What is the Impact of TikTok on Digital Marketing in Today’s World?
TikTok is undoubtedly the most talked-about social media app in recent years, having become the go-to platform for companies looking to engage a younger target audience.
With TikTok surpassing the incredible landmark of two billion monthly active users in late 2021, it’s hard to state just how influential the platform has been since its rise to international success.
Although TikTok is widely known for its lip-syncing and viral dance content, as the app’s audience and features have expanded, so have the possibilities for brands looking to get involved.
Here, we consider the seismic impact of TikTok marketing while exploring how forward-thinking brands can leverage this app to their advantage.
What is TikTok?
Despite the global popularity of TikTok, you might not be up to date on the platform if you aren’t exactly a digital native.
Although the app overlaps with established social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, numerous distinct qualities might take some time to appreciate.
TikTok is essentially split into two central feeds. The ‘For You’ tab provides algorithmically selected content based on your previous actions, while the ‘Following’ feed lets you browse through fresh content from the creators you choose to follow.
As you flick through seemingly endless 15-second videos, you’re bound to come across everything from singing and dancing content to branded how-to guides, inspirational content and more.
How Brands Benefit from Using TikTok?
TikTok was the most-downloaded app in 2020 and 2021, ensuring brands can reach virtually every target market no matter how niche. With the platform offering companies the chance to highlight their fun side and connect with their most engaged followers, there are endless benefits to generating TikTok marketing as soon as possible.
Increased Brand Awareness
TikTok is incredible for increasing brand awareness. With a post that goes viral having the chance to draw millions of viewers to your profile, there’s a big incentive to stay on top of the latest trends and let your imagination run wild.
The platform is also known for its eye-watering average engagement rate. With research finding this critical metric is as high as 18% on TikTok compared to the typical rate of 2% on Instagram, there’s no doubt that TikTok is a brand awareness machine.
As this engagement helps to educate potential customers about why business is better than the competition, you can secure their loyalties long into the future.
Develop an Engaged Community
Developing an engaged TikTok audience who wants to get to know your business can be incredible for your long-term growth. But you have to understand how to generate content that resonates with their needs and wants.
This business objective will be different for everyone, but remember that TikTok isn’t about pushing your products on fans. Instead, have a familiar brand representative appear in your videos to give your content a personable feel while sharing tips and tricks that reward followers for their engagement.
By creating relatable content and engaging users in the comments, you can highlight your brand’s personality and generate a dedicated audience that cares about your messaging.
Showcase Your Personality
More than ever, customers want to understand the values of brands they buy from. This means it’s within your best interests to use social media channels like TikTok to highlight how you’re doing things differently from the rest.
But how can you make this happen? As mentioned, the key is authenticity. By giving users a glimpse into the backend of your business, you can provide transparent insight into how running a business has its many ups and downs.
You can also showcase your personality on TikTok by partnering with the right influencers. By working with someone that your target audience is already familiar with, this social proof lends credibility to your brand’s messaging.
What TikTok Content Performs Best?
If your brand is looking to capitalise on the latest trends in social media, ignore the power of TikTok at your own risk. With the platform’s enormous popularity, it’s no surprise that various content types achieve first-rate reach and engagement. Consider these TikTok content ideas to get the creative juices flowing.
Go Behind-the-Scenes
Delivering a sense of authenticity around your brand is key to engaging users on TikTok. Young people on TikTok aren’t as receptive to hard-selling as content shared on other social media platforms, so provide users with an exclusive glimpse into your business operations.
Be careful not to overthink the content you share on TikTok. For example, share a quick video of a friendly prank played out in the office or your next shipment of goods leaving the depot. You can even go meta and share behind-the-scenes content of how your social media posts are made.
Engaging Tutorials
TikTok is perfect for sharing tutorials on the best ways to use your brand’s products. As this provides a handy guide for customers while also showcasing what’s special about your products, you can foster more loyalty and interest in your business.
As you might expect, the nature of this content depends on what kind of products and services you offer. However, a fashion label could highlight how a specific outfit is perfectly styled, or a makeup brand might reveal a clever technique that achieves a glamorous look.
Remember to have fun with your tutorials to ensure your TikTok target audience engages effectively.
Jump on Viral Hits
TikTok is all about viral content, especially when it comes to lip-syncing and dancing content. While the platform has expanded far beyond its origins, this content style remains hugely popular, with brands able to capitalise on trending songs and dances to great effect.
Using the Discovery tab, you can see what topics, sounds and challenges are trending across the platform. Then, with a creative touch, you can record your own version and highlight to your audience that you’re keeping up with what’s shaping TikTok.
When creating new content, don’t forget that TikTok is all about keeping things lively. If your video feels dull or forced compared to others, consider whether you’re stepping too far outside your lane to feel comfortable.
Top Reasons to Advertise on TikTok
Due to the app’s worldwide popularity, deciding to advertise on TikTok has the power to send your brand awareness and sales skyrocketing. Backed by various ad formats designed for a wide variety of business goals, you can reach your target market at an affordable price.
Reach a Wide Audience
Since TikTok’s rise to global prominence, it’s become known as the top social media platform to reach Generation Z consumers. However, as TikTok has gradually been adopted by older users, the brands benefiting have also changed.
According to the latest research, TikTok is still young at heart, with 62% of users aged between 10 and 29 years old. However, older people are increasingly flocking to the platform, with 15% of users aged between 45 and 54 and 10% between 55 and 64.
As these shifting demographics mean brands targeting older customers can also find success on the platform, you can add TikTok to your social media channels regardless of your ideal target market.
Cost-Effective Results
Although TikTok has been around for years, the app was relatively late in establishing a flourishing paid advertising platform.
However, TikTok Ad Manager has quickly become hugely popular amongst businesses operating at every level, with both multinational corporations and local organisations able to push their message to their preferred audience.
Once you’ve determined the best way to advertise on TikTok for your business objectives, measuring your campaign is critical to achieving a top-notch ROI.
Fortunately, a TikTok Business Account provides a host of tools for this precise purpose, including detailed metrics on your audience, engagement rates and ad performance.
Flexible Ad Formats
There are five key types of TikTok Ads, ensuring you have almost endless possibilities when it comes to reaching and converting your ideal customer base.
With these formats designed to give your business the best chance to showcase its creativity and personality, each one appears in a high traffic area to help your business achieve its goals.
For example, In-Feed Ads will appear in the For You tab between organic content. As these run for up to 15 seconds and provide a clear call-to-action, you can drive users to check out a new product, subscribe to a newsletter or get in touch.
Meanwhile, the likes of Branded Effects and Branded Hashtags help level up engagement and ensure users view your brand as on the cutting-edge of the platform.
Tips on Creating a TikTok Marketing Strategy
TikTok is a powerful social media channel for brands across the spectrum. Yet as the platform is still growing rapidly, you can’t expect to compete with your rivals without a strategic approach. Below, we consider a few quick marketing tips to help you get started with an effective TikTok marketing strategy.
Learn the Platform
TikTok might offer similarities to other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but you can’t copy and paste your ideas and achieve the same results.
Before you launch into the time-consuming process of a TikTok marketing strategy, it’s always a good idea to familiarise yourself with the platform as much as possible.
By using the app every day, you’ll quickly learn about TikTok’s core features and develop ideas that ensure you gain an upper hand.
As you follow like-minded brands and see which posts deliver massive engagement, you can generate fresh concepts that hit the same notes.
Know Your Target Audience
You can’t generate appealing content if you don’t know who your marketing is meant to reach. By undertaking considered research into the demographics of your TikTok target audience, you can deliver content that entices the right people to pay attention.
However, it’s not just metrics like age, gender and location that matter to your TikTok marketing strategy. You also have to develop a deep understanding of their interests and behaviours.
By identifying common threads that span your followers, you can create content that expresses these same ideas. Whether that means generating memes or referencing pop culture events, knowing what your audience likes is vital to your success.
Review Your Competitors
If you’re looking to get started on TikTok, but aren’t sure how to reach your target audience, it always helps to study your competitors.
As this reveals what content is landing with the same kind of customer base you hope to attract, this approach can give you a shortcut to success.
However, don’t simply steal their content ideas. While you might take creative inspiration, you definitely want to develop your own distinctive brand voice.
There’s also a good chance you’ll see what content doesn’t perform well, ensuring you avoid wasting time on concepts that probably won’t pan out.
Share at the Ideal Time
Considering the effort it takes to create high-quality content, you want to generate the best engagement possible from your posts.
While sharing content that appeals to your audience’s specific demographics and interests is essential, you can also figure out the best time to post on TikTok.
Research has found that different audiences use the platform in different ways, so scheduling your content to reach the most people is critical to generating top-notch engagement.
Meanwhile, it’s always a good idea to create content in batches ahead of time while scheduling them for maximum convenience. This helps brands streamline their processes and avoid mistakes.
Measure Your Results
To ensure your TikTok marketing strategy operates at peak performance, you must routinely analyse your results. This is made easy with a free TikTok Business Account, as this provides access to an in-depth analytics platform featuring a host of critical data points.
In the Overview tab, you can review a broad assessment of your profile’s performance. Ranging from follower growth to views and shares over the last 60 days, this reveals whether your recent posts have delivered the ideal impact.
In the Content and Followers tab, you can see more analytics on each content piece while also gaining insight into how your audience is changing, including their location and time when most active.
Chat with the Experts
TikTok has undoubtedly changed the world of digital marketing forever. As the platform continues to go from strength to strength, using the app to your brand’s advantage will enhance growth, visibility and sales.
However, as achieving success with TikTok content requires a fine-tuned understanding of the platform, partnering with the experts at First Page Australia is the best decision for your business.
As we’ve led hugely successful TikTok marketing strategies, Facebook marketing strategies, and Instagram marketing strategies for some of the world’s leading companies, we have the skills and knowledge to achieve your business objectives.
Chat with our superior TikTok marketing team to discover how we’ll adapt to your company’s needs and convert your audience for a stellar ROI.
