Information for this blog post was obtained from blog.hubspot.com, Sprout Social, and Moz.
Social media marketing and digital marketing in general has become the most important form of marketing for many companies. The increased digitization and online presence of the world have prompted a switch from traditional media like print, radio, and television to online platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and, most recently, TikTok. This evolution, much like the evolution of the internet itself has been rapid and disruptive, prompting a number of companies to switch their business model, most famously Netflix switching from mailing DVDs to dominating the online movie streaming landscape. This dynamic nature can leave many companies in the dust and has done just that, most notably Netflix's former competitor, Blockbuster due to their inability to adapt their business model to the increasingly online ecosystem of streaming.
Adapting to an ever-changing external environment is one of the most important ways that your business and your products or services can stay relevant. Over the last decade, the biggest change in the external environment relating to marketing has been the emergence of social media and its dynamic nature as a marketing tool. Numerous companies ranging from Uber to Wendy's have taken advantage of this new medium in order to provide themselves with new customers and extra revenue. While these social media platforms have their own uses depending on the nature of your product or service, their usefulness is apparent. The whole point of marketing and advertising it to get your product or service in front of as many people who will buy it as possible and there is no better vessel to do that with right now than social media.
While each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on the unique nature of your product, service, or available resources, the focus of this article will be put on the newest and one of the most popular in the world as of March 2023, TikTok, who boasts 1 billion monthly active users globally (Buffer).
Before we get into the weeds on how to market your business on TikTok in an effective manner, some statistics need to be established as to why your brand should choose TikTok in the first place.
TikTok Statistics (Courtesy of HubSpot)
TikTok, as a platform has been growing at an incredible rate across the world, and that is not an empty sentiment. TikTok has not only become the most popular social media for users but marketers as well, with 65% of paid ads on social media being purchased on TikTok, according to HubSpot. Some may think, "Well, sure, marketers spend a lot of money on ads on TikTok but that doesn't mean those ads are successful". While that skepticism is well-founded for most social media platforms, a survey conducted by Kantar found that 2/3rds of respondents said that TikTok ads capture their attention, a number 10% higher than the next highest social media channel. In conjunction with this, Statista found that 52% of TikTok users found the ads they saw "fun and engaging".
So if the ads that people see on TikTok are mostly engaging, and a plurality of consumers want to learn about these products through short-form videos or reels, 36% to be precise, then it becomes less and less surprising that massive brands like Amazon and HBO have been spending a large amount of money on TikTok ads.
It's very evident through a number of statistics that you'll find that TikTok is a fantastic channel through which to market your product or service, assuming that the medium of short-form video is the best form of advertisement for your product or service.
Assuming that your product or service will be best served through advertisement on TikTok, it's finally time to know how to market it best on the platform.
Successfully Advertising on TikTok
As any good marketer knows, there are a few obvious marketing tactics you need to employ to market well through any medium, including making your product or service relevant to the audience, defining your audience appropriately, and tracking your performance through key performance indicators (KPIs). However, there are absolutely some platform-specific steps you have to take to ensure that your marketing and advertising go as well as they can on TikTok's platform.
The first step, as with any platform, is to create a business account that will give your brand access to TikTok's marketing tools, helping. you create an even more cohesive marketing strategy on the app. You can also add a URL to your profile bio once your account reaches 1,000 followers.
Another great step to take to effectively market on TikTok is tapping into the expansive field of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing has become more and more popular, especially over the last decade. Whether it be the largest influencers on the app like Charlie D'Amelio or various TikTok micro-celebrities with their own committed followings, a large number of brands have used these influencers with their own niche to market to a rabid fanbase in order to ensure effective marketing. Some of these influencers have been so successful in this vein of marketing that they have switched mediums and have had TV shows like Lily Singh and the D'Amelio family. While influencer marketing has become more and more popular and is no longer considered a hidden gem, there is still potential to be found in using these influencers and their fanbases in order to successfully market your product or service. Consider collaboration or partnership with these influencers if you determine it would be financially beneficial to both parties.
Next, associating your brand on TikTok, and even other platforms, with a personality or set of personalities, could be beneficial to your marketing efforts. It can be argued that this has been done to its greatest extent on TikTok with a number of companies and brands using their TikTok account as a means of creating an audience for the brand to which they can advertise more effectively. In my own personal experience, sports-related brands have done this very well like Lumberlend and BDGE both building a committed fanbase, which comes back video after video, which then subsequently boosted their profits in the short and medium term. This would have continued if it were not for both of those brands letting go of the faces of their social media, who were then subsequently picked up by other large brands. If this is a direction you think your brand can go, make sure that it is sustainable and communication is done between the social media team to ensure that they are successfully fulfilling the goals and objectives of the larger marketing strategy.
Finally, TikTok trends can provide a short-term boost in interest and engagement to your TikTok account and perhaps get more people to return to your page and even lead to them purchasing your product or service. Particularly, if you find a trend that relates well to your product or service, be sure to take advantage of that possible boost in interest.
What Does the TikTok Algorithm Value?
Lidia Infante of Moz did a deep dive into the algorithm that puts your video in front of people. TikTok has gotten a smattering of criticism relating to its algorithm and the biases it may or may not have. However, this criticism remains unfounded as TikTok remained transparent and provides good documentation relating to how their algorithm works. All information will be cited from Lidia's article.
TikTok seems to rank 8 main factors when it comes to if the algorithm will put your video in front of a specific person. These are in no particular order.
Video Engagement
Discover Tab Engagement
Video content (visuals, audio, text, hashtags, sounds, etc.)
The language of the content
Device Sustainability (age of your device, audio settings, mobile carrier, etc.)
Creator locality (if the user and creator are in the same country, state, etc.)
If the content is ineligible (user under 16, duplicated content, dangerous content, etc.)
Native content creation (content being created using TikTok's in-app tools)
Many of these factors are unsurprising like the level of engagement the video gets, if the content is flagged as ineligible, and, if you're familiar with TikTok on a user level, the content of the video. Others a certainly more surprising like device sustainability, as it seems that older devices or devices with lower battery or bad service receive different video recommendations on their "For You" page. The most important of these for marketers, that they can control, is making sure that they create this content using TikTok's tools native to the app. While the consensus seems to be that does not have a massive bearing on the algorithm and what it does with your content, it is always better to be safe than sorry.
Conclusion
Using TikTok as a marketing tool is becoming increasingly common and the returns seem to continue justifying brands doing such. From the number of people it gets in front of, with 1 billion monthly active users, to how engaged users tend to be with content on the app, to the many ways that you can take advantage of the platform from a marketing perspective all justify why TikTok is good for marketing and why you should consider using TikTok marketing to effectively advertise your product or service.
For more info on how you can take advantage of business accounts on other platforms, specifically Facebook, check out one of our author's blogs about starting a Facebook Business Page here.
Resources
Infante, L. (2022, October 26). TikTok SEO: Understanding the TikTok Algorithm. Moz.
Retrieved April 11, 2023, from https://moz.com/blog/tiktok-algorithm-seo
Lua, A. (2023, March 15). 21 top social media sites to consider for your brand. Buffer
Library. Retrieved April 11, 2023, https://buffer.com/library/social-media-sites/
Needly, F. (2022, October 3). 16 TikTok advertising stats to know before you invest. HubSpot
Blog. Retrieved April 11, 2023, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/tiktok-
West, C. (2023, March 29). TikTok Marketing: The Complete Guide for Brands in 2023. Sprout
Social. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/tiktok
Comments