Maximising Your Potential: How to Effectively Use TikTok for Your Business

Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that a TikTok strategy is a must in any modern marketing plan. Once exclusively the home of Gen Zs, dance challenges and prank trends, TikTok is now home to a diverse community. The content has expanded to attract audiences across demographics, and those users have flooded the platform to watch and participate.

The pull that many 30+ year-olds resisted has become too powerful to ignore. Especially if you run a business.

By Q2 of 2022, TikTok blew past 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. If you exclude social chat apps like WhatsApp and WeChat, TikTok is the 4th largest social media platform in the world, behind Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. And it’s only expected to grow. In 2023, it’s predicted that TikTok will grow by 46.98%. That’s almost double the growth prediction of any other social platform.

We all know how everyday users and influencers use the platform. But how can you actually utilise it, as a business, in an authentic way that connects with your audience and truly drives sales? Let’s explore.

How to Effectively Use TikTok for Your Business

Using TikTok effectively is all about the quality of content. Your TikTok ad or organic marketing strategy must:

1. Showcase Your Brand Personality

People want to connect on an emotional level with the brands they choose to follow and purchase from. The fun and light-hearted content of TikTok is a great way for you to show your personality, have fun with customers, collaborate with influencers and create engaging stories that draw attention from potential buyers.

2. Use the Latest Trends

As much as this may sound like a given, it’s worth repeating. TikTok offers you a great opportunity to stay up-to-date with current trends and follow what your customers are into at any given moment. This can be done by creating content that follows those trends or reposting existing content related to what you sell.

3. Stay up to date

The great thing about TikTok is that the trends are obvious as soon as they arise. In a day, you can watch viral videos blow up and spot what users are engaging with at any given moment. The challenge is that you can’t plan too far ahead. Trends change quickly on this platform. Your strategy must be agile enough to bend and change with them.

4. Focus on Visuals

TikTok is a predominantly visual platform, and its users are used to consuming ads in short-form video format. Your content needs to be visually striking and specifically tailored to the platform’s constraints. Long videos or slow-paced content tend to perform poorly, so keep it short and sweet.

5. Use Hashtags and Captions

Hashtags are the bread and butter of TikTok’s algorithm. They help users find your content, connect with others that share similar interests, and amplify its reach. To get your videos discovered by the right people, use videos that are closely related to your brand, and use the hashtags relevant to them while also sticking to the latest viral trends.

Similarly, captions help bring context to your content and give users a quick explanation of what it’s all about. The right words can have a huge impact on how users interact with your video.

Natasha Ellard, MD says “Nobody knows how long TikTok will last. Some analysts point to the failure of other short form video platforms like Vine. Others point to TikTok’s growing user base and popularity with Generation Z. Nobody has a crystal ball – but bottom line: TikTok should not be overlooked in anyone’s marketing plans!”

If you’re looking to implement TikTok into your 2023 marketing strategy, you may need guidance to set you on the right path. Urban Element is a TikTok marketing agency that can help you amplify your brand across all social media platforms. 

Contact us today to learn how to connect with and generate sales from your TikTok audience.

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