TikTok marketing is a highly effective brand strategy in today’s digital world. It is the process of using TikTok to promote your brand and products or services.
As the fastest-growing social platform, reaching 1 billion users in just 4 years, TikTok offers huge opportunities for exposure if you have the right TikTok marketing strategy. It was the most downloaded non-game app in 2022, showing its immense popularity. With over 1 billion active monthly users, TikTok is essential for businesses to reach wide audiences.
This guide will explain how to use TikTok for marketing. We’ll go through:
- How to develop a TikTok marketing strategy?
- 10 takeaway tips for using TikTok for marketing
- TikTok marketing strategy case study
Read on now to create the best TikTok marketing strategy for your businesses!
How to Develop a TikTok Marketing Strategy?
Are you eager to explore the world of TikTok marketing strategy and grow a substantial following on the platform? While achieving TikTok virality overnight is impossible, these guidelines will set you on the right course for making a successful marketing strategy of TikTok.
1. Create and brand your TikTok business account
In the summer of 2020, TikTok introduced its TikTok for Business Center and followed up with TikTok Pro a few months later. By switching to a business account, you can enhance your profile with additional details and gain access to live data metrics and audience insights.
So, to have a thorough TikTok marketing strategy, you should create a TikTok business account. To learn detailed steps to create a business account, check this article about how to use TikTok for business.
After successfully setting up your TikTok business account, the next important step is to optimize and brand it to make it easily recognizable alongside your other social media profiles.
To brand your TikTok account, follow these steps:
- Profile Photo or Video: TikTok allows you to use a video for your profile avatar. If you opt for a profile photo, ensure it’s a high-resolution version of your logo. For videos, consider creating an animated rendition of your logo.
- Name: Use your business name.
- Username: Ideally, your username should also be your business name without spaces.
- Bio: Utilize the 80-character limit to provide a brief description of your business.
- Email: Enter your company’s contact email.
- Category: You might have already selected a category during your business account creation, but if not, pick the one that best represents your industry.
2. Define your audience
When making a TikTok marketing strategy plan, you should define your target audience. Familiarizing yourself with TikTok’s demographic landscape and pinpointing individuals who could show interest in your brand is beneficial for brainstorming content ideas.
TikTok predominantly attracts a younger audience, with nearly 70% of 18-19-year-olds present on the platform and about half of all users falling within the 20-39 age group. However, it’s crucial to explore beyond these statistics.
Also, you better take the time to investigate your existing audience across other social media platforms and search for any potential overlaps with TikTok. Then, create a TikTok marketing strategy template to fill in any important information to keep track of this process. Once you’ve tapped into your prospective audience, research the content they prefer and engage with. You, then, use this insight to generate content ideas that align with your brand’s goals.
3. Understand your competitors
Getting to know your competitors is a great method to get ideas for content and learn the ways they do marketing strategy for Tiktok. Do you know if your competitors are using TikTok? If they are, you might be missing a chance to be part of the action. But if they’re not, TikTok could be your way to get ahead of the competition.
Regardless of whether your competitors are on TikTok, look for three to five similar brands or organizations and see what they do on the app. Try to learn from what worked well for them and what didn’t. You can even use the S.W.O.T framework, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, to understand each competitor better.
4. Set goals for your business
Creating TikTok can be just for fun. However, if you do for businesses, you better have a TikTok marketing strategy and clear objectives that align with your overall business goals.
Whether you aim to reach a new audience, enhance your brand’s image, or sell products on Tiktok, it’s crucial to have a reason for your efforts. You can use a framework like S.M.A.R.T goals or another method to set objectives.
5. Figure out your promotion strategy
Apart from dedicating time and effort to build your branded TikTok profile and craft videos, you can boost your TikTok marketing strategy through influencer collaborations and paid advertising.
Influencer marketing on TikTok helps expose your brand and products in front of someone else’s audience, acting as a form of social validation. To incorporate TikTok influencers into your marketing approach, you should identify influencers within the platform who resonate with your industry and target audience. Then, you can contact and deal with them in exchange for a video showcasing their experience and genuine feedback.
Regarding paid advertising, TikTok Ads Manager offers a suite of tools to enhance the visibility of your ads among a specific audience. There are many types of ads you can use to promote your brands and services, such as in-feed ads, Topview ads or search ads, and more. To learn more about TikTok ads, you can check our article about TikTok advertising guide.
6. Create high-quality content and post regularly
When planning a TikTok marketing strategy, you cannot ignore planning your content. Here are some points you should consider when creating videos on TikTok
- Ideas research: You can get trending ideas for the content when making a marketing strategy of TikTok by exploring the videos on your “For You” page and checking out the TikTok Discover page.
- Video length: TikTok allows users to post long videos up to 3 minutes. However, more than 60 seconds can overwhelm viewers. Therefore, it’s wise to keep your video content concise and engaging. You better aim for an average duration of around 15-20 seconds for the best results.
- Video types: Variety in your content is essential. Once you discover different TikTok trends, you should experience nearly all of that with relevant content. For businesses like you, here are some ideas you can use to make a video:
- Your team in the process of creating your product;
- Your product showcase in action;
- Funny videos using popular sound clips.
Once you have ideas and videos in hand, your job in marketing strategy for TikTok now is when to post them. You should post videos on TikTok daily and consistently. Start by posting at least twice a week, and increase your frequency. TikTok suggests sharing content 1-4 times per day to maximize your reach.
7. Monitor and track your performance
Analytics provide an excellent place to begin your TikTok marketing strategy. They also serve as a straightforward method to assess the effectiveness of your tactics. Make it a habit to review your analytics at least once a month to evaluate your marketing on Tiktok’s progress toward achieving your objectives.
Among the most valuable metrics to monitor are:
- Video views;
- Growth rate;
- Trending Videos;
- Average watch time;
10 Takeaway Tips for Using TikTok for Marketing
Now that you know how to use TikTok for business marketing. It’s time to start implementing your plan to make a profound marketing strategy for TikTok. While sharing your marketing content on TikTok, remember these valuable TikTok tips and recommended practices.
1. Be authentic
In the bustling TikTok platform, being authentic is crucial to make your content stand out. You should avoid creating videos that come across as sales pitches because that’s different from what TikTok users are seeking. People come to TikTok to be entertained or informed, not to be bombarded with sales. So even when you plan your TikTok ads for TikTok marketing strategy, you should note what content you should make.
Big companies like Chipotle and Wendy’s connect well with followers. They act normal, unlike sales ads, for a more authentic connection with their followers.
2. Start TikTok LIVE
Another tip for TikTok marketing strategy to establish a genuine connection with your audience involves making the most of TikTok’s LIVE feature. This feature enables creators to engage directly with their followers through live streaming. This is an excellent way to stand out on TikTok.
When you begin a live stream, TikTok sends a notification to your followers, and your stream gets prominently featured at the top of their For You page. Considering the vast number of creators on the platform, this level of visibility is extremely valuable. TikTok actively promotes this live-streaming feature, and you’ll find it surprisingly simple to use.
You can learn more about TikTok Live with helpful tips by checking our guide on how to go LIVE on TikTok.
3. Join in the trends
Joining trends is what you should not miss out on when making your TikTok marketing strategy. Before you share content, browse TikTok’s Discover page to see if you can create content that aligns with the day’s TikTok trends or hashtag challenges. TikTok’s algorithm favors this approach and can increase your number of followers.
Plus, if you notice a particular trending TikTok sound appearing on your For You page repeatedly, you should try using it in one of your videos. You can also save it as one of your favorite sounds for future use as you brainstorm new ideas.
4. Use TikTok features in your posts
TikTok frequently introduces new features, like animated GIF stickers, titles, effects, and filters, which users widely utilize. Since the algorithm’s workings remain concealed, it’s wise to concentrate on utilizing these novel tools to maintain an appealing feed for your audience.
We recommend exploring TikTok’s beta program, which might grant you access to brand-new content creation tools yet to be available to most users. That will help you do marketing on TikTok better, stay at the forefront of the platform’s innovations and gain a competitive edge over others.
5. Employ TikTok SEO
TikTok SEO plays a vital role in your TikTok marketing strategy because TikTok is becoming more like a search engine. For creators aiming to grow their TikTok audience in their marketing strategy, it’s crucial to ensure that your content is easy to find. In simpler terms, having a TikTok SEO guide and plan is essential to make the most of the platform’s search feature and reach a broader audience.
Moreover, if you’re involved in selling products through TikTok Shop, TikTok SEO is significant. SEO impacts how well your promotional videos and products rank on the shopping tab, similar to other top marketplaces for selling products.
Do you intend to start your business with TikTok Shop? Check out our article about how to set up TikTok Shop.
6. Engage with the audience in the comments
TikTok’s algorithm works wonders in putting your video in front of potential followers based on user interaction. So, when you plan your TikTok marketing strategies, add a point of diving into all the comments and interacting with your viewers if possible.
You can also show appreciation by liking comments that don’t necessarily require a written response. Though engaging with comments is a crucial part of the TikTok experience, few brands prioritize this. So if you can do so, it will set you apart.
7. Create Fun video content
When making short-form video content, your TikTok marketing strategy’s focus should be on entertaining your audience. According to Marketing Week, a majority of Gen Z (74%) and individuals aged 26 and above (72%) express their desire for brands to deliver humorous content. These findings reveal an opportunity to take risks and have fun by creating new video types you may not have explored before, such as dance challenges.
TikTok’s video editing tool provides many native effects that you can use for your TikTok social media marketing. It helps enhance your content and make it more appealing to your audience. You can have a blast using stickers or emojis to craft fun and trendy videos or convey information with text.
8. Make full-screen vertical videos
Here’s an easy TikTok marketing strategy when making videos that can significantly improve your conversion rates. When creating new TikTok ads, you should make full-screen vertical videos designed for the platform.
Most TikTok users view content in portrait mode, so to boost engagement and conversions, your creative assets should align with this. Plus, TikTok data indicates that videos in a 9:16 aspect ratio can result in a 91% increase in conversions. So, shooting and editing TikTok videos in a 9:16 aspect ratio benefits your TikTok marketing strategy.
9. Use Custom Audiences on TikTok
Standard TikTok audiences can bring about favorable results for your business. However, if you want to boost performance and enhance your conversions significantly, Custom Audiences should be your go-to choice.
Custom Audiences can be a potent tool for TikTok marketers as they enable you to reach high-value prospects on a large scale. Since you already know these users are acquainted with your brand, you can utilize more sales-oriented messaging to drive conversions.
There are several types of Custom Audiences available on TikTok:
- Customer file: Upload your existing customer files to direct your TikTok ads to current customers.
- Engagement: Retarget users who have previously interacted with your ad campaigns.
- App activity: Retarget users who have performed specific actions within your app.
- Website traffic: Retarget users who have visited your website or completed specific actions.
- Lead generation: Retarget users who have engaged with your Lead Generation ads or filled out a lead form.
- Business account audience: Retarget users who have interacted with your TikTok account or organic content.
10. Create high-resolution video for ads
There are numerous data-driven strategies to boost your TikTok conversions, including retargeting Custom Audiences and doing TikTok SEO. However, sometimes, it’s the simple elements of TikTok marketing strategy that can significantly enhance your conversion rate, such as the quality of your video ads.
High-resolution video ads not only appear more attractive to potential customers but also have a direct impact on your conversion rates. TikTok data reveals that videos shot at 720p resolution or higher experience a remarkable 312% increase in conversions compared to lower-resolution content.
To increase audience engagement and make a mark in a crowded feed, create high-resolution TikTok video ads that exude a professional appearance.
TikTok Marketing Strategy Case Study: 5 Marketing Brand Examples to Your Inspiration
Do you wonder what a successful marketing strategy on TikTok will be like? Find inspiration in these five instances of online retail companies excelling on TikTok.
1. Chipotle
The beloved southwestern fast-food chain Chipotle has garnered significant attention on TikTok. They received a boost from TikTok food influencers who reviewed some of their unconventional menu items.
Their TikTok marketing strategy all began when TikTok users Alexis Frost and Keith Lee reviewed a meal not listed on the regular menu and gave it a glowing review. This led to Chipotle customers rushing to their local stores to try this special meal. That resulted in some locations needing more certain components of the order due to high demand.
2. Duolingo
The Duolingo owl mascot is well-known within the app. It has long been known for its somewhat “persistent” image among Duolingo language learners. Their TikTok marketing campaign has cleverly used this perception in their TikTok content. They prominently feature the owl mascot in nearly every video, resulting in a substantial amount of attention and engagement.
3. Send A Friend
Send A Friend is a shop that allows you to send adorable stuffed animals to people worldwide. With the help of the link-in-bio feature, Send A Friend expanded its sales to $5 million within two years. Send A Friend has used the trend of “TikTok made me buy it” in their TikTok marketing strategy while showcasing content created by its followers and customers.
4. Dr. Squatch
Another brand finding success in the personal grooming sector is Dr. Squatch, a company that produces natural, handcrafted grooming items, with its soaps being its most renowned products. Dr. Squatch adopts a more TikTok marketing strategy when creating content for TikTok. They incorporate a Sasquatch mascot and utilize popular audio or videos currently trending on the platform.
TikTok Marketing Strategy: FAQs
TikTok is a fantastic marketing platform because it’s entirely focused on videos. If your content resonates with the audience, you’ll get good engagement quickly. That means you can easily go viral on TikTok as long as you can make good content videos. Plus, if you want to connect with a younger crowd, TikTok is a valuable resource for marketing since a significant 62% of its users are aged from 10 to 29. To create effective TikTok marketing strategies, follow the steps below: TikTok is a valuable tool for social media marketing, accessible to nearly any business. If you run a small business, these tips can help you achieve better engagement.
It’s time to build your own TikTok Marketing Strategies
Even though TikTok has become more crowded with time, and the algorithm keeps evolving, the core principles of TikTok’s marketing strategy haven’t changed. They are being authentic, posting regularly, engaging with your audience, and creating top-notch content.
Just remember that, like with any social media marketing, starting is often the most challenging part. The TikTok community is remarkably supportive, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your followers can become your devoted fans and customers.
If you want to learn more about TikTok for business, visit our Blog for more guides, such as how to set up a TikTok Shop or how to use TikTok for business. Also, We have an active community for e-sellers to stay updated on the industry and eCommerce tips. Come join us.
If you need any help, don’t hesitate to contact us. LitCommerce is here to assist you around the clock.
