Marketing is a dynamically changing business, and if you’re not moving at the pace of the industry, you will lag behind. In today’s digital day and age, social media forms a huge part of the ever evolving marketing landscape and brands need to be at their absolute best on social media to garner audience attention.
The beauty about social media marketing is that it never stops being fun, especially when we think of this from the perspective of B2B brands, and there’s always something new to explore. Earlier, there was Faebook and Twitter. Then, Instagram made its presence known and in a way, owned this landscape. Now, TikTok is the newest kid on the block and in under a year of being on the market, has already made its mark!
TikTok, originally popular as Musical.ly is an app that’s all about short videos. Users could record clips of them lip syncing to music, usually running 15 seconds to one minute long. Within the first two years of launching, the company had over 90 million users, and proved to be especially popular within the youth. In 2018, it was bought over by Byte Dance Ltd. from China, and TikTok was born.
Why should marketers care about this? Because the app now has more than 800 million global users! That’s huge! And these users are loyalists in a way, because for them, TikTok is more than just a karaoke app. It is a medium of staying connected with the right influencers, and more than anything else, a platform that allows for self expression without judgement. Here’s why TikTok marketing is important for brands today, and how they can utilise it to the fullest:
- Creating brand personalities: We’ve already established that there are millions of people who use this app every day for self expression, and if brands really want to connect with these people, then they need to do the same. Creating an official brand channel is the simplest way to use the platform and track user behavior, their likes and preferences and engage with them. Having an official channel also allows brands to showcase diverse product offerings in a fun manner. Keep it short and simple on this platform and you will see the results for yourself!
- Hosting user generated content: Hashtag challenges are extremely common on TikTok today, and these challenges focus on brands garnering user generated content to really open up a transparent communication channel between the consumer and the brand. So many brands are using this to engage with consumers creatively, through quick tasks and karaoke videos. UGC gives your users a voice and makes them feel truly connected to the brand, and keeps them cued in to your service offerings. The best part? This is absolutely free and there are no additional marketing spends required!
- Partnering with relevant influencers: Promoting brand content through influencers with a large follower base is incredibly lucrative, there’s no doubt about that. But you need to find the influencers who are right for your company and fit your budget and goals. And with a massive number of users already cued in to the platform, TikTok has some very interesting influencers already, ranging from food, fashion, fitness and many more. Partnering with them is a huge opportunity for B2B brands especially, to ensure mass messages reach far and wide. One of the biggest examples of successful influencer outreach through TikTok is the recent handwashing campaign launched by Dettol in times of Covid 19, and its impact on changing user behaviour for the better.
- In Feed ads for targeted messaging: The media buying and spending space is extremely critical when it comes to building tightly knit marketing strategies, and TikTok is not far behind in terms of offering marketers advertising space. Through their in feed ads, brands can look at native content that appears in your audience’s feed while they’re exploring. Targeting parameters can be set manually to ensure that ads reach the right person. This is not a fully established space yet, but will definitely boom in the coming months!
Curious about how to create better engagement for your brand? We’d love to connect with you and take your marketing strategy to the next level. Get in touch!