If your business isn’t already on TikTok the question you are probably asking yourself is – should it be? It’s guaranteed that, particularly if you work in marketing, you hear other users say “I saw this on TikTok”, “Did you see what’s trending on TikTok?” or “TikTok influenced me”. It is easy to see how the platform could be causing you to feel FOMO from not being present. However, you need to ask certain questions to establish if TikTok is right for your business and your customer.
Questions To Ask Before Joining TikTok
- Is my ideal audience on that platform?
While the audience on TikTok is huge, you need to consider whether the people that you are trying to target specifically are going to be using it. That being said, if your target audience isn’t currently using TikTok you also need to consider whether they will be soon. Sign up to the platform and use a personal account to see who is on there and what are they looking at or following.
- Can my business provide the right content for TikTok?
The videos that perform the best for businesses on TikTok include behind-the-scenes, packing an order, business tips and advice, how to use your products, getting to know your employees and jumping on a trend that is related to your business. The ideas need to be engaging and the content needs to be original.
- Does my business have the time to focus on the right material for TikTok?
Creating content, especially in video format, can be time-consuming for businesses. However, one of the upsides of using TikTok is that you don’t need to create high-quality, professionally filmed and edited videos, you can simply just use your smartphone. Your business needs to capture the audience’s attention within the first 5 seconds of the video and be punchy, this will encourage them to carry on watching, make sure and use captions over the video for those that listen with the sound off.
- Do the opportunities that TikTok provides align with my social media strategy?
It is great for organic reach, but is that all you want? Research the app by using it. Explore the different features and read up on the TikTok algorithm. Understanding how TikTok ranks and displays videos in the For You tab can inform your content, hashtag, and engagement strategy. Set goals that align with your business objectives. Whether you plan to reach a new audience, improve brand image, promote awareness for a product, or develop stronger customer relationships through engagement, it’s important to back your efforts with a rationale.
TikTok Opportunities For Business
How exactly is TikTok helpful for businesses? For one thing, it creates a fun and interesting way for customers to interact with your business. It makes following a company much more enjoyable than just reading about what the company does on social media or looking at boring product photos. Because of its unique format, TikTok is also a very effective platform for advertising products.
TikTok UK Statistics
For social media marketing purposes, TikTok is increasingly hard to ignore.TikTok reached 3 billion downloads in 2022, making it one of the most popular apps on the market. In September 2022, it was the most-downloaded app in the Google Play Store worldwide.
- The number of TikTok users in the UK – 23.38 million per month.
- UK TikTok users’ age brackets – 13-24 is 42.9%
25-34 is 31.2%
35-44 is 12.8%
45-54 is 6.3%
- 47% of TikTok users in European markets, including the UK, cite TikTok as the platform they used most often to engage with small businesses, according to the company’s research.
Businesses whose target audience is teenagers to young adults should especially consider TikTok marketing. These groups can no longer be reached via classic media, such as TV or print.
TikTok Made Me Buy It
TikTok caters to businesses and in particular small businesses via TikTok shop. TikTok Shop is a new shopping feature that allows merchants, brands and creators to showcase and sell products directly through TikTok by linking products on in-feed videos, LIVEs and the product showcase tab for free. The advantages include:
- Reach a Wider Audience & Increase Brand Awareness
Selling on TikTok Shop allows you to reach a much wider audience than if you just stuck to selling through your website or other retailers.
- Boost Sales
Because TikTok is such a visual and authentic platform, it is the perfect place to show off your products. Once you have your audience hooked with an engaging video or LIVE, they can then easily purchase your product from the link without having to leave the app.
TikTok Advertising
Businesses on TikTok can show their products in action and pack a lot of information into a short video clip. While this format may be challenging for B2B brands that sell difficult-to-illustrate services, it’s ideal for B2C brands that want to move away from static ads and share engaging content.
An Example of some of the different types of ads you can run with the TikTok ads platform include:
- In-feed video – These are ads that appear among the native news feed of TikTok users on the “For You” page.
- Brand takeover – Your business can dominate the conversation as your message takes over the whole screen for a few seconds. It then turns into an in-feed video ad.
- Spark ads – Launched in 2021, these ads allow brands the ability to sponsor popular organic content that relates to their products.
- Image ads – Brands can place image ads in videos that appear via TikTok’s news feed apps: BuzzVideo, TopBuzz and Babe.
- Video ads – These ads are full-screen videos of 5 to 60 seconds that appear in a user’s “For You” feed.
- Pangle ads – Pandle’s video platform integrates with TikTok to offer video, native and banner ads, but this feature is available to only specific countries.
- Carousel ads – These ads include up to 10 images and appear in TikTok’s news feed apps.
Advertising on TikTok is not the same as advertising on other social platforms, it can feel completely different. Once you understand how to run ads on TikTok, you will be able to see impressive results for your business by putting directness and simplicity front and centre to easily get your message across to the app’s wide-ranging and fast-moving audience.
So, is TikTok right for your business?
Only you can decide that. All in all, TikTok has proven itself to be a highly effective social media platform for businesses. Its unique format makes it fun for customers while simultaneously giving your business the chance to show off new products or services that you have available for public viewing. It provides an interactive experience where people can follow companies they may not have through other social media platforms.
If you do choose to try out TikTok for your business, or are already taking advantage of the platform, Copper Square can now support you with TikTok’s social media strategy.
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