The Power of TikTok For Your Business

If you’re looking to take your video marketing strategy to new heights and tap into an ever-growing audience, it’s time to explore the unparalleled potential of TikTok. As a curious business owner or marketer, understanding how to harness the power of TikTok can unlock a world of opportunities for brand exposure, customer engagement, and ultimately, business growth.

In this guide, we will walk you through the strategies, techniques, and best practices for effectively leveraging TikTok to elevate your brand. From crafting compelling video marketing content to navigating the algorithm and building an enthusiastic following. Let’s review the innovative ways in which businesses are harnessing TikTok’s viral potential, collaborating with influencers, and driving meaningful connections with their target audience.

What is TikTok for Business?

Let’s get to know TikTok. TikTok is a short-form video app that has taken the world by storm. With its immense popularity, reaching billions of downloads and millions of installs, TikTok has become the ultimate platform for both individuals and businesses alike. 

Imagine your brand capturing the attention of millions, going viral, and creating a massive buzz in just a blink of an eye. TikTok for businesses offers a unique opportunity to spread brand awareness, engage with a vibrant community, and tap into local as well as global demographics. The app’s interactive nature and enthusiastic user base make it an ideal platform for building a strong and authentic brand.

As with other leading social platforms, TikTok enables businesses to set up ‘business’ profiles on TikTok. These are accounts to post on that are public to spread awareness of your company. Business accounts have access to TikTok’s full suite of marketing tools to use to master and create a cohesive strategy for their company. You can analyse metrics and compare them with previous months, link products to TikTok’s ‘shop’ feature and have a more aesthetic, business-focused social page.

Understanding TikTok as a Marketing Tool 

TikTok works by using its state-of-the-art algorithm to pick and choose videos for users on its ‘For You Page’. Whilst the algorithm is shrouded in secrecy, we know that similar to Google, TikTok is consistently providing new updates and developments to identify the right content for the right people.

So far we know that these videos are collected on data based on what users have liked, shared, commented on or watched for longer periods. It will collect this data and use it to better improve the page to push more relatable or enjoyable content to you.

From a user base point of view, the two largest demographics of TikTok are 10-19-year-olds and 20-29-year-olds. These two segments of the TikTok user base make up nearly 50% of the app’s demographics. 

TikTok compared to other platforms is very simple. You can quite quickly master the art of posting, the correct times and the correct content to post in order to boost views and engagement. It’s also one of the only apps with the potential for videos to go viral overnight and for the creator to gain lots of traction, followers and engagement. 

Big brands such as Ryanair and Nike have gotten on TikTok and used their platform as a funny engaging platform rather than a business-focused platform. They continually come up with funny replies to commenters and their page is flooded with people commenting and liking back. 

Creating Engaging Content on TikTok 

To make the most of this dynamic platform, it’s essential to understand the key elements that optimise your content for maximum engagement and shareability. In this next section, we will share our valuable insights and practical tips to help you create TikTok content that resonates with your target audience and drives meaningful interactions.

Publish Portrait Videos

TikTok is designed for optimal viewing on mobile devices. To ensure a seamless user experience, it’s essential to create and post content in a vertical format. By embracing this vertical orientation, you can effectively engage your audience and maximise their viewing pleasure.

When it comes to advertising on TikTok, adhering to the platform’s recommended specifications is crucial. TikTok provides specific guidelines for ad dimensions, and it’s highly recommended to design your ads to fit these specifications. By doing so, you increase the chances of your ads being approved and ensure they display correctly on users’ screens. Neglecting to comply with these specifications may result in your ads appearing distorted, cropped, or poorly formatted, diminishing their impact and potentially deterring users from engaging with your brand.

Length of Video

Capturing and retaining the attention of modern consumers is no easy task. With just a small window of opportunity to make a lasting impression, it’s crucial to engage users from the very first moments they encounter your content. On TikTok, where users have a penchant for swiftly swiping through videos, you must seize their attention within seconds to prevent them from moving on to the next piece of content.

To ensure your videos have maximum impact, make those initial seconds count. Craft visually captivating and audibly appealing openings that immediately grab the user’s attention. These first few moments are your chance to intrigue, entertain, or entice the viewer, compelling them to continue watching and engaging with your content.

Additionally, it’s important to be mindful of video length on TikTok. Although the platform launched to facilitate just 60-second uploads, TikTok now enables some users to create and publish content up to 10 minutes in length. There are lots of studies outlining the optimal length of video content but we recommend doing some tests yourself for the best results. 

TikTok SEO

Using hashtags within your captions allow your videos to be discovered by users who are searching for or following specific topics. This increases the visibility and discoverability of your content, attracting potential viewers who share similar interests. However, it’s important to use hashtags wisely, aim for a balance between popular and niche hashtags to maximise reach and engagement.

In addition to using hashtags, it’s essential to optimise your TikTok content for search engine optimisation (SEO). Similar to how you strategically use keywords to optimise the content on your website, incorporating relevant keywords in your captions, video descriptions, and even within your video content can significantly improve your discoverability on TikTok.

Consider incorporating these keywords naturally into your video content itself. While TikTok is primarily a visual platform, the platform’s algorithm also takes into account the audio elements of your videos. By mentioning or including keywords in your spoken content or video scripts, you provide additional signals to the algorithm about the relevance and context of your content.

Developing a TikTok Marketing Strategy 

Developing a marketing strategy isn’t always an easy task so we will talk you through the key points to create that stellar campaign and get the clock ‘TikToking’.

Identify Your Target Audience 

The first step you should take is to define the audience you want to reach on TikTok. Consider factors such as age, location, interests and behaviour patterns. Some of these metrics can be found in the analytics section of your business account. You should use these metrics to optimise content for all these categories to gain the best engagement from your posts.

Define Your Goals 

Determine what you are looking to achieve on the platform with your marketing strategy. Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, generate leads or drive sales? All of these factors will determine what content you wish to create and publish. Optimise your content to fit these categories to best align with your strategy.

Research Competitors 

Research your local and national competitors to see what they are posting and what their engagement is like. See if they are using TikTok effectively and it’s working for them. Look at the trends and their practices and apply that to your content, you can change your strategy to better align with goals.

Create Your Content Strategy 

Develop a plan or schedule of what you would like to post on the platform. There are many topics to choose from such as events, challenges, trends and branded content. Consider partnering with influencers to extend your reach and boost your views. Don’t forget though, TikTok is an entertainment app, your role on TikTok should be to entertain your audience, not go for the hard sell. 

Build Your TikTok Presence 

Establishing a strong presence on TikTok starts with setting up a branded TikTok account that reflects your brand’s identity and engages your audience. When creating your account, pay attention to the elements that people will see when they stumble across your profile, such as captions, hashtags, usernames, and profile photos. These elements should collectively showcase your brand in a positive light and entice viewers to engage with your content.

Measuring the Success of TikTok Marketing Efforts 

Tracking the success of your marketing efforts is essential to understand what you’re doing right and what can be improved on to make informed decisions about your strategy.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) play a crucial role in evaluating the success of your TikTok content and determining whether it is resonating with your audience or falling short. By tracking relevant metrics such as views, likes, shares, and comments, you can gain insights into the level of engagement your content is generating.

These KPIs provide valuable feedback on the performance of your TikTok strategy. If certain posts consistently receive high views, likes, shares, and comments, it indicates that your audience is connecting with that type of content. Take note of these successful posts and use them as a guide to creating more content that aligns with your audience’s preferences and interests.

Social Media Marketing at Loop Digital

Here at Loop Digital, we provide video marketing services for you. We can create both long-form and short-form content for you to use on your TikTok account. You won’t have to worry about what to post as we have you covered. If this blog has sparked an interest in social media marketing then get in touch now or book a meeting to speak to an expert from our team.