With the goal of using short films to reach younger audiences more broadly, brands are increasingly using TikTok for marketing. Additionally, the platform provides useful services for businesses, like live streaming, in-app shopping, and branded hashtags.

As TikTok emerges as a new marketing trend, the question that needs to be answered is: How can you differentiate your business from the competition? You’re here for that reason! We’ve put together a straightforward guide to TikTok marketing that includes nine tactics you can attempt.

TikTok stands as the swiftest growing social media, securing the top position as one of the most downloaded apps. With over one billion monthly active users, TikTok’s user demographic spans a broad spectrum, encompassing Gen Z and millennials.

If your target market is young audiences, TikTok has much to offer. TikTok reports that half of its users (50%) purchased products during brands’ live streaming sessions. If you’re considering collaboration campaigns, TikTok is home to micro and macro influencers.

In terms of engagement, TikTok also stands as one of the most engaging platforms for social media users. TikTok takes the lead with a remarkable average engagement rate of 4.25%, while as a comparison, Instagram shows a mere 0.60% average engagement rate.

Not to mention, when it comes to influencer marketing on TikTok, the average engagement rate soars to an impressive 15.86%. With remarkable statistics, TikTok marketing is a strategy to execute for every digital marketer.

Let’s talk the most essential factors when you leverage the platform. These include content authenticity, trends, and formats.

Create authentic and creative content

Invest in creating innovative content that you produce yourself. Add value to your content by infusing informative messages and entertainment.

Craft content that reflects your brand’s personality. You don’t need to make your videos cinematic and overly polished. Instead, focus on capturing your brand’s essence naturally and compellingly.

Craft TikTok-preferred content

TikTok’s algorithm loves specific content formats. Short, punchy videos between 15 to 60 seconds are ideal. Add music, sounds, and effects that match the mood of your content and resonate with viewers.

Leveraging text overlays to highlight critical messages or punchlines enhances viewer engagement, especially when the video is soundless. Remember that TikTok users love content that evokes emotions, such as laughter, inspiration, or empathy.

Moreover, the vertical 9:16 aspect ratio is the most suitable for TikTok videos. This aspect ratio ensures that your videos fill the screen correctly when viewed in portrait mode on mobile devices.

Join trends and challenges

Trends and challenges are the heartbeat of the platform. As a marketer, you must monitor ongoing trends, including songs and popular hashtags within the TikTok community.

Consider your brand into these challenges to elevate visibility and engagement. Customize your content to keep it authentic. Following trends showcases your brand’s relevance and spurs user interaction.

9 TikTok Marketing Strategies

Creating and sharing content on TikTok is only one aspect of using the app for marketing. From determining your target audience to producing videos and refining your content, your adventure begins.

We have compiled a list of strategies for increasing brand exposure on TikTok and establishing an online presence. When embracing your marketing adventure on the platform, bear in mind these nine strategies.

1. Identify target audience and competitors

Understanding your target audience requires you to research their demographics, psychographics, and online habits to create content that resonates with your intended viewers. The big question is, “How can you do that?”

Let’s start simply. Create a detailed profile of your ideal viewer by considering their age, gender, location, interests, hobbies, and lifestyle. You can use TikTok’s built-in analytics and other social media tools to gather data on your audience demographics and psychographics.

Study how your target audience behaves on TikTok. You will understand their motivations, challenges, and preferences. Also, find answers to these questions: What types of content do they engage with the most? When are they most active?

Along with audience research, identify brands or creators in your industry that are successful on TikTok. Analyze their content strategy, the type of videos they create, their frequency of posting, and the engagement they receive. This research inspires and helps you see what resonates with your target audience while maintaining content authenticity.

2. Set your goals

Some brands use TikTok to build branding, grow brand awareness, generate leads, and make sales—so what is yours? Defining specific and measurable goals ensures that your efforts are purpose-driven.

Defining your goals helps guide your content creation and strategy. For example, if you want to raise brand awareness, creating short explainer videos is an excellent idea. But, will they be suitable for making sales? Not necessarily, because try-on or tutorial videos drive better sales.

Read Also: Secrets to Beating the Instagram Algorithm in 2024-2028: Expand Your Follower Base

Each video you create can align with your overarching goals, allowing you to accurately measure the success and impact of your TikTok marketing efforts. This strategy enables you to measure ROI and make data-informed decisions to refine and optimize your approach.

3. Upload high-quality and valuable videos

TikTok is a visual platform. Videos with poor quality won’t be attractive and engaging. Creating high-quality video content with clear visuals and compelling delivery is crucial to ensure your videos won’t be scrolled away.

Learn how to upload content appropriately, such as using preferred resolutions. As previously mentioned, the 9:16 vertical aspect ratio is the most suitable size for TikTok videos.

On top of that, in a platform where attention spans are short, the quality of your videos can make or break engagement. When your videos consistently offer value, viewers are more likely to follow, share, and engage with your content, leading to increased visibility and growth.

4. Create a content plan

Creating a content plan helps you maintain a consistent and cohesive presence on TikTok. This strategy involves outlining a schedule for when and what type of content you’ll be posting. Start by determining how often you’ll post videos daily, weekly, or another frequency. Then, brainstorm the themes, topics, or challenges your videos will revolve around.

Consider using online content planning tools such as StoryChief that offer collaboration features. These tools help you streamline the content creation process and help you maintain an updated workflow with your social media team.

Moreover, a content calendar helps you stay organized, ensures a steady flow of content, and prevents last-minute scrambling. It also allows you to align your content with relevant trends, events, and promotions, maximizing your brand’s visibility and engagement.

5. Invest in educational how-to videos

When talking about video styles, there are plenty of options. But if you want to keep your feed valuable, investing in content like how-to videos, tutorials, tips, step-by-step guides, and product comparisons is content worth your consideration.

Sharing valuable knowledge helps you gain authority. Educational content has the power to attract viewers who are actively seeking solutions or information, leading to higher engagement and trust. It’s also a way to foster a sense of community by helping your audience learn and grow.

Keep your videos short and sweet because people hate long explanations naturally. You can be straightforward with your messages and include a clear CTA at the end of the video to evoke a response and drive viewers to do the desired action.

6. Collect and share user-generated content

Let’s say you’ve made sales, and your product or service successfully satisfied customers. Then what’s next? If you’re thinking of gathering their ratings and reviews on your product, you’re on the right route.

Ratings, reviews, and testimonials in written or video format are user-generated content. This type of content is a goldmine for building authenticity and connection. Better still, UGC attracts customers more significantly than brand-made content.

Motivate your followers to create their videos featuring your products, services, or related themes. You can host a giveaway or offer other rewards to encourage customers to create and share UGC content.

Then, showcase this UGC on your TikTok account, as it highlights your satisfied customers, engages audiences, and inspires your broader audience. UGC acts as social proof, demonstrating real-life experiences and positive interactions with your brand. This strategy can attract new customers and build a loyal community.

7. Create content that follows trends

TikTok is an ever-changing platform with trends shifting quickly. Trend integration involves creating content that aligns with prevalent challenges, hashtags, or themes circulating on the platform.

You can also use trending songs on TikTok for your videos. This strategy capitalizes on TikTok users’ current conversations and interests, making your content more likely to be discoverable and engaged.

Why do you need to follow the trends? Trends allow you to stay relevant on the platform. You also demonstrate your brand’s relevancy and cultural awareness, leading to increased visibility and engagement. Yet, infuse your brand’s unique voice and perspective into the trend to ensure authenticity and stand out.

8. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing becomes necessary if you want to reach a broader and new audience in a short span. It requires you to collaborate with popular content creators who have a significant number of followers.

From micro to mega influencers, they can create content that features or promotes your brand’s products, services, or messages. When viewers see influencers they trust engaging with your brand, it lends credibility and authenticity to your marketing efforts.

But, ensure to research relevant influencers suitable for your brand. It’s best to work with niche-specific influencers, such as beauty enthusiasts, fashion gurus, or tech savvies, as they’ve built credibility in their respective fields.

Regarding rates, it costs between $151 and $793 per post by micro and macro influencers. However, mega influencers with over one million followers set higher rates, around $1,034 per post. So, mind your budget when considering influencer marketing.

9. Create a short series of content

Developing a short series of interconnected videos is an effective strategy to maintain consistent engagement and keep viewers returning. This series could follow a storyline, offer a step-by-step guide, or explore a specific theme across multiple videos.

For example, if you’re a construction brand, you could create a seven-day series of home-building progress videos. You can show the before-after of all rooms of the house. In each video, you can make a timelapse and give a few tips on how your business works on the house. Your content is not only informative but also interesting to follow.

You encourage viewers to return to your profile and engage with your content over some time. A series creates a sense of continuity and lets you dive deeper into a topic and maximize the value you offer to your audience.

Other Strategies to Keep in Mind

Be Interactive with polls and challenges

Interactivity is key to engaging your TikTok audience. Using features like polls and challenges encourages participation and creates a sense of community.

Polls enable you to ask questions and gather insights from your viewers, making them feel involved in your brand’s decisions. Conversely, challenges involve creating a specific task or theme for users to replicate in their videos.

You can get creative with this type of content. For example, content like ‘this or that’ and multiple choices. This strategy fosters user-generated content, increases engagement, and spreads brand awareness as users participate and tag your brand.

Create collaborative campaigns

Collaboration can amplify your brand’s reach and credibility. Partnering with other TikTok users, brands, or influencers on joint campaigns allows you to tap into their existing audience while sharing the creative load.

For instance, you could collaborate on a challenge, a duet, or videos highlighting both brands. This strategy introduces your brand to a new set of viewers, builds cross-promotional opportunities, and adds an element of novelty to your content.

Sustainability and social responsibility

In an age of conscious consumers, showcasing your brand’s commitment to sustainability and social responsibility can resonate deeply. Create content highlighting your eco-friendly practices, charitable initiatives, or ethical sourcing.

You can attract consumers who align with your values and paint your brand as a responsible and ethical entity. TikTok users often appreciate brands that contribute positively to society and the environment, making this strategy a way to differentiate your brand.

Share behind-the-scene content

Sharing a peek behind the curtain humanizes your brand and fosters a sense of authenticity. Sharing behind-the-scenes content provides a glimpse into your brand’s culture, processes, and people.

Share how you make your product, your store condition, or how your employees pack the orders. This content can build a connection with your audience and spark their curiosity.

Finally

TikTok’s potential as a marketing platform is substantial. Digital marketers and entrepreneurs looking for new prospects have been enthralled by its abundance of capabilities. TikTok offers a flexible toolkit for innovative brand engagement, including shoppable posts, live streaming, and interactive elements like challenges and surveys.

However, we must not overlook the platform’s dynamic advantage. To remain current and competitive, make sure you adhere to content trends and match them with your own material.