05/25/2022

TikTok Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

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TikTok started as a way to learn lip-sync and it has evolved to become a social network for Gen Zers. They use TikTok for challenges, duets, and synchronized dancing to share their experiences with others.

Even though you may not like TikTok there is a chance that some of your target audiences use the app or are familiar.

I’m not the typical TikTok millennial but that didn’t stop me from being obsessed with the app last. I spent hours on the app looking at videos. I wanted to share everything I know about TikTok marketing, and how it can benefit your business.

  • What TikTok is and how it works.
  • TikTok provides a wide range of marketing options to businesses.
  • TikTok – How to Market Your Business
  • TikTok offers many lessons that you can learn from it, even though it’s not right for your business.

What’s TikTok?

TikTok lets users create short videos and share them via social media with music and other original sounds. Users can also add filters, stickers, and lenses to their videos. To share their videos, users can use hashtags.

TikTok is often compared to Vine, which was a short-lived video app with a short format that was never forgotten. It was purchased by Twitter before closing down. This is my favorite.

When you open TikTok on your mobile device, it automatically plays audio videos. This is especially true when the app is located in a quiet location. As you interact with the app, it will start personalizing according to what you like. Another tab is called “Follow”. You can also “heart” videos as you watch them. These videos are added to your library. You can comment on them or share them.

You can search for videos using hashtags and users with the Discover tab.

Click on the plus button to upload the video to TikTok. Next, select the music that you would like to play over your video. The music you choose is important.

You also have the option to create your sounds that can be used by other users to make their videos or duets 

TikTok marketing: What you need to know

Some might wonder why TikTok matters to business owners, particularly if your target audience doesn’t include Gen Z.

How many people are using TikTok?

While we know TikTok saw significant growth over the past year, the real numbers are shocking.

While lockdown orders, quarantine, and other features were popular features of the app it has grown rapidly and shows no signs of slowing down.

Who uses TikTok?

It might surprise you to know that TikTok has grown beyond teens.

With just over 20%, the ten-to-19-year-olds are the most active users ( 25). However, the 20- to 29-year-old and 30-to-39-year-old age groups are close behind.

This is a big change from 2020 when teens accounted for almost 35%. This means TikTok will continue to grow and that more people might start using it.

What does TikTok do?

People have spent record time on their phones over the last year. My weekly screen time alerts for the week are horrendous. TikTok has consumed a large amount of my screen time. This usage statistic is worth looking into:

  • 90% of TikTok customers use the app more than once per day — eight times on an average day
  • 1,000,000 videos can be viewed every day on TikTok.

The app is used frequently by many people. This is a testament to the importance of TikTok, irrespective of whether or not you plan to use it for business promotion.

Talking of…

What are TikTok marketing options for small businesses?

Businesses of all sizes have embraced TikTok, particularly in the last year.

We were there, even pre-pandemic. One of our videos was viral!

Others have started to use TikTok advertising options.

TikTok began advertising for brands in late 2019. It now offers additional advertising options for brands and businesses of all sizes. To allow businesses to benefit from TikTok’s brand-building and advertising capabilities, a Business Creator Hub was also established.

The study was also done to determine how effective TikTok advertising is for businesses and how users perceive ads.

The 72% of users surveyed thought TikTok ads were inspiring. 70% of users also reported they find TikTok ads amusing. 

These are the results of TikTok ads that businesses can use to reach new audiences and interact with them.

TikTok marketing: How to use it in your business

These statistics and data points will convince you that TikTok is essential for your company’s marketing. TikTok is a great tool to help you market your business.

Register to create an account for your company

TikTok can be used in your business. To do this, create an account. This includes your logo, company name, and other brand identifiers.

Staying up to date with the latest trends in TikTok is a great way for your business to promote TikTok. 

You can record your video with another poster by creating a Duet. This will increase the popularity of your original post as well as increase your chances of being seen on someone’s For You page.

Check Your Video Content

Your audience can engage with your brand through video content. TikTok lets you test what works and what doesn’t.

The TikTok Page of your business can be used to determine which content resonates with them, what drives engagement, and what isn’t performing as expected.

The TikTok video can be repurposed on other social media platforms like Instagram Stories or Facebook. Engagement can be achieved on other social media platforms.

As you will see, the performance with TikTok at the University of Georgia is different from one video.

Use Hashtags and the Right Sounds 

Use hashtags and any music or sounds in your video to get your business noticed on TikTok.

Pay close attention to the music trending on TikTok. This will help you determine which TikTok hashtags get the most attention for your For You page.

The Right Moment

TikTok is a popular platform with a large organic reach. To increase your chances of being featured in the For You Page (FYP), it’s important to post at the right time. Learn more about the best times to post on TikTok.

Look into TikTok Ads

TikTok Takeaways

TikTok might not be right for you, based on your demographics or creative bandwidth. You still can use TikTok’s marketing tips to promote your business. 

Invest in personalization

The default tab of the TikTok App is the For You Tab. You can change this setting by using geo-targeting and other targeting options. You could also make sure your automated email contains the first name and address of the customer.

Keep an eye on what’s hot and trendy

TikTok focuses on the most popular topics to make them more noticeable. Marketing is always changing.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Google algorithm update (like mobile first in indexing), which will affect your search engine performance, or if you’re unsure if you should join a new social network (like TikTok!) It doesn’t matter if Google makes a change to its algorithm (like mobile-first indexing), it will impact your search engine performance. Or if there is a new social network you are unsure whether you should join (like TikTok!

Streamline Customer Experience

TikTok’s interface is simple. You don’t even need to create an account. Just open the app and scroll down. You can also like videos, and it will add them to your favorite list so you can easily return to them.

TikTok’s simplicity allows you to get addicted.

Customers will be more likely to do business with you if they find it easy.

Be creative

TikTok is a social network that allows people to have fun. Creativity should be an integral part of the puzzle.

Your marketing messages, images, and overall strategy do not stand out from the rest.

TikTok marketing: Is it right?

It doesn’t matter if TikTok suits you. You need to stay on top of the trend to reach your customers. 

About the author

Kobe Digital is a unified team of performance marketing, design, and video production experts. Our mastery of these disciplines is what makes us effective. Our ability to integrate them seamlessly is what makes us unique.