TikTok has become a powerhouse for business growth — starting from being a simple app to having fun lip-syncing on it.
However, for businesses, this is a huge opportunity. Gaining access to a young, highly engaged audience starving for entertainment and educational content is exactly what TikTok can offer you. Rightly implemented TikTok marketing strategies can help you get your brand awareness, followers, and leads and its sales increase rapidly.
But where do you start? TikTok is crazy with both users and features for a first-timer to cope with.
Why Businesses Should Be on TikTok
Before we get into the strategies, it helps to understand why TikTok is so valuable for brands right now:
1. High User Engagement
The average user spends 52 minutes per day on TikTok!
People flock to the platform for entertainment, education, and inspiration—not just mindless scrolling. This means they actively engage with content by liking, sharing, and commenting.
Videos that provide value can go viral extremely fast. Your business can leverage this viral potential by creating helpful and fun content optimized for TikTok’s algorithm. If you want to boost visibility even faster, you can buy TikTok views to jumpstart engagement and reach a wider audience.
2. Flexible and Powerful Advertising Options
Businesses have several options to realize the brand and products in front of targeted audiences on TikTok.
Paid advertising can be used to promote organic TikTok videos. Or make dedicated branded content campaigns that are converted.
They also have a self-serve ads manager which gives you detailed analytic on performance. This means that you can double your winnings on successful campaigns or increase unsuccessful campaigns.
3. Ecommerce and Shopping Features
Ecommerce is rapidly growing within TikTok and the app is getting easier to sell through.
TikTok posts and ads allow brands to include shoppable product links and coupons. It also has a native live-streaming shopping feature to show goods in real-time.
While social commerce is booming, TikTok will be a massive channel for consumers to find and buy products they see.
4. Lead Generation and Sales Opportunities
One of the big benefits of using TikTok for your Ecommerce business is the ability to make it part of your lead generation and sales system to go beyond Ecommerce transactions.
The CTAs can send the viewers to your website, online store, landing page, app download page, or any URL. At that point, you will get the emails, phone numbers, and other info to nurture them.
With ads, you can also retarget website visitors to become customers. Or create an email subscriber list from TikTok traffic and repeatedly market to it.
Develop Your TikTok Business Strategy
Now that you know TikTok’s potential, it’s time to develop an effective business strategy tailored to your goals.
Without strategic clarity, you’ll struggle to create consistent content that moves the needle. So put in the work early to set your TikTok marketing up for success.
Here are key steps to build your TikTok game plan:
Identify Your Goals
Start by asking – why does my business want to use TikTok? What specific goals do we want to achieve?
Common TikTok marketing goals include:
- Grow brand awareness and reach new audiences.
- Drive website traffic or app downloads.
- Generate leads and sales.
- Promote new products.
- Engage existing customers.
Be as specific as possible with the targets for each goal. This keeps you focused on the outcomes that matter most.
For example, “generate 50 leads per month” or “increase website traffic by 30%”.
Research Your Target Audience
Once your goals are set, research your ideal TikTok audience in depth.
Analyze both demographic and psychographic characteristics:
Demographic factors:
- Age.
- Gender.
- Location.
- Income level.
- Occupation.
Psychographic factors:
- Values.
- Interests.
- Pain points.
- Purchasing habits.
This will reveal what content will resonate best with your targets.
For example, teen gamers will engage differently than middle-aged moms or entrepreneurs. Create customized content strategies for the unique needs of each audience group.
Define Your Brand’s TikTok Niche
With your audience researched, determine what niche your brand should occupy on TikTok.
This is based on your products/services, areas of expertise, and audience interests.
Some examples of brand niches on TikTok:
- Comedy/humor.
- Beauty/cosmetics tutorials.
- Cooking recipes.
- Small business tips.
- Pet care advice.
- Travel hacking.
Select 1-3 niches to dominate. This helps people recognize your brand as an authority they can trust.
Create Content Pillars and a Calendar
Next, map out the recurring content categories (aka content pillars) you’ll create videos around.
For example:
- Product tutorials.
- User-generated content.
- Behind-the-scenes footage.
- Educational tips.
- Industry expert interviews.
- Customer testimonials.
- Contests/giveaways.
Also, build an editorial calendar for consistent posting. Aim to publish 4-7 videos per week to sustain audience engagement.
Produce Captivating TikTok Content
TikTok’s marketing is based on high-quality content.
The algorithm that drives video on TikTok favors what videos get over on the watch time or the amount of engagement. Therefore, you have to publish content that attracts attention and keeps the users hooked to the screens.
Here are proven types of video content that tend to perform well:
1. Entertaining Videos
TikTok is all about fun, so comedic videos thrive on the platform.
Consider these entertainment video ideas:
- Funny sketches of relatable situations.
- Physical comedy stunts.
- Prank videos.
- Memes/viral trend parodies.
- Fun challenges viewers can participate in.
The objective is for a person to laugh or smile. Wherever possible sneak in your branding subtly for yourself.
For instance, Quest Nutrition used a viral TikTok dance video to drive brand impressions over 5X.
2. Educational “How-To” Videos
TikTok users are eager to learn new things. Well-produced educational content can gain huge traction.
Types of “how-to” style videos that do well:
- Product tutorials.
- DIY/crafting guides.
- Cooking recipes.
- Science experiments.
- Skill lessons (art, sports, coding, etc).
- Business/career tips.
- Life hack tutorials.
Use text overlays to structure key steps. This improves comprehension for visual learners.
The cooking brand Tasty has built an enormous following from bite-sized recipe videos. Their educational format led to a 20% sales increase in just 6 months.
3. Behind the Scenes Footage
Give viewers a peek behind the curtain at your business processes. This builds brand affinity by showing real people and making a connection.
Popular backstage TikTok content:
- Company culture videos.
- Employee spotlights.
- Office tours.
- Product development clips.
- Supply chain/operations footage.
- Conference content.
4. User or Influencer Generated Content
User-generated content shows social proof of real people enjoying your brand. This makes it highly persuasive.
Ways to source UGC for TikTok:
- Run TikTok contests or campaigns to inspire creation.
- Re-share happy customer videos mentioning your brand.
- Collaborate on content with TikTok influencers.
- Show footage from events/activations you host.
The athleisure brand Gymshark drove a 33% sales boost in just 1 month via a TikTok athlete ambassador program.
5. Thought Leadership Content
Position company leaders or employees as industry experts by sharing their insights.
Examples of thought leadership content:
- Trend forecasts/predictions
- Analysis of current events
- Expert Q&As
- Debunking common myths/misconceptions
This lends credibility and trust to cement your niche authority.
6. Client Testimonial Videos
Video testimonials show social proof from satisfied customers. This builds trust and sways potential buyers.
Ways to source powerful testimonials:
- Interview flagship customers.
- Re-share happy client review videos.
- Show emotional reactions to receiving your product.
- Compile quick text/emoji testimonials.
The language app Duolingo achieved a 1.7X increase in downloads by highlighting successful user stories.
7. Shoppable Product Videos
Create bite-sized videos demonstrating your products or services’ value. Then include ecommerce links so viewers can instantly purchase.
Types of effective shoppable videos:
- Product tutorials/demos.
- Unboxings showing premium quality.
- Style try-ons/product reviews.
- Comparison of videos against competitors.
- Rapid-fire showcases of the full catalog.
Cosmetics brand Milk Makeup saw conversion rates jump by 6X with directly shoppable TikTok videos.
8. Hashtag Challenge Videos
Use launch branded hashtag challenges to influence the UGC of your campaign. It encourages the wave of user creativity and expands your reach.
The first thing is to create a shorthanded hashtag like #ShareYour[Brand]Story. Slight rapturous change, then invite users to create videos of your product in action.
Then, finally, like, comment, and reshare top contributions to your followers.
Conclusion
As a business, TikTok offers a massive opportunity to reach more people, engage them, and sell more by creating and publishing creative and strategic content. Brands leverage viral trends, shoppable features, and viral videos and collaborate with influencers to promote their products and connect with their target audience.
To stay long-term successful on the platform, you need consistency, audience research, and performance tracking. With time, blockchain is becoming more and more dynamic, and hence businesses that are keen to develop and innovate will stay ahead of the competition. Begin working on these tactics right now to maximize TikTok’s potential impact on your brand’s expansion.
