If you haven’t heard of TikTok yet, chances are you have—whether through allusions to viral comedy videos and dances, seeing the TikTok logo in videos re-posted on your other favorites social media sites, or simply hearing about how it’s the newest platform to take the social media landscape by storm.
TikTok is a critical element of your 2021 social media marketing strategy whether you advertise to Gen Z and younger millennials, want to establish a video content strategy, or both.
TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2020, with 689 million monthly active users and two–billion app store downloads, according to estimates. What exactly does that imply? This network dwarfs both Twitter and Pinterest.
With so much fresh material to watch, TikTok’s staying power has become clear—not it is going anywhere anytime soon. There’s a strong probability you’re right if you assume that at least some of those 689 million people are part of your target market.
This may appear to be a marketing goldmine, especially since there may be less competition because other firms are hesitant to join in. Engaging with potential clients in a place where they go to be amused, on the other hand, necessitates a nuanced and cautious approach.
Use this guide to learn about TikTok, including how to use the app, if you should use it, and some best practices for making your post go viral.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a video-centric social media smartphone app that has a big user base.
TikTokers (TikTok users) record short videos, alter them with effects, filters, subtitles, and music, and share them with their TikTok followers. To make their content more discoverable to non-followers, content creators utilize hashtags and determine which popular category they belong to.
Most of the content on the site is funny, similar to Vine, Twitter’s late-night video network (rest in peace). Short skirts, lip-syncing, cringe videos, how-tos, and sharing similar experiences with “tell me about a time when…” are among the most popular genres.
The rush of “challenges” posted across the platform (typically to depict lyrics from a popular song or test diverse reactions to a similar social experiment) that generate a ripple effect as everyone uploads their version is one of the most popular occurrences.
When you kept seeing the #InMyFeelingsChallenge on Instagram, you assumed it was popular. It was shared 1.7 million times on Instagram, and 5 million times on TikTok.
TikTok first debuted in China as Douyin, before expanding internationally as TikTok in 2017. Then everything changed when TikTok’s parent firm, Byte Dance, bought Music.ly, a social media platform that allowed users to make lip-sync videos to popular songs.
TikTok’s prominence in the United States and emphasis on incorporating music is due to its creativity with lip-syncing.
Although both Douyin and TikTok utilize the same software, they maintain different networks to comply with China’s censorship rules.
TikTok’s user base is quite specialized:
Make sure your demography matches before you start marketing on TikTok.
People between the ages of 16 and 24 are the most active users of TikTok, accounting for 60% of the entire user base. According to TikTok, 80 percent of all users are between the ages of 16 and 34, indicating that this is not the platform for marketing to the older demographic.
Aside from age, the other statistics we have access to suggest that popularity is distributed rather evenly across the board.
- Males account for 58.4% of TikTok users, while females account for 41%. This is a change from 2020 when the gender split was comparable but skewed in the opposite direction.
- In 150 markets, the app is available in 39 languages.
- The usage of iPhones and Androids is split from 52 percent to 48 percent.
You should be able to find your consumers quite easily as long as you are in the right age range.
As a result, we only advocate using TikTok for marketing if you have a young target audience. While it is true that older individuals are gradually adopting the platform, your marketing dollars would be better spent elsewhere if that were your target demographic.
Is this to say that if you sell to older millennials and above, all hope is lost? Certainly not.
The habit of re-posting TikTok videos to other social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter is quite popular. You can use the extensive TikTok editing tools to generate video content for your followers if you have an active audience on those other profiles.
If you choose this path, keep an eye out for news about how other platforms plan to handle reused content. For example, Facebook has stated that it will be experimenting with algorithm modifications that will make Reels with a TikTok watermark less discoverable.
Here is how to use TikTok to market your business:
Working with influencers or creating original content are the two possibilities for an organic TikTok marketing plan. Each of these tactics has its own set of advantages and drawbacks, as well as time demands.
Let us look at both choices to see which one makes the most sense for your company.
On TikTok, influencer marketing will be significant:
TikTok is full of individuals making things, from makeup to baking videos. In these spaces, there are some significant TikTok influencers some have millions of subscribers.
These influencers have audiences who might be interested in buying your items, so you can work with them and establish an influencer marketing campaign for a portion of your marketing budget.
You can pay these influencers to use your products on camera or otherwise promote your business in their films, and new people will see your products.
However, more crucially, you will earn the trust of some of your clients. Use the fact that one-third of consumers believe an influencer’s viewpoint more than what a brand says to your advantage.
How to Begin Marketing with TikTok Influencers:
The golden rule of influencer marketing is that relevance trumps reach.
Do not approach the people behind the most popular accounts—not only will working with them be prohibitively expensive but numerous references to your brand may be ignored.
Navigate to the Discover tab and search a few terms related to your industry, products, or services to see who is publishing popular videos in your sector.
Keep track of the users with the most followers or the most popular videos on this topic, watch their postings to see if they are a good fit for your business, and consider contacting them.
Look at the most popular videos connected with those keywords under Discover>Top while you are going through this procedure.
While little is known about the TikTok algorithm’s inner workings, it appears that there is a component that permits anyone with appealing content to soar in popularity.
Following a first-hand analysis of the app, the team at Later reveals that posts appear to be ‘tested’ on users who do not follow you. If it does well in that first group, the post will be served to even more non-followers. Performance determines how far you can go.
- “When your video is released, it is seen to a select group of TikTok users on their For You page, sandwiched between popular videos. This is why, when going through your For You page, you will frequently come across a video with a small number of likes. If your film is favorably accepted by the users who first see it on their For You page, it will most likely be shared with a bigger group of people, and then to even more people, and so on.
- So, even if you only have a few thousand TikTok followers, your video could go viral!â€
While this is fantastic motivation for creating your original content, it also gives us hints about when to snag an influencer just as they’re about to become famous.
The micro-influencers who acquired traction through this performance-based methodology may still be building a large following with just one or two highly popular videos (and price tag).
As you browse through popular videos from your keyword search and document influencers to reach out to, keep an eye out for these.
Make unique TikTok content for your business (if you dare):
TikTok marketing can be as simple as creating your content. It will, however, need a significant amount of time, imagination, and resources. Because TikTok is mostly built on viral content, yours must be as well. Otherwise, TikTokers are likely to ignore it.
Dive into the “trend” culture for the simplest and most efficient technique to ensure that your original material is popular and shareable.
Track popular hashtags on the Discover page, and then build your version of the trend that incorporates an aspect of your business. If it is funny or silly, you will get bonus points, which will boost your chances of going viral.
Consider the #WipeItDown challenge. This one depicts creators wiping down their mirror to the beat of the song “Wipe It Down,” where they are revealed as a different version of themselves on the third wipe, only to return to their original version for the fourth and final wipe.
This challenge would be an excellent opportunity to use the third wipe to show a “better” or “excited” version of the video’s star after they have used your product or service.
If you are selling makeup, the original version may be very undone, relaxed, and perhaps go far with the “change” by wearing baggy sweatpants and a messy bedhead.
The actress would be entirely covered in makeup on the third wipe, then instantly return to her natural state as if nothing had happened.
Offer how-tos, tips, and tricks, or insider secrets from your sector as another simple approach to develop popular content.
If you own a bakery, you can present a simplified, visually appealing version of a recipe, such as baking a cake to the beat of a pop song, with the completed version appearing when you snap your fingers.
Do you want to sell your clothes? Demonstrate how many different ways apiece may be worn in an outfit or the steps to tying the ideal shirt tie.
This tactic is doubly effective in the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic when many in-person services were compelled to find a way to provide something different electronically.
To keep your audience engaged while they are at home, make a TikTok of your favorites yoga poses for stress alleviation or how to make opulent cocktails in your kitchen.
Once you have prepared your content, whether it is one of these ideas or one you came up with on your own for your company, always include a few relevant hashtags to your post before uploading it, as this is how users who are not already following you will find it.
Remember, even if you do not use either of those strategies, the key to TikTok marketing is to create a viral, lighthearted video that also promotes your products—not a product-first sales pitch.
Rewatches, video completions, shares, comments, and likes all seem to be important signs to the TikTok algorithm, according to the later team, so make it engaging.
Check out our list of TikTok’s top brands for additional instances of brands at the top of their game.
How do you come up with hashtags for your TikTok posts?
There are three effective methods for locating TikTok hashtags, which will increase your reach.
Use some tried-and-true generic hashtags that have exploded in popularity and are designed to help your postings reach as many people as possible. Look at the ones below, provided by Influencer Marketing Hub.
Look at trending hashtags:
Go to the Discover page and look for a list of hashtags that are currently trending. Look through the hashtags to see if any of them apply to your company or industry, or if they represent generic difficulties to which you could add your twist.
Get inspo from influencers:
Examine the hashtags used by influencers in your vertical. After you have followed the methods above to locate niche influencers in your business, take their hashtags and try them out on your posts to see how well they work.
Use general popular hashtags:
Use some tried-and-true generic hashtags that have exploded in popularity and are designed to help your postings reach as many people as possible. Look at the ones below, provided by Influencer Marketing Hub.
- #tiktok
- #foryoupage
- #fyp
- #foryou
- #viral
- #love
- #funny
- #memes
- #follow
- #bestvideo
- #tiktok4fun
- #tiktok4fun
- #thisis4u
- #loveyoutiktok
Check out the rest of their list for topic-specific listings of the most popular hashtags.
How to Use Fanbooster to Upload TikTok Videos for Publishing?
- Upload your video content, along with any accompanying text or hashtags, to Fanbooster. You can accomplish this in either the Fanbooster online app or the Fanbooster mobile app, but to continue posting to TikTok, you will need to open the post in the Fanbooster mobile app.
The following is a list of everything you will need to make your post.
- Video of yours.
- Music, subtitles, cuts, special effects, filters, and other adjustments to your video are all options.
- The text that will be used to create your blurb or short description.
- Relevant # hashtags
If you are not sure how to apply the effects in TikTok, have a look at this simple lesson that walks you through the process.
- Once your post is open on the mobile app and everything appears to be in order, select “Open in TikTok†at the bottom to launch the TikTok app.
- Your post and video content will now be automatically supplied on the TikTok post creation page. Before you publish the post, you can adjust any settings or make any more tweaks to your preferences here.
- Simply click the “back” arrow at the top of the TikTok post-publishing page if you want to further edit your video content by adding more music, captions, or other TikTok effects.
This will permit you to return to the video editing steps as if you were going through the TikTok video creation process rather than using Fanbooster to get to the final phase.
- Submit your article for publication! It is as simple as that.
Use TikTok Ads:
Don’t worry if you don’t have time to come up with innovative ideas, shoot videos, and then gradually grow their reach through organic engagement—TikTok has an advertising platform that will help you expand your reach if you set aside some money.
TikTok Ad Formats:
Depending on the creative assets you are envisioning or what makes sense for your campaign, TikTok offers a multitude of options for your ad to appear in the stream. These formats “include but are not limited to horizontal, vertical, or square films and images,†according to TikTok.
Should you choose to use them, they also provide a few creation toolsets to help you make these ads:
- “Video Creation Kit,†which includes several video templates and allows you to create videos using your photographs without needing to be a professional editor.
- “Automated Creative Optimization” assists you in automating the creation, delivery, and optimization of your commercials.
These advertisements might appear in four different areas.
- In-feed
- Page with further information
- Post-roll
- Story
TikTok Ad Targeting:
You can target your audience by gender, location, age, interests, and what TikTok refers to as “other unique characteristics” while managing your TikTok Ads.
You can construct “Custom Audiences” and “Lookalike Audiences” to target more people who are similar to your existing consumers for more advanced users who may have used these same popular methods on other paid social efforts.
You can consult TikTok’s chart to check which geographic ad targeting possibilities are available to you based on the location of the owner account if you have a self-serve account.
TikTok Ad Performance Measurement:
TikTok Advertising measurement tools allow you to track the performance of your ads using a variety of devices designed to help you track relevant KPIs:
- By watching users’ behavior on your website, you may utilize the TikTok pixel to track ad performance and measure marketing results.
- TikTok works with third-party monitoring providers to keep track of ad conversions, in-app user behavior, impressions, and click attribution data.
As you can undoubtedly understand from these ad specs, TikTok ads are designed to blend in as much as possible with the usual client experience.
You are not off the hook for making something interesting that does not disrupt the user’s social experience if you want them to stay on your ad (or, better yet, click through and convert).
Guess jeans capitalized on both the musical and “trending challenge” sides of the platform by creating their challenge hashtag and generating a flood of user-generated content while launching their TikTok advertising campaign.
They utilized the phrase “Transform your outfit from a mess to best-dressed!” to promote the concept of “transforming your looks.” “Denim is all you need!†accompanied by the song “I’m a Mess” by Bebe Rexh and the hashtag #InMyDenim.
The campaign was a huge success, and you can learn more about the KPIs they met in TikTok’s case study.
Finally, while deciding between organic and bought TikTok content, you must decide whether you want to pay with your time or your money. Each has advantages and disadvantages, so it will come down to your budget and how you want to communicate with your audience.
Bottom Line for TikTok Marketing:
That is all there is to it for how to market on TikTok in 2021. Use this tutorial to figure out if TikTok marketing is right for you, whether it should be organic or paid, and how, to start your first campaign.
Keep in mind that it caters to a very narrow niche, so tread softly, keep it lighthearted, and make it shareable.
