TikTok is one of those apps you probably aren’t all too familiar with yet. But it is a network of short video clips – five seconds long or shorter – that has been extremely popular with Gen Z, despite being almost universally derided by older generations. The app topped 500 million downloads in 2018, as teenagers flocked to its seamlessly integrated social media approach. TikTok automatically connects creators and consumers, providing a platform for amateur YouTubers and Vine stars.
This seamless experience makes TikTok an obvious marketing channel, but many marketers are still sceptical of it. With TikTok releasing its business platform in mid-2021, there are plenty of reasons for new businesses looking to use the app for marketing purposes, from increasing brand awareness to engaging with communities, selling products, improving communication with customers and audiences, or targeting audiences for advertising.
Why should your business use TikTok?
According to Invideo, there are many compelling reasons why TikTok is good for your business strategy:
- TikTok has over 2 billion downloads and over 1 billion monthly active users.
- Since the Chinese agency, ByteDance, created it two years ago, businesses have been reluctant to use the power of the video-sharing app. So competition is still low!
- There's a huge audience (if your target market is under 34, it would be criminal to ignore it since 50% of its users are in that age group).
- It also has extremely high engagement, with the average user spending approximately 14.3 hours a month on the app – one of the highest engagement rates of any social media platform. The TikTok algorithm rewards creative thinking, and users are receptive to this kind of content, so it is also more positively received. Win-win!
Influencers and your business
Influencers are also an important aspect of TikTok marketing. They can be used to bring attention to your brand. And if you’re not convinced that there are any influencers in South Africa worth talking about, you might be in for a shock. Topping Business Insider SA’s top 10 TikTok creators list for 2021, Wian ‘the magician’ van den Berg has 15.7 million followers and has worked with Krispy Kreme Donuts.
In a video that garnered 5.3 million likes and 50.3 million views, Wian looks at doughnuts in their shop and then pulls the last one from a tray through a glass display, to the shocked reaction of an employee and customer.
How businesses can use TikTok
Ready to get started? Once you have decided to jump on the TikTok bandwagon and set up your account, you will need to take a moment to think about what you would like to achieve and what the best way of getting there will be. Your goals could include:
- Growing you brand awareness
- Educating your target audience about your product or service
- Engaging with customers
- Increasing sales or driving an audience to your website
- Increasing your audience reach
Then you can decide whether you would like to create your own content, work with an influencer or run ads.
As with other social media platforms, the key is to engage with your audience, and this is done by posting content that is consistent in quality and appears regularly. Once you’re up and running, you can see what content performs better and use this insight for your TikTok marketing strategy.
If you’re looking for some more inspiration for a digital marketing strategy that is sure to bring in the leads, check out our Digital Marketing brochure. As a digital marketing agency that creates growth-driven digital solutions, we have a few tricks up our sleeve.
