Almost all online businesses are absorbed in expanding their audiences through subscribers and followers. All Facebook and Instagram business accounts are developed to attract more fans. Yet, TikTok offers a completely different approach. TikTok’s algorithms value content over the number of followers. This means that any content created by any user has the potential to become viral and reach millions of people.
So, how do you use TikTok as a marketing tool? First of all, you need to increase engagement on TikTok and you can buy TikTok followers to do that instantly. However, there are several organic ways too. We have gathered some of the best practices to help you figure out how to do marketing on TikTok and promote your brand through it.
1. Create entertaining content
On TikTok, funny content equals viral content. The platform is not a suitable place for your common big-budget video ads. Your videos need to be fun and entertaining in order to reach the maximum number of users.
While creating TikTok videos, you do not need to hire a professional production team. Your content can even be recorded on a smartphone. The only thing that matters is your creativity and sense of humor.
The content you create majorly depends upon your industry and product type. Comedy skits, dancing videos, product demonstrations, and music covers perform particularly well on TikTok. Alternatively, you can also create beauty or fashion tips. There are just innumerable content options! For example, if you own a photography website, you can create fun collages highlighting your works accompanied by a trending and viral soundtrack.
2. Utilize in-feed advertising
TikTok’s in-feed content ads are similar to Snapchat and Instagram story ads. In-feed ads are short advertising videos that are displayed in the user’s Discovery feed in between other videos. They grab all of the users’ attention because they appear on the full screen. Yet, if they do not seem interesting, users have the right to skip them.
Even though in-feed ads appear for only a few seconds on the screen, it is important to make the first impression right and redirect viewers to take action to visit your profile. You can embed a link to your TikTok profile, brand’s landing page, or your app in the in-feed ad.
3. Collaborate with influencers
When you collaborate with social media influencers, you will see the true marketing magic. They can help introduce your brand and promote it to the TikTok community, especially if you are new to the platform.
Partnership with influencers is a great way to grow your business. You can even target Gen Z as they are typically averse to any type of traditional advertisement. Make sure you collaborate with only those influencers whose audience aligns with your target audience and who advertise the same values as your brand does.
4. Use Suitable Hashtags
Like on other social media networks such as Instagram and Twitter, TikTok users rely on hashtags to showcase their videos and search for others’ content by subject. If users click on the “Discover” option at the bottom of the screen, they would see a list of videos sorted by all the trending hashtags.
Using hashtags on TikTok has various benefits for brands and we have listed some of them below:
- To amplify the reach of your content
- To identify competitors
- To get more tiktok followers
Though you should include relevant hashtags, avoid using the most popular generic hashtags. Your videos will probably become swamped in a sea of content. Use somewhat less popular hashtags too in the captions of your videos relevant to their content, so that your target audience could see them.
Also, remember that TikTok isn’t Instagram where you can use 21 hashtags in a single video. Try to keep them as less as possible otherwise, they will take away the effect of your videos.
5. Branded lenses and effects
Today, users can change their environments with social media using different lenses and filters. On TikTok, users can create and add 2D and 3D AR (Augmented Reality) lenses and effects. In fact, creating and launching your branded lenses on TikTok is a great way to promote yourself within the platform. Besides, it can help you boost your brand awareness and user engagement.
With branded lenses and effects, users can interact and play with your products. Let’s say you produce cosmetics. So, why not give users some “free samples” of your products in the form of AR? Create lenses that imitate makeup through your products and allow users to virtually use them.
All lenses and effects have high chances to reach the ‘hot’ and ‘trending’ tabs. They can stay there for a maximum of ten days so that more people can access them.
6. Make Interesting Videos with clear Descriptions
The length of a TikTok video can be up to 1 minute but you do not need your message to be too long to get across. You want your videos to be real and visually appealing, without making them look like they have been produced by a professional advertising agency (even if they are!)
If you have already started marketing on other social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, you can repurpose their content on TikTok. Make them fit within TikTok’s time duration limit and you are good to go.
For some of your videos, you might need to write descriptions as teasers of your videos. However, that time, try to keep them clear and concise. If possible, write it in such a way that it encourages people to comment on your post.
A good description is essential for SEO purposes also. In simple words, you want Tiktok to know about the content of your video so that it would appear at the top of the For You page and get shown to the relevant audience. Do not forget to use your most important keywords in the description.
7. Use TikTok Ads
Ads have always been the best type of promotional component for brands and businesses. TikTok now has an official advertising system that makes it easy to advertise on the platform. It offers three types of ads:
- In-feed native ads- These ads are closest to traditional ads on TikTok. You can add Order Now buttons and website links on the ad.
- Hashtag challenge ads – this ad serves as a banner ad to the user that takes him/her to the page of rules of the featured challenge.
- Brand takeover ads – These ads use a mix of images, video clips and GIFs, that link to a landing page or a hashtag challenge.
Conclusion
TikTok has grown to be a popular and useful marketing tool for brands and businesses. These 7 tips mentioned above might be able to help you use TikTok to its full potential.
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