Although it may not seem like it at the first glance, given the nature of the following social media network, but brand promotion on TikTok can be very successful. Of course, if you know what you’re doing and if you’re doing it the right way.
One of the most popular (if not the most popular) applications in the world – TikTok – has definitely changed the way we experience social media. With more than 800 million active users and a presence in more than 155 countries around the world, TikTok has regained the true meaning of the word “viral” and viral content.
TikTok began its career in 2016 (originally, the name of this platform was “Douyin”) in China. Since then, this application has made an incredibly fast growth and planetary recognition. Today, in 2021, TikTok has become the second most downloaded application in the world.
The key to TikTok’s success lies in simple, unique format, and the content it provides to users. On this platform, users can post short videos, usually lasting up to 15 seconds, followed by pre-recorded audio or background music. You can set and add various effects, filters and stickers on the videos, making them the part of the “fast entertainment”.
Corona virus may have had a devastating effect on the global economy, but COVID-19 has not only proved to be the general incentive for digitalization, but TikTok experienced real expansion and huge success during this pandemic.
Why is the brand promotion on TikTok a good thing for your business?
The main audience on TikTok are teenagers and youngsters, so-called Generation Zed. According to research, teenagers (young people from 16 to 24 years old), spend the most of their time on this application. By the way, it is estimated that TikTok has more than 2 billion downloads on mobile devices so far and it is not showing any signs of slowing down.
In other words, TikTok, as a platform with an enormous population, can serve as a great way to promote your business (company or brand). However, this cannot happen right away, at the fastest pace and it is not easy as it may seem. You might find yourself asking these questions – what if I can’t dance? What if I don’t listen to the same popular music that young people listen to? What if I am not an expert in video editing? Not to worry. You do not need to have previous experience in these disciplines to use TikTok for business promotional purposes. From educational short video shots to beauty tips – there are, indeed, many ways to use this app to grow your brand.
With an elaborated social media strategy, TikTok can help you build a strong niche within your community and target group, while, at the same time, you can have a lot of fun with interesting video content.
So, with that being said, we will give you some tips on how use all of the advantages and benefits of this social media network.
Get familiar with this platform and feel comfortable while using TikTok
The last thing you want to do is to join TikTok and become its user, without knowing what you are doing. If you don’t want other users to avoid you or ignore you, then you must do your own research on how TikTok works. Exploring the content and communication ways on this platform is the first logical and natural step for your company or brand to “be the one” with TikTok.
If you want your brand promotion on TikTok to shine in all of its glory, then you should know that TikTok includes exclusively entertaining and attractive visual video content. For example, if you take a look at the TikTok trending page, you will come across a bunch of silly, funny and cute videos, which are accompanied by appropriate music hits. In other words, TikTok is not a place for serious or traditional advertising or sales. As you probably know, this is the type of advertisement many of us thought it was the only right way. But, not anymore!
It is very important not to copy or plagiarize someone else’s content. You need to show your originality in a creative way, so you can highlight your brand and connect with your target group and customers.
Brand promotion on TikTok – Create content that suits your brand and target audience
TikTokers like to follow profiles with unique and original content. Due to the TikTok algorithm, literally anyone can find your content. Therefore, if you focus on content from your niche – native content that suits your business – you will be able to be much more creative.
Why this works well on TikTok?
When you choose the right topic (niche) for communication, you will certainly be able to pay close attention on certain aspects of your brand.
For example, if you are a baker who wants to promote his business on TikTok, then it is quite ok to create content that can focus on making pastries “behind the scenes”. Customers in the bakery see only ready-made pastries. But, on TikTok you can present them what the whole process of making and baking these foods looks like.
If you’re a chiropractor, you can always take short videos or a compilation of cracking sounds of your patients. Or, if you are a dentist, you can show an accelerated chronology in 15 seconds – from messy teeth to a bright white smile.
So, if you are constantly posting content from your niche, your target audience will find your content and without any doubt – your community will grow. And as it grows, over time, you can redirect your audience from TikTok to your company’s website.
Decide when and how often you will publish content
As on any other social media network, it is very important to have a plan and defined post calendar on TikTok. This way, you can think ahead of ideas for posting for the upcoming week or month.
When you initially start to create content on TikTok and begin publishing it – don’t do it too much and publish every single idea you come up to. The posting frequency should be to the extent that suits you naturally. Just as forced humor always fails in real life, so does the TikTok’s forced content fail.
But, brand promotion on TikTok means that you still have some kind of posting consistency, and TiKTok will reward you for that. However, instead of posting 3 posts a day for a while, then disappear for a certain period of time, it is a much better solution to start out with 3 to 5 posts a week.
The great thing about TikTok is that you can experiment whenever needed. Wonder why? Well, because the only thing your target group on TikTok cares the most is that the content, you provide them with, is inspiring, interesting, useful and fun.
We recommend that you create a Pro account on TikTok, so you can gain access to analytics. This will give you an insight into the activities of your target group, when are they the most active, what content they react the best, etc… In return, it will help you determine the prime time to publish content on TikTok.
Forget about perfection
“Be original.” “Be yourself.” These sentences may sound worn out and clichéd, but TikTok is the perfect platform for an authentic representation of your brand identity. While the aesthetic of content has practically become imperative on Instagram, this is not the case with TikTok.
The audience on TikTok wants and like brands that are brave, courageous and are not afraid to make new trends. What does this actually mean? This means you don’t need to have a perfect content and to be perfect overall in order to succeed on TikTok! The most important thing is to be yourself, to have fun and not to take yourself too seriously. Simply, pull out your cell phone and start recording!
There are thousands of influencers who share photos on their Instagram profiles, where they strike some kind of an attractive pose or show their face or body, as if they were taking photos for the magazine covers. On the other hand, these same influencers use TikTok to create and publish totally different, interesting and “crazy” video content – without focusing on their own body or facial aesthetics.
With the authenticity of your content, you can only strengthen the connection with your target audience. This way, they will feel like they know the person or people behind your brand. Therefore, you can promote your company even better!
Create an interesting, native and creative content
You know how they say – either you are IN or you are OUT. When you already know that TikTok is all about creative and entertaining content, then you should always keep in mind that brand promotion on TikTok means creating your own creative and entertaining content. So, creating interesting and original content on TikTok is one of the easiest and most economical ways to promote your company and business. In addition, one of the biggest advantages of TikTok, as we have already mentioned, is that you don’t have to make high-quality videos at all.
So, just take out your smart phone and start recording. Although silly and a bit, colloquially speaking, weird videos are popular on TikTok, don’t try to publish similar content at all costs, unless it’s in the style of your business (we’ve already discussed about the impracticality of forced content).
Here are some useful tips:
– Focus on fun and engaging content. TikTok is not a conventional application, which means that there is no place for conventional and ordinary marketing. Think about what content would be most interesting to your target audience, make them smile and laugh, encourage them to try your product or service, or at least to connect with it. Think of a viral hashtag to add to your posts.
– Your content should be casual and accessible to your target audience. If this content is forced, fake, unnatural or insincere, your target audience will feel it immediately and say goodbye to you.
– Demonstrate how to use a product and/or service. Create short videos where you or members of your team try or test out a particular product or service. This is a great opportunity to show your followers what your products are capable of and what their function is.
– Call to action. Every time you publish a new post on TikTok, invite your followers to a specific action, or encourage them to like, share or comment on your video. This will allow you to establish some form of interaction with your audience, which will increase your visibility and invigorate your online presence on this platform.
Create a Hashtag challenge
A great way to promote your business and your brand on TikTok is to create your own hashtag challenge. It is a challenge immanent to TikTokers. When you create a hashtag challenge, you then encourage other TikTokers to create or recreate certain content where they will put the hashtag you have branded or established.
That way, you can gain a lot of followers on this social network, thus your brand can and will be “heard”.
For example, the well-known fashion brand and clothing manufacturer “Guess” was one of the first companies to start a hashtag challenge. What did they do? Simply – they encouraged TikTokers to film themselves wearing a new line of their products with the hashtag #InMyDenim. If you google this hashtag, you will see that almost 53 million people have seen the videos with this hashtag.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjwxMU2xLOY
Or, the famous American restaurant chain “Chipotle” had the perfect campaign with the hashtag challenge #GuacDance. This challenge was one of the most successful challenges in the United States. In other words, this promotion resulted in the largest guacamole day ever in America, when as many as 800,000 portions of guacamole were served in one day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Vu_s_B8jA
So, not only the fun hashtag challenge promotes your brand, but it is also useful for interaction with followers.
Brand promotion on TikTok and cooperation with influencers
You don’t have to do this, but it wouldn’t hurt you either. There are influential TikTokers (influencers) who have a really strong and faithful audience – thousands or millions of followers. If you want to expand your business and promote your brand, consider establishing a partnership with one of the influencers within your industry.
Let us emphasize it once again – by far the most numerous TikTok users are the younger generations (Generation Z) and millennials (Generation Y) who have a strong aversion to traditional types of marketing and advertising. Influencers would not be what they are if they didn’t know how to communicate and interact with their followers. And just working with influencers can help you connect with that famous Generation Z (or Generation Y).
Let’s have a look to the mentioned “Chipotle”. This company has joined forces with renowned influencer David Dobrik for a paid marketing campaign with the hashtag challenge #ChipotleLidFlip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBPA4t3HeCo
The following result – more than 100.000 new followers and almost 230 million views!
In order to have positive results from TikTok influencer marketing, it is necessary that your target group and the audience of influencer you want to hire, match up. And one more thing – you don’t have to work only with the big names of TikTok. You can also collaborate with various of lesser-known users from your niche who interact with content, comment on your posts…
Take advantage of the advertising opportunities
After all, TikTok has its own advertising platform. Well, why not take advantage of it? TikTok currently offers four different types of advertising:
– Infeed Native Content. This type of advertising has similarities to Snapchat or Instagram Story Ads and provides options for multiple features, such as clicks on your website or downloading an app.
– Brand Takeovers. This way, brands practically “take control over” TikTok for one day. Then, you can create photos, visuals, GIFs and videos with hashtag challenges or embedded links leading to landing pages.
– Hashtag Challenges. We have already mentioned how you can create your own hashtag challenge. But instead of trying to create a viral hashtag challenge on your own, you can also use the sponsored or promoted hashtag option to make your engagement bigger.
– Branded Lenses. This type of advertising is similar to Snapchat’s 2D or 3D lenses.
As with any other social media network, advertising can help you expand users’ reach and can also increase the number of your followers. TikTok offers precise targeting, so you can be sure that your ads “hit” or target exactly those users who would be interested in your product or service.
To sum it up
As we could see, brand promotion on TikTok can be really successful and it can be done in many interesting and creative ways. It all comes down to one thing – it all depends upon how will you place your content on TikTok, so that would be tempting, alluring and interesting to the audience there.
Remember – different social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest…) attract different audience, and you simply have to adapt to it and to go with the flow. Otherwise, you will be left without or with minimal promoting results, whether you have a paid or organic campaign.
Using TikTok is a great way to show the other – interesting – side of your brand, as well as to build your own community. If teenagers and younger generations are your target group or you want to connect with them, TikTok is the perfect place to grab their attention.
If you want to build your company’s brand or improve your business on digital communication channels, Smart Vision, as a comprehensive marketing agency, offers you full digital marketing services, which will enable you to grow your business even more.
