Strategies for Attaining Business Success on TikTok in 2024

Mastering TikTok for your business can elevate your marketing tactics. The platform boasts over 1.5 billion users spanning all demographics.

However, it’s surprising that only 26% of marketers are actively utilizing TikTok. With its vast user demographic and high engagement levels, there’s a remarkable chance for brands to tap into this underutilized resource.

This article will guide you on how to harness TikTok for your business. Discover the steps to create your account, devise a TikTok marketing strategy, manage advertisements, evaluate performance, and more.

Why TikTok is Beneficial for Businesses

Contrary to the common misconception, TikTok’s user demographic is quite varied. It’s not solely occupied by Gen Z producing humorous dance clips. Older generations, including millennials, also utilize the platform daily for entertainment, staying updated on news, or discovering new products.

In fact, recent statistics reveal that almost 50% of TikTok users are aged between 25 and 44. This implies that your target market likely falls within this age bracket.

Furthermore, here are some noteworthy advantages of using TikTok for your business:

Boost Brand Recognition

TikTok provides numerous opportunities to promote your brand. Collaborating with influencers, launching different types of advertisements, and utilizing features like hashtags and branded stickers can effectively highlight your brand. Moreover, crafting entertaining and original content increases the chances of your videos going viral.

Product Promotion

The significant advantage of marketing on TikTok is its subtlety. You can promote your products in numerous ways without seeming overly aggressive, such as partnering with trusted influencers, producing genuinely helpful and entertaining videos, and more.

Expand Your Audience

With millions of global users, TikTok serves as an exceptional platform for reaching an international audience and expanding your customer base. Additionally, you have the chance to connect with unique TikTok users who are not active on other social media platforms.

Attract New Customers

TikTok emphasizes creating authentic and engaging content that feels personal and relatable. This fosters strong connections with your audience, increasing the likelihood of conversions into customers . Moreover, if you catch onto the right trend at the opportune moment (or, even better, initiate a trend), you could attract a multitude of new customers.

Now that we’ve established the importance of establishing your business on TikTok, let’s explore how to maximize potential on the platform.

Starting Out with TikTok for Business

Are you prepared to utilize TikTok for business? The competition is fierce—you must be strategic and perform research before posting videos. Follow the steps outlined below to initiate your TikTok journey and enhance your chances of success on the platform.

Create a TikTok Business Account

The initial step is to determine which TikTok account type you’ll establish. You have three options—business, creator, or individual. A TikTok business account is preferable for brands.

A business account provides access to the full array of TikTok’s marketing tools, encompassing analytics, advertisements, commercial audio, and additional resources. You can also establish a TikTok store and integrate with external applications like Sprout Social to manage your content.

Here’s how to set up a TikTok business account:

• Download the TikTok app on your device and register a new account.
• Access your profile and click the hamburger menu located in the top right corner.
• Proceed to Settings and Privacy → Manage Account.
• Select Switch to Business Account.
• Pick the category that most accurately represents your business.

Next, enhance your profile to reflect your brand identity, boost search visibility, and project a professional image. Upload a high-res logo as your profile picture, input your business name and username, and craft a concise yet engaging bio.

Lastly, insert your URL and social media profiles, such as Instagram and YouTube. Depending on your strategic objectives, you might link to your website’s homepage or select a specific landing page or blog. Here’s a glimpse of Samsung’s TikTok profile for reference:

Obtain Verification on TikTok

Getting verified on TikTok adds a blue checkmark next to your account, indicating that TikTok has validated your account’s authenticity and confirms that it belongs to a reputable business.

A verified badge establishes trust and credibility with your audience while also safeguarding against impostor accounts by designating your profile as the original.

To become verified, your account must satisfy specific criteria, which include:

• Being logged in during the last 6 months
• Having a completed profile with at least one video
• Adhering to TikTok’s community guidelines and terms of service
• Enabling two-step verification

You can submit a request via TikTok’s verification request form by providing proof of identity and popularity, such as a business email and media mentions.

Establish Your Goals

What are your objectives for TikTok? Whether it’s enhancing brand recognition, driving website traffic, or amplifying product sales, setting clear and relevant goals will guide your content creation and comprehensive TikTok marketing plan.

Break down your primary goal into SMART targets. For instance, if your aim is to enhance brand recognition, consider targets like:

• Attract 10,000 new followers in the next 3 months.
• Achieve 500,000 video views across all TikTok content within the upcoming quarter.
• Gather 75,000 profile views within the next 6 months.

Once you’ve established your social media KPIs, you can craft content that aligns with them and monitor your progress. Before that, however, you have one final task.

Identify Your Target Audience

To succeed on TikTok, it’s crucial to create content that appeals to the right audience. Consider who your ideal customer is, their preferences, and their behavior on the platform.

Start by analyzing your existing customers and identifying shared characteristics such as age, gender, location, and interests. Then, research your competitors and see whom they are targeting on TikTok.

Once you have a clear understanding of your target audience, explore the platform to identify the content they engage with, the hashtags they leverage, and the creators or brands they follow.

Utilize this information to construct personas representing your ideal TikTok followers. This will simplify tailoring your content strategy to their preferences, enhancing engagement and growing your audience (more on this in the following section).

Utilizing TikTok for Business

To demonstrate the process, I’ll show how to integrate TikTok with Sprout Social.

Leveraging TikTok for your business can effectively captivate your audience and elevate your brand. When combined with your other social media channels via a social media management tool, your results can be significantly enhanced.

Connect Your TikTok Profile to Sprout Social

Getting started with TikTok through Sprout Social is straightforward. Begin a free trial and set up an account using your business email.

Once ready, navigate to Account and settings, then select “Connect a Profile.”

From the In Group dropdown, opt for the Group you wish to link with your TikTok profile.

To link with Sprout, click “Connect” on the TikTok page and proceed through the authorization process. Consider connecting other social networks to manage your social media uniformly and gain from cross-network insights.

Craft a TikTok Content Calendar

Within the Sprout Social dashboard, click on the “Publishing” tab and select “Calendar.” Then, hit the “Create Calendar” button.

In the calendar creation interface, choose “TikTok” as your platform.

Utilize the calendar to strategize and create your TikTok content. You can enter captions, hashtags, and upload your videos directly to your calendar.

Effortlessly invite team members to collaborate on the calendar and assign tasks to ensure a seamless content creation workflow.

Utilize the preview feature to visualize how your posts will appear when published on TikTok.

Select your preferred posting days and times for TikTok. You can opt for daily posts, specific weekdays, or a customized schedule.

When prepared, schedule your posts for automatic publication at designated times.

Evaluate Your TikTok Performance

Tracking performance in Sprout is straightforward. Go to Reports where you can monitor TikTok analytics and evaluate engagement, reach, demographics, and follower growth. Utilize this data to gauge the effectiveness of your content. Identify the content that garners the most engagement from your target audience to refine future content and ensure it resonates in critical markets for your business.

If you have linked multiple social media networks to Sprout, you can leverage its cross-network Post Performance Report to assess how posts perform across different platforms. This can facilitate refining your social media strategy according to each network.

Formulate a TikTok Content Strategy

Now for the crucial aspect—creating captivating content that aligns with your brand while resonating with your target audience. This requires a structured plan, or in simpler terms, a TikTok content strategy.

Consider the following while designing a TikTok content strategy for your brand:

• Observe the platform: Before launching content, get acquainted with TikTok. Familiarize yourself with all features and options, check out popular creators in your niche, analyze your competitors, and understand the language your audience employs on the platform (e.g., humor or emoji usage).
• Engage with trends and challenges: TikTok trends are constantly evolving. Brands thriving on the platform know precisely when to participate in trending topics. Explore trending hashtags, music, challenges, and content styles, and infuse your unique flair into them. Crocs exemplifies this approach well:

• Maintain authenticity: Steer clear of overly formal or scripted content. Embrace TikTok’s raw, playful, and engaging spirit by showcasing your brand’s human side. Take followers behind the scenes or highlight your employees and office pets. You don’t need fancy equipment to produce compelling TikToks—just innovative ideas and proper lighting.
• Utilize TikTok’s editing tools: Don’t settle for basic videos—leverage TikTok’s creative editing tools to enhance your content. Experiment with captivating transitions, effects, and filters to give your videos a distinctive edge. Incorporate trending music to enhance engagement and add subtitles for improved accessibility.
• Decide on posting frequency and timing: If you’re using the app to generate content, examine your audience’s habits to determine optimal posting times for maximum interaction. When are they most active? Which day of the week sees the most TikTok usage? Deploy this data to devise a content calendar and schedule posts for maximum initial impact.

Enhancing Business Outcomes on TikTok

Once you start generating content on TikTok, there are various strategies to elevate your performance on the platform:

Comprehend the TikTok Algorithm

Understanding TikTok necessitates a thorough grasp of how the algorithm functions. This knowledge can empower you to craft content that ranks higher in user feeds and on the Explore and For You pages.

Firstly, be aware that TikTok’s algorithm recommends content tailored to each user’s preferences. However, you’re competing against millions of videos, and there’s limited space for a few of them on the For You page. How does TikTok determine which videos receive more exposure?

Here are the criteria the algorithm considers when ranking content:

• Engagement: Likes, shares, comments, completion rates, and saved videos all help TikTok recognize the content that resonates with your audience.
• User interactions: TikTok examines the accounts users follow and the content they generate to gauge their unique interests.
• Video details: Captions, hashtags, and sounds associated with your videos assist TikTok in categorizing your content and deciding when and to whom to display it.
• Device and account settings: Factors such as language preferences, device types, and country settings influence which users see your videos on their For You pages.

Understanding these influencers can help you craft content that is likely to be ranked well for the appropriate audience. Furthermore, TikTok’s algorithm does not recommend:

• Spam and duplicate content
• Content users are already familiar with
• Potentially harmful or offensive content
• Videos that have just been uploaded or are pending review

Factors like follower count or past high-performing videos do not influence TikTok’s algorithm decisions. This means that even if your business is new on the platform, your content stands an equal chance of ranking as that of more established accounts.

Excel in TikTok SEO

Wishing to enhance the discoverability of your videos? Optimize various content aspects to rank higher for relevant search terms. Consider these pointers on mastering TikTok SEO:

• Select appropriate keywords: Investigate relevant and trending keywords in your niche to understand what your audience seeks. Naturally incorporate these keywords into your video titles, descriptions, and captions. This informs TikTok about your content and aids in reaching users looking for those specific subjects.
• Capitalize on trends, challenges, and hashtags: Creating content around trending topics and challenges can enhance your visibility on TikTok, especially when a trend is fresh and there is lower content competition. Additionally, incorporate relevant, keyword-rich TikTok hashtags to ensure your content is easily categorized and discoverable.
• Craft high-quality content: Engaging, informative, and entertaining videos naturally drive more engagement. This signals to TikTok that your content deserves wider exposure, enhancing your visibility and ranking. In addition to offering value, capture attention right away with hooks, captions, high-quality visuals, good lighting, clear audio, and inventive editing and transitions.
• Interact with your audience: Maintaining an active presence on the platform can boost your search rankings, visibility, and brand recognition. Regularly engage with the TikTok community by liking and commenting on posts, hosting live sessions, responding to feedback, and initiating discussions.

Effectively Utilize TikTok Ads

Businesses can deploy various types of TikTok advertisements that seamlessly blend with other platform content. Ads can enhance your marketing strategy by broadening your reach and directing targeted traffic to your website.

For example, you can promote organic content with Spark ads or collaborate with creators to generate sponsored content. Alternatively, consider traditional ad formats such as in-feed, carousel, TopView, and brand takeover ads.

Partner with TikTok Influencers

TikTok is an ideal platform for brands interested in influencer marketing. Numerous influencers of various levels populate the platform—from mega influencers with millions of followers to nano influencers with a few thousand fans.

For example, nutrition brand Tropeaka collaborates with lifestyle influencers like Sopha Dopha (@sophadopha) to create content for the brand. Here’s an illustration:

Collaborating with influencers can attract new audiences and establish a credible brand image by communicating through trusted figures. Here are some tips to maximize your TikTok influencer marketing initiatives:

• Identify suitable influencers: Search for influencers who align with your brand’s voice. Consider whether to engage larger influencers or smaller ones. Larger influencers offer more reach, but may be costly. Smaller influencers, while reaching fewer people, often possess loyal, highly engaged followings. Depending on your objectives, your choice of influencers may vary.
• Define clear objectives: Without clear aims, partnering with influencers can squander resources for both parties. You should determine what you hope to attain from the collaboration and communicate it to the influencer so they understand their role. Is the goal brand awareness, increasing followers, or achieving a particular sales target?
• Avoid excessive control: After outlining the end goals to influencers, refrain from micromanaging every aspect of the campaign. Highlight key points you want them to address, but allow them creative latitude to do things “their way.” This not only enhances your relationship with the influencer but also bolsters your brand’s credibility and authenticity.
• Assess and analyze results: Evaluate the performance of your influencer marketing campaigns during and after execution. Determine whether your objectives were fulfilled or if adjustments are required.

If executed correctly, influencer partnerships on TikTok can yield significant rewards for your brand. Utilize an influencer marketing tool to identify the right partners and collaborate closely throughout the planning and strategizing phases to achieve impactful outcomes.

Remember—they are specialists in their domain and can offer fantastic ideas or highlight concerns you may have overlooked.

Learn and Adapt from Your TikTok Analytics

TikTok analytics encompasses all data related to your profile, content, and audience that aids in tracking your videos’ performance, understanding your followers, and making strategic decisions.

TikTok can be highly competitive, but a data-guided approach can help your business differentiate itself and yield specific results on the platform. Here are some key metrics to monitor:

• Video views, watch time, and completion rates
• Traffic sources (e.g., For You page, hashtags, sounds)
• Likes, comments, shares, and profile views
• Follower growth and peak active times
• Audience demographics, including age, gender, and location
• Song usages, link clicks, and video downloads

Compare the performance of different content types, formats, lengths, and distribution strategies to establish what resonates best with your target audience. Look for trends and patterns in your data to steer your content creation and posting schedule.

Elevate Your Business with TikTok

TikTok stands as one of the most rapidly growing platforms of our era. If you’re not yet engaging it for your business, you are passing up significant opportunities for brand exposure, revenue, and interaction. Follow the guidelines in this article to embark on your TikTok journey with confidence.

Enhance your TikTok marketing approach with an effective tool. Sprout Social’s robust social media management platform can assist you in engaging with your audience, scheduling posts, and analyzing performance— all from a single interface—and not just on TikTok. Initiate a free 30-day trial today and experience Sprout’s capabilities.

The post TikTok for business success in 2024 first appeared on Sprout Social.