TikTok has quickly become a cultural phenomenon and one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 1 billion monthly active users. And it’s not just for Gen Z-ers anymore; TikTok is increasingly being used by people of all ages, demographics, and tastes.
If you’re not already using TikTok for your lifestyle business, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to reach a new audience. TikTok is an incredibly effective platform for promoting products and driving sales, but only if you know how to use it effectively. The app has given rise to an all-new marketing style, which can be difficult to crack for newcomers.
Fortunately, we have compiled all of the strategies necessary to develop a TikTok marketing strategy. Apply these tips, tricks, and ideas to your own account to build an audience, drive sales, and make money on TikTok.
How To Create A TikTok Marketing Strategy
1. Set Up TikTok For Business
Once you’re ready to take TikTok seriously, create an account with your business name as the handle. Then, convert the TikTok account to a business account. This process is simple, but it allows you to build out a more complete profile and gain full access to metrics and audience insights.
To make the transition, open Settings and privacy from your Profile page. Click Manage account and Switch to Business Account, then choose your business category. Lastly, customize your profile with a website, email address, and photo or icon.
2. Curate Your Feed
To stay up to date on what is popular, it is important to curate your TikTok feed. The app’s algorithm takes into account the content you engage with, the searches you perform, or any videos you mark as “Not interested.” Every action, including likes, comments, and shares, factors into what videos you will see in the future.
To understand what is most relevant to your lifestyle business and your audience, use the app with purpose. Act like your customers and watch relevant videos, explore hashtags, and check out competitors’ accounts.
In time, your ‘For You’ page will become a constant stream of inspiration and ideas.
3. Evaluate The Competition
As you formulate a TikTok marketing strategy, follow or check in on the accounts of your competitors. Take note of the following:
Which videos generate reach
Which ones fall flat on engagement
Editing styles that perform well
Techniques used to grab attention
How often the TikToks are promotional
Any other patterns you see
Use these insights to inform your initial content strategy. As a rapidly evolving platform, there is no TikTok marketing rulebook – the best way to learn is by studying others.
4. Join Trends
TikTok culture evolves quickly and rewards relevance. So stay plugged into the TikTok community to spot trends early. Try to develop a sense of inflection points and what influencer participation or characteristics of a trend may lead to virality.
By identifying popular or soon-to-be popular audio, marketers can take advantage of the wave of attention a trend brings. Search the Discover page or hashtags like #TrendAlert for ideas.
For the best odds of capitalizing on a trend, make it your own. Get creative, and make your video unique or funny. Consider adding an unexpected ending to keep viewers engaged and to encourage sharing.
5. Connect With Your Audience
Forming a personal connection with your audience adds a human element to your lifestyle business. This bond establishes trust and respect, which are essential components for winning over potential customers and driving sales.
A popular way of engaging your viewers is by encouraging comments, replies, and responses to your TikToks. Being active in the comments section allows your brand’s personality to shine and helps you come across as approachable.
Another great way to connect with your audience is through your TikToks themselves. Consider resharing high-quality UGC, or user-generated content, like reviews, unboxing videos, and product demonstrations. Consistently rewarding creators in this way create a win-win relationship and encourages others to share their experiences with your business.
Take this approach one step further with the Duet feature. Duets are side-by-side TikToks that allow you to engage with existing videos. Businesses can blind react to customer testimonials, add context to videos, or answer frequently asked questions.
Again, this strategy emphasizes that there are real people behind your business account. Both the original creator and the broader audience will appreciate and remember your personal interactions.
6. Involve Influencers
Influencers are TikTok users with an engaged, but not necessarily large, following. While the top TikTok influencers certainly have the ability to increase brand awareness, they’re not always accessible to solopreneurs.
Oftentimes, more approachable and budget-friendly “micro-influencers” are actually more effective at driving results anyway. These creators have more targeted followings and stronger connections with their audience.
There are a few key ways to leverage TikTok influencers. The first is by sponsoring content. This involves paying the influencer to feature your product in a TikTok.
The second way to collaborate with TikTok influencers is through a brand takeover. A takeover is when an influencer is active on your TikTok account, rather than their own, for a day. This is a great way to draw the creator’s audience toward your account and educate them about your business.
Finally, TikTok influencers can be used to supercharge any content or upcoming promotion. If you’d like to bring attention to a sale, a new product, or branded hashtag, engage an influencer to Duet the video with commentary or participate themselves.
No matter what approach you take, influencer marketing on TikTok is a powerful way to connect with a new audience and drive sales.
7. Experiment Consistently
There is nothing more important on TikTok than creativity and authenticity. Within those boundaries, however, the platform provides an opportunity for a wide range of styles to succeed. So don’t restrict your brand to just one type of promotional video.
Test out TikToks with:
On-brand comedy
Behind-the-scenes shots
Previews of upcoming drops
Interviews with any team members
Dance challenges
Well-known landmarks, if you’re a digital nomad
Use a variety of editing styles, effects and filters, and audio tracks, and pay attention to what your audience responds to.
Every time you experiment with a new format, try to glean a new insight. Over time, you will hone in on what TikToks perform best, and you can lean into those styles more heavily.
Plus, with such a rapidly changing algorithm, what works today may not work tomorrow. Continue to experiment with your TikTok marketing strategy to find and maintain a competitive edge.
8. Analyze Results (And Adjust)
TikTok provides a number of detailed analytics to businesses on the platform. To access them, click on the “View Analytics” button under “Creator tools”.
The TikTok analytics page includes an account overview, content insights, follower insights, and a live overview. From here you can review data on everything from video views and profile visitors to interactions, time spent watching, and audience demographics.
Use TikTok analytics to track which videos perform best, what time of day your audience is most active, and which TikTok effects or audio tracks generate engagement. This data will help you better understand your audience and tailor your content to their preferences.
TikTok marketing is still in its early stages but that doesn’t mean there isn’t already fierce competition. To succeed you will need to track results and adjust your strategy accordingly.
9. Share Your Top Performers
Make the most of your top-performing TikToks by sharing them on other platforms! Use a TikTok video downloader to remove any TikTok watermarks, and then upload to Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat Spotlight.
You can also post TikTok videos on your brand’s website or blog or use TikToks as ads on other social media platforms. By cross-promoting your TikTok videos across the web, you’ll reach a wider audience and drive more traffic (and sales) for your lifestyle business. It’s a simple strategy but an important way to squeeze as much as you can out of your best content.
10. Advertising On TikTok
Once you have cracked the code and developed a successful TikTok marketing strategy with organic videos, scale your business to the next level with TikTok Ads.
In-Feed Ads appear in users’ TikTok feeds between other videos and are denoted by a “sponsored” label. They can include elements like images, videos, and CTAs.
TopView
TopView ads are the first video users see when they open the app. According to TikTok, TopView is the platform’s “most effective ad type in driving sales impact.”
Branded Hashtag Challenge
Branded Hashtag Challenges encourage users to interact with a brand in a more meaningful way. The audience is challenged to create a video demonstrating a specific action or talent while using a branded hashtag. These campaigns can be used to generate brand awareness, valuable UGC, and new trends.
Branded Effects
Branded Effects are another ad type with the potential to go viral. Brands can create unique games, stickers, filters, and special effects for use in TikTok videos.
TikTok Ads allow you to reach a larger audience, generate leads, and boost sales. But TikTok Ads are not cheap; prices start at $10 per thousand views. So make sure you have perfected your organic TikTok marketing strategy before investing in paid ads.
Final Thoughts
If you are learning how to start an eCommerce business or you already manage a lifestyle business, TikTok is a great platform to market your products or services. The app may seem daunting at first, but with a little creativity and some trial and error, you can develop a TikTok marketing strategy that works for you.
Remember to keep your videos fun and engaging, focus on creating quality content, and use TikTok analytics to track your progress. When done right, TikTok is a powerful marketing tool for growing your business. So what are you waiting for? Get started making TikToks today!
I’m a big fan of Jo Barnes and her website, Your Lifestyle Business. Jo is a digital nomad able to travel the world and live in places most people only dream about because she runs her lifestyle business entirely online. Jo shares her secrets for operating a lifestyle business from anywhere in the world through blog posts, podcasts, and books. This post about 10 Ways to Drive Sales With a Tiktok Marketing Strategy originally appeared on her website on Jul 25, 2022
