How To Create A TikTok Strategy To Grow Your Business
What about creating a TikTok strategy for your online business? Learn how the social media platform works and how to use it in your marketing strategy.
What will we see in this post
TikTok is a video-sharing app that allows users to create and share up to 3-minute videos on any topic. Since its launch in 2017, TikTok has grown in popularity to over 1 billion monthly active users as of January 2022. And according to recent statistics, TikTok has the highest social media engagement per post compared to other apps like YouTube and Instagram.
These statistics make TikTok a platform suitable for promoting digital products such as online courses. You can create content around your product and reach a huge audience on TikTok in a short duration.
This article will show you how the app works, how you can find your audience there, create content, and a TikTok strategy to sell online products.
How TikTok works
TikTok became a favorite among Generation Z because of its exciting features. First, you can create music and lip-sync videos easily using the app. To start producing content, download the app and register an account.
Like any social media platform, certain types of content do better than others for a TikTok strategy. Funny content engages your audience and also makes your brand more memorable. For example, when you present a problem your audience is going through humorously, they’ll find your brand more friendly. You give them an idea of your company’s culture.
Educational content also does well on TikTok. You can follow the funny content showing a problem your audience is going through with educational content revealing effective solutions. You’d position your company as a thought leader in your space.
Trends are also a great way to increase your visibility on TikTok. Participate in TikTok trends such as hashtags, songs, and challenges to reach more users and gain new fans. Partnering with influencers on TikTok is another way to introduce your brand to new users and build meaningful relationships.
To maximize the ROI on your TikTok strategy, you should also learn how its algorithm works. The TikTok algorithm is a recommendation system that determines which videos will appear on the For You page of users. The videos that appear on the For You page change based on various signals such as user interactions, account settings, and video information.
Read this article to learn more about how to take advantage of the TikTok algorithm and other app features to boost your engagement on the platform.
TikTok vs. Instagram
TikTok and Instagram are among the world’s top 10 most popular social networks, with millions of monthly active users.
While TikTok is a stand-alone video-sharing app, allowing you to create short music and lip-sync videos of up to 15 seconds, Instagram Reels is a built-in functionality designed to grow your community within Instagram.
Some of the differences between TikTok and Instagram include:
- Algorithm – Instagram relies on user signals to determine which reels appear on the users’ feed. So if a user keeps on watching a specific type of reel, the algorithm would recommend similar reels to them. TikTok works similarly but also uses artificial intelligence to serve the interests of its users. So it doesn’t necessarily rely on user signals alone to determine which video content to recommend to users. The AI technology also aids content creators in producing and sharing high-quality content.
- Video editing features – TikTok videos appear on the For You page, while Reels appear on the Explore page. Even though both apps allow you to create and discover interesting short videos, TikTok has a more diverse collection of features to produce exciting content. TikTok has more video editing tools and effects as compared to Reels.
- Audience – TikTok is popular among Generation Z and younger millennials, usually below the age of 30 years. On the other hand, Instagram Reels is popular among young girls between the ages of 18 to 24. So you’d choose which platform matches your target audience.
Using both TikTok and Instagram in your marketing strategy is a good idea for a business owner. If your target audience hangs out on both platforms, creating content will increase brand awareness, which may lead to sales.
A TikTok strategy to grow your business
Most TikTok users go to the app to have fun and get entertained. As a business owner, you can grow your audience, increase traffic to your site and hopefully make sales by being a bit more clever with the type of content you post on TikTok.
Below we’ve outlined TikTok marketing strategies you can use to increase brand awareness and achieve your business goals. You don’t need to try all these strategies at once; you can choose a few to focus on, experiment with, and see the results.
Let’s dive in.
1. Join the latest trends to attract followers
TikTok is the platform where trends win. From challenges to songs and hashtags, staying on top of relevant trends exposes you to a wider audience who may become your followers.
To identify current trends, go to the Discover page on your TikTok account. Here you’ll find curated trends that TikTok updates daily from hashtags, effects, and sounds to branded trends that businesses pay to get featured.
You can spot trends earlier through the For You page. Everyone’s For You page is curated based on the kind of content they consume. So if you engage with fashion content, your feed will contain content in that niche.
To spot trends earlier:
- Create a new TikTok account; don’t engage with it by following anyone or posting anything.
- Scroll quickly through the account to identify repeating patterns within the videos’ texts, actions, or music.
- When you notice something new, like a sound in a video, click on it to identify the original publication date and the number of videos using the same sound.
Once you identify early trends, create video content around them to show your personality and get more exposure on the app.
2. Use Hashtags to create your own trends and share content created by your fans
Trending hashtags are a powerful tool for brands. It is a great way to encourage the creation of user-generated content and explode your brand reach, so be sure to add them to your TikTok strategy.
One thing for sure is that every popular TikTok hashtag started somewhere. Other users picked on it, and it eventually became viral. So how can you create hashtags that pick up?
Begin by researching your niche. TikTok is a user-first platform. Users in a specific niche drive trends. For example, only skateboarders would use the hashtag #skateboarding in their videos. So, identify the kind of hashtags already trending in your niche, then brainstorm new exciting hashtags based on those existing ones.
Finally, make your hashtags easy to see to encourage others to use them. One way to do that is to work with influencers who have large audiences. When TikTok users see popular accounts using your hashtag, they’ll assume it is trending and copy it.
3. Benchmark your competitors and define your target audience
Competitive benchmarking helps you objectively judge your brand’s performance on TikTok by helping you understand how your business should be behaving. It involves tracking specific metrics and KPIs to assess your performance.
Some metrics include content performance (such as likes and shares), types of content your competitors post on the platform, timing, frequency of their posts, etc.
Competitive benchmarking enables you to create actionable goals for your social media strategy. For example, you’ll now know the appropriate number of times you can post on TikTok per week based on the average frequency of your competitors.
Competitive benchmarking also allows you to define your target audience. By identifying the type of users who engage with your competitors’ content on TikTok, you’ll easily know who to target in your campaigns.
4. Create a content plan to post consistently and track results to optimize your content
Consistency is the secret to succeeding in social media marketing. And a content plan helps you prepare the topics to post earlier on. You determine how many times you will post and how you will engage with your audience.
A content plan also helps you track the results of your TikTok campaigns. You’ll identify the types of content that perform well and focus on producing more of them. You’ll also notice the time when users interact with your content the most, and reorganize your posting schedule accordingly.
5. Leave room to experiment and let creativity flow
There is no one formula to going viral on TikTok. The one video you never expected to get lots of engagement is the one that sometimes picks off. So while you may have a content plan to guide your marketing strategy, it’s good to think outside the box and try something new every once in a while.
You can also observe what your competitors and audience are posting and create an improved version. It may end up becoming viral and increasing your brand’s organic reach.
6. Reply to comments to create engagement
Replying to comments on your TikTok posts creates a personal connection with your followers and boosts engagement. It also helps to build relationships with your community on the platform as they learn more about you.
Also, replying to comments boosts your organic reach as it signals the TikTok algorithm that your content is interesting. The earlier the comments your posts get, the wider the algorithm will spread to users with similar interests on the platform.
7. Partner with other influencers
Use Tiktok’s Creator Marketplace to find TikTok influencers. The platform allows brands to access and collaborate with influencers. All you have to do is request access to the platform.
Once you’re in, use search filters such as country, average views, and reach to identify the right influencer to partner with. Influencers expose your brand to their audience by increasing traffic to your profile.
8. Use TikTok ads to reach new audiences
Some marketers are still skeptical about running ads on TikTok. They think TikTok is a platform that is only popular among teenagers and younger generations and would never result in sales.
However, investing in TikTok advertising may bring you many benefits. For example, TikTok has the highest user engagement metric compared to all the other social platforms. 90% of TikTok users go to the app multiple times per day and can spend as much as 45 minutes scrolling on the app itself per day. Spending money on TikTok ads would increase your brand exposure on the platform.
Ver essa foto no Instagram
A TikTok strategy could be all your business needs to grow
Did you find the tips on improving your TikTok marketing strategy helpful?
TikTok is a social media platform that is gaining popularity by the day, and it’s important to consider it in your strategies, especially if you are a content creator.
Integrating TikTok into your social media marketing strategy can give you access to a new audience who may eventually buy your products. TikTok has high-quality features that allow creators to make interesting videos that can create much-desired engagement.
