TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world. With over one billion active users, it has become a place where people share their lives and connect with others on video. But what about TikTok for small business owners?
TikTok is not only for personal use; it can be used by small businesses to generate leads, increase brand awareness, and drive sales!
This blog post will discuss six easy steps that will help you develop your short-form video strategy on TikTok.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a video-based social media platform that allows users to share short videos with others on the app.
Videos can be 15, seconds, 60 seconds, or 3 minutes (or less) and are usually of people singing karaoke (in response to an audio clip), lip-syncing (to various songs), dancing, doing pranks/stunts, or creating skits.
You’ll also find a lot of videos about entrepreneurship, small business, and any niche within these topics.
Believe it or not, 3 minutes is a lot of time! You can cover a lot of ground in 3 minutes. So, to reach your target audience on TikTok, you must create some great content.
It is available for Android, iOS, and on the web using a mobile browser.
Now that we know a little bit more about TikTok, let’s get into how your small business can create a successful strategy for using the app.
Privacy Concerns for Small Businesses
TikTok has recently come under fire for privacy concerns, as users have reported that TikTok is collecting their data without permission.
Most cybersecurity experts believe TikTok is no worst than other social media apps.
With this in mind, it’s important to know how much information you share with the app and its parent company, ByteDance.
Is your audience on TikTok?
This is a question every marketer asks themselves at some point, and the answer may not be as clear-cut as you think (e.g., TikTok beat both Google and Facebook with the most web visitors in 2021).
TikTok is most popular with Gen Z (ages 16-24), so if your target market falls within that age group, it’s worth considering a TikTok strategy. However, even businesses outside of that demographic can find value on the platform – it depends on who you are trying to reach.
TikTok Fast Facts
- As of September 2021, TikTok has an estimated 1.1 Billion users worldwide.
- 70% Of Users Are Outside of the US.
- The Majority Of Users (60%) Fall In The 16-24 Age Range.
- Bytedance, the firm that owns TikTok, is worth $140 billion, making it the world’s most valuable startup and surpassing Twitter and Coca-Cola in terms of value.
- More than half of TikTok’s global viewership is under 34.
- Users are spending an average of 52 minutes on the app per day.
- TikTok downloads in 2020 reached 850 million.
- The TikTok app has been downloaded more than 1.5 billion times worldwide.
- TikTok has over 80 million monthly active users. 60% are female, and 40% are male.
As facts about COVID-19 grew in the public eye, we saw registered nurses perform choreographed dance routines with many hand gestures while information about Covid-19 flashed on the screen, such as how long the virus remains on various surfaces or demonstrating proper handwashing.
Doctors also create TikTok accounts to interact with patients and share health education content. The objective is for these accounts to reach out to a younger audience and provide important information from recognized sources. Videos with the hashtag #coronavirus have about 57.7 billion views on this app.
Grandparents and parents are also joining in, as a side effect of social distance, while spending their time at home alone disconnected from the world and discovering the amusing aspects of TikTok. These parents know current trends and even participate in family fun on TikTok. This leads to the popularity of hashtags such as #granniesoftiktok, #dadsoftiktok, or #daddycool.
When it comes to audiences on TikTok, it’s important to remember that the app isn’t only for teens and young adults.
There are various ways to reach different age groups on the platform, so do your research before you start creating content.
TikTok Users are Very Engaged
TikTok users are unique in that they are highly engaged with the app, spending an average of 50 minutes daily on TikTok. This is interesting because it’s quite more than other popular apps like Instagram or Snapchat (around 20 mins for both).
What does this mean?
It means you can directly reach your target audience where they spend their time, and they’re likely to be more engaged with your content than other platforms.
Small Business Owners: get comfortable with the platform
As we mentioned earlier, TikTok has come under fire for privacy concerns. However, small business owners must also remember that these concerns exist on other social media platforms. The key is to know what you’re sharing and who you’re sharing it with.
When creating content on TikTok, small business owners should focus on being themselves. The app is all about authenticity, and users respond to genuine content. This doesn’t mean you have to be funny or creative – share what your business is all about in an interesting and relatable way.
To make the most of TikTok for your small business, start by creating a business profile on the app. This will give you access to features like analytics, collaborating with other users through likes and comments, and monetizing your account with TikTok ads.
Leave Perfection Behind
When you’re building a brand on TikTok, it’s important to remember that this is an app where imperfections are embraced. Users respond positively when content feels authentic and genuine, so don’t worry about editing mistakes or creating the perfect video.
Being yourself will go a long way toward your success as a small business owner on TikTok.
Try to be yourself, don’t spend too much time editing your videos, and post relatable content for the target audience you want to attract. If you follow these steps, being successful with Tik Tok isn’t far behind!
How to Create a Content Marketing TikTok Strategy in 6 Simple Steps
The main question everyone has on their mind is how do you get started with TikTok if your business is already busy running day-to-day operations? Here are six easy steps to create a successful TikTok marketing strategy for your small business:
Choose Your Niche Video Marketing Topic
Before starting any type of video campaign, it is vital to determine your main goal. Without a specific focus, you could easily get lost in the vast content on TikTok. The same rules apply to small businesses as they do to more prominent brands to narrow down your target audience.
Start by thinking about what makes your company unique and how you can communicate that through video.
- Are you a business-to-business company with a difficult product to explain or demonstrate in a short amount of time?
- Or do you have an exciting company culture you could showcase in a series of fun and lighthearted videos?
The options are endless.
Once you’ve determined your niche, it will be much easier to develop a specific vision for your video content and focus on the types of people you want to interact with it.
Create Content on TikTok for Small Business Brand Awareness
Once you have your niche, it’s time to start creating content. Here are three types of videos that can help increase brand awareness for your small business on TikTok:
Product or service demonstrations
If you make or sell a physical product, this is a great way to show it off in action. This could also include how-to videos demonstrating the use of products your business offers.
Company culture videos
Do you have a unique company culture?
These videos can be used to show off what it’s like to work at the company entertainingly, making them great for turning brand evangelists into TikTok influencers eager to share your content with their followers.
For example, you can create videos featuring your employees dancing to popular songs, unexpectedly embodying the company culture.
If you have experience with video editing or are interested in learning some basic skills, creating short comedic skits around your brand could be another fun and engaging idea for TikTok content. Consider taking a humorous approach to a specific aspect of the company, such as how it runs daily or what its products are used for.
This business owner uses TikTok as a marketing tool to create fun videos with her husband, including inside her business, Running Dogs Brewery in St Helens, Oregon (they've since gone full-time on TikTok).
Customer testimonials
If you have happy customers, ask them to give a quick video testimonial about their experience working with your company. This is a great way to humanize your brand and shows that you’re not another faceless corporation.
For example, you can have them hold up your logo or product in the video they give their testimonial, which is an easy way for new viewers to identify who you are and what you do.
Curate and share user-generated content on TikTok
One of the benefits of using TikTok for your small business is tapping into UGC (user-generated content is content created and shared by your customers). This type of content can be extremely powerful in increasing brand awareness and building trust with potential customers.
There are a few ways to incorporate user-generated content into your marketing strategy on TikTok.
The first is to use the hashtag #MadeWithTikTok in your posts to sing out brand-specific videos. This will allow users who have used this tag to see that you are interested in their content. Hopefully, they’ll return the favor with tremendous user-generated material from your business!
Another option is to set up a dedicated UGC account on TikTok that can be used as a repository for all content shared by your followers. This approach has the bonus of allowing you to repurpose user-generated videos for other marketing channels like social media and your website.
Use the right small business hashtags
Hashtags are a powerful way to increase your TikTok videos’ reach and connect with other users interested in the same topics.
One of the most popular activities on TikTok is participating in a hashtag challenge. Hashtag challenges are the very core of TikTok marketing. They are an excellent way to engage with your audience and get them excited about your brand.
To create a successful hashtag challenge for your small business, start thinking about what you want people to do when they see your videos. Do you want them to share it? Repost it? Comment on it?
Once you have a goal in mind, develop a catchy and creative challenge hashtag that encapsulates your goal. Try to keep it short and easy to remember, as this will make it more likely to be used by your followers.
Don’t forget about the power of branded hashtags! If you have a specific product or campaign that you want to promote, create a custom hashtag that accompanies it. This will help you keep track of all conversations surrounding the campaign and allow other users to find your videos easily.
If you’re looking for an excellent place to start, it can be helpful to look at hashtags used by your competitors and other businesses in related niches. Then you can create a list of relevant hashtags that you can use in your posts.
When and how often you’ll post
To determine the optimal time for you to share videos on TikTok, checking your account for analytics is helpful. This information will tell you what time of day and which days show users' highest engagement rates in different regions worldwide.
Once you have a good idea of when most people are using TikTok, try posting at those times over two weeks. By slowly increasing the frequency of your posts, you can easily determine what times and days work best for your specific audience.
You should post your videos at least twice per day on weekdays and once or twice on weekends. It would be best if you also varied the duration of your videos to avoid tiring out your audience with too many short clips in a row. Consider posting your videos an hour before the peak engagement times to maximize your reach.
Measure your success
As with any marketing strategy, key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential for measuring success. If you can’t track how well your TikTok videos perform, it will be difficult to determine whether or not they’re worth investing in.
There are a few different ways to measure the success of your videos. The first is to look at engagement metrics like likes, comments, and shares. You can also use website analytics to track how many people visit your website after watching a TikTok video. Finally, you can use social media analytics to see which videos perform best on other platforms.
By tracking these KPIs, you’ll see which types of content resonate with your audience and which ones need more work. This information will help you continue creating videos that your followers will love!
TikTok analytics is an incredible place to start, but you can also use social listening tools like Sprout Social or Hootsuite. These tools will show what your consumers are saying about you on social media and help you to identify potential advocates.
Conclusion: Is TikTok Right for Your Business?
So, is TikTok right for your business?
The answer to that question largely depends on your target audience. If you’re unsure whether or not they’re using the app, it can be helpful to research your customer demographics and see where they fall in terms of age range.
Keep in mind that TikTok users are highly engaged, so if you try the platform, leave perfection behind and have fun with it!
We’ve walked you through how to create a content marketing strategy for small businesses on TikTok.
Following our six simple steps, you can increase brand awareness and drive sales with this growing social media platform. If you're ready to dive deeper, subscribe to our newsletter to unlock full access to our courses and the entire library.
