Introduction
Interest in TikTok has exploded in recent years. This trendy social platform is particularly popular with young people, making it an essential marketing tool for companies looking to reach a young, connected audience. With its billion active users, TikTok is an attractive platform for advertising. Brands can share content creatively and playfully, bringing them closer to their customers in a unique way.
Companies now have the opportunity to leverage TikTok to diversify their marketing strategy, with partnerships between brands and reputable influencers, hashtag challenges, paid advertising and more. More and more brands are convinced of the importance of this platform, and recognize its viral power. In this article, we’ll look at the best strategies for successfully promoting brands on TikTok, as well as mistakes to avoid and tips for success on this trending social platform. Follow the guide, and find out how to take your business to the next level with TikTok!
Why use TikTok in your digital marketing strategy?
TikTok is a new social media platform that is rapidly gaining in popularity. It is now one of the most downloaded applications in the world, particularly among 18-24 year-olds, who account for some 80% of users. But what is TikTok?
TikTok is a mobile application for sharing short, funny videos. It lets users create and share videos lasting from 15 seconds to 1 minute, using filters, special effects, music and stickers. TikTok is often compared to Vine, the looping video-sharing app that was discontinued in 2017.
TikTok is also an advertising platform for brands. Like Facebook and Instagram, TikTok has created a professional space where businesses can publish their ads to be added to users’ feeds.
The benefits of TikTok for brands are numerous. It enables companies to reach a young audience looking for viral content. On this trendy platform, brands can show a more human side by using influencers to communicate with their customers. Well-known brands such as Nike and Bershka have understood the importance of TikTok in their digital marketing strategy.
There are also successful brands on TikTok. Brands like Gymshark, Fenty Beauty and MAC Cosmetics have created engaging content that speaks to their target audience. TikTok enables brands to connect with users in a creative and authentic way.
In short, TikTok is a trendy social platform that offers many opportunities for companies wishing to promote their business. Brands can use winning strategies to increase their visibility and grow their community. By using influencers, hashtag challenges and advertising on TikTok, brands can reach a young, creative audience looking for viral content.
Winning marketing strategies on Tiktok
TikTok’s popularity with young people makes it a very attractive platform for advertisers. Brands can address a wide audience, and take advantage of different advertising formats to promote their business. Here are the main marketing strategies for success on TikTok.
Challenge with hashtags
Challenges on TikTok are one of the most popular formats on the platform. Brands can take inspiration from this concept to launch challenges around their universe, using a specific hashtag. The aim is to engage the community, and get users to create content related to your brand. To achieve this, brands can offer rewards or gifts to the winners. Challenges can be choreographed, culinary or sporting, depending on the brand’s activity. Challenges are a great way to create buzz around your brand, expand your audience, and increase your visibility.
Partnering with well-known influencers
Influencers have a strong presence on TikTok and can play an important role in your marketing strategy. They have a considerable influence on the community and can help brands reach a wider audience. By partnering with influencers who share the same values and vision as your brand, you benefit from their seductive power. They can also help you increase your engagement rate and generate conversions. In particular, they can showcase your brand in their videos, test your products or services, and offer promotional codes to their followers. By working with influencers, you can reach a targeted audience and personalize your communication.
Advertising on TikTok
Advertising is an excellent way for brands to reach a wider audience on TikTok. You can choose different advertising formats depending on your objectives: in-feed videos, brand takeover, top view ads or hashtag challenge ads. Ads on TikTok must be fun and original, in keeping with the platform’s philosophy. It’s important to be creative to capture the community’s attention. Advertisements can be based on motion design stories, or on mini-videos featuring your products or services. Advertising on TikTok enables direct contact with users, and better brand recall.
Advertising formats on Tiktok
The most common ads are in-feed videos, which appear when browsing the home feed. They need to be creative and fun to attract users’ attention. The brand takeover is an imposing advertisement that appears the moment the user opens the application. Advertising on the challenge hashtag is an effective way of reaching a new audience, and generating conversions. Top view ads are the first content visible when the user opens the application. These ads are highly impactful, but must be created with care to avoid tiring users.
To sum up, TikTok is an emerging marketing platform that enables advertisers to reach a wide audience, especially young people. Challenges, influencers, advertisements, and the various advertising formats on offer are just some of the ways you can promote your business. A successful marketing strategy on TikTok needs to be creative, fun and original to capture the attention of the community. Put your personal touch to create content that will win over TikTok users!
TikTok success stories
The Fenty Beauty brand was one of the first to exploit the potential of TikTok. Founder Rihanna personally encouraged her fans to use the hashtag #FentyBeautyHouseChallenge to enter a make-up competition using her brand’s products. The campaign generated 4.5 billion views and over 19,000 video entries in just six days. The brand’s famous make-up artist and editor-in-chief, Priscilla Ono, said they had received more videos than they could watch. The campaign was a real success for Fenty Beauty, which reached a large audience thanks to the creativity of the participants.
The Gymshark brand also ran a successful campaign on TikTok. Although it focuses on sportswear, it encouraged its customers to participate in the #Gymshark66Challenge hashtag and share 66 days of fitness on the platform. The clips were shared en masse, creating a tight-knit community around the brand. This strategy enabled Gymshark not only to showcase its products, but also to affirm its commitment to healthy living and achieving personal goals.
MAC Cosmetics has also joined TikTok by launching a campaign in partnership with influencer Patrick Starrr to promote its new product range. The campaign included make-up tutorials, unboxing videos and collaborations with other influencers. The videos caught the attention of TikTok followers who were looking for new beauty products and professional-quality tutorials.
In conclusion, TikTok is a digital marketing platform that offers huge opportunities for brands to reach a young, active audience. Brands such as Fenty Beauty, Gymshark and MAC Cosmetics have proven that TikTok is more than just a way to publish ads, but a platform on which brands can interact with their audience through challenges, tutorials, and creative campaigns. The key to success on TikTok is to create authentic, consistent content that engages your audience and sparks user interest. Brands must always be aware of TikTok’s constantly evolving trends and work with influencers who are in tune with their company’s values.
Mistakes to avoid on TikTok
One of the most common mistakes brands make on TikTok is toignore current cultural trends. TikTok is known for being a reflection of popular culture, and it’s precisely this culture that brings the platform to life. Brands therefore need to keep abreast of the latest trends, memes and other viral videos circulating on the platform. Ignoring current trends could give your audience the impression that your brand is out of touch or unaware of what’s happening on the platform.
Another common mistake is a lack of authenticity or creativity in published videos. TikTok users are looking for authentic, original and creative content. If your content is boring, copy-pasted or lacking in originality, it will most likely be ignored. Brands therefore need to find ways to stand out from the crowd by being creative and authentic in their approach. Brands that know how to capture users’ attention, while remaining true to their brand image, will tend to succeed.
In short, it’s important for brands to remain authentic, ingenious and adapted to TikTok’s popular culture. In this ever-changing environment, brands can get noticed when they use music to their advantage, don’t take themselves too seriously, and draw inspiration from the latest cultural trends. Provided brands know how to anticipate future trends, TikTok is a great place to promote your business.
Tips for success on TikTok
Launching an effective strategy on TikTok isn’t just about posting funny videos with popular hashtags. To succeed on this platform, it’s crucial to understand your target audience and create videos that speak to them. Use language adapted to your audience and create content that interests them. Don’t just think about promoting your brand, think about entertaining and inspiring your audience.
Music is a key element on TikTok, and it can help you gain visibility. Use popular music, take up viral challenges or create your own original sound creations to attract more views to your videos. Upbeat music is more likely to grab users’ attention and make your videos go viral.
One of the most important aspects of TikTok videos is not to take yourself too seriously. Users of this platform want videos that are spontaneous and fun. So it’s important that your brand reflects this philosophy. You can show a lighter, more informal side through funny videos that make your audience laugh.
Finally, to succeed on TikTok, it’s essential to keep abreast of the platform’s trends and use them to your advantage. Trends can evolve rapidly on TikTok, so it’s important to follow them closely and integrate them into your marketing strategy. Use popular hashtags and try to propose an original video based on an existing trend to gain visibility.
Using TikTok as part of a marketing strategy can be a great way of reaching out to the younger generation in a creative and fun way. Follow the advice given in this article, and don’t hesitate to be original and creative to stand out from the competition.
Conclusion
Having reviewed the different digital marketing strategies on TikTok, it’s time to put what we’ve learned into practice. First of all, it’s important to understand that TikTok is a platform that mainly attracts millennials and Generation Z. To succeed on this platform, it’s crucial to understand your target audience and create videos that speak directly to them. Using music to your advantage can also pay off in increased visibility for your content.
It’s also important not to take yourself too seriously on TikTok and to keep up with the ever-changing trends on this platform. This will increase your chances of going viral and thus gaining notoriety.
Finally, it’s important not to make certain mistakes that are very common on TikTok, such as ignoring current cultural trends or lacking authenticity and creativity in content creation.
In short, to succeed on TikTok, you need to understand your target audience, be creative, adapt to the constantly evolving trends on the platform and not be afraid of spontaneity and humor. It’s up to you!
Sophie Pereira est auteur pour le magazine TIH-Business spécialisé dans les questions d’emploi. Elle est titulaire d’un master en sciences sociales et travaille comme journaliste depuis plus de 15 ans. Sophie est également consultante, formatrice et conférencière sur des sujets liés au marché du travail, à la diversité, à l’inclusion et à l’entrepreneuriat.