How to market your business on TikTok in 2020

Marketing your business on TikTok

If your business is not yet on TikTok you could be missing out on a tonne of revenue. To learn how to market your business successful on this explosive platform, read on.

Why TikTok is great for business

TikTok is a fantastic platform for businesses simply because it's so unbelievably popular. There are currently over 800 million active users  on the platform, the app has been downloaded over 1.5 billion  times and the platform has the highest user engagement rate compared to any other social platform:

Source: influencermarketinghub.com

These numbers may seem impressive but is your target audience even using the platform?

Here is a break down of the TikTok user demographic:

Source: medium.com

Noticing that almost half of the users are between 18 and 24 might prompt you to completely disregard the platform, but that would be a very foolish decision. 

The number of adults using the platform is growing.

Source: marketingcharts.com

And these adults are not poor either, data indicates that they have money to spend on your business.

Source: businessofapps.com

So there's incredible potential for reaching out to new customers on TikTok, even if your target audience isn't currently using the platform, they eventually will be.

And if your business is on TikTok you'll be one of the first in your industry to do so. Most businesses are being very pragmatic with the platform and disregard it completely.

But don't let the negative attitude of other businesses prevent you from marketing yourself on TikTok and potentially growing your business.

The same businesses that disregarded instagram as a platform for children, and are still struggling to catch up on that platform, are now disregarding TikTok.

Sign up to TikTok pro

To get the most value out of TikTok, you'll need to switch to a pro account. A pro account allows you to track the performance of your posts to help you cultivate your marketing efforts.

Follow the instruction in this video to activate your TikTok pro account:

The key to TikTok marketing success is to be value driven

Yes, this is a common mantra that's applicable to all social media channels, but it's all the more important to keep in mind with TikTok because you only have up to 60 seconds to sell yourself.

And if you think that's pitiful, it used to be only 6 seconds!

So you need to squeeze as much value into those 60 seconds as possible.

The best value you can offer that fits perfectly with TikTok's short form video model is bite sized tips and motivation.

To help you understand how this could work, think of a TikTok as a giant digital post it note board.

TikTok as a giant post it note board 

The post it note is arguably the greatest invention ever. You can stick them around your monitor to remind of helpful keyboard shortcuts or even on your bathroom mirror to continuously motivate you to chase your dreams.

They add incredible value to our lives even though you can only fit a small amount of content on them.

Think of every TikTok video you make as a post it note, you've only got a limited amount of space so make it count.

Provide solutions to some of the common day-to-day struggles your target audience faces. If you work in finance, perhaps you can record a quick tip on how to consolidate transactions efficiently.

If you work in design, perhaps you can give a quick tip on how to align and group elements efficiently in photoshop.

These quick bite sized tips may seem trivial to you, but your audience will love them and start viewing you as an authority in your industry.

Just make sure you are only hitting record if you are about to offer your followers something valuable. This isn't your opportunity to try out some new comedic material, you can use your personal accounts for that, keep all of your TikTok content concentrated with extreme levels of value.

The other great thing about TikTok is that you don't need to invest in high end video production and editing, just pull out your mobile, hit record and then publish it instantly. Nobody expects premium production on the platform, in fact, the more raw and unedited your content is, the easier it is for your audience to connect with you.

If you cannot limit some of your TikTok content to 60 seconds, you can use your video to pique the curiosity of your followers and then ask them to click through to your Youtube account to view the remainder of the video.

At the time of writing this, you can only link you Youtube account and Instagram account on your profile and not your personal website. But don't worry, TikTok is currently developing its platform to be more accommodating to businesses. It only offered its advertising options last year so we're at the forefront of some exciting business friendly developments.

Gay Vee's Ti kTok channel is a fantatsic example of this post it note content strategy check out Gary's channel  to see how he offers his followers simple and quick gems of wisdom and bursts of motivation to help them make it through the day,

Source: tiktok.com

Besides your regular publishing stream of high value content, you can also encourage follower engagement with TikTok challenges.

TikTok challenges are a brilliant way of getting your followers to increase the exposure of your brand while having incredible fun.

Here's how you do it.

How to create a TikTok challenge for your business

Think of an entertaining way of promoting your business. It can't be too cheesy though otherwise nobody would want to participate in your challenge, so maybe avoid doing the worm around a magnified print out of your logo.

Here are some examples of successful hashtag challenges to fuel your creativity.

#inmydenim

Source: tiktok.com

The fashion brand Guess created the #inmydenim challenge  which challenged users to transition into their Guess denim clothing in the most creative way possible.  

#guacdance

Chipotle challenged fans to celebrate national avocado day with their very own avocado themed dance, also known as the quacdance .


Source: tiktok.com

As you can see, these challenges are not very complex, they just celebrate an element of a business in a really fun, and even goofy way.

If you're finding it incredibly difficult to come up with a great hashtag challenge, you can post a contest for a challenge idea on Freelancer.com  and ask thousands of TikTok users to come up with the best hashtag challenge for your business.

Once you've come up with a challenge, think of a hashtag for it. Ideally you should choose one that's not in use. Then select a really catchy tune for it. You can select one from TikTok's library of music by tapping the "Sounds" button on the recording screen.


Source: socialmediaexaminer.com

If you want to really make your business stand out, you can create your own unique sound for your hashtag challenge. You don't need to be a talented music producer to do this, simply hire a freelancer  to write, record and produce one for you.

As each follower participates in your challenge they'll be using your unique sound which is will give your business a higher dimension of exposure.

Putting in the effort into planning a successful hashtag challenge is absolutely worth your time, because TikTok users LOVE a good hashtag challenge. They're an opportunity to showcase unique creativity and, they currently offer a great distraction from all the Coronavirus news  flooding other social media channels. 

Paid TikTok marketing

Businesses also have the option of advertising through TikTok's dedicated advertiser platform. But it's not cheap.

There are three primary TikTok ad campaigns to choose from.

Brand takeover

These are full screen ads that appear when the TikTok app is first opened. These ads are limited to one category per advertiser each day, to prevent overwhelming users.

Pricing depends on the unique campaign goals of a business, but to give you a rough idea its around $50,000 per day.

Yes you read that correctly.

Hashtag challenge ads

You can promote your hashtags challenges with hashtag challenge ads. This will promote your challenge through a banner ad that will then take users to your dedicated challenge page.

This is a great way to gain the initial exposure you need to initiate organic virality.

You can find yourself paying up tp $50,000 per week for a TikTok Hashtag challenge ad.

But don't let this discourage you. It's possible to run a successful hashtag challenge for free, if your hashtag challenge is fun and engageing enough.

In-feed-video 

These are similar to the video ads on Instagram. In-feed-video ads appear as TikTok users scroll through their video feed. They are limited to only 15 seconds.

In feed video ads cost around $10 CPM with a minimum of 600 impressions (prepaid).

Work with influencers

TikTok gives businesses the option of working with some of their most popular influencers on the platform. This is a great way to leverage the trust influencers have established with their followers to convince them to check out your business.

There's no set pricing as each influencer would have different requirements. To get started head over to TikTok's creator marketplace  and sign up.

Final thoughts

TikTok is a fast growing social media platform that will eventually become the new dominant environment of your target audience. Follow the tips in this post to be one of the first brands in your industry to embrace the platform while your pragmatic competitors still struggle to play catch up on instagram.