If you live in the 21st century, chances are you have heard the word TikTok in one context or the other. Currently, TikTok is a viral application that has taken over the world, fueled by teenagers and adolescents’ creativity. Because of its popularity, TikTok is now driving hit songs and products and advertising campaigns.

What is TikTok?

So if you are an old-timer or generally disconnected from social media, you may need a little more explanation about this popular app before attempting to leverage it. The app started as Musical.ly, and teenagers used it who did karaoke overtop catchy songs. Later on, ByteDance bought Musical.ly and merged it with its app, creating the TikTok we know and love.

If you open the app, you will see numerous 15-second videos chock-full of entertainment, information, creativity, or just teenagers enjoying themselves. TikTok allows its users to create short videos and dive head-first into creativity and innovation by utilizing the numerous filters, music, effects, and editing tools available within the app. It provides teenagers with a platform and community in which they feel comfortable displaying their creativity and self-expression.

But Why is it Useful?

Okay, yes, TikTok sounds fun, but what can it do for your brand?

Well, due to its enormous user base, TikTok is a pool of audience just waiting to be targeted by your brand. It also gives you the chance to appeal to that audience by being creative and engaging.

“If I go as a marketer to another platform, I get likes, shares, or comments. If I get a video on TikTok, I get 20 to 30 minutes of a person’s time to create and share,” says Stefan Heinrich, the Head of Global Marketing at TikTok.

Furthermore, numerous big companies are utilizing TikTok for their products or services and are getting unprecedented results.

For instance, GUESS very smartly leveraged the app for its denim campaign. The company managed to take over TikTok with their #InMyDenim campaign, which encouraged the users to show off their GUESS denim in innovative ways. To kick off the challenge, GUESS first utilized influencer marketing, which then enabled its campaign to spread to all users like wildfire.

The ROI on TikTok will be consumer awareness and engagement, just like the other social media apps. An added benefit to utilizing TikTok is that it can enable you to target a younger demographic, one that your other campaigns may be overlooking.

How to Develop your Own TikTok Marketing Strategy?

Developing a TikTok marketing strategy for your brain is not only simple but is also quite enjoyable and can lead you to endless benefits.

Here are a few tactics that can help you effectively utilize the app:

Make Creative Videos

If you have used TikTok before, you know how to make videos. If you haven’t, log into the app and click on the plus (+) sign at the screen’s bottom.

Doing so will take you to a screen that enables you to record short videos or combine them for a maximum of 60 seconds of content.

There are various ways you can be creative with your videos during and post-recording. TikTok allows you to play with numerous effects and options like speed, augmented reality technology, voice effects, and adding cool animations.

The process of creating exciting content for your TikTok videos is similar to creating blog content. Please make sure the topic or the genre you pick is of interest to your target audience and appeals to them.

It is also essential to the relevant cover and hashtags, which make your video increase your videos’ discoverability.

Make Use of Hashtag Campaigns/ Challenges

The fastest and most effective way to spread brand awareness and encourage engagement among the TikTok audience is through creating hashtag campaigns or “challenges.” Think along the lines of GUESS’s example; what the best and most fun way for people to interact with your brand is?

Two important things to keep in mind while thinking about a hashtag campaign is difficulty and creativity. For the former, ensure that your campaign entails a certain level of difficulty encouraging people to flaunt their ability. It is called a “challenge” after all.

For the latter, also ensure that you allow some flexibility within the challenge to encourage creativity. Generally, people like having guidelines but being able to put their spin on things.

Leverage Influencers

The numerous benefits of influencer marketing are no secret– and TikTok is no stranger to them. Like those on other social media platforms, influencers on TikTok also have substantial cult followings of their own and can help promote your brand or campaign. While picking an influencer to promote your content, make sure you know the kind of audience that the particular influencer targets and whether or not it is relevant to your brand. All big companies indeed leverage influencer marketing on TikTok to spread their messages; however, it is essential to choose the influencer right for your specific brand and niche.

TikTok SEO

Just because you are on TikTok does not mean you can ignore SEO!

You still want your content to reach the audience, which is why you need to make sure you are optimizing TikTok SEO.

Don’t fret– TikTok SEO is not a new concept. It just means that you need to ensure that your content is optimized to reach consumers when they use the search feature on the app.

The easiest way to optimize TikTok SEO is by using relevant hashtags when posting your video.

To determine which hashtags would work, type a relevant but broad keyword in the search section, and the app will then suggest a range of hashtags associated with the keyword you typed in.

There is no particular limit to the number of hashtags that you can use; however, your hashtags appear in the caption of your video, which is limited to 100 characters. Therefore, just picking out two or three relevant hashtags is ideal, as it would leave you with some space to write an appealing caption for your video as well.

Be Authentic!

Authenticity, of course, is encouraged in every social campaign. TikTok, however, is entirely based on authenticity and self-expression, which is why having a marketing campaign that showcases the authenticity of your brand is essential.

TikTok, unlike other social media platforms, has not yet been entirely infiltrated by brands, which is why if you want to be accepted by the TikTok community, you have to push authenticity and creativity, not sales. Engage with your audience and appeal to them, making them want to buy your product on their own.

To Conclude

TikTok is a dramatically powerful app and can lead your brand to unparalleled profits if appropriately utilized, of course.

Do not be overwhelmed by this magnificent entity, though. Take it one step at a time. Download TikTok (if you haven’t already), create an account, and just browse through the app, looking at videos and analyzing how the users utilize the platform.

It is imperative to start developing a brand presence on the app before using it for a campaign. Spread awareness, build a community around your brand, and then leverage the app to yield endless benefits.

If you have any questions or need help taming this magnificent app, feel free to contact us.