in TikTok marketing, since it is a relatively new platform.
So how can you grow your business with TikTok? That’s exactly what we’re going to cover in this blog post.
Below, you’ll find five actionable ideas to use TikTok to drive conversions, increase brand awareness, and boost sales.
Why Use TikTok to Grow Your Business?
Why venture onto TikTok in the first place?
The answer is simple: TikTok provides brands with many business opportunities that other social media platforms lack. Below are some of the most important opportunities available.
Online Brand Exposure
TikTok algorithms are very sophisticated. They give your brand access to millions of viewers you could not have reached elsewhere.
If you post consistently and invest time and resources in building your follower community, it will surely pay off.
Native Advertising
The beauty of TikTok marketing lies in its non-invasive nature. When you wrap your ads into engaging video content, users will notice and interact with it readily.
This is especially important if Millennials and Gen Z are your target customers.
These younger consumers don’t trust picture-perfect ads. Instead, they prefer buying from brands that can project authenticity and creativity.
Effective Influencer Marketing
TikTok influencers have VERY high engagement rates: 18% compared to only about 4% among Instagram influencers.
TikTok for Business
The company cares about brands that come to the platform. It has a variety of offerings that help business promote their products and services on the platform.
They guide you through creating a campaign, offer various types of ads, and help you navigate your marketing efforts.
These unique features make TikTok a true goldmine for brands seeking to grow and expand their presence online.
So how can you take advantage of these amazing benefits of TikTok for your business? Explore these 5 useful ideas:
Tap into Brand Storytelling on TikTok
TikTok is a platform that values honesty, authenticity, and open-mindedness.
If you want to engage potential customers and get them to be interested in your brand, explore brand storytelling.
Create narratives around your brand and product, and then share them on TikTok. It could be anything, including topics such as these:
- Sneak-peeks into your work/production processes
- Overviews of your brand values and vision
- Inside views where your employees present your company
- Q&As with followers
Tap into the stories that matter to you and your brand. If you’re genuine within the content you share with users on TikTok, they will relate to it and engage with your brand more actively.
Girlfriend Collective is a great exemplary case of the TikTok brand storytelling. This small clothing brand regularly posts videos that bring the business closer to its customers.
For example, they create TikToks where their employees talk about the brand and share their favorite products:
You’re free to think outside the box when it comes to brand storytelling.
TikTok users are a very responsive and curious crowd. They will hop on the narrative and follow your brand with interest and enthusiasm.
Embrace TikTok Influencer Marketing
One of the best ways to power up your TikTok marketing effort is to partner with TikTok influencers.
We’ve already mentioned that they enjoy impressive engagement rates. It means that they have loyal follower communities who trust them and value their opinions.
A good TikTok influencer can make your brand well-known and appealing to thousands of users overnight. You wouldn’t want to miss out on this opportunity, right?
Start cooperating with influencers whose audiences are likely to be interested in your brand. And make sure the influencer you want to pursue actively creates content in (or close to) your niche.
For example, if you’re a cosmetics brand, look for TikTok beauty influencers. You can use search across the platform with such hashtags as #beautyinfluencer.
Alternatively, you can conduct a Google search with relevant keywords, or turn to TikTok influencer search tools.
If you don’t quite know what type of influencer you’re looking for, no problem. TikTok hosts many talented content creators who don’t specialize in one particular niche but can adapt their style and delivery to pretty much any influencer campaign you might have in mind.
Don’t take our word for it. You can easily find plenty of successful use cases of such TikTok influencer partnerships.
For instance, the famous shoes and accessories brand Steve Madden collaborates with young influencer and comedian, Rickey Thompson.
Rickey uses his unique, “sassy” delivery style to advertise their products in an authentic, funny way:
Pro-tip: Don’t be afraid to give a TikTok influencer conceptual and creative control over the content they make for your brand.
They know how to navigate the platform and engage their followers best. Give them general guidelines and directions, but trust their judgment.
Follow and Implement Hot TikTok Trends in Your Marketing Content
If you want to ace TikTok marketing to grow your business, keep an eye on the most popular TikTok trends. And don’t get complacent, because these trends tend to shift quickly.
TikTok trends take many forms, such as:
- Songs and sound effects for video backgrounds
- Filters, masks, and video effects
- Hashtags
- Challenges
TikTok content created in line with hot trends will get more views and likes. Even better, this type of smart content can go viral almost instantly.
To boost your marketing effort, be ready to ride the popularity wave and join the trends.
Think about the viral Horace Filter that’s been all over TikTok for the past several weeks. If you think that it’s impossible to incorporate such a weird, meta-ironic trend into your TikTok marketing campaign, think again.
TikTok is all about authenticity and genuine self-expression, remember?
You don’t need to go far to find great case studies of brands that use TikTok trends to their advantage.
Take a look at the haircare brand K18. They took the Horace filter to jokingly show how their customers might be using their products:
The best thing about following and implementing TikTok trends into brand marketing is that users engage with trends much more actively.
Besides, you will be showing your audiences that your brand is embracing the relevant online agenda. Don’t underestimate how important this factor can be in establishing brand trust and loyalty over the long haul.
Start a Branded Hashtag Campaign/Challenge
Hashtags are big on TikTok. They increase the discoverability of your branded content and facilitate community building around your business.
As a first step, create a unique hashtag to represent your brand on TikTok. It can simply be #yourbrandname – whatever sounds catchy and recognizable to users.
Include this hashtag under every post you publish to increase its searchability on the platform.
You can also combine your branded hashtag with other popular TikTok hashtags to increase your posts’ reach.
To ace the TikTok hashtag game, take it a step further and start a branded hashtag campaign or challenge for your followers. This is a great way to engage your audience and encourage them to interact with your brand.
What is a TikTok branded hashtag challenge you ask? It is a contest of sorts, where you ask your followers to post videos (accompanied with your hashtag, of course) where they complete a task or perform an action.
It could be a funny dance move, an original video remake, or a short sketch. There’s no creative limit here.
You can reward the best content creators for your hashtag campaign, or simply do it for fun. Either way, it will generate massive engagement and boost conversions.
Let’s come back to K18 for another example. This company is really rocking it with its TikTok marketing strategy.
The brand started a hashtag campaign #K18Hair, asking users to post their reviews and impressions of K18 products in a creative way.
The results are impressive. The campaign harnessed thousands of videos from the TikTok community. It gave the brand a boost in the follower number and effective, non-invasive product promotion.
Embrace Comedy
You’ve probably noticed it already but we’ll say it again – TikTok is no place to take yourself and your brand too seriously.
The secret to effective TikTok brand marketing is to tap into the platform’s vibe of genuine fun and unrestrained creativity.
Comedy and entertainment are the key elements of TikTok content. Marketers should keep this in mind when building their brand promotion strategy.
Find a way to incorporate comedy into your branded posts on TikTok. Create parodies, funny sketches, use memes – whatever feels suitable in the context of your marketing effort.
Don’t be afraid to come across as silly. TikTok users embrace the comedy genre and love this delivery style when it comes to brand promotion.
Even the “big industry guys” do this. Take a look at The Washington Post promotional TikTok account.
The brand creates excellent comedy sketches to deliver important news to 1.4 million dedicated followers:
Bottom line: Giving your branded content a humorous touch is a way to engage TikTok audiences and leave them yearning for more.
This is a great form of emotional marketing. You will generate positive emotions in your users through your brand messaging – the emotions they will remember and associate with your product or service.
Conclusion
Growing your business with TikTok is all about tapping into the platform’s philosophy. It is built around the ideas of authenticity, free self-expression, organic content, and, of course, fun.
To ace business marketing on TikTok, remember to:
- Capitalize on TikTok’s smart discovery algorithms with the help of hashtags and brand storytelling
- Follow relevant content trends
- Use humor to deliver your branded content to users
Last but not least – don’t be afraid to take risks! TikTok is home to open-minded, creative individuals who welcome experiments and bold marketing choices from brands.
Feature Image taken as screenshot directly from TikTok.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this post are that of the author, and Return On Now may or may not agree with any or all of the commentary.
This guest post brought to you courtesy of Return On Now, Professional Austin SEO and PPC Services Company.
David Morneau
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