How To Leverage TikTok Marketing for Small Business

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This year, 24% of marketers considered TikTok effective for reaching their business goals. One year ago, only 3% of marketers believed that. The number of marketers who have faith in TikTok’s business potential shot up by 700% in just one year.

Young TikTok’s quick rise to fame has threatened the reins of many undisputed kings of the social world (read Facebook and Instagram). The switch from these platforms to the new TikTok has spurred these social giants into copying the ways introduced by the new kid on the block.

But despite its mind-blowing growth, is TikTok marketing worth tapping into your content strategy? Yes!

The platform has long been on the receiving end of mean jokes. Many adults have always looked down on TikTok as an app for kids with nothing better to do. But TikTok has powered through all the ridicule and become a force to be reckoned with.

If you are a business looking to grow digitally, TikTok is where your content should be.

Why use TikTok marketing in your content strategy?

TikTok has around 1 billion monthly active users. The app has been downloaded over 2 billion times. Marketing your content on TikTok helps you take your brand to a massive audience. But that’s just one of the reasons you should consider using TikTok for marketing. Here are some more:

1. Create content users love and reach the right audience

Customers today are spoilt for choice. They want their brands to be intuitive about their content preferences and bring them what they like.

These customers like short-form content. 73% of consumers prefer watching short videos over longer ones to learn about new products and services. TikTok is the trendsetter for short-form content. The platform enables brands to create 15 to 60-second videos that users have grown to love. This is the norm on the platform, which is how TikTok gives brands the right environment to create and deliver the content that users love.

Apart from that, the TikTok algorithm is designed to serve relevant content to the users. If a user repeatedly watches travel-related content, TikTok will likely take your travel agency’s holiday travel guide to this user. This way, your content gets to the people who matter the most to your brand.

2. Increased brand awareness and reach

TikTok is the breeding ground for viral content. Many of the world’s viral trends have stemmed from this platform. This reflects the platform’s potential to maximize content reach and drive brand awareness.

TikTok allows brands to gain traction and drive exposure through tools like hashtags. Users often search TikTok using hashtags, and popular hashtags typically get significant views. The most used hashtag on TikTok last year – “fyp” – amassed over 18 trillion views.

Therefore, serving the right kind of content with the right tools can help your content reach a massive audience and establish your presence online.

3. Help engage your audience

TikTok is, by far, the most engaging social media platform, with an average user session of 10.5 minutes. Therefore, if you want to engage your customer base (who isn’t?), TikTok might be where you should be headed.

4. Drive brand sales

TikTok has immense influence over customers’ purchase decisions. Case in point: Feta Cheese. A TikTok trend, #fetapasta, went viral and led to the creamy cheese disappearing off the shelves across grocery stores in the US.

67% of TikTok users claim that the platform inspires them to shop, even when they don’t plan on shopping.

An intelligent TikTok strategy for brand marketing can help you leverage this influence and drive brand sales.

Tips for effective TikTok marketing strategy

Despite packing extraordinary marketing potential, TikTok is still (relatively) sparsely populated by brands. Therefore, any brand that manages to break in with a sound strategy will likely enjoy the reach, awareness and sales benefit the platform promises.

Here are a few tips to help you start right with TikTok content marketing:

1. Go in only if your customers are there

Yes, everyone is using TikTok. But just because everyone is doing something does not mean you should do it too. When older adults label TikTok as a kids’ app, they are not entirely wrong. TikTok has a highly segregated demographic, with 60% of its users belonging to Gen Z and falling in the 16 to 24 age group.

So, if your target audience comprises older adults that are less likely to use TikTok, or be moved by it, then you are better off investing your effort in a channel more popular with your prospects.

2. Work with creators

35% of users discover products through influencer-created content. 61% of consumers trust influencers’ recommendations. Moreover, partnering with influencers can boost the view-through rate of your content by 193%.

TikTok calls its influencers creators and allows brands to partner with over 100,000 creators on the platform. This can be an exciting opportunity for brands looking to drive product awareness. You can hire the right influencers and give them the creative freedom to create fun content that works for their audience to get powerful creative assets that resonate with an audience relevant to your brand.

3. Always use captions

You come across an engaging social video. You want to know what is being said in it. But your phone is mute, and the headphones are out of reach. So you skip the video altogether instead of unmuting your phone or getting the headphones.

How often does this happen? Very often.

Facebook found out that over 85% of its users watch Facebook videos on mute. The statistics won’t be too different for TikTok.

Users prefer watching videos with closed captions. This is why adding a caption to TikTok videos can increase impressions by 55%. Therefore, if you want your content consumed by the intended audience, include captions. This will help people grab the message you are trying to deliver and improve the overall user experience—a win-win.

4. Create the right kind of content

The TikTok generation is very particular about the content they want to consume. They want something quick and informative that adds value to their life without wasting too much of their time.

This is why educational content is among the best-performing TikTok content types. #TikTokTaughtMe went viral some time ago and gained over 8 billion views.

Therefore, consider creating bite-sized educational content that delivers valuable information in short bursts.

Final words

TikTok content marketing, when done right, can contribute immensely to your business’s digital growth. However, ensure your target audience matches the TikTok user demographic before jumping into the platform.

Also, since the TikTok ecosystem is difficult to navigate, content creation requires creativity and trial and error. Therefore, take your time with research. Find out the type of content your target audience is consuming. Check out what your competitors are creating. And then, develop your own content marketing strategy to ensure you are prepared.

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