3 Tiktok Marketing strategies that can help to grow small businesses

Traditionally, the biggest challenge for small businesses was to convey the effectiveness of their products to the target audience. Unlike well-established firms, they do not have access to huge marketing funds. With social media platforms such as TikTok, smaller organizations get a fair chance to compete. A look at the recent TikTok marketing report reveals that 90% of the popular videos on this platform have some form of product placement.

In such a situation, the more innovative you can get about your product, the higher are the chances of getting viral. However, making a mark in TikTok requires consistent effort. You need to understand how this platform differs from other video-sharing portals and use that to your advantage. If such extra efforts are making you skeptical about marketing on TikTok, the results of the Tik Tok Marketing report will convince you to make the move.

In recent days, TikTok has gained immense popularity among the younger audience. Today, it boasts of an average of 17 billion monthly views on its videos and has over 800 million downloads. The social media platform available in more than 154 countries, provides small businesses an opportunity to expand the business beyond their geographic location.

By now, you understand the immense marketing potential of TikTok and must be eager to take the plunge. However, you need to understand that TikTok is a competitive marketplace and unless you create stellar videos, your content will not reach the target audience. While every TikTok journey is unique, here are three strategies that will help small businesses make the most of the platform.

Leverage Paid Advertisements

The ROI on paid advertisements on TikTok is very high and brands that are operating on a small scale will benefit from it. Such advertisements will give a boost to your brand awareness. To leverage the paid campaigns, you need to visit the official advertising platform and sign up with a business account.

Post the signup, the tool will take you on an intuitive process of campaign creation. All you need to do is identify the objective, decide on the ad placement, and tailor the ad to meet the expectations of your target audience. TikTok lets you create ads for different demographics based on location, age, interest, etc. After you are confident of the campaign parameters, you select an appropriate budget for the same. Such proactive measures by your brand will help ensure that the ad reaches the target audience.

If you are new to the world of TikTok, we recommend that you spend some time understanding your audience's expectations before you venture into paid campaigns. That way, it will be easy for you to tailor your campaigns and make the most of them.

Keep Up with The Trends

As a small business, chances are that you have a lot on your plate and cannot afford to scroll through social media all day. However, we suggest that you plan your day so that you keep an eye on the relevant trends in your niche. That way, it will be easier for you to identify appropriate hashtags.

Hashtags are the lifeblood of TikTok posts and allow you to gain popularity in the medium. A whopping 87.3% of TikTok videos have at least one hashtag. The average number of hashtags per post stands at 3.26. As a small business, come up with innovative ways to leverage top-performing hashtags to take your video to the right audience.

Ideally, your TikTok research should involve studying the digital behavior of your competitors. Keep a track of the videos that they are creating, the captions on the posts, frequency of posting, and other relevant details. That way, you can improve on the videos created by your competitors and use that as fuel to drive your TikTok journey.

While you keep up with the current trends, it is a good practice to engage with prospective customers. Try to be the first one to comment on your videos. The comments should be such that they encourage the viewers to write back, like, or share the post. When a potential customer comments on your post, respond politely and promptly. Such proactive measures will sow the seeds of a healthy business relationship.

Create Original Content

TikTok statistics confirm that 50% of the top brands do not have a presence on the platform. In such a situation, by taking a planned approach to posting branded TikTok videos, you place yourself at a competitive advantage. Understand that TikTok rewards raw and authentic videos.

As a content creator, you should make continuous efforts to powerpack the 60-second video with high-value content. Although TikTok allows you to create minute-long videos, a look at the viral TikTok content will reveal that videos that are shorter than 15 seconds tend to perform better. If possible, try to break a long video into multiple smaller videos and post them at equally spaced intervals.

Start by deciding on the key content of the video. Due to the length restriction, pay special attention to ensure that you do not talk about multiple concepts in a video. The TikTok audience is dominated by the younger population and this group does not appreciate self-promotional posts. Small businesses must aum at coming up with inspiring or entertaining content that will help them get noticed in TikTok.

In the initial phases of your video creation, identify the ideal tone of your video and stick to it throughout the process of video creation. For example, you cannot expect your TikTok video to be hilarious, sarcastic, and empathetic at the same time. Setting clear expectations will help direct your video to achieve the desired results.

While creating original content for your small business, keep an eye on popular hashtag contests and other competitions. Participating in such competitions in your niche will help you get noticed among your target group. If you are keen on increasing your follower base, try to add a unique twist to the videos that you create for such competitions. Over time, you will establish your position in the industry, and you can then launch hashtag competitions of your own.

While creating original content, always focus on telling a story. It is a general human tendency to resonate with stories. If your video has a clear-cut beginning, middle and poignant end, people will be less likely to drop off.

The marketing journey of small businesses is often more challenging. With TikTok, you can explore ways of bringing your products to the notice of the viewers. As you use the above strategies to drive the success story of your small business, here’s wishing you accelerated marketing growth.