In its essence, TikTok is a rapidly growing application used to share and post videos using a range of different sounds and music.
Since its release, it has seen 1.5 billion downloads on the AppStore and Google Play. With its random sort list of videos on the ‘For You Page’ TikTok offers an endless supply of unique content from creators.
The genres of TikTok videos are limitless, from tutorials to workout routines to cosplay or lip-syncing and comedic skits, the application truly offers everyone some sort of interest and entertainment.
With this widespread audience and high engagement rate, creating a solid TikTok Marketing strategy is a great way to market and publicise your business.
Create your own content
TikTok allows users to create videos that vary in length, therefore the content created must be engaging and effective to draw the audience in and sell your story in this brief amount of time.
Planning is essential, know the age group that you are aiming your videos towards and create accordingly. The demographics of TikTok users show that the most engaging age group on the platform fall in the 16 to 25-year-old category. Additionally, videos featuring children and pets are the most popular amongst this group with over 2,000 videos going viral on a daily basis.
What do we mean by viral content? Viral content is online content that achieves a high level of awareness due to shares and exposure on social media networks such as TikTok. The aim is to create content that will be entertaining and enjoyable to view so that your target audience intuitively shares and promotes your video for free.
TikTok is constantly changing and evolving and creating content that will ultimately resonate with the average audience can prove harder than imagined. With popular videos quickly coming in and out of trend, it is important to keep up to date with what is currently trending on TikTok.
How do I keep on top of TikTok trends?
The platform is here to help, simply click the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of your screen and see all of the trending sounds and hashtags that are most popular amongst TikTok users.
By using some of these suggested hashtags and sounds, it will be easier for your account to appear on people’s feed, also known as the FYP (For You Page) and therefore be seen by users on the app.
Content does not need to have amazing image resolution, visual quality or after-effects, keeping it simple but entertaining will engage your audience considerably more.
By simply using your phone to film, the videos will seem more raw and authentic which are key factors to win viewers trust in your business/personal brand.
How do I best utilise hashtags on Tiktok?
Not only are hashtags essential when understanding trending posts, but they can also be used to promote your business.
There is an array of ‘challenges’ that are made weekly on TikTok. Each of these challenge videos has a specific hashtag defining them and are re-created by viewers, for example, the ‘flip the switch’ challenge.
This viral challenge involved two people who record themselves, turn off and on the light switch and they have swapped clothes. The #fliptheswitch challenge has been recreated by thousands of influencers and over 529 million people have searched the hashtag.
You could either use these challenges to re-create and feature your products in them, for example, if you work in retail and sell gym clothes, you could produce a ‘flip the switch’ video swapping outfits showing your products.
Or, alternatively, you could create your own challenge, taking the gym-wear example you could produce a press-up challenge where you feature someone wearing your products for promotion purposes and simply hashtag the video post accordingly.
Create & share user-generated content
User-generated content is a marketing technique which relies on the audience getting involved, resulting in them promoting your brand.
It’s become very clear that this generation of teens and young adults (the main age group on TikTok) engage a lot more with content when they are able to contribute and interact with it. What CEEK marketers call a fully immersive experience.
To create user-generated content, the brand must either use their own business accounts or work with influencers to encourage followers and users to promote their brand online.
The company should find a way to motivate users to share videos of them using or interacting with the company’s products, always utilising a consistent hashtag.
The results are effective, the more videos of people using your product on the platform, the more people will notice your brand and consequently hop over to your website.
A TikTok marketing case study we love that has carried this marketing technique is Nike. If you search the hashtag #Nike you’ll see that over 929 million people have viewed the hashtag with countless gifs and videos created, either wearing Nike products or showing Nike haul or Nike outfit inspirations.
User-generated content is free marketing, it brings considerable amounts of brand recognition, gets users involved and results in great brand promotion.
Advertise on TikTok
As social media becomes more and more popular, its opening doors for marketers to bring in revenue through ads. Here are four ways that TikTok allows you to pay for ads on the app:
#BRAND TAKEOVERS
A brand takeover ad is an ad which will appear full screen to users when they first click on the TikTok application or log in. They will see this ad before any other creators content.
The brand takeover can be a video or Gif that lasts from 3-5 seconds. If clicked, the viewer will be redirected onto the company’s website.
Using brand takeovers as your advertisement of choice means your engagement rates will increase dramatically, each ad has a specifically optimised time slot in the day when they will appear in order to reach a large audience.
#NATIVE ADS
Native ads appear as videos embedded on the FYP. They can be between 9 and 15 seconds long and they automatically play with music or the sound used when created. These ads also have buttons that the viewer can click to direct them onto the brand website. Whilst users can simply skip or scroll past these ads, a user can like, comment and share them with others which would, therefore, promote your business even further.
#SPONSORED HASHTAG CONTEST
A business can pay to sponsor a hashtag challenge which is currently trending on the FYP. This means that your business banner will be seen across the discovery page. When the banner or hashtag is clicked, the user will be taken to a video created by the business explaining the challenge whilst also promoting their brand.
One brand that successfully used the sponsored hashtag to benefit their business was Samsung who created and sponsored the #GalaxyA shortly after bringing out their newest GalaxyA smartphone. The video created by them encouraged users to use the hashtag when using the Galaxy A features on TikTok. The Galaxy A hashtag currently has 158 million views and thousands of videos created using the hashtag.
#BRANDED LENSES
Like many other social media platforms, TikTok supplies lenses and filters for users to use when recording a video. These filters or lenses can appear as 2D or 3D and make videos more aesthetically pleasing.
There are a range of lenses available, for example, ones that add makeup and accessories, or amusing ones that distort a face.
Businesses can create their own lenses and use the feature to their advantage. Their logo could be placed on the side of the screen, or it could be made opaque so that the logo can cover the whole screen.
There are so many choices available, but as long as your logo can be seen, your brand is being promoted and will gain a larger audience. The lense is automatically added to the top 10 trending lenses list, meaning everyone has access to it.
#DEVELOP INFLUENCER CONTENT
As seen on other social media platforms like Youtube and Instagram, influencer marketing has an amazing success rate for brand promotion. Similarly, using influencers on TikTok to recommend and urge viewers to view your products is a great way to gain more brand recognition.
As with all influencer campaigns, it’s a two-way system and brands must be ready to offer Influencers benefits and value in return for their promotional work. This promotion could include making videos talking about the positives of your products, tagging your profile, and linking your website in their description.
Picking an influencer to promote your brand is a process that should be thought about and considered in depth. A lot of TikTok influencers have a huge following but might not necessarily get the same level of views, likes and comments, so it is important to look into their engagement rates before making any decisions. It’s also essential to be strategic when deciding who to partner with, ensure your products match with their genre of videos created.
