Want to include TikTok in your marketing strategy? Great move because brands have been successfully using it for years. But to be as successful, you need to do your research and planning first. And it all starts with a TikTok marketing strategy.
TikTok management tool for teams
Schedule your TikToks, manage TikTok comments (organic and ads), and analyze your performance – from one place – with a simple tool designed for teams.
What is a TikTok marketing strategy
As with any marketing channel, approaching TikTok shouldn’t just be getting on it and seeing what happens. Well, at least not when you’re a brand wanting to reap benefits from its TikTok presence, whether that’s brand awareness, audience engagement, or increased sales (or all of the above.)
And that’s what strategies are for:
- To know the goal of what you’re doing on TikTok
- To define an audience you’re talking to and ways to reach it
- To plan content that resonates with your target audience and helps you meet your marketing objectives
- To know how you’re going to measure your marketing on TikTok and what’s actually important for growing your brand.
A TikTok marketing strategy should clearly answer those question for you and your team, so that everyone’s aligned on what to do and why you’re even on TikTok in the first place.
Of course, this is all in a (very small) nutshell. But we’ll look at it in more detail in just a second.
How to create a TikTok business account
If your brand is not on TikTok yet, the first step of any strategy should be to start a business account. Which is the type of account that will let you advertise and do things like place a website link in your bio or set up a storefront on your TikTok account. Also, if you want to be able to schedule your TikTok content with external TikTok management tools for business like the ones you can find in NapoleonCat.
(Many scheduling tools won’t let you connect a creator account.)
Here’s how to set up a TikTok business account:
- Download the TikTok app on your phone (you can also do it on desktop) and create a new account
- Go to your TikTok profile and tap the menu (three lines) on the top right
- Tap Settings and privacy
- Tap Manage account
- Tap Switch to Business account
- Choose a relevant category for your business
- Tap Next to complete the process
And you’re done. You can now start to post your brand content on TikTok.
Oh, wait. You need your TikTok marketing strategy first. 🤦
TikTok management tool for teams
Schedule your TikToks, manage TikTok comments (organic and ads), and analyze your performance – from one place – with a simple tool designed for teams.
How to develop a TikTok marketing strategy
1. Define your audience
For TikTok to be effective for your brand, you need to reach your target audience there. And a good first step is to establish if your audience is actually there in the first place. No need to start a TikTok account just because “everyone else is doing it” if it’s just going to use up your resources and not bring any ROI.
So, make sure you:
- Know your audience and their needs really well
- Confirm that they are indeed on TikTok (or maybe a segment of your audience, if you have several)
- Know how they use TikTok, what kind of content they look for, and how they interact with brands
And don’t just assume they are not there, either. The common view of TikTok is that of an app designed for and used by younger generations. But in fact, you can absolutely reach people in older demographic groups, depending on your industry. Just look at the stats below.
Also, if your business is international, consider your audience locations. TikTok’s targeting relies heavily on location, so that needs to be part of your plan as well.
This step is absolutely key for your TikTok marketing strategy if you want to see any kind of predictable results.
2. Define your goals and KPIs
Yes, we’re still not talking about creating content. (Sorry!) One more thing before that is to decide on what you want the TikTok content to do for you, for example:
- grow your audience (and by how much)
- engage your followers
- drive traffic to your website or online store
- sell more products
- get more recognition for your brand
Putting a number to each of those will help you track your performance later.
3. Follow your competitors
And not to copy them, no. But to see what they do, what types of content are popular on their channels, and how their audience (which is also your audience, at least part of it) interacts with their content. What TikTok trends they jump on, what trending hashtags and sounds they, use and what seems to be working well (and what doesn’t.)
This will give you a good benchmark for your own TikTok marketing strategy.
4. Plan your content
Okay, we’re finally at the creative part. Before you start actually recording your videos, take some more time to decide:
- What topics you want to focus on on your TikTok account.
- What unique format you can adopt for your videos to be instantly recognizable (might be an opening line, the structure of your video, the setting, the editing, the way you talk, or even a characteristic object that appears in all videos.)
- What your audience wants to watch. If you’ve done number 1 in this list right, you’ll know their habits and the kinds of content they respond well to. (Told you it was going to pay off!)
- How often you can create content with the resources that you have, which will determine your posting schedule.
Also, research marketing tools that can help you keep a consistent schedule. With NapoleonCat’s Publisher, you can schedule your TikToks along with content for other channels, such as Instagram and Facebook Reels.
5. Find creators to collaborate with
TikTok is a platform that’s big on community, and brands can also use this community aspect to their advantage.
By working with TikTok creators in your space, you can expand your reach and build more trust with your target audience. Search for creators who have high engagement (and not just huge followings. The TikTok Creator Marketplace might be helpful when searching for relevant partnerships.
6. Use TikTok ads
In the quest to get on the For You Page of all the right people, TikTok ads will help you expand your reach and get through to your target audience.
TikTok offers ad formats that can help you build a bigger audience or drive more sales. And because it’s TikTok, the ads can also be a part of your engagement strategy alongside your organic content (if they’re engaging enough.)
By the way, when it comes to engaging TikTok advertising, here’s my favorite example:
7. Jump on popular TikTok trends
Speaking of jumping on trends, trends are a super important part of TikTok. It’s how accounts get discovered or even go viral.
You obviously can’t really plan to go viral, but you can certainly make it more probable by:
- Responding to trends that are in at the moment.
- Making your unique spin on them. Don’t just copy a trend. Add something that screams “you” – even if it’s just a tiny (but recognizable) element.
- Engage with other creators – stitch, duet, comment. TikTok really is about engagement, not just pretty videos.
8. Engage with your audience
Speaking of engagement. Don’t treat TikTok as just a one-way ad platform where you push your ads and wait for the conversions to come in.
Talk to your audience in the comments and encourage them to take part in conversations on your profile.
If you’re already overwhelmed by the comment volume on other social media platforms, make sure you use a tool that helps you get on top of your comments. With NapoleonCat, you can manage and reply to TikTok comments in one place along with all your other channels. And you won’t miss any comments under your ads, either (yes, there are conversations going on there, too.)
9. Analyze effectiveness and improve
Last but not least – keep tabs on how your strategy works out for your brand. Do it regularly and see what tweaks (or major shifts) you need to make to get more out of TikTok. If you use NapoleonCat for scheduling and comment moderation, you’ll also have insight into your TikTok analytics in the same tool to review your most and least engaging content and track your audience growth.
You can test NapoleonCat for free here – no credit card required during signup 😉
TikTok management tool for teams
Schedule your TikToks, manage TikTok comments (organic and ads), and analyze your performance – from one place – with a simple tool designed for teams.
Benefits of having a marketing strategy on TikTok
I’m pretty sure these are already clear from the previous section. But let me do one more quick rundown in case they’re not. 🙂
1. You know what to do
Instead of throwing the proverbial spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks, you have clear goals and can match tactics to achieve them.
That is not to say you shouldn’t experiment with your TikTok content. With a solid strategy, there’s absolutely room for experimenting and testing new ways and ideas. You just have a solid base to refer back to and monitor progress.
2. You can measure it
If you have specific strategic goals, you can then measure your performance when it comes to achieving them. Without a TikTok marketing strategy, it’s just doing stuff randomly – which hardly ever brings the desired results (yes, you might get the off chance of going viral, but that’s really not something you can plan on.)
3. You can make TikTok an effective part of your marketing
TikTok is just one of the channels you’re using to build your brand and grow your business. With a strategy, you can make it a consistent element contributing to achieving your marketing and sales goals.
That’s hardly possible if you’re adopting the spaghetti-at-the-wall approach.
TikTok marketing examples
Want some more examples of how other brands do it? I got you. Here are just a few of the brands that are doing it right with their TikTok marketing.
1. ClickUp uses trends and comedy skits to build engagement – pretty successfully.
2. Tldv has grown their presence successfully with comedy skits that were not tied to their product at all, but have gotten them considerable engagement, and brand awareness that followed.
Fun fact – their content is so convincing that some people were surprised they were actually a company.
3. Ryanair has also been using humor on TikTok (maybe in a more sarcastic and self-deprecating way, consistent with their overall brand image), getting tons of engagement from their 2.3M followers.
4. On a more serious note, the skincare brand Cerave has been collaborating with dermatologists as well as beauty influencers and celebrities to provide educational content around their products, while also building trust with their audience and expanding their reach. They’ve also been tapping into user-generated content to build closer relationships with their audience.
5. With their creative and relatable photo carousels on TikTok (because yes, you don’t even have to make videos on TikTok) as a recognizable format, Gymshark has been successfully engaging their 5.5M follower base.
6. And Crocs have put their product in the center (which is pretty obvious if you have a product that’s so memorable), experimenting with formats and different trends that have led them to build a 2.3M audience on TikTok.
TikTok is not just “dancing videos”
It’s proven to be an important and profitable channel for brands to reach their audiences. And the stats clearly show it:
- Customers spend 14% more when TikTok is part of the purchase journey
- 35% of TikTok users buy something they see on the platform. (And I’m personally one of them. 🙋)
- 44% of TikTok users discover products from videos posted by a brand.
- 44% of TikTok users discover products through ads in their feeds.
- 38% of TikTok users interacted with a video posted by a brand while actively doing product research.
- 24% of TikTok users interacted with ads in their feed while actively doing product research.
So, yes, it’s worth going on TikTok if your audience is there. Just make sure you have a solid TikTok marketing strategy – and the right TikTok management tools for business that will help you execute it and get the results you want.
TikTok management tool for teams
Schedule your TikToks, manage TikTok comments (organic and ads), and analyze your performance – from one place – with a simple tool designed for teams.
You may also like:
- A Quick Guide to TikTok Creator Marketplace for Brands and Creators
- How To Go Viral On TikTok: 6 Proven Strategies
- TikTok Promotion: Elevate Your Reach
- Top TikTok Trends Right Now
- 400 TikTok Bio Ideas + Tips To Make Your Brand Stand Out
- TikTok Stories: A Comprehensive Guide
- 200+ TikTok Username Ideas (and how to pick one)
- Here’s The Best Time to Post on TikTok
- How Often to Post on TikTok: A Definitive Guide
- How to Make Money on TikTok: Helpful Guide for Beginners
- Exploring TikTok Notes: Your Complete Guide
