MARKETING AND ADVERTISING ON TIKTOK
What is Tiktok?
TikTok is a social media platform for creating, sharing, and discovering short videos. TikTok is mainly made up of short-form video content, which poses a great opportunity for tourism businesses to show snapshots of their business in a fun and unique way to the younger generation. The app gives young people a platform to express themselves through lip-syncing, dancing, comedy, and singing. Users may also make films and share them with the community. TikTok was created by Chinese tech giant ByteDance and was first released in September 2016 under the name “Douyin,” which was marketed as a video-sharing social networking service. Despite only being released in 2016, TikTok now has over 500 million active users and has dominated the social media scene for the past year by inspiring viral dances.
I. TIKTOK MARKETING
TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform we’ve seen thus far, reaching 1 billion users in September 2021, a record five years since its worldwide launch in 2016. For comparison, it took eight years for both Facebook and Instagram to hit that milestone. With a platform as wildly popular as TikTok, you want to make sure you’re creating a presence for your brand so you can reach and engage some of those billion users.
TikTok marketing is the process of using TikTok and TikTok content to promote your brand and its products or services. Easily build up your own online presence through the use of short-form video content that engages your audience and helps show off your business offerings. The impact of TikTok in today’s generation is totally wide. The products and services will improve its demand more since it will be showcased worldwide through this app.
How to create a TikTok business account:
Before you create a TikTok business account you first need to know the difference between a TikTok business vs. Creator account.
Here are a few of the main differences:
- Business accounts get access to business tools like ads and analytics
- Business accounts get limited access to sound clips
- Business accounts get the ability to create an ecommerce storefront
- Business accounts can use third-party tools to schedule and manage TikTok content
- Business accounts can add a website link to their profile
- TikTok business accounts don’t have access to the full sound library, but the additional tools far outweigh that.
To create your TikTok business account follow along with these quick steps:
Step 1. Download the TikTok app and create a new account
Step 2. Go to your TikTok profile and tap the hamburger menu in the top right corner
Step 3. Tap Settings and privacy
Step 4. Tap Manage account.
Step 5. Tap Switch to Business Account
Step 6. Choose the category that best corresponds with your business type
And voila! You now have a business profile and can get started optimizing your account to appeal to your target audience.
6 tips for building your TikTok Marketing Strategy
Ready to dive in and learn more about how to create a TikTok marketing strategy and build a large following on the platform? While you likely won’t be “TikTok famous” overnight, these six tips will help you get on the best path to success.
1. Create and brand your TikTok account
We’ve walked through how to create your TikTok business account. The next step is to fully optimize and brand it so that it’s recognizable alongside the rest of your social media profiles.
To brand your TikTok account, tap Edit Profile, then fill out the following:
Profile photo or video: TikTok lets you add a video for your profile avatar. Make sure this is a high-res version of your logo if you choose to add profile photo. If you want to do video, consider creating an animated version of your logo.
Name: Your business name.
Username: This should also be your business name (if possible) with no spaces.
Pronouns: If you’re a sole proprietor you might want to input your pronouns.
Bio: You have 80 characters to give a quick synopsis of what your business does.
Email: Input your company’s contact email.
Nonprofit: If your business works with or supports a nonprofit, you can tag them right in your profile.
Category: You may have already done this when creating your business account, but if not, select the category that best represents your industry.
Social: Connect your Instagram and/or YouTube accounts.
2. Define your TikTok audience
To be successful on TikTok, you have to know who you want to target with your content. Otherwise, you might get great reach and engagement, but it won’t translate into sales or subscriptions—which is fun but means nothing for your business’s bottom line.
TikTok skews towards a much younger audience, with a quarter of all of their userbase between the ages of 10-19. However, we can see that there’s still a large number of 20-49 year olds on the platform, with usage dropping off at age to50. So while TikTok is definitely for younger audiences, you still need to dig a bit deeper than that. Think about the demographics you want target. Conduct some of your own social media market research, then consider putting together a customer persona that showcases exactly who your business’s target audience is.
3. Create quality TikTok videos
Your next step is to learn how to make a good TikTok video. First, start by doing a big of hands-on research. Unless you’re already an avid TikTok watcher, spend some time getting to know the platform and looking at the types of videos that pop up on your “For You” page.
When it comes to TikTok, you need to test a variety of different video types to discover what’s going to resonate with your audience. Diversity across your profile is key. Try filming your team creating the product. Showcase your product in action. Create funny videos using popular sound bytes.
4. Use ads in your TikTok marketing strategy
If you want to reach an even wider audience, allocate some of your social media advertising budget towards TikTok ads. The cost for these is based on bids, just like how you pay for Facebook and Instagram ads. You’ll choose your target audience, create a fun video ad then promote it based on your specified daily or lifetime budget.
5. Tap into TikTok influencer marketing
Another popular TikTok marketing tactic is to work with influencers. There are thousands of influencers and content creators that partner with brands on TikTok to create fun, engaging video content that both spreads the word about new brands and also provides said brand with user-generated content to share on their own social media channels.
A few TikTok influencer marketing tactics include:
- Sending your product to influencers.
- Sending your product to influencers.
- Collaborate on a video.
- Partner on a new product line.
6. Monitor TikTok analytics to track performance
The last tip is to pay attention to your TikTok analytics. You only get access to this if you switch to a business account, and it can be a huge help in pinpointing your most popular videos and when the best time to post each day is.
Some of the best metrics to track include:
- Video views
- Growth rate
- Trending videos
- Average watch time
II.SMALL BUSINESSES THAT BLEW UP ON TIKTOK
It is crucial for business owners in the small business community to take full use of our online platforms, such as Tiktok. These are a few of Tiktok’s outstanding small businesses. Get ready to start marketing your own small company on TikTok after being inspired by these TikTok small business success stories.
DBL Jewelry
When Liv was 16 years old, she launched the jewelry company DBL Jewelry in her home to help support her parents and other family members in the Philippines. Her first creations were wire-based personalized name necklaces made from a single piece. Her handcrafted necklaces quickly became popular on TikTok, and her followers enjoyed watching her create them. Her business, DBL Jewelry, became well-known in 2021. Now that Liv is a 21-year-old CEO, sales are expected to surpass $10 million in 2022 for one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” companies.
Sider’s Woodcrafting
Taking photos of dramatic before-and-after alterations is another incredibly well-liked TikTok trend. Users enjoy the delight of noticeable cleansing or hair changes. This may help to explain why it is so fascinating to see Bruce Graybill transform a fallen tree into a lovely cutting board. But fans of Bruce don’t just watch to see his creations. Additionally, he is open and talkative, entering the comments to respond to queries. Consider the one where he acknowledges being perplexed by a novel device. Take Bruce’s advice and describe your most dramatic before-and-afters (which is a highly relevant experience for most small company owners).
Designs by Felicia
Behind-the-scenes videos are shared by creators like @designsbyfelicias. It works effectively to demonstrate packing and shipping procedures in part because other small company owners are interested in it. Felicia’s audience like her straightforward aesthetic and seeing her creative process from start to finish. Her videos include a wide range of topics, such as packaging orders and an ASMR unboxing of a new printer for her business. The lesson? What viewers will like viewing is always a mystery! So don’t be scared to try out various material kinds and forms.
III.TIKTOK MARKETING AND ADVERTISING TIPS AND TRICKS
These days, most people spend their time on TikTok. TikTok offers a brilliant opportunity for marketers to reach younger audiences around the globe, in a highly creative and playful environment. Many marketing strategies can be made and advertising products will be better using TikTok. Marketing on TikTok makes their products popular and earns more profits. Advertising products on TikTok make the promotion of products easier and it will be a big benefit for their business.
TikTok Marketing Strategy Tips:
- Use Suitable Hashtags
- Follow Current TikTok Trends
- Incorporate TikTok Influencers in Your Campaign
- Comment Regularly and Encourage Comments on Your Posts
- Post Often
- Use TikTok Effects in Your Posts
- Make Interesting Videos with Clear Descriptions
- Use TikTok Ads
- Set a Hashtag Challenge
- Blend in Branded Content
Benefits of TikTok Marketing and Advertising
TikTok marketing is the practice of using TikTok to promote a brand, product or service. It can include different tactics, like influencer marketing, TikTok advertising and creating organic viral content. If you’re looking for a place to start and have some money to invest, this is it—TikTok’s site is full of success stories from brands that started advertising on TikTok, including Aerie, Little Caesars and Maybelline. Similar to Facebook and Instagram, the cost of TikTok ads is based on a bidding model.
TikTok marketing can help businesses:
- Increase brand awareness
- Build engaged communities
- Sell products and services
- Get feedback from customers and audiences
- Provide customer service
- Advertise products and services to target audiences
Benefits of TikTok Advertising
- Huge audience base
- Great user engagement
- Local creators
- Early advantage of TikTok Ads
- Ads play automatical
TikTok Live-Selling
Home purchasing has advanced considerably, and it has now jumped onto TikTok. Users of TikTok may watch live video and shop using the app’s live shopping feature. Not for the first time, a social media platform has enabled live shopping. When a new product is featured by the company sponsoring the live shopping events, a button appears on the screen, allowing viewers to click it and make a purchase while the event is being streamed. It’s a good idea to learn some basic practices for recording any form of live video on social media before you start your first TikTok live shopping event.
Be Inspired: ZHANG YIMING
Zhang Yiming the chinese internet entrepreneur. In addition to creating the news aggregator Toutiao and the video-sharing website TikTok, formerly known as Musical.ly, he created ByteDance in 2012. Zhang’s personal worth was predicted to be $44.5 billion in 2022 by Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Beijing ByteDance Technology Company, one of China’s leading internet technology conglomerates, was founded and is led by Zhang Yiming. With its unrivaled capacity to appeal to younger social media users, Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. is swiftly surpassing other online content platforms. Among the applications in ByteDance’s portfolio are TikTok, a video-based social networking app that is swiftly gaining popularity among Gen-Z, and Toutiao, a well-known content platform in China. ByteDance, which was founded in 2012 and has a $75 billion market valuation and around 1 billion monthly users worldwide, is regarded by some as the most valuable start-up in the world.
Zhang Yiming gained employment at a startup soon after graduating, where he developed important skills that would later serve as the cornerstone of his own business. He claims, “I worked at Kuxun as one of the earliest workers. The young entrepreneur has become one of the decade’s rising leaders thanks to his rapid growth and natural ability to master new skills. At first, he was just an ordinary engineer, but by the second year, he was overseeing 40 to 50 people who were in charge of back-end technology and other tasks related to products. While still working at Kuxun in his first employment, Zhang Yiming understood the need of striving for quality in all of his goods. “At that time, I was in charge of the technology, but when the product encountered issues, I would actively take part in the product plan conversation,” he stated. Many people tell me that I should not be doing this. However, I want to emphasize that your feeling of accountability and desire to do things properly will motivate you to take on greater responsibilities and acquire experience. The fact that we are not in the news business is crucial, according to Zhang Yiming. “We resemble a search engine or social media platform more than anything else. We are working really creatively. With regard to both our products and our technology, we are not a U.S. corporation copycat.
The platform’s goal is to help online brands unleash their creative side by guiding them through the process of creating authentic ads that will earn them views, engagement, and brand awareness. The Ads Manager platform’s e-learning center teaches advertisers how to create ads on the platform. TikTok’s sole marketing format for businesses looking to grow their brands is advertisement. Marketers can use the Ads Manager platform to create these ads, and they can choose from five different formats.
There are numerous advantages to using TikTok to promote your business. TikTok for Business, with its predominantly youthful demographic, will assist you in connecting and interacting with the younger members of your audience. The user interaction and participation with your content is the most important aspect of TikTok marketing. TikTok challenges serve as an invitation for users to make their own videos about your brand. UGC on TikTok boosts your brand’s credibility and helps you attract customers. (Advantages)
However, while TikTok has over one billion active users, not all of them are potential customers for your company. Since the app’s inception in 2016, Gen Z users have dominated it, and this trend shows no signs of abating. That’s not to say older users haven’t noticed TikTok, but the majority of brands that have found success on the platform cater to a younger demographic. (Disadvantages)
TikTok advertising can be prohibitively expensive for small businesses. This is due to the fact that TikTok ads are created by professional video editors who are skilled at creating short, attention-grabbing videos. While TikTok has in-app editing tools, they are not as advanced as those used by professional editors. Standing out on TikTok can be difficult for small businesses. The solution is to create interesting and creative content that tells a story and grabs people’s attention. To stay top of mind, use relevant keywords and hashtags and post frequently.
