TikTok is very different from traditional social media platforms like Facebook, and it's important to approach TikTok marketing with a deliberate and well-considered plan.

Here's how your brand can thrive on TikTok.

What is TikTok marketing?

TikTok marketing is all about using signature short-form videos to educate, inform, and engage with your target audience. 

This may also include influencer marketing on TikTok, where you work with a well-loved internet personality to promote your products. But for the purposes of this article, we'll focus on creating your own business channel where you actively reach out to your target market through TikTok.

Your TikTok strategy should be part of your overall social media marketing strategy, and the messaging you use should be consistent with your overarching brand image. However, the type of content, your audiences, and the ways in which TikTok serves your message all require a dedicated approach.

Benefits of TikTok marketing

A TikTok marketing strategy has a wide variety of benefits for any company. Here are some of the key benefits of TikTok marketing.

Access to a large and diverse audience

TikTok is the fastest-growing social media channel, and one of the most popular among Gen Zs. Of the one billion unique monthly visits to the site, 25% are under 20. TikTok also transcends national divides, with a diverse audience from around the world.

In fact, nearly two-thirds of TikTok visitors come from emerging markets in the Asia Pacific, African, and Latin American regions, while the remaining visitors are split evenly between North American and European sectors. 

So, you can almost guarantee your audience will be on TikTok.

High engagement rates and viral marketing potential

Social media marketing relies on engagement to amplify reach and drive results. TikTok users average just under nine minutes per visit. Plus, TikTok posts have around a 4% to 6% engagement rate.

TikTok research claims that users are focused on the screen 99% of the time they're on the page, compared to around 75% for other social media platforms. That's an incredibly engaged audience.

Cost-effective advertising

Ad campaigns on TikTok are often more cost-effective than equivalent campaigns on platforms like Facebook or Instagram, partly due to the platform's desire to attract advertisers, and partly due to its high engagement rates – which offer bigger bang for your buck.

Increased brand awareness

The sheer volume of users on TikTok, and its discovery-based programming, means your brand is more likely to be seen by a larger number of people on TikTok than on other platforms. 

Enhanced targeting and analytics

TikTok marketers get access to a suite of insights and analytics tools, including basic measurement tools for views, reach, engagement, and content metrics, as well as a robust attribution tool to track conversations. TikTok continues to expand offerings for targeting and audience selection as well. 

Trend-driven and short-form content

Every company wants to be at the cutting edge of trends. Being front and center when the next eye-catching meme breaks out makes a brand appear more relevant and connected. TikTok's algorithm consistently mines the platform for trends, lifting content that's relevant right now to the top. This is especially true of TikTok sounds and audios.

Short-from video content creation allows brands to engage easily with consumers. 

Opportunity for user-generated content (UGC)

TikTok makes it easy for people to interact with and create content based on the content you produce. Tools like Stitch and others merge trending videos with yours and give you the opportunity to directly encourage and evoke user-generated content. UGC is powerful because it delivers authentic, organic messaging about your brand. 

Shopping and e-commerce integrations

TikTok business accounts also have storefront tools, so you can drive direct sales right on the platform. This low-friction model makes it easier to convert engagement into sales.

Getting started: How to set up a TikTok business account

Setting up a TikTok business account is vital to getting access to many of these benefits. But remember, a TikTok business account and a creator account are different, and they come with different tools.

One downside of business accounts is that you can't use all of TikTok's sound clips due to licensing restrictions, but the rest of the key differences between creator and business accounts in TikTok are positive. TikTok business accounts can:

  • Open an e-commerce store 
  • Run ads on TikTok
  • Access insights and analytics tools to measure success 
  • Add a link to their website on their TikTok profile 
  • Connect third-party social media tools to help manage and even schedule TikTok posts 

These are all benefits that brands will want access too.

Here's how to set up a TikTok business account.

Sign up or log in on the TikTok app

Download the TikTok app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Then, open the app and create a new profile.

Access account settings

Tap the menu button to access your profile settings. You'll find it in the top-right corner of your screen. 

Switch to a business account

On your profile page: 

  1. Tap Settings and privacy
  2. Then tap Manage account
  3. Choose Switch to business account

Choose a business category

From here, you'll need to select your business category. Choose the one that best represents your company from the list provided – you can change this later if you think you've made a mistake. 

Complete your profile

Enter your company name and relevant information about your company. All this information will help TikTok users engage with you – and again, you can make changes as necessary later on.

Optimize your business account

Next, set up your profile. Setting up a thoughtful bio will set your TikTok marketing strategy up for success. TikTok rewards audience-centric accounts, and you can start with this in the bio.

Instead of saying, "Watch to keep up to date with the latest news and info from [Brand]," try something that represents your unique selling proposition. For example, "Personal money tips served with a hit of humor." Don't be too formal either, grab attention from the get go.

Also, add relevant hashtags to your bio, as well as a link to your website. Remember, the goal here is to make your company findable.

Start creating content

Once you're all set up, it's time to create content. Remember, the number one rule of TikTok – be engaging. 

This means you need to create engaging content that does more than just promote your brand or product. TikTok users expect content that is on-trend, concise, and fun.

It's a good practice checking out other TikTok channels in your industry and current trending content before you begin creating TikTok content. Companies also benefit from practicing before publishing.

It's good to create a library of content that you can use to launch your channel before you push it live.

Tips to develop an effective TikTok marketing strategy

Now, let's look at how to develop a TikTok strategy that works.

Every brand on TikTok wants to go viral. And, utilizing a well-developed brand strategy can help you get there. We already explored the factors that make TikTok posts successful, such as being:

  • Engaging 
  • Fun
  • Authentic
  • On-trend
  • Interactive 

Now, the challenge is building a strategy to hit those attributes and further your brand mission. This high-level plan will help you consistently create engaging and effective content. And the more content you create, the more likely it is that your content will find your audience.

Let's look at how to build a social media marketing strategy on TikTok.

Define your target audience

We all know that TikTok's audience is younger than other apps, but this is just one of the demographic identifiers you can choose from. TikTok is a great tool for reaching big audiences, but effective marketing targets the right audience to drive conversions.

It's worth creating a customer persona, or even a list of customer personas you want to connect with on TikTok. Are they new to your product or service? What are the questions you want to answer for these target customers?

Set clear goals and objectives

TikTok boasts a suite of analytics and insights tools that can help you track followers, reach, engagement, and conversions. Having a clear idea of what you want to achieve and tracking these metrics regularly will help you crystalize your direction.

Your goals and objectives may change over time. For example, the early phase of your campaign might be about building followers and audience. From there, you'll move into fostering engagement, and then finally, into driving direct conversions. 

Create authentic and engaging content

Creating authentic and engaging content is easier said than done. For brands new to TikTok, we recommend spending time researching and exploring content to get a feel for what quality content on TikTok looks and feels like. 

There are two tools for finding and exploring content on TikTok. There's your personalized "for your page" (FYP) and the TikTok Discover page. Here, you can check on content that's performing well in your industry – or just in general. 

Spend time watching videos on these pages to help inspire your content ideas. And above all else, maintain a focus on entertaining your audience and keeping true to your brand.

Check out what's currently trending to see what's doing well, and be sure to check in often to catch new trends as they pop up.

There are also different interactive tools that help users react to posts and spin them in creative ways. Make sure your content makes it easy for viewers to engage with. 

Use hashtags strategically

Nobody likes a hashtag dump. Using a couple of relevant hashtags and changing them up regularly will help your content feel fresh and authentic. For example, if you use the hashtag #investment on one post, you can find relevant hashtags of a similar nature, such as #finances, in the next. TikTok is good at connecting relevant audiences without being cookie-cutter, so lean into that.

Using a trending hashtag just because it's trending can alienate users. Recently, many companies used the hashtags #fyp and #foryoupage to try to influence the algorithm. This trending tag alienated many users, who felt it was inorganic and cynical.

The key takeaway? Watch for trends, use relevant hashtags, and switch up often. 

Collaborate with influencers and creators

Popular TikTok accounts can help you amplify your message. These influencers and creators are already connected to diverse audiences, have great content, and can help you broadcast your message in a way that feels more natural and meaningful. 

You can do this in a few ways: 

  • Sending products to influencers 
  • Collaborating directly on content creation 
  • Launching a new product or service with an influencer involved

Try to find out who your audience is already connected with using Brandwatch Influence and reach out to find ways to work with those creators.

Utilize TikTok ads

The TikTok ads manager makes it easy to promote your content and drive sales through your account. Using this tool can help you rapidly expand your audience, and oftentimes, the users who discover your company through a paid ad on TikTok will become sticky — that is, they'll follow your brand profile and see more of your content in the future. 

TikTok rewards engagement, so if you have paid content that users engage with, it will flow into more organic reach and results. 

Post consistently and at optimal times

Engagement is key to TikTok success, and consistency is a core component of engagement. Posting regularly keeps your audience in the picture. Target at least once a week. This is another reason to build a library of content before you launch your TikTok channel. 

It also pays to research what times and days your target demographic is on the platform, but also use your business analytics tools to assess when your content has the best success.

Engage with your audience

Engagement is a two-way conversation. Reply and react to audience comments, feature their reaction posts, and even react directly to other user posts. 

Let's say you're a leading financial business. A reaction video to a post in which a user asks about financial issues is a great way to show thought leadership, connect directly with customers, and engage a TikTok audience.

Analyze performance and optimize

As with any marketing campaign, make sure to constantly assess, reassess, and revisit your results. Success breeds success – and it helps if you know what it was that made you successful. 

Using TikTok tools, users can track reach, engagement, and conversions to find patterns and anomalies. This data will help drive your next round of content. 

Experiment with new formats and features

Don't be afraid to experiment on TikTok. The platform rolls out new features all the time, most of which are designed to build on user-generated content and engagement. Experimenting with these can help you stay ahead of the trends and also feel more unique and fresh to your audience.

The best TikTok marketing examples

There are hundreds of large brands on TikTok trying to cut through the noise and get noticed. Here are a few examples of companies and TikTok campaigns that performed well to help inspire you. 

Crumbl Cookies

Crumbl Cookies follows just four accounts, and yet the Crumbl Cookies TikTok account has 9.4 million followers and 87 million likes. How? The brand made a splash on TikTok with highly aesthetic, well-produced videos with gorgeous shots of baked goods set to cool electronic dance music. 

These food videos got users talking, and then when fans began reviewing the cookies and responding, Crumbl Cookies replied and engaged with those users. 

This highly creative content put the cookies front and center in a way that TikTok viewers connected with. 

Chipotle

Fast-food company Chipotle had great success when it started reacting to food reviews from TikTok creators.

In one example, a pair of TikTok influencers made up their own Chipotle dish from the menu, and the brand immediately leant into the popularity of the #fajitaquesadilla hack and added it to their menu. They follow the trends, heard what the audience was saying, and directly engaged in an authentic way with that trending content. 

Leaning into the trends about your company can help amplify your connection to the TikTok community. 

Chewy

Chewy is a pet care supplier that used a unique TikTok challenge to generate huge levels of engagement on the Chewy TikTok channel. Here's how they described their plan: 

"For National Dog Day – and in a celebration of all pets – we introduced our digital-first #ChewyChattyPets campaign with a TikTok Hashtag Challenge asking pet parents to bring their pets’ most entertaining inner monologues to life. The campaign builds on the channel trend of sharing quirky and relatable pet moments (PetTok)." 

PetTok is just one of the many communities on TikTok – there's one for most interests. BookTok, MoneyTok, and MedicalTok are just some of these. By focusing on this community and building an authentic campaign that captured the attention of those users, Chewy was able to drive over 1.8 billion impressions to the #ChewyChattyPets hashtag over three days. 

The best TikTok marketing tools for 2024

Brands don't have to go it alone. All three of the brands above used a combination of in-house expertise, TikTok reporting, and marketing partners to find success on the social media platform. 

Here are some of the best social media marketing tools for TikTok marketers.

Brandwatch

Brandwatch is a full-service social media management suite that uses advanced proprietary and generative AI to discover new trends and react ahead of the curve. With clients that include two-thirds of Forbes' 100 most valuable brands list, Brandwatch is the social media marketing partner to use on your TikTok campaign. 

Brandwatch social media management solutions include: 

Brandwatch effectively tracks and monitors TikTok content for your brand and others to help you stay engaged and relevant on the platform. You can use Brandwatch to program your TikTok content calendar and also get quick, actionable insights into your performance across all your social media channels. 

TikTok analytics

TikTok analytics tools are a crucial component of any social media marketing plan. These robust, free tools deliver clear insights into direct key performance indicators like followers, views, likes, and more. TikTok analytics are best when paired with insights and management platforms like Brandwatch, which can help you glean actionable insights from the raw data fed from TikTok's native analytics. 

Loomly

Loomly is another social media publishing platform that allows programming, scheduling, and insights into your TikTok content and its performance. Brands use Loomly to create content schedules, manage posted content, and track social media metrics. 

FAQs

How is TikTok used in marketing?

TikTok videos are used in marketing to help engage and educate your target audience. Marketers use a TikTok account and TikTok influencers to help communicate with the diverse audience on the platform. A TikTok presence can help increase brand awareness, and video shopping ads can boost sales directly from the app. 

How do I get started with TikTok marketing?

To get started with TikTok, you only need to download the app and set up an account. After that, you should watch and review the short-form video content already on the platform to gauge what is and isn't successful. Then, begin practicing by drafting a library of content that you can use to engage potential customers. 

Is marketing on TikTok worth it?

TikTok marketing takes a high level of planning, effort, and creativity. The result is a high level of cost efficiency because the app rewards engagement and community success. The various reaction tools and formats give space for your own audience to create organic content that feeds back into your success, making TikTok a unique way to amplify your message in a meaningful way with your audience.