Video marketing can be an impactful tool for growing your business, expanding brand awareness, and connecting with your customers. Statistics show that consumers are leaning more and more toward short-form videos that are quick and easy to digest.
That means integrating a video campaign into your marketing strategy is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. This is why so many marketers are turning to TikTok.
SUMMARY
- Create attractive, engaging content
- Create custom hashtags
- Collaborate and engage with other TikTok users
- Interact with potential customers
- Run challenges, contests and giveaways
- Add an interactive element to your videos
- Don’t be afraid to get a little weird
What Is TikTok?
For the uninitiated, TikTok is a social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance that launched in the U.S. in September 2018. While the app experienced a meteoric rise among teens and young adults, its library of user-generated short-form videos appeals to all ages, genders, and cultures.
TikTok is unique because it’s first a video entertainment platform rather than a platform for video marketing campaigns. Users are less likely to feel they’re being sold to when engaging with brands—and this means more brand awareness through organic content sharing. The app provides the perfect environment for marketers to tap into their consumers’ mindset, language, and interests.
So whether you’re running an established business and looking to grow your brand’s visibility, or you’re with a startup and seeking new leads and opportunities, creating an organic presence on TikTok can be a powerful and profitable tactic.
Below are seven tips for beefing up your TikTok presence and maximizing the app’s ability to drive brand awareness, engagement, and revenue.
1. Create attractive, engaging content
TikTok’s environment is designed to be entertainment. It’s a place for users to relax and unwind, not necessarily deliberate and think about their next purchase decision. If your goal is customer engagement, you need exciting and memorable videos that can include funny memes, relatable stories, unique experiences and more that help you stand out and maintain viewer attention.
TikTok is a visual platform. So while your video doesn’t necessarily have to be short, it does need to be visually appealing and compelling enough that people want to watch it from start to finish.
🔥 Hot Tip: Brainstorm some ideas around your brand, product, or service and how it might fit into some of TikTok’s existing categories—like dance, comedy, beauty, fashion, and sports—and then give those concepts some glamour with editing.
2. Create custom hashtags
Hashtags make discovering content easier for users (similar to Instagram). Brands have the opportunity to get their hashtags trending by attaching them to videos that align with a popular TikTok theme or challenge.
🔥 Hot Tip: If you’re not sure which hashtags to use, check out what other brands in your industry are using, then use those examples as inspiration for creating your own.
3. Collaborate and engage with other TikTok users
TikTok’s collaborative nature makes it easy to connect with other brands and influencers locally and internationally. To start collaborating, find influencers who have a significant following in your target market, then follow them and keep tabs on their activity. If they post content that aligns with your overall message and brand values, make sure to share it with your followers.
🔥 Hot Tip: The more your brand acknowledges and engages with other users, the more opportunities there are for your content to spread organically. This practice is a great way to boost engagement and attract new followers.
4. Interact with potential customers
User interactions are another critical component of effective social media marketing—and TikTok is no exception. Like any other social media platform, responding to users promptly and courteously is essential to building brand awareness.
And since TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes on the app per day, it’s vital that you engage directly with your followers, whether they’re current customers or not.
For B2B businesses, this tactic can be effective for building rapport with potential customers and community members. It also helps you identify trending topics that align with your brand and the types of users who follow and engage with your posts. All of which is valuable data for your future campaigns.
🔥 Hot Tip: You might be inclined to only respond to negative and positive responses. However, even neutral comments allow your brand to nurture customers and leverage the one-on-one conversation opportunities.
5. Run challenges, contests and giveaways.
One of the best ways to drive brand awareness through TikTok Marketing is by getting users to engage with your posts. You can boost engagement in several different ways, including giveaways and contests. You’ll be able to collect leads while also increasing your brand’s visibility among active customers on the platform.
Challenges are huge on the app, and they can range from contests to games to polls. To run one, come up with a fun idea (that aligns with your brand) and ask users to submit videos supporting it—that might be dancing like Beyonce or dressing like Harley Quinn.
🔥 Hot Tip: Ensure you promote the contest on all your social media platforms and share any videos that users submit. And don’t forget to create a unique hashtag specific to the challenge.
6. Add an interactive element to your videos.
Adding interactive elements to your videos gets users involved with your brand and increases your content watch times. By asking them to answer a question, vote in a poll, or upload their videos using specific prompts, you are turning passive viewers into active participants. TikTok marketing requires some extra finesse than the other platforms.
🔥 Hot Tip: You can build an interactive TikTok community where you can engage with users on a more personal level. It also increases your odds of going viral.
7. Don’t be afraid to get a little weird.
When posting content to this platform, it’s crucial to keep in mind its most valuable form of viral currency: authenticity. Because the videos on this platform are often short and quirky, users don’t always expect to see traditional marketing messages. As such, it’s easier than ever to catch them off guard with something unexpected—and that can be a powerful thing.
🔥 Hot Tip: Don’t force your brand into an image that doesn’t feel right; instead, focus on authenticity and creating content that aligns with the true nature of your brand.
TikTok: A mobile video marketing platform like no other
If you’re looking for a unique platform to promote your brand, TikTok is worth exploring. Whether you’re looking to attract new customers, increase brand awareness or boost engagement, the app offers endless possibilities. Marketers have to be ready to think outside the box.
Are you looking to improve your TikTok marketing results? You’ve come to the right place. Let’s chat!