Since its launch in 2016, TikTok has taken the world by storm. It has amassed millions of users worldwide, surpassing that of Reddit, Snapchat, and Twitter. Businesses can now leverage this expanding network as part of their content marketing strategy to engage with new customers. TikTok marketing can be useful when businesses connect with their target audiences with content that strikes a chord and rides on what’s trending.
What is TikTok
TikTok is a social media video-sharing platform where users can post and watch short-form, personalised video content.
Globally, there are more than 800 million active TikTok users. With an effective TikTok marketing strategy, marketers can reach many customers and followers worldwide. TikTok is available in 39 different languages, making it an ideal social media marketing platform for brands to attract potential customers, raise brand awareness, and even build a following with overseas audiences.
And if you think that TikTok only attracts the younger crowd, think again. TikTok’s growing fanbase now includes older users. For instance, a large number of adults between 25 and 35 years of age have found their way into TikTok in countries such as China, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
Here’s a breakdown of user demographics by age:
| Age group | Percentage |
| 13-17 | 27% |
| 18-24 | 42% |
| 25-34 | 16% |
| 35-44 | 8% |
| 45-54 | 3% |
| 55 and above | 4% |
Want to know more about the social media landscape in China? We have an article all about it.
Read more about Singapore social media statistics here.
How can you make use of TikTok as a marketing platform?
Brands and marketers can leverage the evolving social media landscape by building a following on TikTok.
Through creative short videos and engagements, TikTok marketing can raise brand awareness and provide your brand with the exposure it needs.
TikTok also offers the opportunity to give your brand a unique voice that will set it apart from others. To differentiate your brand voice and attract viewers, you will need to inject originality, creativity, and a bit of comedy in your videos and ads.
Engagements with potential customers on TikTok tend to be more personal due to the nature and style of video content required on the platform. This offers a fresh, fun, and authentic way for fans to connect with your brand.
When users start taking an interest in your brand, they will want to learn more about it. This drives more traffic to your website. Efficient and creative social marketing campaigns can thus potentially enhance your SEO ranking.
Not sure what SEO is? Here’s a guide.
To grow their following and gather more views, marketers often cross-promote their TikTok videos on other social media platforms such as Instagram. Downloading a TikTok video is also easy — all you need to do is to save your TikTok video to your camera roll.
Types of content that work well on TikTok
TikTok is a platform best known for its viral hashtag challenges, dance challenges, as well as comedy-like content.
To gain exposure for your brand on TikTok, start by experimenting with the different styles of content before finding a content strategy that works.
Often, it’s the most straightforward and light-hearted content that turns out to be the most successful one on TikTok. For instance, you may have seen lip-sync impersonations, or cats navigating a corridor of small obstacles. These are simple ideas that have become extremely popular among TikTok content creators.
To create a high-performance TikTok video, consider a concept that is easy for other users to replicate your idea and do the challenge, or create a spin-off. This gives it a higher chance of going viral.
TikTok marketing: Follow the latest trends
TikTok is big on trend culture, which is something you may be keen to explore in your content marketing strategy. With the use of trending hashtags, you can increase the number of likes, followers, and views for your videos.
For instance, if you would like to put a playful prank video in the spotlight, use the hashtag #pranks. If you have a quick tutorial video to upload, use the hashtag #howto. Such hashtag challenges are a form of content marketing that’s common on TikTok.
To draw audience interest, keep tabs on what’s trending on TikTok. By keeping your content relevant all year, you can maintain a continuous dialogue with your audiences.
There is no limit to what you can achieve with TikTok marketing. Feed viewers one incredible original video after another to begin building a strong following on the platform.
TikTok marketing: TikTok ads
Image credit: Business of Apps
You could also opt for TikTok ads and go straight to promoting your content on the platform.
TikTok provides marketers with four main types of ads to choose from. This includes In-Feed Ads, TopView, Brand Takeover, and Branded Hashtag Challenge:
| Type of Campaign | Description |
| Brand takeover | Brand Takeover is a full-screen takeover that users see the moment they access TikTok. This increases brand awareness and maximises your ad’s impact. |
| In-feed ads | In-Feed Ads will appear in the “For You” page and will be labelled “Sponsored”. You can choose from several call-to-action options such as “download now”, “learn more”, or “shop now.” |
| Branded Hashtag Challenge | Branded Hashtag Challenge is a content campaign that invites TikTok users to participate and create content around your theme or idea. |
| Branded AR content | Ads appears as branded lenses, stickers, and other 2D/3D/AR content for TikTok users to use in their videos. |
The platform also provides various ways to target your ideal audiences according to their gender, age, location, language, and interests for more targeted TikTok marketing.
Influencer marketing on TikTok
Besides brand ads on TikTok, you can also leverage on popular TikTok social media influencers to support your brand campaigns. This is otherwise known as influencer marketing on TikTok.
Image credit: edm.com
There are a variety of influencers on TikTok to choose from, such as artists, singers, dancers, sportspersons, and even magicians.
It’s sometimes the most unexpected tie-ups that attract new audiences. For instance, if you’re promoting your new cafe or restaurant, you could engage a dancer on TikTok to create engaging, viral content.
Brands using TikTok for marketing
1. Gucci
This high-end brand launched its new sneaker collection on TikTok by creating the viral #AccidentalInfluencer challenge. This challenge features individuals or groups of people who find themselves in situations where others dress alike.
In one photo, three men wore the same Gucci outfit and sneakers while commuting on a bus, while in another, four women who were taking their afternoon tea in pairs wore the same combination of Gucci clothes and sneakers.
This playful and fun digital campaign urges other TikTok users to join in the challenge while creatively announcing the drop of Gucci’s Tennis 1977 sneakers.
2. Lush
Lush is a handmade cosmetics store that is best known for its heavenly scents and cute bath bombs. However, on TikTok, the brand appeals to your sense of sight with artistic bath bomb videos, hashtag challenges, as well as user-generated content.
One of their most prominent content on TikTok is the #chooseyourcharacter challenge. By hopping onto the trend, Lush was able to tap into the young, vibrant audiences around the world and create awareness.
3. Etude House
To reach new audiences, Etude House launched fun and unique ads on TikTok.
They leveraged their signature pink visuals to develop ads and introduce the launch of their products.
TikTok users who come across Etude House’s ads can click on the ‘Shop Now’ button, which will take them directly to the Etude House account. This creates awareness for their new product while drawing users to browse their entire range of products on their page.
On top of that, they also create #howto makeup tutorials that provide not just entertainment but also useful tips.
4. Gov.sg
When COVID-19 reached the shores of Singapore, the government took immediate efforts to communicate to citizens through digital platforms such as Whatsapp and Telegram.
They also launched their TikTok account to reach younger target audiences. Their TikTok mainly consists of information to keep citizens up-to-date on the latest news, as well as educational content such as tips on things to do at home.
This enabled the government to communicate with citizens quickly and creatively as the global pandemic evolved.
Leverage TikTok for your content marketing
With these brands seeing success with marketing on TikTok, this social media platform looks to be a great opportunity for brands without a huge budget for advertising. Its user-generated content is promising and can give you an easily scalable approach where you can reach a large number of people at a relatively low cost.
If your brand is trying to reach a wider audience with engaging content, it’s time to pull out your smartphone, get on TikTok, and have some fun with your audience.
While TikTok is the cool new way to engage with your audience, content marketing is also a powerful tool to help you achieve your business goals. Learn more about how we can help.