“Is TikTok marketing worth it?” is a question many brands are poised with today. With the lasting trends and innovations in digital marketing, brands are braced with new business decisions every season.
With the new buzzing trends to jump on and whether it fits well with their business objectives is one critical decision every business and brand needs to make quickly.
Today, we’ll analyze the intricacies of TikTok marketing, examples of brands maximizing what it offers, and proffer data-driven guidance on creating your brand’s presence on TikTok and a comprehensive marketing plan.
What Is Tiktok?
One of the all-time fastest-growing social media networks is TikTok. In 2020, it received 850 million downloads and generated $1.9 billion in sales, a 457 percent increase yearly.
TikTok is the most downloaded app globally as of 2021. This merely serves as a preview of TikTok’s future level of popularity. Your brand or company ought to be participating and maximizing its potential.
TikTok, like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, is a social networking platform for fostering interpersonal connections. So what makes TikTok unique?
First things first, it’s all about short videos and clips. Users can upload and edit videos up to a minute long; the more original and entertaining, the better.
Since its redesign in September 2018, it has exceeded all other social media applications in monthly installs. It was created from the well-known platform Musical.ly.
The idea behind the app is straightforward: make short, shareable clips using a range of in-app, popular theme songs/sounds, filters, and effects.
The app makes use of several features that are intended to engage users with other people’s content.
An example of such is the well-known “duet” feature that enables users to watch another user’s video and add their own to it in an adjacent panel.
Users can also “stitch” videos together by mimicking the content of an original video.
Additionally, the network just added a live stream feature known as TikTok LIVE that enables users and their favorite creators to communicate in real-time and send and receive “gifts,” or tokens, that can be converted into cash.
Important Facts No One Is Telling You About TikTok Marketing?
TikTok offers companies, both big and small brands, the chance to broaden their reach and establish connections with an interested audience as one of the top five most downloaded apps worldwide.
Businesses can strengthen their brand awareness and message, emphasize their product and service offers, and interact with a growing and influential audience that has the potential to become devoted and lifetime consumers by adding TikTok into their marketing strategy.
People discovered new methods to consume content and engage in entertainment to continue to be productive, alert, and connected during the prolonged lockdown period.
Internet usage has grown significantly since the pandemic. Hence, TikTok gives marketers a direct path to target consumers and encourages in-the-moment dialogues that help communities form relevant ideas and interests.
Your business’s reach can be significantly increased by using TikTok. This will draw in more potential customers, which will increase sales and help your bottom line.
Most people don’t even know what TikTok is or that it may be very important for their business marketing strategy, I discovered after delving deeply into understanding TikTok as a marketing tool over the previous few weeks. Here are a few facts people are not telling.
1. Worldwide, there are around 800 million active users:
Wow, that’s a whole lot of folks! According to recent statistics, more than 800 million people actively use TikTok. This already exceeds Twitter, LinkedIn, and Snapchat in a big way.
This is enough reason to reconsider your belief that TikTok is a strange and weird video platform for just the young folks. Comparatively, Instagram has one billion active users.
And given TikTok’s explosive development, this number may be achieved soon.
2. Downloads from Google Play and the App Store total more than 1.5 billion
TikTok had over 1.5 billion app downloads worldwide as of November 2019, according to Sensor Tower. Not many have achieved the crucial milestone of one billion app downloads up till now, particularly not in such a brief time. Remember that TikTok was only introduced in 2016—about six years ago.
For instance, Facebook wasn’t created until 2004; therefore, it took them a while to become well-known. (I am aware that times have changed, and people today are more willing to download apps and use social media than they were 15 years ago, but these numbers are still astounding.)
Once TikTok had been downloaded one billion times, Facebook and other major players began to focus on the new “rising star.”
3. The typical user spends over 50 minutes each day:
The typical TikTok user uses the app for more than 50 minutes per day. That statistic places the app in the same ballpark as Facebook and Instagram and portends well for its future.
TikTok is incredibly addictive, and frequent viewers watch short clips and video content for several hours daily. The app’s creators thought of every strategy to keep users on the app, and they were successful.
4. Localized Content:
Although TikTok is a worldwide app, localized content has played a significant role in its development and growth. Through regional contests, challenges, and hashtags, the app focuses on regional trends, which users adore.
Users frequently peruse the “For You Page” on TikTok.The Explore Page will be recognizable to those who are familiar with Instagram. The TikTok For You Page serves as just that.
However, TikTok users spend much more time on this For You Page than the average Instagram user.
This implies that TikTok users watch videos recommended to them by the TikTok algorithm and content created by people they know and follow (which is incredibly smart).
You might notice local customers and companies on the For You Page. TikTok is highly intriguing for marketing purposes because of this.
5. Simple creation, sharing, and viewing of content:
The making and sharing of videos have been made more accessible and advanced thanks to the TikTok app. Users only need to promptly share everything they record from their daily activities.
The temporary structure means that neither making the video nor watching it requires much time or effort.
Additionally, when a user starts the app, this short-form video content begins to play. One by one, the films start to play, and the viewer is quickly submerged in a sea of enjoyable, captivating, and compelling video content.
It is simple for people to continue viewing random videos for hours due to the sort of content’s addictive nature.
Example Of Brands Maximizing Tiktok Marketing
Despite having a wide age range, Gen Z and millennials are the primary target audience for TikTok. But there are also lots of hip grandmas who are mastering the most recent TikTok tasks!
Many companies use compelling content to promote their brands, attract followers, and convert them into customers.
The interaction on TikTok is tremendous, and you can even see well-known brands like Nike, Pepsi, Calvin Klein, Sony, and others running influencer marketing campaigns there!
It is also well-liked by influencers and celebrities who have earned a large following on TikTok since the pandemic, such as Snoop Dogg, Dua Lipa, etc.
Everyone may have fun and share their lives on the entertainment platform TikTok!
Some of the brands that are crushing it on TikTok include:
– Beauty & Skincare brands:
The expression #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has entered the cultural lexicon, and nowhere is it used more frequently than in the beauty industry.
An example of a TikTok user is @fentybeauty. It is a cosmetic company called Fenty Beauty which was established in 2017.
Fenty Beauty uses TikTok to share makeup lessons, wear tests, and new debuts. Not to mention, tutorials are among the most well-liked categories of content on TikTok.
Fenty Beauty is an excellent example of a brand that does this better than others.
This cosmetic brand encourages users of its products, such as makeup artists, to make and post TikTok videos while using its products.
Then it decides which ones to highlight on its official account. Currently, Fenty’s TikTok account has 20.1 million likes and 1.3 million followers.
Other beauty brands smashing their TikTok marketing goals are The Ordinary, e.l.f. Cosmetics, NYX Professional Makeup, Too Faced, etc.
– Fashion brands:
Many high-end luxury fashion companies are on the platform, including Prada, who recently collaborated with the top TikToker Charli D’Amelio to create branded content for her followers during Milan Fashion Week.
These companies include Alice + Olivia, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Fashion Nova, Tory Burch, Missoni, Gymshark, Gucci, Calvin Klein, Crocs, Boohoo, ASOS, etc.
One of the top fitness businesses on TikTok, Gymshark, has amassed 3.7 million followers. Gymshark offers training challenges, motivational health adventures, and realistic fitness comedy to appeal to fitness enthusiasts and make the gym less daunting.
The 66 Days: Change Your Life challenge, which draws attention to the notion that it takes 66 days to create a habit, was one of the company’s most noteworthy TikTok commercials.
TikTokers who wanted to win a Gymshark membership sent videos of their fitness journeys.
The campaign was a resounding success, with over 200 million views on the hashtag #gymshark66.
One of the hottest trends on TikTok is challenges, and creative marketers are utilizing them to boost their growth and engage with the app’s millions of users.
Think of coming up with your challenge or giving a current one a unique twist.
– Food & Drinks brands
Starbucks (@starbucks), a well-known coffee shop brand, has a sizable following on social media. It has 9.8 million likes and 1.8 million followers on TikTok. The coffee chain uses its social media channels for advertising menu items.
One of the most well-known ads asks customers of Starbucks to create their custom coffee blends, purchase them from a Starbucks location, and then post the customized coffee on Tiktok.
These personalized blends are open for criticism from other users. However, other customers have taken offense at the “too sophisticated” demands that Starbucks baristas have received.
– Entertainment brands
During the pandemic, Netflix experienced tremendous growth in popularity. People were compelled to stay indoors and find readily available entertainment due to the lockdown of cities and the tight social distancing rules. Netflix helps prevent boredom.
Netflix is a streaming service that charges a monthly fee and offers on-demand access to TV episodes and movies.
Depending on the user’s location, it displays the top titles on its TikTok account. Usually, the video content includes entertaining snippets or cherished show moments.
– Travel brands
TikTok, being such a visual platform, is ideally suited for inspiring and lovely travel-related content. Over 25 billion people have viewed the hashtag #tiktoktravel, while #wanderlust and #traveldiaries have had 1.1 and 2.2 billion views, respectively.
Travel brands killing their TikTok marketing strategy include Delta Airlines. The American airline made news when it launched its first TikTok promotion earlier this year by challenging viewers to write about their favorite vacation using the hashtag #FavoriteTripChallenge.
It was a fantastic method to enter the market, given that most travel-related trends and videos on TikTok are built upon video dumps or sharing existing footage.
Due to TikTok’s promotion of the ad on the Discover tab, the campaign received over 19.5 million views in the first 36 hours.
Ryanair, also a travel brand, is well-known for its incredibly affordable flights. It can appear that there isn’t much to demonstrate or amuse their audience with.
Even so, they make their planes the stars of amusing videos that their audience can connect to and use the TikTok platform to share memes and keep up with current trends.
How Can Brands Use Tiktok
In terms of being a social media platform for marketing, TikTok does not have any room for conventional display ads and is not even in direct competition with other social media platforms.
However, many firms increasingly see TikTok’s potential as a marketing medium due to its rapid expansion and expanding popularity.
Many brands have used strategies like TikTok challenges and contests to encourage consumers to create brand-related content.
To promote their TikTok marketing initiatives, brands use hashtags in a somewhat similar way to how they do it on other social media platforms.
Take the #InMyDenim campaign from the Guess brand, for instance. The Guess brand took over TikTok on September 1 and asked all US-based TikTok users to participate in their #InMyDenim hashtag campaign.
Users were encouraged to make videos using the hashtag and to wear denim (of course). This marked the beginning of TikTok’s brand collaborations in the US.
Brands can also leverage TikTok by working with TikTok superstars to produce content that is specifically promotional for their products. Except for the 15-second TikTok video format, this influencer partnership will be similar to the others.
Final Thoughts
TikTok, one of the newest social media networks, is gaining traction and is swiftly becoming an excellent channel for brands to interact with millions of fans, reach new audiences, and increase engagement.
It’s an artistic site where you may play around with videos, laugh with TikTokers, and promote your business page. Hence, with all the above facts, we can safely conclude that TikTok marketing is worth it for your brand.
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