How To Use TikTok
To Grow Your Business
The Benefits of TikTok Marketing
Over the past few years, TikTok has taken over the digital world, with an audience that is continuously growing. The newest viral social media network consists of short and creative videos of its users dancing, performing short comedy skits, lip syncing or mini-vlogs that are easy, fast and enjoyable to watch.
Most importantly, businesses should not pass on the opportunity of using TikTok as a marketing tool. Global Trends has cracked the code on how your business can thrive in the TikTok era.
1. What is TikTok?
You do not need to be a social media guru to know about the existence of TikTok. We can bet that you have likely already watched a 15 to 60 second TikTok video somewhere in the internet.
It’s a simple platform that is consumed by scrolling down through numerous bite-sized user-recorded videos of people dancing to viral songs, acting on funny sketches or showing a bit about their lives has become viral, especially among the younger generation (between the ages of 16 and 24) and heavily consumed by the Gen Z.
The platform is very user-friendly and allows its users to record and edit their own content within the app. A variety of songs, sound and video effects and editing options are available for creators to explore and unleash their imagination. However, TikTok has been steadily evolving from an entertainment platform made for creative users to a great opportunity for businesses to expand their marketing strategies.
2. Video Marketing
All marketers know that video is a powerful tool when it comes to marketing your business online. According to Invideo, 9 out of 10 video viewers in 2020 said that they wanted to see more videos from brands and businesses. Also, this year an average person spends around 100 minutes per day watching online videos. These statistics prove how powerful video marketing is and how we can explore this strategy with a short-video platform just like TikTok to increase brand awareness for your business.
Although you might start off TikTok without a big following, opposed to Instagram, the platform facilitates users to have their content going viral. In order to gain a big audience and engagement on the app, all you need to do is start off and post your first video. Using tools that can boost your visibility and increase the chances of going viral are heavily recommended. For example, after recording short clips of your product or service, consider adding a viral song that has been recently circulating in the platform as well as video effects.
Whilst video marketing can be costly and add up to your business expenses, the advantage of using TikTok for your business is that it can be used without any cost! You do not need a professional camera or equipment to make a big production for your campaigns.
3. TikTok Ads
Just like any other social media platform, TikTok offers paid advertising for businesses to promote their product or service. The platform has three different methods to promote your brand:
- Feed Ads (Brand Takeovers): Your ad will immediately pop up in the user’s feed before they get to see videos by other creators. These ads link to the advertiser’s landing page, which is great for increasing traffic for brands. However, according to Social Media Examiner, the time slots of the app for this type of advertisement is exclusive to different categories and only one ad can show in specific slots throughout the day.
- Feed Ads (Native Ads): This form of advertising is the most common and seen by users in the app. Your video will play in between users’ content while scrolling down their feed. They are short videos (from 9 to 15 seconds long), however, users have the option to skip and just scroll past them.
- Sponsored Hashtag Challenges: This is a big strategy originally created by TikTok that is heavily recommended to be used by businesses. When a new challenge comes out on the Discover page, millions of users can find it and join in. But where do businesses fit in this approach? By paying to sponsor a hashtag challenge, you will get a custom banner across the page. With that banner, every time a user taps it, they are directed to a video of your brand explaining how to accomplish the challenge, allowing you to promote your business.
4. Content Creator "Influencer" Marketing
Not surprisingly, another effective social media strategy adopted by most businesses is paying influencers to promote their brand. Just this year alone, interest in influencer marketing has risen by 325% on TikTok alone. Content creators have a large following and usually great engagement ratios that would bring more brand awareness, traffic and potentially sales conversions.
Therefore, being strategic with who you partner with is essential. By collaborating with content creators, you’ll get a unique angle on how to promote your brand. From creating videos talking about your product, featuring it in a comedy skit or doing a small haul, TikTok gives you the opportunity to unleash your creative side to promote your brand.
Just like we have seen on other social media platforms, influencer marketing is a very successful strategy, which also applies on TikTok!
With TikTok taking the world by storm, we now bet that you will not want to miss out on the endless marketing opportunities that the platform provides for businesses to grow their digital presence!