How do you succeed in TikTok marketing?
With over 3 billion downloads globally, TikTok offers a unique blend of entertainment and user engagement. The reach of the platform and the opportunities for businesses are endless, especially as you don’t need thousands of followers to go viral on the app - just content, which needs to be authentic, engaging, and relatable.
Here are my top 5 tips for succeeding with TikTok marketing:
Know your audience
My first tip is to define your target audience - who are you looking to reach on TikTok? Are you looking to reach your existing customers, or a new audience? Once you know the audience you’d like to reach on TikTok, do your research. Is your audience on TikTok? What is the reach?
Take a look at the free tool TikTok Insights for stats on audience behaviour and Audience Insights, which is available within the TikTok ad manager.
These tools can help you to understand if and how your audience uses TikTok, what kind of content they engage with, what hashtags they use, and how you can use TikTok to provide value to your audience.
Whilst TikTok is hugely popular with Gen Z, older demographics are growing on the app, so do your research to see whether TikTok is a good fit for your audience.
Set SMART objectives
What is your purpose for using TikTok?
Are you hoping to utilise TikTok to generate brand awareness with a new audience? Or maybe you want to increase sales via TikTok shop, drive traffic to your website, generate leads, or develop relationships with your target audience by building a community.
I would recommend that you set 1-3 objectives for your TikTok marketing strategy that align with your business objectives. This will ensure that you are using TikTok strategically, and that it is helping you to grow your business. Make sure your objectives are SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Understand how the algorithm works
The main factor in the TikTok algorithm, and whether or not videos end up on a potential customers ‘For You’ page (FYP), is engagement.
TikTok uses engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and whether a video was watched all the way through, to determine whether or not to show the content to more users.
Therefore, the more engaging your content is the better. Think about ways you can make your content relatable and engaging to your audience.
Create valuable content around relevant keywords and hashtags
Always try to add value through any content you create, for example, you could create content that helps to solve a problem for your audience, answers some of their most common questions, or teaches them something new!
Make sure that your content will be seen and found by your target audience by utilising relevant hashtags and keywords in your posts. My tip here is to create content around keywords that your audience is searching for on TikTok and optimise your videos for relevant keywords to ensure they can be found.
TikTok is being used more and more like a search engine, so make sure your videos are as optimised as possible by including keywords in your captions, descriptions, and any text in the video like title graphics.
Be personal and authentic!
My final tip is to be personal and authentic. Show your human side and post like a user and not like a business or brand. Engage in relevant trends, tell a story, show behind the scenes in your business, and share any problems or frustrations relating to business life.
Make sure your content isn’t too polished and fits in with the ‘real’ style of content already on TikTok. This will come across as more authentic and is more likely to be engaged with than an obvious ad or a video pushing products.
The softer sell works better on TikTok, and it may take time to build your brand, but over time it will pay off. Remember, people will buy from people they like!
How do I get better at TikTok marketing?
My suggestion would be to spend some time on TikTok on your own FYP and you’ll soon see what type of videos perform well. Favourite any you’d like to re-create, or any trends or sounds you’d like to use. Once you start posting content, keep an eye on your analytics to find out what type of content works and what doesn’t, so you can tweak along the way.
There are also loads of free TikTok marketing courses online including a TikTok academy which can help you get the most out of TikTok.
I also have created my own TikTok marketing strategy course on Skillshare, where I go into more depth about how to create a TikTok marketing strategy and succeed in TikTok marketing.
You can take my course for free here - TikTok Marketing Strategy: Grow Your Small Business on TikTok.
It can take time to succeed on TikTok but be consistent, don’t give up, and you will see results.
Happy learning!
Louise
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