17 Dec TikTok Marketing Strategy: 10 Tricks To Master TikTok Campaigns
Summary
Every company is aware of the benefits that come with having a great Instagram strategy or being active on Facebook but very few companies have bothered truly investing time and resources into TikTok.
Even though it is the sixth-largest social network, TikTok often does not get the attention it deserves.
The benefits of using TikTok as part of your business strategy continue to grow but some of them stand out and with good reason.
For example, you could use TikTok to promote other platforms your business is active on that do not receive as much attention as you would like. This could be a webinar or a podcast episode you have created that needs more traction.
Apart from promoting your brand on the platform, TikTok has some additional perks worth noting:
- You will be able to tap into a new demographic (GenZ).
- TikTok has started beta testing ads on its platform since February and even though the ad packages at the moment are more suitable for big businesses, there are also ways for small businesses to take advantage of TikTok as a platform. For example, GymShark (relatively smaller compared to Sony or Universal Studios), uses TikTok to create short clips that focus on working out while also wearing their line of gym clothing.
- It has over 800 million active users worldwide and 90% of all those TikTok users access the app multiple times a day.
Now that we have established that you need to have a presence on the platform, let us get into ways you can make the most out of every penny you invest in a TikTok campaign.
1. Focus on non-invasive marketing
GenZ is going to be your target audience with TikTok and it is imperative that you realize that the age-old marketing techniques aren’t going to work with them. 69% of GenZ said they find online ads disruptive so your aim should be to focus on non-invasive marketing techniques.
Thankfully, TikTok is perfect for this since the platform focuses on quick video snippets where you can easily incorporate your brand into the content without it seeming pushy or annoying.
A good example would be Apple Music.
They can easily include new music as part of a fun and short clip they post to TikTok and people would love it- you’re probably won’t even notice that it is a marketing tactic for their new music.
Another good example of how Apple Music uses its TikTok channel was when they recently interviewed Dillon Francis as part of a quick clip they posted on TikTok. The clip was simply him talking about his perfect day in LA using the hashtag #PerfectDayIn.
The key here is to remember that you need to be as natural as possible with your marketing- especially on TikTok.
2. Hashtag Challenges
Using hashtag challenges (like what Apple Music did in our first point) is a great way to bring in new views and grow your audience. It gives you the ability to build a mini tribe around your brand or an idea that your company has come up with.
A hashtag challenge is normally fun, easy, and catchy. If this is something you are interested in taking a look at for your company, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
- Conduct some basic research: Make sure you have your basics covered by taking some time to conduct keyword research. You should also try to take a look at the hashtag campaigns that are successful to understand what is working in the current market.
- The hashtag you narrow down on should be memorable and catchy since the only way your challenge is going to do the rounds is if people mention your hashtag.
- Consider tagging celebrities when you are asking people to take part in the challenge. Celebrities normally participate in challenges that are popular to connect with their fans. For example, Lizzo participated in the #KeepingActive challenge to promote body positivity.
- Do not just go with a hashtag because you think people are going to participate in the challenge. Also, make sure that it is relevant to the rest of your brand. Remember that this is a great way to promote user-generated content so you should keep the focus on what is important: your company.
- Try to tie your social media strategies together across different platforms. So, if you have already had a challenge on Instagram that is similar, consider extending that to your fan base on TikTok. This can work particularly well for aesthetic brands that deal with food and fashion.
For example, one of my favorite brands Ultimate Meal Plans could easily take their well-performing content from Instagram and YouTube and make a challenge out of it where they put together different meal plans in a certain allotted amount of time.
People could then share the same challenge on Instagram as well. This would be one step towards an omnichannel marketing approach, which is the future of digital marketing.
3. Advertise with coupons and discounts
According to the Institute of Business Management, around 65% of the GenZ audience sees value in coupons and discounts. It would be wise to include any promo codes or discounts you may have within your TikTok marketing strategy.
This could be something as simple as highlighted text next to a quick video of the product or a mention of the coupon code in the video description.
Jayden Bartels, a TikTok influencer, includes her codes within the video description when she partners with companies for ads. This allows her to show her fans ways to save some money in a non-invasive way.
4. Include relevant TikTok influencers in your campaign
Investing in TikTok influencers is quickly becoming a good business move because of the great ROI associated with the expense. Influencers have the ability to get your product in front of the right audience quickly and most importantly – it is an already engaged audience.
This is best showcased through an example:
The Influencer Marketing Factory was hired by Sony to run an influencer marketing campaign where they promoted Shakira and Anuel AA’s new song: Me Gusta. They did that by working with six different influencers around the globe.
The final results? The campaign got 12,000,000 of hashtag reach, 19,100 user-generated videos, 6,900,000 video views and 1,170,000 likes.
This value of working with influencers rang true in the case of Gymshark as well, a sport apparel brand that focuses heavily on influencers. Gymshark focuses exclusively on fitness enthusiasts that have developed a following online and then collaborates with them to form a solid group of Gymshark ambassadors.
They did this primarily on TikTok and Instagram. On TikTok, they connected with like-minded fitness enthusiasts to create short video snippets that focused on exercise routines and their clothing line. Thanks to their marketing strategy that included building relationships with the right influencers, Gymshark opened itself up to a whole new audience. The company now has a net worth of $1.45 billion.
The good news is that this works in almost every industry. Even if your niche is boring or a bit ‘weird’, you could still invest time into this and see results.
For example, if you run a lingerie store like 3wishes does, you could send out your most popular items to your most valuable influencers for free, and they could create some awesome TikTok videos while wearing the clothes you sent in.
Image via 3wishes
On the flip side, if you consider yourself to be in a more ‘boring’ niche like mannequinmall.com for example (they are selling mannequins), you could definitely still leverage TikTok influencers in your marketing strategy but in a slightly different way.
Image via mannequinmall
Let your influencers be creative with your mannequins, and you’d be amazed at the creative and viral videos your influencers would create to promote your products. Also, please don’t think strictly in terms of B2C and B2B – your potential customers are everywhere.
If you want to invest in influencers, a good first step would be to get in contact with an agency like The Influencer Marketing Factory that can find the right influencer for your company and campaign. This will ensure you get the best results.
There are several platforms, tools and search engines that can help you find the best TikTokers and one great example is InfluenceGrid.
5. Post as frequently as possible
Making sure your brand is always on your customer’s mind is only possible if you have a frequent and regular posing schedule which is achieved through hard work and planning. Each day of the week has certain times that are considered to be the best to post during.
You can read this article to take a look at what those timings are in the EST timezone.
6. Try to engage with your audience by commenting on their videos and replying to comments on your own
The beauty of user-generated content is your customers are doing the hard work for you so the best way to keep this going and make sure more customers continue to produce content that is centric to your business is to engage with it when they do.
Just as companies like seeing engagement on their posts, so do individuals. You can do this by commenting on their videos, replying to mentions when customers reach out to you, or even sharing content that is really good on your own page. This will also improve customer loyalty in the long run.
7. Share User Generated Content
A lot of brands make the mistake of only focusing on creating their own content instead of trying to get users to participate in the creation process.
The focus should be on getting users to love your brand as much as you do. Nike does an awesome job of this. If you search for the hashtag ‘#nike’ on TikTok, you will see how Nike is killing it with their marketing strategy.
You will find millions of users wearing their Nikes, unboxing their Nikes, skateboarding in their Nikes, and more.
This is all free user-generated content that is bringing in a whole new audience for the brand. The Nike hashtag, as of today, has 3.4 Billion views!
8. Create Branded Stickers
Brands have the ability to create lenses and stickers on TikTok which can do an awesome job of promoting user-generated content as well.
This is a great way for brands to connect with their audience and it is pretty easy.
Pizza Hut is one of the brands that has previously created custom stickers on TikTok as part of their campaign and it worked great- clips with the sticker were streamed over a million times.
9. Invest in advertisements
Once your account gains some traction, it becomes easier to get by with no investment in advertisements but for new accounts, I would suggest considering TikTok ads. They are more affordable than other social media platforms and it can help you grow your account while you are still in the baby stages of getting yourself set up.
As your business grows along with your TikTok account, you will continue to make money online that will help you cover any expenses you may have.
10. Make sure you use a reminder schedule
You cannot expect yourself or anyone on your team for that matter to be able to constantly be active on TikTok. This is why you should plan out your videos in advance and schedule them.
Loomly has an awesome reminder schedule to make sure all of your content is posted on time and with regularity. This will allow your team and you to focus on other aspects of your business.
Image via Loomly
Other tools you could consider investing in would be a good photo editing app for collage videos you might make or general editing software for your videos to look more professional.
Wrapping it up
Now that you know how to lay your TikTok foundation, the only thing left to do is get started. You do not want to be the last person to join the party so investing some time into this platform now is going to be much better than regretting it later.
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