With over 800 million monthly active users and 2.6 billion downloads, there’s no doubt that TikTok is officially the hottest social networking platform in the world right now. You might think TikTok’s audience is limited to teenagers, but that’s not the case anymore. Users of all ages are starting to jump into the TikTok bandwagon as we speak, with brands, celebrities, influencers, now joining the platform. Like every other social media platform, however, TikTok may not be a good fit for every brand. Before deciding, it’s essential to consider the nature of your business, product offerings and demographics of your target customers. But many brands like Nike and Fenty Beauty have found success marketing on TikTok. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t throw your TikTok marketing strategies out just yet. Learn how you can make TikTok marketing work for your business.
The first step to creating a TikTok Marketing Campaign is to, of course, set up a TikTok Pro account. What sets the pro account apart from the regular version is the tools and features, such as insights, about your business, etc., that it offers for your page.
Hashtag Challenge
Like Instagram, Twitter, and any other social media platforms, a hashtag is a primary way users share and find contents on TikTok. It’s also the fastest way to build a community and encourage user-generated content on the platform.
TikTok defined it as a challenge that “taps into users’ passion for creation and expression by inviting them to join in on a collective movement.”
When set up correctly, hashtag challenges can go viral and give your brand a quick awareness boost. One important thing to note before setting up a hashtag challenge is the purpose that comes with it. TikTok users might be discouraged to join in a challenge without a clear purpose, or with one that does not align with what they stand or care for.
Your brand should also have a clear goal when creating a hashtag challenge; this might be generating awareness for a new product, or increasing your brand’s social media presence. It’s recommended that you create a SMART goal for this occasion, which allows you to measure the campaign’s success later.
Hashtag challenge is also an excellent way for your brand to seamlessly integrate into the TikTok community, making connecting to your target customers easier than ever.
The average engagement rate for a hashtag challenge is around 8.5%, according to TikTok. More than 50% of creators have also said that they’ve joined in at least one hashtag challenge throughout the periods where they’ve been active, while 35% stated that they participate regularly.
How can the numbers above be so high? Well, it’s because it’s relatively easy for a TikTok user to discover, learn and participate in different hashtag challenges. Popular ones can even pop up in their “For You” page, making it even more accessible for users.
Influencer Marketing
This type of marketing strategy enables your company to partner with TikTok influencers to create and share contents to a group of targeted audience.
There are few important points that you should make note of in order to generate a successful influencer marketing campaign:
- Your brand should give these influencers creative freedom when it comes to generating content.
- Contents shared should disclose the sponsorship deal between the two parties, this way, you won’t be taking your audiences’ trust for granted.
Before starting your campaign, similar to a hashtag challenge, you should also define some objectives that your business would like to achieve. Consider some KPIs that can measure the success of your campaign.
It’s also equally crucial for your brand to carefully choose the influencer you want to work with. Don’t select your influencers solely by the number of followings they have. Here are a few things that your business should consider:
- Do the contents they deliver or their reputation align with your business’ goals/mission?
- Is their target audience in line with your business’ target customers?
- Do these influencers have a proven track record of delivering high-quality content and positive engagement?
- Are they regular customers of your brand? Working with those influencers who have previously talked about your products might appear to be more genuine and authentic to your target audience.
- Do the prices they offer match with your influencer marketing budget?
To get a better idea on Influencer marketing, start exploring your TikTok page and find some inspirations from other business’ successful strategies.
TikTok Ads
To increase the return on your investment on different marketing campaigns, you can also rely on TikTok’s ads.
TikTok offers several options for paid advertising:
In-feed video ads
This type of ads appear in between user videos as you scroll through your “For You” page. It works in a similar manner as the ads that you see as you scroll through your Instagram Stories.
Brand takeover
Brand takeover ads consist of a full-screen, three to five second video that pops up as soon as a user opens the app. On top of that, this ad might also show up in the “For You” feed, including a clickable link that drives users to a landing page of your website, or even a hashtag challenge.
To offer a great user experience, TikTok limits the number of takeover ads each user sees each day to one. For your business, this of course means limited competition, offering you greater return on your investment.
Branded hashtag challenges
A compliment to the hashtag challenge that we’ve talked about previously, this type of ad offers both organic and sponsored opportunities for brands to boost awareness.
These types of ads are placed at the top of each users’ “Discovery Page”. By clicking on the ad, a user will then be led into a collection of TikTok videos of the same challenge, a perfect opportunity to gain awareness of your hashtag challenge.
TopView ads
Very similar to brand takeovers, but TopView ads are usually 60 seconds long. They are also on delayed play, meaning that they do not appear when as soon as the user opens the app.
Branded effects
Similar to what we’ve seen on Instagram and Snapchat stories, branded effects are custom stickers, lenses or AR filters that users can use when creating content.
A new branded effect will only be available for 10 days. Hence, you should be careful when choosing the right time to publish effects.
The next step: Cross-promotion
Once your account is all set and your contents are uploaded, it’s always a good idea to cross-promote it across your other social channels, like Instagram, Twitter or even Facebook.
This will be a great way to gain awareness about your accounts, possibly increasing your TikTok following, boosting your video performance, etc. You can do this by either posting a link to your TikTok account on your Instagram bio, or even post contents you’ve posted on TikTok onto your other social media platforms.
Key Takeaway
The options are truly limitless. You can even combine a few of these strategies together to drive higher positive return and engagement.
Customers are no longer passive, they are now content creators who would like to build deeper connections with brands they purchase from. This is where TikTok comes in.
It’s important to remember that majority part of your campaign success is determined by the content quality and purpose itself. Spending hundreds of dollars promoting a content that your target audience is not interested in will most likely not generate a positive return and engagement.
There are thousands of successful brand campaigns out there, start exploring and analyzing. Learn what works and what doesn’t, and start drafting your own strategy from there.
Should you face any challenges along the way, our digital marketing agency’s tremendous experiences will surely be able to help you. Don’t hesitate to drop us an email at [email protected]!
