January 22, 2022 |
How To Develop a TikTok Marketing Strategy?

TikTok has been recognised as the fastest growing social media platform of all time. In 2021, it reached 2.01 million active users in Singapore alone, and a whopping 1 billion active users worldwide. Albeit the controversy it faced a couple of years ago regarding data privacy, the app still continues to increase in popularity. That is why it is no surprise that digital marketers are keen to come up with marketing strategies to take advantage of the platform’s rapid growth and popularity.

 

What is TikTok Marketing Strategy?

 

There is no doubt that TikTok is an amazing platform to promote your brand if you have a business. Tiktok marketing is simply using the app to promote your brand or the products and services that your business or company offers. There are different approaches you can use in Tiktok marketing, including influencer marketing, Tiktok advertising and creating organic viral content. The use of Tiktok marketing can help your business to achieve the following:

  • Increased brand awareness
  • Showcase your brand, along with your products and services to your target audience
  • Community engagement
  • Reviews about your products and services
  • An opportunity to provide customer service
  • Potential sales conversion

Sounds good, right? If you are unfamiliar with Tiktok or haven’t explored yet how the app works, there is no need to worry because it works just like other social platforms that you might be familiar with.

 

Basically, your Tiktok content is a 15-30 sec video (they just recently launched the 3-minute feature) that plays on a loop unless you scroll up for the next video, or scroll down for the previous video. There’s also the use of captions, descriptions, and hashtags. Think of your Instagram stories and Youtube description box. Put those two features together and voila—you now have your first Tiktok content.

 

User interactions in Tiktok are also the same as the other social media apps – they can like (heart), comment on, and share your videos via a direct message or to other social media apps.

 

User engagement is remarkably high on Tiktok, plus it has outstanding performance when it comes to keeping people glued to it. The only tricky part of this app for digital marketers is how to create content that would resonate with the audience. Tiktok users are comprised mostly of teenagers (also known as the Gen Z), but there’s also a good chunk of millennials (born in the 80s and 90s) in its active users. These are the users who like to see content that is fun, engaging and something that they can relate to in real life.

 

If you try to use the Tiktok app for a couple of weeks just to observe, you will notice its difference from other social media apps in terms of content type and format. This way, you’d be able to get a hang of it, and it will be much easier for you to use it as a marketing channel. 

 

TikTok Marketing

 

After familiarising yourself with the app, what’s next? What do you need to do in order for your target audience (and perhaps a new audience) to notice your brand on TikTok?  

Again, just like the other social media platforms, you optimise your content good enough for it to land on the For You Page (a.ka. FYP) of your target audience.

 

The For You Page is the first page you see when you open your TikTok app. It is essentially the equivalent of your Facebook timeline, Instagram feed, and Twitter feed. This is where you see the videos from creators that you may or may not follow that TikTok thinks you might be interested in based on your past interactions. This is basically how the app’s algorithm works, based on heavy observations.

 

You would love to appear For You Page of your target audience because it means you did great in making content that resonates with your audience. It means that your content has quality over other videos from other creators on the app. It also means that there is a lot of opportunities that are in store for your business including follower growth, free exposure, and even potential sales in your business.

 

So what do you do to end up on the For You Page? Here are some guidelines you can follow:

 

The use of proper hashtags. We know how powerful hashtags can be, and we have already proven this in other social media apps. Make use of them, and use them wisely. Only choose a small number of hashtags, and make sure that they are relevant to your content. You can use unpopular hashtags and you can even make your own, but you must also mix them with popular hashtags related to your content or niche. Participating in hashtag trends and challenges can also help.

 

The shorter your videos, the better. Yes, Tiktok increased its video length to 3 minutes, and while this works for other creators, a video that is less than 60 seconds is recommended if you are using the app for marketing purposes. Remember, the less time a user needs to watch your video, the more likely that user is going to watch it until the end. If you want your video to be more than 60 seconds, you have to make sure that you have a “hook” in the beginning to keep the users watching until the video ends.

 

Maximise the use of captions. TikTok caption only allows you to enter 150 characters, and this includes the hashtags you are using. Clearly, this is not the platform for you if you have a lot to say in your caption. Make it precise—prioritise your hashtags as much as possible—encourage engagement (e.g. follow for more, like our page, etc.), or use a cliff-hanger to keep the viewers engaged (e.g. wait ‘til the end, I didn’t expect that, etc.)

 

Yes to high-quality videos. TikTok is designed so that the videos you upload can come directly from your smartphone. Make sure that your videos are not blurred or pixelated, use proper lighting, and increase the volume of your audio for an optimum viewing experience.

 

Types of TikTok content 

 

Now that you have the ideas on how Tiktok works and how your content could end up on the For You Page, it’s time to come up with the content to upload. What are the types of content that resonate with your audience? Here are the five types of TikTok videos that proved to be massive hits! 

 

 

  1. Videos Based on Trending Sounds

 

Have you ever heard of the Warehouse sound? How about Nobody’s Gonna Know? Yes, these two sounds became household names on TikTok because a lot of creators have used them in their own videos creating their own twists. It is important to keep in mind that sounds are huge on Tiktok, and it’s basically a good thing for you to use popular Tiktok sounds on your own videos. 

 

 

  1. Videos Based on Trending Hashtags

 

Again, hashtags are best especially since you want your content to be discovered. If one hashtag is trending, it means it’s popular and there is a massive chance that your video will end up on users’ For You Page if you use a popular hashtag. Hashtags like #edutok, #featurethis, #tiktokrecipes, and #dancechallenge have paved the way for many of the creators to be discovered and grow their following. 

 

 

  1. Tiktok Challenges

 

TikTok challenges are fun to make. It boosts your creativity because you would want your video to be unique despite using the same concept as the others. One of the recent ones was the #InfinityChallenge and many creators were really up for it, coming up with different ways how to do the challenge through their videos. 

 

 

  1. Collaborations with Other Creators

 

TikTok has a Stitch feature, wherein you can stitch your content to someone else’s video, and a Duet feature, wherein you can create a video that would appear side by side with another creator’s video. It is also a fun way to create a video, and effectively drives views to both your page and the other creator’s page. The best way to maximise this content is by reaching out to another creator and brainstorming with ideas on how you two can best execute your collaboration.

 

  1. Lip-Syncing Videos

 

This type of video content is pretty much similar to using popular sounds. The main difference is that you are literally lip-syncing the sound in your video. It can be a song, a conversation, or a movie clip. 

 

 

While there is still a lot to learn about TikTok, it is arguably one of the best platforms to use for content marketing. These bite-sized videos with their unique but popular sounds are sure to be a lot of fun to create. No matter what your niche is, or the kind of products and services you offer, you’ll definitely find your own sweet spot on this platform. 

 

 

Do you want to know more about digital marketing? Or perhaps you want to make a career switch and want to possess the necessary skills to be a digital marketer. Sign up for our Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing and Campaign Strategy and become one of the most sought-after professionals in the digital age.