TikTok Marketing : An Ultimate Guide for Beginners

In the blink of an eye, TikTok has become the new go-to destination for online entertainment with Gen Z and millennials. Nine out of ten TikTok users are on the app multiple times per day.

This makes TikTok an untapped platform for social media marketers to reach consumers. In this ultimate guide, you are going to learn the top tips and strategies to use for TikTok marketing to grow your brand. If you have a consumer business or an e-commerce brand, this app is the right platform for you.

Why TikTok Marketing?

Wondering if TikTok marketing could work for your brand?

With over 800 million monthly active users and an average daily view time of 52 minutes, TikTok is officially the hottest new platform on the social media scene.

And if you’re thinking TikTok is just for teens — think again! Users of all ages are joining the TikTok phenomenon, with celebrities, influencers, publishers, and household brands now in the mix.

Perhaps the most impressive part of TikTok’s story is the blistering speed at which it has made its way into the spotlight. Between October 2017 and March 2019, TikTok went from 2.6 to 14.3 million adult monthly active users. that’s a 550% increase in just under 18 months.

Somehow, despite the failed attempts of similar apps like Musical.ly and Vine to enter the mainstream, TikTok has secured what appears to be a lasting foothold in the social media market.

If you’re a business that’s not sure how to get on the trending TikTok train, you’re in the right place. Here, we’ll give you some ways to help your business make the most of TikTok marketing.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a video-sharing social network that first found mass appeal with Gen Z users and is best known as the home of viral dance trends, challenges, and lip-sync videos.

TikTok has experienced phenomenal growth since its launch in 2016, and with over 800 million active users, it is fast becoming one of the most popular social network sites.

How did TikTok get started?

ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) first launched TikTok under the name of Douyin in China, before launching the TikTok app in international markets in 2017. Both Douyin and TikTok use the same software today, but maintain separate networks to comply with China’s censorship laws.

In late 2017, ByteDance purchased Music.ly, a social media platform that allowed users to create and share short lip-sync videos to popular songs — giving TikTok a whole new suite of tools, and a golden ticket straight to the US teen market.

Fast forward to 2020 and TikTok has sky-rocketed not only amongst teens, but with users of all ages. Celebrities, publishers, and brands are now all wading in on the hype and using TikTok’s easy-to-use video editing tools to create entertaining videos that gain overnight viral success.

Why is TikTok marketing Valuable for Brands?

As we’ve already covered, TikTok is experiencing a period of exponential growth right now. Which means there’s a huge audience ready to be tapped into by creative and fast-thinking brands.

Brands who’ve successfully pivoted to TikTok early have reaped huge brand awareness rewards, often with very little investment.

Publishers like The Washington Post have amassed followings of 400K+ in under a year, positioning themselves as a creative powerhouse and potentially shifting their reach to a new, more global, and younger demographic in the process.

TikTok Marketing Ideas

If you’re a business that’s not sure how to get on the trending TikTok train, you’re in the right place. Here, we’ll give you six ways to help your business make the most of TikTok marketing.

Work with the right influencers

TikTok is an oasis for established influencers and new influencers who are experiencing viral success. You should look for influencers who are experiencing rapid growth on the app based on video views and followers. Check out TikTok Famous accounts and learn.

Collaborate with one TikTok influencer on a few videos or create a sponsored hashtag where a few influencers create content for your videos.

Beauty and fashion companies are experiencing success working with influencers on TikTok marketing campaigns that are native to TikTok. Even if you are used to doing Instagram campaigns with influencers, you should not copy your influencer work from Instagram to TikTok.

Tap into the growing community of TikTok influencers to create unique and original content that has the chance to go viral. Originality is key when working with influencers on this platform.

TikTok Marketing

TikTok Brand Takeovers

The term “brand takeover” might lead to a bit of confusion if you’re already familiar with the concept as it relates to Instagram marketing. On Instagram, a brand takeover is when an influencer commandeers a brand’s Instagram account for a period of time — typically a day. During this time, they’ll post images, videos, and stories in an attempt to get their fans to follow the brand as well so that they can see their favorite influencer’s new posts.

However, when it comes to TikTok, brand takeovers more aptly refers to taking over the TikTok brand itself.

TikTok also has a fairly level playing field when it comes to achieving viral status on the app. Unlike Instagram or YouTube, even accounts with zero followers can get millions of views on a new video. Content really is king on TikTok.

The power of #hashtags

TikTok can sometimes feel like a sea of hashtags. Take some time to get used to the app and search for the most popular organic hashtags in your niche.

By looking at hashtags that are currently successful, you will see how your hashtag for your campaign needs to look. Long-tail hashtags are appropriate but in the beginning stages, you should use organic hashtags that people are currently searching for.

Another popular element of hashtags on TikTok are hashtag challenges. This is when there is a challenge (with music as an accompaniment) that is the subject of the hashtag.

Challenges on TikTok can go viral when they happen organically but with plenty of thought, you could work with influencers to create a challenge that could go viral for your brand.

TikTok Marketing ideas

One approach you can do is use the discover tab in TikTok to see which posts are going viral and which hashtags those posts are using. The discover tab will also show you what the top trending hashtags of the day and week are.

Trending hashtags are must-haves to use in your TikTok marketing campaign if you want to reach young consumers. Using this strategy will get more eyeballs on your posts. You have to stay up-to-date though and keep on top of the hashtags that are trending and the ones that are falling out of favor.

Create A TikTok Hashtag Challenge

Once again, TikTok has managed to take a fairly well-established social media marketing term and flip the definition on its head.

Instagram hashtag challenges are often grassroots movements that originate with a single user posting a challenge, a hashtag, and promoting it organically (think of the #icebucketchallenge back in 2014).

But When it comes to TikTok, there are two different types of challenges: regular old organic challenges, and Hashtag Challenges. The latter is always paid for, and it’s very pricey.

These types of TikTok marketing campaigns can be particularly effective because they get users to actively participate instead of just passively looking at ads, which helps them form a deeper connection to the brand.

Plus, when other TikTokers see user-generated content, it serves as a type of social proof. If the challenge really takes off, it can generate a lot of exposure for your brand.

TikTok Marketing

Create shareable content

Viral videos happen when the X factor of the video makes people want to share it. This is the same on YouTube as it is on TikTok. You want people to share your videos so they get more organic impressions and shares. Here are some of the things you should do to create TikTok videos that people want to share:

Be funny

Use comedy to make users laugh so the video is shared with people in the user’s network.

Make entertaining videos

Being entertaining is easier said than done! Creating a video that is watchable, and rewatchable, is key to having it shared widely.

Be educational

Tutorial videos on TikTok in the beauty, fashion and lifestyle niches are exploding in popularity. Tutorial or how-to videos will do well in any niche. Especially where education or teaching someone how to do something is important. These videos get shared because people are always searching for tips and knowledge.

Create eye-catching content

Your videos should be ones that people instantly want to share. Think about the types of videos or posts that you share. Videos that are visually appealing get shared, ones that don’t keep attention won’t be shared. Always keep visuals at the top of your TikTok marketing priority list.

Marketing On TIKTOK

Incorporate Special Effects

If you want your TikTok marketing strategies to be successful, you first need to understand it, and that means coming to terms with its fast-paced, energetic, and quite frankly, often chaotic nature.

One of the particularly challenging aspects of TikTok is understanding how to use all the special effects. Not only are there visual effects, but there are also audio effects. And of course, music, which is the core of the platform. Some effects and songs are more popular than others, so making use of those can help your content and ads appeal to a larger audience.

TikTok is a growing platform that has been plastered all over the news for its rapid growth. It’s primarily used by people aged 13 to 24, but usage among adults has been growing. Businesses and content creators with a bit of creativity can use these short videos to great effect, but it takes a keen understanding of the platform to truly make content that sticks.

The bottom line

If you want to get involved with TikTok advertising, you’ll need to have a pretty large budget. However, just like any other social platform, making organic content is free and always an option. Just make sure that whatever content you make fits the tone of the platform. It should make use of its idiosyncrasies like special effects, music, and looped videos.

If your target demographic lines up with TikTok’s user base, and you keep these tips in mind, you’re sure to see great results in no time.