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09/08/22

Is TikTok Marketing Worth It?

You might be thinking, isn’t TikTok for teens that want to create dancing and lip-syncing videos? Well although there certainly are quite a few dancing videos available, TikTok is a whole heap more than that. From small businesses sharing their handmade products to Tilly Ramsay exposing Gordan’s home life. TikTok has grown significantly since it started out in China in 2016. Since then the app has been downloaded over three billion times, and with an incredible 1.2 billion monthly users in 2021 and expected to rise to 1.8 billion by December 2022, the app is continuing to grow at an exceptional rate. But is TikTok marketing worth it?

What is TikTok marketing?

TikTok is a platform where creators, influencers, and brands can post videos up to 3 minutes long to organically grow a following or create brand awareness. Businesses can also optimise paid TikTok advertising and influencer marketing to further their brand awareness. Whether you’re paying an influencer to use your products in a video, paying to boost your own videos as ads, or simply just posting to show viewers your brand, TikTok is a great tool for promoting your business.

What account should I use?  

There are two types of TikTok accounts you can choose from, Personal or Business accounts. A Business account lets you use TikTok’s marketing tools to build a marketing strategy. You can create organic content for your followers to engage with your brand. Business accounts also give you access to the Web Business Suite, which allows access to your analytics and the ability to download them. The Workspace contains your promote information (promote is advertising that brings people to your videos and website and improves your chances to gain more followers).  You also have access to pre-cleared sounds for commercial use.

Personal accounts are the most popular account on TikTok, among influencers, content creators, and general users. These accounts are a good choice for watching and interacting with other users’ content and creating your own content for other users to enjoy. With personal, you have access to advanced creator tools that allow you to see what your audience enjoys and learn about the best content for your audience. You also have access to all sounds and commercial sounds allowing you to join in on trending music and sounds that are going viral.  Where business accounts only have access to commercial sounds.

Personal accounts are the most commonly used accounts to help gain followers and grow brand presence. Some users have found that it’s harder to grow organically with a business account as TikTok prioritises paid content with business accounts and you are restricted to only using commercial sounds. Whereas with a personal account you can use trending sounds that can majorly increase your chances of going viral and grow your account, this is however less of a planned strategy and more of a gamble.

The Types of marketing on Tiktok

There are several ways to market your brand on TikTok, the first is the most obvious and that’s creating content for your account. You can use content that you have personally filmed, whether that’s behind the scenes of how your product is made (e-commerce) or if you are taking a trending sound and applying it to your niche. You can also post user-generated content (UCG), this is content created by people that have already purchased your product or used your services and have created a video about it. This user will then sell you the rights to use this video on your social media accounts, this is a great way to show your current followers and potential new customers that current consumers are already using and loving your brand.

Another way to market your brand is to use TikTok advertising, this is where you can pay to promote your videos in a paid ad. This will then push your chosen video to consumers that TikTok think may be relevant and allow them to discover your page.

Influencer marketing is another great addition to your TikTok marketing strategy, this allows you to partner with influencers on a paid or gifted basis. A lot of brands are choosing micro-influencers (3k followers up to 100k) to promote their brand as users have more in common with them and they have higher engagement than an influencer with millions of followers. However, someone with millions of followers will still generate high traffic to your account naturally due to the sheer amount of followers they have.

TikTok shop is a relatively new feature, this allows businesses to upload their products to TikTok shop and viewers can purchase products linked to a video without even leaving the TikTok app, this is a great way for people to promote your products. You can either add an exclusive discount for people purchasing through TikTok or collaborate with influencers and content creators to sell your products on TikTok live where they can show viewers your products and answer any questions in real-time.

So is TikTok marketing worth it?

With so many features and ways to promote your brand with very little cost, TikTok marketing is a great way to grow your brand awareness and generate sales. You have the choice between Personal and Business accounts which both benefit you greatly. If you have a smaller budget, a personal account will allow you to maximise your organic growth and generate sales with the opportunity to utilise TikTok advertising if you wish to. A business account can allow you to develop a more comprehensive TikTok marketing strategy without gambling on going viral. Overall TikTok marketing is definitely worth your time, with the opportunity to grow your brand completely free and rapidly increase your brand awareness. Even if TikTok isn’t your main choice of marketing platform there’s no harm in being present on it, you may even end up having a bit of fun along the way and who knows, go viral!

Want to learn more about social media marketing? Read our latest blog on surviving the Instagram algorithm.

Contact us today for more information on TikTok marketing and how you can use this for your business.