TikTok is a massive social media platform, with users pushing the 1 billion mark. And while many users turn to this platform for creating, watching, and sharing short-form videos, businesses are also using TikTok as a marketing tool to build brand awareness, engagement, and sales. The key, however, is knowing how to leverage TikTok for your business. In this article, we’re going to cover exactly how to set up your business account and 4 ways to effectively promote your brand on TikTok.
How to Set Up a TikTok Business Account
So if you’re thinking about using TikTok for your business, you’ll first need to create a business account. But before you do this, it’s important to understand the difference between a TikTok business account vs a creator account. Here is what you get with a business account:
- Access to business tools like ads and analytics
- Limited access to sound clips
- The ability to create an e-commerce storefront
- Third-party tools to schedule and manage TikTok content
- The ability to add a website link to your profile
While business accounts don’t have access to the full sound library, the additional tools far outweigh this minor drawback. To create your business account, follow these quick steps:
- Download the TikTok app and create a new account
- Go to your TikTok profile and tap the hamburger menu in the top right corner
- Tap on Settings and privacy
- Tap on Manage account
- Tap on Switch to Business Account
- Choose the category that best describes our industry
And that’s it! Now that you have a business account, you’ll want to optimize your profile to that it appeals to your target audience and best represents your brand. A fully optimized profile should capitalize on all the available features. This includes adding a high-resolution photo or video for your profile avatar, a bio description, links, business categories, and company email, and connecting your other social accounts. You may also want to consider pinning a few videos to the top of your profile to showcase your most popular products or services.
To be successful on TikTok (or any other social media account for that matter), you need to understand your target audience. Knowing who you need to target, will help you determine how to position your content and get people interested in your brand. And while TikTok does appeal to a younger audience, there’s still a large number of older users on the platform. In fact, a recent report conducted by Statista showed that 42% of TikTok users are between the ages of 30-49 years old. 47% are between the ages of 10 and 29 years old, and only 11% are 50 years and older. If those numbers look appealing and resemble your target audience, then the next step how to capitalize on TikTok to help your business.
How to Use TikTok for Your Business: 4 Ideas
You’ve created your TikTok Business account – now comes the fun part. The next step is creating fun and engaging content with your community and building up your following. Once you have laid down the groundwork, you can start utilizing features such as TikTok Shopping, Influencer Marketing, TikTok Ads, and more to start making sales. Here are some ways to use TikTok to boost your business.
1. Create Engaging Content
Don’t let it get lost on you as to why people enjoy TikTok: they want to get a laugh and be entertained. While you don’t need to steer away from your brand and authenticity, it’s important to know how to style your content for this platform. Just as funny, off-the-cuff short videos would fall flat on LinkedIn, any type of stale, commercialized, the video will get shunned by TikTok users. The formula for success on TikTok is different – so do your research. A great place to start is by following other creators, brands, and businesses similar to yours. Learn how they interact with the community, how frequently they publish new content and the type of videos they publish. You’ll also want to research your hashtags. TikTok hashtags will help your content get discovered via search and help the TikTok algorithm identify what kind of topics you’re covering. Finally, remember consistency is the key to success. If you’re going to commit to TikTok, commit to publishing weekly, if not daily videos.
2. TikTok Shopping
Late last year, TikTok and Shopify announced TikTok Shopping: interactive app e-commerce that lets brands sell products on TikTok. Brands can now add a shopping tab to their profile and add products directly from their Shopify catalogs. TikTokers can also help boost our brand by tagging products in organic posts. Before you start shoving out all your products on your profile, make sure you have built a decent and authentic group of followers. The “brand-stuffing” approach does not win over well with users. You need to build trust and credibility first. Another thing to consider is the type of products you sell. TikTok, much like Instagram, is a visual platform. The more visually appealing your product, the better the chances you have at making revenue. This isn’t to say that your product won’t perform well, just make sure you position it properly to your audience. Consider sprinkling in promotions with your content to add incentives – especially in the beginning.
3. TikTok Ads
TikTok is an ad-friendly platform that you can use to drive traffic to your store, website, or landing page. They offer you plenty of options to advertise on the platform. You can use which type of ad will be the most effective in reaching your target audience. Here are all the different types of TikTok ads to choose from:
- In-Feed Video – ads appear in the native news feed of TikTok users on the “For You” page
- Image Ads – ads run in users’ feeds with an image, brand name, and short text
- Video Ads – 5-60 second long full-screen videos displayed in your user’s feeds
- Spark Ads – Boost your organic content or sponsor popular organic content that relates to your products
- TikTok Promote – Similar to Spark Ads, but is limited to promoting your own content.
- Carousel Ads – Appear in the TikTok News Feed, and can include up to 10 images with short captions
- Pangle Ads – Ads run in the TikTok Audience Network, meaning your ad shows up on other applications outside of TikTok
- TopView Ads – Full-screen ad that launches for 5-60 seconds when a user opens up the TikTop app
- Branded Effect – Custom stickers, filters, and special effects to entice users to engage with your brand
- Branded Hashtag Challenge – Short campaign designed to collect UGC that features a branded hashtag challenge page
With all the various ad types it can be a bit overwhelming to know what to choose. The good news is TikTok offers an automatic placement option that enables TikTok to automatically optimize our ads based on the best-performing types. That being said, you still want to understand your ad goals, budget, audience, bidding strategy, and creatives, so you don’t get in the weeds with your campaign.
4. Collaborate with Influencers
If you want to get your foot in the door with TikTok users, consider teaming up with a professional. Influencers already have a massive following and know how to grow brands and promote products. Many are willing to help other similar brands build their own following. If you’re not sure how to find like-minded Influencers, visit the TikTok Creator Marketplace. This tool with help you find influencers and micro-influencers to work with. Influencers come with a price. You have to pay them in order to promote your brand. If that route is outside your budget, consider using a micro-influencer. While they have smaller audiences, they still have a solid audience. Their reach may be smaller, but their ability to engage and influence is just as strong as Influencers.
Final Thoughts
TikTok can be a great opportunity for your business and offers many options to connect with our audience. The most important takeaway is to be consistent and authentic. Create engaging content and allow for trial and error.
If you’re looking to grow your audience, build meaningful relationships, and increase your sales through social media management, we can help. Since 2001, we’ve been helping businesses grow through our digital marketing solutions. Contact us to see what we can do for you.