TikTok has exploded in popularity in the last few years. With the platform continuing to grow, marketing teams are looking for ways to utilize the platform to reach their audience and engage them with the right TikTok marketing strategies.
As of this year, the short-form video app has become one of the most beloved apps in the world, with approximately 689 million users across the globe:
- 600 million users in China (though the app is under the name Douyin).
- 100 million users in the U.S.
- 100 million users in the U.K.
- TikTok’s dispersion is predicted to equal that of Snapchat in the U.S. by 2024.
- TikTok’s largest user growth in 2020 happened in Norway (248.7% growth), followed by Russia (140.9%) and Italy (104.5%). The U.S. saw an 85.3% growth in 2020.
With the app’s popularity predicted to continue growing, now is the time to start looking into the best TikTok marketing strategies worth adopting as part of your social media marketing efforts. However, before we dive into the best strategies to adopt, let’s first quickly go over the basics of the app.
What is TikTok?
The TikTok app allows users to record and share short-form videos, either on their own or with a group of users. The videos, which can be anywhere between 15 seconds and three minutes, are uploaded to the app, where users can like, comment, and subscribe to other users’ videos.
The free mobile app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which also owns musical.ly, another popular short-form video app.
Like most social media platforms, TikTok has its own unique culture. The app has its own memes, and the most popular videos are those that are creative and funny. Most of the videos feature users dancing to popular songs, lip-syncing to a song, or doing a comedy skit. These short-form clips are often just enough to draw users in and keep them scrolling for more. In fact, research shows that as of March 2020, the average TikTok user in the U.S. spent approximately 858 minutes a month on the app.
TikTok is a great platform for brands to reach their target audience, but only if they know what they are doing.
Do You Belong on TikTok?
While the app is a great platform for brands to market themselves on, it’s important to remember that just because the app is popular, doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for your brand.
For instance, 69% of U.S. users are young people between the ages of 10-39 years of age. So, if you’re audience is primarily made up of older B2B buyers, then TikTok may not be the right fit for your brand. However, if you’re a B2C brand with an audience in their late teens to early 20s, you can expect to see some pretty impressive results with the right marketing strategy in place.
For instance, research shows that TikTok has the highest social media engagement rate per post (17.96%) than any other social media platform.
Now that we’ve established that TikTok is a great platform for brands to market themselves on, let’s go over some of the best TikTok marketing strategies worth adopting as part of your social media marketing efforts…
1. Create a Branded TikTok Account
The first thing to do is create a branded TikTok account.
Your branded TikTok account will be where all your content is. You can post branded videos, host giveaways, and even create polls for your audience to engage with.
Your TikTok account should be “branded” in its own unique way. Here, you can use the same branding elements you use for your other social media pages, such as color schemes, fonts, and icons.
2. Leverage Branded Hashtag Challenges
With TikTok, it’s not just about posting branded videos. It’s also about participating in branded hashtag challenges.
Hashtag challenges are a fun way to get your audience to engage with you as well as with other TikTok users. These challenges make it easy for users to find branded videos and participate in the challenge.
An excellent example is the current #TakisTransformation sweepstakes. Here are the rules:
This challenge is a branded hashtag challenge that encourages users to post videos of them doing something creative, funny, or unique to show the intensity of Takis Fuego’s flavor. Then, encourages users to tag the Takis TikTok account in their video, creating an advertisement for the company.
3. Use TikTok Shoppable Tags
TikTok Shoppable Tags is a limited feature (still being tested and only available to a limited number of users at this time) that allows you to create a link in your videos that leads to a product or landing page. By adding a clickable link in TikTok videos, users are given the opportunity to purchase products from the comfort of their mobile device.
4. Add a Call to Action in Your Videos
Just like any social media platform, make sure your branded TikTok videos include a call to action. These are prompts that encourage your audience to take action, such as liking, commenting, and sharing the video. You can even encourage them to visit a product page.
A great call to action is the latest SimlishSessions posted by Bebe Rexha. In her post, she asks followers to do this:
“Duet “Sabotage” with me in Simlish! #simlishsessions #SponsoredbyEA”
If users follow the simlishsessions hashtag, it brings them to the challenge page and allows them to download the Sims 4 game to partake in the Sims Sessions festivities alongside Bebe Rexha, Glass Animals, and Joy Oladokun.
5. Use the Like Feature to Your Advantage
The “like” feature is one of the most overlooked features on TikTok. However, it can be a great way to encourage your audience to engage with your branded TikTok videos.
Here, you can create a branded hashtag challenge that encourages your audience to “like” your video. You can even go one step further and reward those who “like” your video with special prizes or exclusive perks.
Wrapping It Up
TikTok is an excellent platform for brands to market themselves on. With its popularity predicted to continue growing, now is the best time for brands to start looking into the best TikTok marketing strategies worth adopting as part of their social media marketing efforts. Since the platform is still relatively young, marketers can play around and test different marketing strategies to see what works best for them. Finally, know that the five tips I suggested above are only a sample of the possible marketing strategies that can be adopted.
