Hey there, we bring you another exciting topic on how to develop your brand’s TikTok marketing strategy.

If you’ve ever been thinking of how to build your brand’s TikTok marketing strategy, or perhaps you want to know how brands use TikTok, then you’re in the right place.

In this article, we’ll give you a piece of in-depth knowledge about TikTok marketing.

For starters, it’s worth noting that what began as a “just okay” video-sharing application in China has grown to become one of the trending apps in the US market.

Today, it’s arguably one of the world’s number one platforms for short-form video creation and consumption. It’s also considered as the hottest place to be for American youth.

If you’re a business owner and you’re not on TikTok, then you might be missing on a large market base (especially if GenZ is your target market).

When it comes to advertising, TikTok is still a young platform that just began to explore paid advertising, and it’s also becoming a frontier in digital marketing.

Moreover, research shows that TikTok has over 500 million active users globally and over a billion downloads. These are indications that TikTok now bears a massive marketing potential for brands of all kinds.

Furthermore, TikTok is expected to grow in the coming years, and brands can leverage the growth to increase brand and product awareness.

One of the ways to attain this is by developing a TikTok marketing strategy for your brand.

Yeah, you got that right.

A TikTok marketing strategy is one of the essential ingredients of a successful marketing strategy, and it’ll help you to advertise your brand in a way you’ve never done before.

That said, let’s get into something more interesting.

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WHAT IS TIKTOK?

TikTok can be best defined as a micro-video platform that’s full of creativity, art, entertainment, challenges, goofiness, parodies, and much, supplement with visual effects and soundtracks.

Think of what it’ll look like to sort of blend Twitch, Vine, Instagram, Spotify, and Snapchat into one single network?

Well, the result is TikTok.

It’s a Chinese-owned social media video application that encourages users to upload short-form videos. What makes the platform so accessible and unique is the ability to apply a set of effects, filters, and compelling music tracks to your video.

TikTok prides itself as a collaborative social media network where it’s easier to become famous than on any platform.

With such a massive audience, fun content features, and growth promotion opportunities, it’s only a matter of time before more businesses start making their way over to TikTok.

If you’re planning to include TikTok in your social marketing strategy, then now is the best time to jump on the bandwagon.

But you might want to ask: is it worthwhile?

Well, we’ll answer the question with another big question.

TikTok is relatively new, and it all boils down to whether you prefer your brand to either be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in the small pond?

Think about it this way: if you begin now, you could be one of the first to use it, have less competition, and even get more ROI for your marketing efforts.

 

WHY BRANDS SHOULD CONSIDER TIKTOK MARKETING IN 2020

TikTok’s growth is captivating on many levels. For starters, it’s the first social media platform that began in China and then spread to the US and the rest of the world. This expansion was accelerated when TikTok acquired Musical.ly in 2017.

Also, the expansion opened the platform to an extremely diverse and international audience. If you spend a little time on TikTok, you’ll likely see videos in multiple languages and countries. The audience on TikTok is also very young (most TikToker’s are below 30).

For five consecutive quarters (January 2018 – March 2019), TikTok was the most downloaded app in the iOS Apple store.

Below are some reasons TikTok is relevant to your brand and why you need to develop a marketing strategy on the platform:

QUICKLY BUILD TRUST

Even though TikTok is still growing, it’s a vastly untouched platform that’s mainly used by influencers, celebrities, and private people only.

This is what makes it a platform with higher engagement rates and trust levels. When a message is posted on TikTok, it’ll be more effective than when it’s sent on Instagram.

The reason is that Instagram is already deep into the marketing game, and TikTok is mostly untouched.

Thus, brands that get on TikTok now can quickly build lasting relationships.

NANO-INFLUENCERS

In 2020, Influencers marketing will remain a significant part of marketing. But then, there’s likely to be a disruption caused by a change in the audience.

Today, social media influencers or celebrities are no longer the people we expect. Celebrity influencers are also beginning to wane because of the increase in more discerning social media users and issues with authenticity.

There’re too many risks associated with using these significant audience influencers. In a bid not to be sold to celebrities and influencers they don’t trust; consumers are now turning to smaller niche experts who have built the content and community they enjoy.

This trend isn’t just meant for TikTok. We’ve seen this turn towards nano-influencers and micro-influencers across other social media channels.

However, TikTok is perfect for nano-influencers, and it allows people to easily and quickly build a community around their content and get amazing views in a relatively short period.

RAW, INSTANT TRENDJACKING

Social media is a dynamic world, and if you want to remain relevant and drive engagements, then you need to be on-trend and know what’s going viral on TikTok.

Usually, speed comes at a cost to production value. But the glad thing is that it doesn’t matter any longer.

Users are now willing to forgive less polished, raw content if it’s right on-trend.

This strategy isn’t only specific for TikTok. It also works well on Twitter, where sharp, short messages can quickly cut through the noise.

But TikTok has fostered a platform of unfiltered, raw content that you can create with minimal time and effort.

ANTI-MARKETING MARKETING

In reality, GenZ doesn’t like advertising. Statistics show that 51% of them have ad-blockers installed on their browsers.

This confirms that the traditional strategies of SEA and SMA won’t work as well for them as it was for the previous generations.

One way to allure them is by being less invasive while building a sense of community.

These sets of social media users want to engage with brands on their level. So, you need to create content that suits your TikTok audience.

Some brands are already doing this, and it’s paying off. For instance, the NFL began advertising on TikTok in September 2019, and they’re able to amass over 541k fans.

BUILDING COMMUNITIES

Another reason you need to embark on the TikTok marketing campaign is that it helps you to build a trustworthy community.

As we all know, the way people consume social is changing, and it’s now more of what you can do as a community and less of what you can do as an individual.

Building community projects, starting conversations with like-minded people, sharing ideas – that’s what matters.

Some of the leading social media networks saw this coming, and they began to focus on “groups” as part of their strategy.

For instance, Facebook now has more than 400 million group members universally.

Even though TikTok doesn’t have any support for “group” yet, you can see that “community building” is at the heart of the platform.

Many of the contents on TikTok are trend-driven, and users can respond to other people’s videos. A perfect example is duets, where users can collaborate and add responses to other videos.

TikTok offers the kinship that users desire while preventing the toxicity on other social media platforms.

TIKTOK MARKETING STRATEGY

If you’re a marketer and you’re just realizing the potential of TikTok, then it’s not too late. While some brands are already leveraging TikTok marketing and getting good results for their efforts, there is still room for innovation and creativity.

The ad products on TikTok are still somewhat emerging. TikTok has also begun to roll out some video and display units for brands looking for ways to repurpose their existing creative or brands that are just testing the waters.

3D/AR Lenses, Stickers, Brand Takeovers, and Sponsored Hashtags are also available to marketers. While they might work like products that we’ve seen on other social media networks, the level of fan interaction on TikTok is different and unique.

For instance, a tweet that contains a sponsored hashtag won’t require much investment and time from the creator, and it doesn’t also result in much time spent from the viewer/consumer.

The same principle works for shares, likes, etc.

However, brands need much more significant investment for a user to interact with them on TikTok. The entire process of planning, shooting, editing, and sharing of the video will require a creator’s time and effort. The users will also need to buy a brand’s product before they can integrate it with their content.

This is why brands need to deploy several strategies for the measurement of their TikTok marketing campaign. They also need to look beyond performance-based goals (conversions/sales), social media benchmarks and focus on KPIs like fan engagement, awareness, and exposure.

Even though it’s hard to attribute sales directly, these elements can become a catalyst for subsequent brand revenue and ROI.

 

EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL TIKTOK MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

If you want your TikTok marketing campaign to be successful, then you need to get fans to interact with your product/brand organically and creatively.

One of the ways to accomplish this is by creating TikTok challenges because it encourages engagement and brand awareness.

#ChipotleLidFlip

@daviddobrik#ChipotleLidFlip chipotle #ad♬ Flip – Future

For instance, Chipotle encouraged fans to post their #ChipotleLidFlip Challenge. In the challenge, users were asked to purchase Chipotle’s bow, fill the bowl and drop it on top of an aluminum lid such that it can flip into the air. Afterward, they’ll try to catch it to land on their food.

Just like the Water Bottle Flipping, a comfortable and inconsequential challenge allows video creators to brag about their achievement ironically. Chipotle’s campaign lasted for six days, and it had 110,00 submissions and 104 million video starts.

Aside from challenges, some brands have also discovered that you can also partner with content creators and have them create something exclusively for you.

#HeyGoogleHelp

@spencerxWhen you collab with Google #HeyGoogleHelp #googletranslate #google #beatbox♬ original sound – iamspencerx

Google ran a sponsored TikTok hashtag campaign (called #HeyGoogleHelp), where users had to create videos of themselves using Google Assistant and other Google Voice products.

#InMyDenim

@operamericanoGuess who’s feeling confident 😘 guess #inmydenim #sponsored #makeeverysecondcount #fashion #model♬ #inmydenim I’m a Mess – Bebe Rexha

Also, GUESS began the very first fashion takeover on TikTok through the #InMyDenim campaign, where users were asked to flaunt their GUESS denim in creative ways. The campaign was supported by influencers like @operamericano (over 600k followers) and @ourfire (over 5.2 million followers).

The examples above are all sponsored. However, some brands have experienced an increase in sales via organic growth. For instance, Marc Anthony True Professional had a mysterious spike in the sales of their “Strictly Curly” products.

At a point, they became memes on TikTok and encouraged women to do a shampoo drama of their hair before and after using the product. Their video had over 4 million views and led to a 60% rise in sales.

WHAT DIFFERENTIATES TIKTOK MARKETING STRATEGY FROM OTHER MARKETING STRATEGIES

One of the significant differences between TikTok and other social media apps is that famous hashtag tends to favor memes, trending challenges, and other repeating formats.

On TikTok, current events are ignored. That’s because TikTok isn’t meant for the discussion of what’s going on in the world. It’s a place where people go to be creative and have fun without being stressed by the 24/7 news cycle.

Just like every other social media channel, influencers can play an essential role in the promotion of a campaign. But then, brands on TikTok need to carefully choose influencers who are reliable and aligned with their brand.

We mentioned earlier that the GenZ doesn’t like advertising, and they can easily be turned off when someone appears too “sales-y.” So, you need to be cautious when choosing who to partner with on TikTok.

WHAT TO BE WARY OF IN YOUR TIKTOK MARKETING STRATEGY

Even though the lack of data might be a selling point for users, it leads to a lack of efficiency and precision for advertisers.

Facebook and Google are leading the advertising space because they depend on data to reach their target audience at scale. The absence of data also makes any video/display ads a little more than ROS.

There are also some legal concerns about brand safety. For instance, users are given the liberty to create and post anything they want, but brands need to be a little more cautious of the content they create and post.

While TikTok has several resources, tools, and policies in place to maintain a safe and positive environment, there’s still going to be a risk in a fluctuating landscape that depends on user-generated content.

 

CONCLUSION

Thanks for reading this article.

We were able to touch some interesting topics like what TikTok is, the importance of TikTok marketing, TikTok marketing strategy, and examples of successful TikTok marketing campaigns.

Afterward, we discussed what differentiates TikTok marketing strategy from other marketing strategies and things to be wary of in your TikTok marketing strategy.

TikTok is presently exciting, not just because of the massive user growth but because there’s so much space for brands to be creative and innovative.

As more brands dive into TikTok marketing, there’s going to be more records of success in several industries.

But why wait, when you can be the forerunners amongst your competitors?

It’s time to get started.

What do you think about TikTok marketing? In your opinion, how can brands develop a TikTok marketing strategy and what are the best marketing strategies for TikTok? Please sound off your comments below.