TikTok has taken the world by storm since its worldwide release in August 2018. The latest official data shows 500m active monthly users worldwide, while more recent estimates put that at nearly a billion. In that time, many businesses and brands have used the app’s popularity as an avenue for mass maketing – though many don’t approach it in the right way.
Here, Traktion share five tips to be successful with TikTok marketing.
1. It’s all about tone
TikTok is a channel for light-hearted, fun and shareable entertainment. It’s not LinkedIn. Nor is it even Facebook or Instagram. Content that is too dry, too heavy, or too polished and corporate is just not going to land well – particularly with those young audiences. One of the biggest mistakes a brand can make in marketing on TikTok is getting their tone of voice wrong.
2. Let users be your content creators
One of the ways to avoid the potentially fatal pitfall of try-hard content is to encourage other users to create content for you. Harnessing the power of this user-generated content (UGC) is a must for marketing on a platform on which content is built around challenges, trends, and most of all, tongue-in-cheek humour. Creating your own brand challenge (and corresponding hashtag) is one of the best ways to build awareness on the platform.
3. Connect with the right influencers
Speaking of influencers, TikTok is a platform that values authentic content from individuals’ values influencers. And spending any time at all on the app will reveal who’s big and who might be worth connecting with. The key to using influencers is not just pure reach, but relevance too. Brands should be digging down into the popular hashtags in their niches to find influencers that resonate with their real target audiences.
4. Use paid TikTok ads
Organic marketing works well on TikTok. Yet, in a bid to monetise their platform, TikTok made paid ad features available in 2019. Paid ads can appear in three different ways on the platform – TikTok works directly with brands and agencies to produce this content.
Infeed – this is where sponsored ads are seen among authentic videos in a user’s feed. These are identified with a clear ‘sponsored’ label, and directly link to your page. Prices start from $26,000 for 3.6 million impressions, according to Digiday.
5. Keep creating content
With TikTok, there is no such thing as evergreen content. The platform lives and breathes trends. Continually creating content that responds to these trends – or, even better, that starts its own trends – is key to a successful TikTok marketing strategy. Ignoring this, or failing to understand what audiences want to see, can spell disaster. If there is one mistake that a brand can make on TikTok it is to rest on your laurels. You need to be following trends, looking around for inspiration, and continuously creating.
Jaron Soh is co-founder and COO at marketing freelancer platform Traktion
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