In our digital age, the marketing landscape continues to evolve as new trends come and go. Currently, a growing number of businesses are jumping into short-form video content as a marketing channel—with good reason. According to HubSpot, short-form video ranks #1 for lead generation and engagement.
Should small businesses use TikTok videos?
The answer is yes. TikTok is an excellent platform for businesses to use. It’s a fun and engaging social media platform that gives small businesses the opportunity to reach new customers and potential clients. However, it can be hard to grow your business on TikTok as you need to compete with other small businesses in order to get noticed. If you are interested in using this platform, consider growing your business by creating more content or developing more engaging TikTok videos that will bring people back again and again.
While there are many ways to integrate and promote content through short-form video, the TikTok app currently leads the pack. By September 2020, TikTok user levels soared a whopping 75%, and its popularity since hasn’t waned. Let’s take a look at six TikTok tricks to help your company stay on top.
Best TikTok Tips and Tricks
1. Create Great Content
As the old saying goes, “content is king.” This certainly applies to TikTok. You’ll quickly attract more followers if you continuously upload fun, interesting, and exciting content. Just remember to keep a focus on quality and relevance when posting multiple video clips.
2. Use Smart Hashtags
Before posting, explore the popular hashtags on TikTok and see if you can somehow relate your content to what’s trending—it could help get more eyes on your piece and give a boost in organic traffic. However, avoid the temptation of hashtagging your post with trends unrelated to your content because you’ll come across as insincere (and possibly a spammer).
3. Connect with TikTok Influencers
One of the factors making TikTok so popular is that people nowadays want genuine content. If you can connect with an influencer who believes in your product or service, this can yield big results. To find potential influencers to build relationships with, try the following:
Perform a Google search to identify influencers who promote in your industry (e.g., travelers, foodies, fitness gurus, etc.) and see if they’re using TikTok.
Search influencers by location on TikTok, especially if marketing to local audiences.
Look for influencers by follower size and engagement rate. (The latter is extremely important—bigger isn’t always better.)
Additionally, check to see if influencers you’re interested in spend time on other social network platforms because there is always a possibility you already share a connection.
4. Stay Active
Like any other social media platform, it’s not enough to just have just a presence; you need to stay active by posting content, interacting with your audience, and reacting to others’ content. Plan to share videos at least three to five times a week; your followers will expect frequency; else they move on. Treat your TikTok content much like you’d treat blog posts—create a content calendar and stick to it.
5. Post Strategically
TikTok differs from other content publishing because you need to identify when your audience will be scrolling through and consuming content. Get to know your audience, learn when they’re most likely to be using the app, then set your schedule to post during those days/hours.
6. Use the green screen effect
The green screen effect allows you to put an image or video as a background. It is an excellent way of giving your TikTok video a creative spin. This effect can be used to explain a specific topic that requires visual elements. It is useful when you want to show how a particular product or service works. If you want to catch the attention of TikTok users, you must be able to create an original video, and the green screen effect will help you do that.
7. Leave a CTA in your description and/or comments.
A new video with no purpose serves nothing to you. Include a call to action in the description or comments section. The CTA will vary according to your objectives. Is it to redirect traffic to your website? Send a contact us link? Or share the video within the user’s TikTok account? Including a CTA in your video will fulfill your marketing objective.
8. Add subtitles to your videos.
Adding subtitles to your TikTok videos will allow you to reach a wider audience and ensure your message is being communicated effectively. Also, if there are users that can’t hear the video’s sound, you’ll make sure to be able to share your message even without sound.
9. Answer comments with videos
If you have created other videos related to questions that users are asking in the comments section, ensure to include the video as an answer. This will allow you to redirect traffic to other videos while generating engagement.
10. Make slideshows
Slideshows are great for telling a story about your brand through a series of pictures. Since users control how fast images pass, you’ll ensure that they receive the message as fast as possible. If users don’t want to see a whole video, they surely will see the images as it takes less time.
11. Keep videos short
Keeping videos short also helps you to stay on top. Remember, you have 8 seconds to attract the attention of users. Creating short but attractive videos will help your viewers and followers understand what you are saying and engage them more with your content. Long videos are usually skipped or not fully watched.
12. Look at the trending videos
Sticking with TikTok trends will help create videos that resonate with your target audience. Try recreating them within your business’s account with your little spin. Also, make sure to include trending hashtags, as these will help you have a greater reach and indicate to the TikTok algorithm that your content is relevant.
13. Use voice effects
If your strategy is adding humor to your TikTok videos, you should include a funny audio clip. It will help you add some personality to your brand and help you engage more with your audience.
14. Create tutorial videos
As a business, you want to ensure you are helping your target market with their needs or pain points. A tutorial video will portray your business as an authoritative figure in your industry. However, make sure to offer your services as a potential solution, as you want to keep your strategy private.
15. See what has worked in the past
If something has worked in the past doesn’t necessarily mean is going to work in the future. Analyze your posts and see which one had more engagement, likes and shares. It’s good to know what your target audience likes and what would they like to see more. An existing video might give you insights of what to do and not do in the future.
Ready to Get Started?
TikTok is a great tool to add to your marketing arsenal because it adds a great competitive advantage if you get it right. If you’d like help making your marketing campaign more effective, Contact REALTOP today and get a Free Marketing Plan for your business!
Nonetheless, it will also depend on how active your target market is on TikTok an at what times.
How do I optimize TikTok for business?
Below are some best tips on how to optimize TikTok for business:
Choose the Right TikTok Channel
First thing you need to do is choose the appropriate TikTok channel for your business. There are a number of different TikTok channels available, including Lifestyle, Entertainment, Entertainment News and Entertainment Video. Select the right channel will depend on the type of content your business produces and the tone of your content. For example, if your business produces humorous content you may be best suited to an Entertainment Video channel.
Know Your Audience on TikTok
Once you have selected the right channel for your business you need to know as much as possible about your target audience. What age range do they generally fall into? What are their interests? What are their preferred video lengths? All this information will help you create engaging content that will keep your audience engaged.
Make Your Content Shareable
To be truly effective on TikTok you need to make sure your content is shareable both inside and outside of TikTok. This will allow you reach a wide audience who may not be active on TikTok but still interested in your brand or product.
Use Influence Mechanisms to Drive Engagement
There are many ways to increase engagement with your content on TikTok such as voting, commenting and more. Using these mechanisms can aid in building trust and credibility with your followers, which in turn can lead to higher engagement rates.
What should my business post on TikTok?
You can use TikTok to promote your business by uploading videos that contain valuable information about your business or products. You can also use TikTok to create engaging videos that will generate business leads. By using TikTok, you can build up your brand image and gain visibility.
