TikTok is a fantastic place to access light amusement – fun without committing a lot of time or energy. This very thing also makes TikTok a place businesses want to be today. It gives smaller brands a good chance to reach their potential audiences without burning a lot of money on ads and promotions.
TikTok may appear to be a chaotic hub of creativity and humor where anyone can go viral, but there’s a strategic approach behind the scenes. For businesses, it’s not just about posting one unique video and hoping for viral success. In this post, we’ll discuss various steps to establish a sustainable strategy for building your brand on TikTok.
Identify your audience
When you think about TikTok, you think of Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha. You’d be surprised to learn that the pool of TikTok users has an even distribution of all age-groups between 10-49. 25% of the users are between 10-19 years of age. 22.4% are between the ages of 20 and 29. 21.7% of users are between 30 and 39 years old. People between 40 and 49 years old comprise 20.3%.
This goes on to show that you can appeal to virtually every age group between 10 and 50 through TikTok. Some age groups are surely more active on TikTok than others. Your goal should be to identify the demographic that matters the most to your brand and find out how they’re spending their time on TikTok – what they’re watching and what they’re posting.
Watch what’s your competition doing
If you aren’t the first business in your vertical that has taken to TikTok, your rivals’ feed can be a treasure trove for you. You can get inspired from their success and learn from their mistakes. It is very important to understand your rivals’ strategy – how they’re engaging with the audiences, what kind of posts are getting the best reaction.
All this knowledge works as a foundation for your TikTok marketing strategy. It is nothing dissimilar to how you use SEO tools to understand what kind of content is ranking higher on Google search results page.
Keep it fun
The fact that you are using TikTik for your business doesn’t change the fact that a vast majority of people log into TikTok to watch something fun. So, while it is okay to make occasional posts about your business and your offerings, you have to keep it fun. You must try to engage the audience in a meaningful way – ensure that they do not feel that you are there just to sell something. The challenge is how to have fun. We’ll come to that.
Also read – Top 8 Most Valued Marketing Skills in 2023
Catch the trends
TikTok is all about the trends. Trends can take various forms. Sometimes its a song that suddenly becomes all the rage, a specific dance step, a game, or some sort of a challenge. Remember the ‘Made You Look’ song towards the end of 2022? It took TikTok by storm. The goal for you is to catch such a trend and use your creativity to make posts that both play to the trend and pitch your brand.
Create videos that help your audience genuinely
Remember, before you can draw traction to your site from TikTok or convert followers into buyers, you need to build trust. Your audience needs to feel that you know what you are doing and what you are offering can actually add value to their lives. You have to build that trust by creating content that speaks to them.
For instance, if you want to sell organic beverages, give your audience a window into your making process, share tips on how they can make better beverages at home, and share health tips on various ingredients.
If you are selling an online service, you will probably target a different audience, you can share tips and tricks on getting something done easily on a tool. You get the drift here, right?
FAQ around TikTok for Businesses
How to create a TikTok business account?
- Tap on the profile icon at the bottom of your TikTok feed
- Tap the Menu button at the top.
- Select Settings and privacy.
- Then select Manage account.
- Tap Switch to Business Account.
- Follow the instructions to finish.
How to turn off a business account on TikTok?
Follow the same steps as the previous one, just tap Switch to Personal Account this time.
How to add a link to TikTok bio without a business account?
- Click Edit profile.
- Click Add your website.
- Paste the URL you want to add to your bio
- Click Save.
How to use TikTok ads?
TikTok has an elaborate advertisement program that you can use for your business. The following are the major steps in the process.
- Create an account in TikTok Ads Manager
- Create and Install TikTok pixel on your website
- Create a campaign setting up the budget and ad lifetime
- Select promotional goals and ad placement
- Turn automated creative optimization on or off based on your choice
- Define your audience
- Create a new ad following TikTok’s ad specs recommendations
Also read – Top 10 Best Social Media Marketing Strategies In 2023
Quick recap
TikTok can be a fantastic tool for business if you know how to use it to build following. Focus on building a brand first and then try to sell. Building trust among your followers is the most important thing you can do to succeed on TikTok. Watch your competitors for inspiration. Learn from both their success and their failures.
Create videos that speak to your audience – give them genuine tips and tricks that they can use in real life. Jump on trends and be current with your content. Try to cater to the demographic that is the most important for your business.
Use TikTok ads to the best effect by making use of TikTok’s standard procedure of ad placement and budget distribution. The most important thing is to bw aware of what’s current on TikTok, spend a little amount of time every day on the app just to get the pulse. However, TikTok can be addictive, so, you have to keep your usage under check else it can become counter intuitive.