New, 6 Strategies to Use TikTok For Business

 

Finally, it’s time to start using TikTok to promote your business. Here are six ways you can use TikTok For Business today.

1. Get a TikTok Business Account

TikTok offers two types of Pro accounts: Business Accounts and Creator Accounts. We’re going to focus on the former here.

TikTok Business Accounts are designed especially for brands and companies. They come packed with awesome features to help engage your audience, including in-depth metrics, campaign management advice, TikTok’s Web Business Suite, and a commercial music library of over 500,000 royalty-free sounds.

Creating a Business Account is easy.

If you already have a TikTok account, you can convert your current account into a Business Account. Click on the menu dots in the top right-hand corner of the Me page, then click on Manage My Account and select Business Account under the Switch to Pro Account option.

If you don’t have a TikTok account yet, you can sign up for a Business Account here. It’s similar to setting up an account on any social media platform. You’ll need to enter an email and create a password. Next, you need to create your business account.

Start by finding a username that isn’t already taken. Ideally, it will just be your brand name, but you may need to add a prefix or suffix to make it unique. Try one of these handle ideas if your brand name is taken.

With your Business Account created, you can start thinking about what you want to achieve with your account, who you want to target, how you’ll use your account, and the kind of videos you’ll create.

2. Use the TikTok Ads Manager

TikTok’s ads are fantastic. According to Hootsuite, they reach 17.9 percent of all internet users above the age of 18—and you have the potential to reach 884.9 million people.

Better still, TikTok users actually enjoy seeing ads. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of users surveyed by Kantar perceived ads as inspiring. They also find them to be 21 percent more trendsetting than ads on other platforms and are more enjoyable and optimistic, too.

One of the best things about running ads on TikTok is that they blend in seamlessly with organic content on the platform. There are several forms of TikTok ads, including:

In-feed ads: Standard TikTok ads that show up as videos in a user’s feed. They can last up to 60 seconds and can link to landing pages.

Brand takeovers: These ads show up when a user opens the app. They can be three-second photos or 3.5-second videos. They are more expensive than in-feed ads but potentially more powerful.

TopView ads: These are enhanced versions of brand takeover ads, lasting between five and 60 seconds.

Sponsored hashtag challenges: Hashtag challenges are huge on TikTok, and this ad form lets brands sponsor a hashtag challenge, complete with a custom banner shown on the Discover page.

TikTok makes it easy to get started with their ads manager.

First, select your goal. That could be to connect with your audience, generate web traffic, or generate leads.

Better still, TikTok users actually enjoy seeing ads. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of users surveyed by Kantar perceived ads as inspiring. They also find them to be 21 percent more trendsetting than ads on other platforms and are more enjoyable and optimistic, too.

One of the best things about running ads on TikTok is that they blend in seamlessly with organic content on the platform. There are several forms of TikTok ads, including:

In-feed ads: Standard TikTok ads that show up as videos in a user’s feed. They can last up to 60 seconds and can link to landing pages.

Brand takeovers: These ads show up when a user opens the app. They can be three-second photos or 3.5-second videos. They are more expensive than in-feed ads but potentially more powerful.

TopView ads: These are enhanced versions of brand takeover ads, lasting between five and 60 seconds.

Sponsored hashtag challenges: Hashtag challenges are huge on TikTok, and this ad form lets brands sponsor a hashtag challenge, complete with a custom banner shown on the Discover page.

TikTok makes it easy to get started with their ads manager.

First, select your goal. That could be to connect with your audience, generate web traffic, or generate leads.

Next, set your daily budget and the dates you want your campaign to run.

While much of TikTok advertising is dominated by big brands, you don’t have to blow your annual marketing budget to see success. TikTok has a minimum campaign budget of $500 when using the ad manager and a minimum ad group budget of $50.

Next, set your daily budget and the dates you want your campaign to run.

While much of TikTok advertising is dominated by big brands, you don’t have to blow your annual marketing budget to see success. TikTok has a minimum campaign budget of $500 when using the ad manager and a minimum ad group budget of $50.

Finally, design and launch your ad. Now watch the impressions, engagement, and revenue roll in.

3. Partner With Creators

Influencers are crucial on TikTok. Interest in creating influencer advertising campaigns is on the rise too, with a 325 percent increase in 2021. 68 percent of marketers now say they want to leverage the platform.

In response, TikTok released the Creator Marketplace (TCM) in 2019 to make it easier for brands and content creators to collaborate.

Brands use the marketplace to search for registered content creators, manage their campaigns, pay creators and generate reports and insights.

The Creator Marketplace means brands can manage multiple influencer campaigns in one place and keep track of everything through a single dashboard.

Better still, the Creator Marketplace massively increases transparency. Accurate reporting is notoriously difficult when working with influencers, but it’s baked into the Creator Marketplace.

As a result, brands can see at a glance which influencers help them meet their goals and which aren’t. This not only lets brands drop the influencers that aren’t working out, but also gives influencers the information they need to create awesome campaigns.

Finding the right influencers is another notoriously tricky part of working with influencers. Again, the Creator Marketplace comes to the rescue by letting you filter influencers by several criteria, including:

• country
• topic
• reach
• average views
• gender
• age
• audience device
• e-commerce anchor feature

Once you’ve found the perfect influencer, you can use TCM to send them messages, manage your joint campaign, and pay them.

Get started by signing up for the Creator Marketplace.

4. Use the TikTok Creator Exchange

The Creator Marketplace isn’t the only way to find and work with content creators on TikTok. TikTok also launched the Creative Exchange, designed to help brands and content creators form successful partnerships.

Finding influencers is one of the biggest challenges for brands, making this a fantastic addition to the TikTok Business suite. The 2021 Influencer Benchmark Report survey found that 22 percent of participants find the task difficult, and 56 percent rated it as having medium difficulty.

The Creative Exchange flips the script on influencer marketing. Rather than searching for the right influencer, brands create a campaign plan and let content creators respond to it with their suggestions.

Once you sign up for the Creative Exchange, TikTok walks you through the process of creating your project and provides several campaign ideas. These include a “Story” and “Product Intro,” among others.

Next, you’ll fill in a questionnaire related to your brand and product so content creators can get a better idea of who they’re working with.

Creators registered with the Exchange get notified every time opportunities match their interests. If they’re interested, they can apply to relevant projects by submitting their ideas or entering into a conversation with the brand.

The TikTok Creator Exchange is a faster and more efficient way of working with influencers on TikTok. However, it’s important to have a clear idea about the kind of campaign you want to create. The more information you can provide influencers, the better responses you’ll get.

5. Find a TikTok Marketing Partner

Every minute, people watch a staggering 167 million TikTok videos. That’s a huge number, and it shows just how hard you have to work to stand out from the crowd.

Most brands won’t be able to do this on their own.

Luckily, TikTok has a partnership program that connects brands with vetted TikTok experts. TikTok Marketing Partners have a wide range of skill sets and specialties, meaning they can help your business succeed at every stage of the campaign creation process. This includes:

• Campaign Management Partners help you get the most from the TikTok Ads platform.
• Measurement Partners help you squeeze as much performance from your campaigns as possible.
• Creative Partners have the audiovisual skills to help you create awesome ads that are a natural fit for the platform.
• Effects Partners can create augmented reality effects to help your ads really stand out.
• Sound Partners can help brands leverage TikTok’s sound-on environment.

Helping you create killer ads is just one of the benefits of working with a TikTok Marketing Partner. There are plenty more, including getting access to new features first, benefiting from expert advice, and knowing what’s coming next.

When you work with a TikTok Marketing Partner, you’re eligible for early access to the platform’s alpha and beta releases. Since TikTok Partners have a strong understanding of the platform, they’ll be able to make these new features work for your brand almost immediately.

Because they’ve achieved success on the platform many times over, they know the exact strategies you need to implement to meet your goals. TikTok also vets every partner to make sure they can do everything they promise.

Finally, a TikTok Marketing Partner has a deep knowledge of the platform’s product roadmap.

That means they can notify you immediately of future developments in the app so your brand can take advantage faster.

6. Create a TikTok Shop

Social commerce is a huge, growing market. There were roughly 79 million social buyers in the U.S. in 2020. By 2025, it’s estimated that figure will grow by 37 percent to 108 social consumers million.

More and more businesses are jumping on the social commerce bandwagon. A 2021 survey found eight in ten businesses plan to sell on social media platforms within the next three years.

If you’re looking to get to grips with social commerce, TikTok should be your starting point. According to the company’s own research, 67 percent of consumers say they’re inspired to shop due to TikTok, even if they weren’t planning to. You only have to look at the TikTok feta effect for proof.

With TikTok’s new shopping program, getting started is easier than ever. The social media platform has recently partnered with Shopify to allow businesses and creators to promote and sell products directly on the platform.

There are three core ways merchants can promote products on TikTok:

Merchant-led LIVEs and In-Feed Videos: Merchants can promote products directly in the app through LIVEs or standard in-feed videos.

• Creator Collaborations: Merchants can collaborate with creators to leverage their communities.
• Campaigns and Promotions: Merchants can participate in TikTok Shop’s monthly campaigns.
• Creating a seller account is easy:

Open the TikTok Shop app and click Become a Seller if you already have an account. You can also create an account from scratch.

• Fill in your personal data.
• Fill in the TikTok Shop Seller Center profile.
• Click continue and start selling.

Many major brands are already selling on TikTok, like Kylie Cosmetics and Manly Brands. Even smaller brands have seen success selling on the platform.

U.K. perfumer retailer PerfumeBoss created their first live shoppable event just two days after signing up. It now hosts five live events every week and has seen a 438 percent increase in net revenue and a 369 percent increase in order volume.

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