Business and TikTok. How to promote products and attract customers

TikTok is social media designed to host short videos. Founded in China in 2016, today, the service has an active audience of over 800 million users. To be able to post on the platform, the length of your video must be about 15 or 60 seconds long. Creating videos is easy, thanks to it having a built-in video editor with stickers, masks, effects, as well as music overlay. Moreover, according to research, users don’t mind advertising, but they don’t want it shoved in their face with direct selling. Instead, the TikTok faithful prefer their advertising embedded within the context of the video. So, today we’ll see how businesses can effectively use TikTok to promote their products and services, and what they should do to use this media effectively.

Why is TikTok so popular?

• It relates to the phenomenon of "clip thinking," i.e. the peculiarities of perception where bright and short video clips may be the best way to absorb information.
• Content in this app is far more diverse when compared with Instagram and enables users to realize their creative talents.
• Most videos in TikTok are entertaining, and about 70% of users are younger aged between 16 to 24 years old.

Likewise, Russian users have 18 million accounts, while at the same time, women have 58% active accounts. Fans of the app on average spend about 40 minutes a day watching videos. Imagine how many videos they could watch every day when you consider that one video doesn't last for more than a minute!

Why does your business need TikTok?

Marketing on this platform guarantees that you can engage and expand your younger audience. It also improves their own experience of being familiar with your company and interacting with your brand. A TikTok's audience can rapidly provide feedback in the form of likes and comments to your videos, and the service's algorithms provide a high-level of exposure.

TikTok is your chance to become a leader in your field and outperform competitors who have not yet realized the value of this platform. Against your backdrop, they will receive significantly less traffic, fewer customers, and less profit.

The app allows you to showcase your company and products from a fundamentally different angle. It adds another string to your bow, increasing the level of confidence and trust from potential customers and speeds up their movement in the sales funnel.

You can promote your product within the app either by ordering advertising or by maintaining your account. Let's take a look at both methods and examples of them.

The preparation and promotion of an account

First, you will have to design your brand account, preparing it for promotion. Another feature is that you create a signature avatar for your brand to use in your advertising and video. If you place a simple picture on your avatar, use the favorite technique of successful marketers and create a bright border around your round avatar, like the one that highlights unseen stories on Instagram. This will provide a visual highlight around your avatar in the feed and attract attention to it.

Make sure that you add a clear and short USP (Unique selling proposition) on your profile description. Don't forget about hashtags and add a link to your official website! The maximum size of a description permitted in TikTok is 80 characters. An excellent example of a description is from the BoohooMAN account. Here you will find a short explanation of the subject matter in clips combined with a call to action.

Once you've finished your description, analyze your audience by their age, gender, location, hobbies, profession, etc. Based on this analysis, create a primary account concept. Try to post only exclusive content that's presented exclusively on TikTok. Be active at the same time - like and comment on videos from your potential subscribers; try to establish a dialogue with them, forming a trusted relationship. A prime example of a successful business account is @psycholog.alex.shahov. The author summarizes the content of many hours of expert lectures from YouTube and "packs" them into 60-second videos. No wonder the audience of this account steadily doubles every month!

You can redirect traffic to TikTok from your other social media accounts. Here you can also create collaborations and put relevant hashtags under each video (videos have the opportunity to get into TikTok recommendations thanks to tags!). Don't forget about retargeting because it's a great way to remind existing audiences of your presence. A word of warning, though, be careful because TikTok rules won't allow you to sell products openly. If you do, your account could be blocked. Consequently, it's best to collaborate with bloggers so they can dedicate one of their videos to your product.

When choosing a suitable blogger, always be guided by the feedback of other advertisers who can find at Popsters service. You'll also get a rough guide to prices here. Local advertising, for example, will cost about three hundred and seventy thousand rubles, but it will provide coverage for at least four million users.

Advertising on TikTok. Which one do I choose?

Currently, TikTok offers four types of advertising for everyone:

• In-feed Local Video. Advertising pops up in users feeds. The length of the clip doesn't exceed fifteen seconds.
• Brand Takeover. This ad banner appears when you open TikTok. Static ads last three seconds, and video clips no more than five seconds.
• AR (Augmented Reality). Stickers, lenses or masks created on behalf of the brand.
• Hashtag Challenge. TikTok announces a weeklong flash mob under the umbrella of your brand; during this period, users can make themed videos using your hashtag. The corresponding banner will also appear in the search section. The expense of launching this type of challenge starts from one million rubles. Thus, in 2018, the brand Guess launched a challenge using the tag #inmydenim, which invited bloggers to shoot their stylish transformation. This type of "interactive" advertising reached thirty million users.

I've launched an ad on TikTok. How can I evaluate it?

The list of main KPIs includes conversions, likes, comments, viewing time and the number of hashtag videos (if you launched a Hashtag Challenge). These statistics are only available for pro-accounts. For a pro account, you can connect completely free of charge: all you have to do is link your page to your phone number, and you will immediately open a wide range of new features. Please note that statistics are collected from the moment your pro account is up and running.

What videos should I make for my account?

This is probably the most popular question that 90% of new users on TikTok ask themselves. For brand owners, the answer is obvious - you need to film something that helps to enhance your reputation and sell your products. The following video formats are suitable for this purpose:

• Reviews. Simply show the product or service from a different angle. Letting us know how to use them, points out the main advantages. A good example is unboxing videos. As a rule, videos of this nature can obtain hundreds and thousands of views.
• Feedback. Make a fifteen-second film of real-life customers' reviews and accompany the video with bright subtitles. For example, SMM specialists of the LUSH brand do this. Their account is a collection of different video formats to suit every taste. Get inspired as much as you want!
• Announcements. Tell us about your promotions and discounts in a playful way and add a link to the required section of your site in the video description.
• Answers to questions. Collect questions from followers on any platforms (the most convenient way to do this is on Instagram) and record short answers to them on video. Blogger Kira Cambio recently shot a series of such videos like this. Check it out and follow her example!
• News. Dedicate the video to your new products and events occurring with your brand. For example, what awards you've won, where you've been and what you're currently developing.
• Lifehacks. Share useful tips with your audience - communicate with your TikTok audience as well as your Instagram followers. You can also demonstrate the process of product creation as the authors of the @solidwater_pro account show here.
• "What's life is like within the company". You could ask your colleagues to speak on camera about their duties, goals and mission within the company. Try to focus on expertise and professionalism, or, on the other hand, a more casual and friendly atmosphere with lots of humor. The Teen Vogue account is a good example. Once every few months, they will share a short video like "How Our Editorial Office Works."

What indicators affect how many users will be able to view your video?

1. Depth of View. This indicator tells you whether your videos are watched until the end. The statistics show the average viewing time. If the majority of users stop watching halfway through the video, it means they're uninterested, and your material has to be improved.
2. The overall profile rating. It depends on the number of views of your content, including the number of reposts.
3. The number of subscribers. The more subscribers you have, the more views and the more videos are displayed in your recommendations to other users who have similar interests to your current followers.
4. Performance evaluation. This indicator could be called a performance-rating indicator. It all relies on user engagement and increases depending on their activity, i.e. likes and comments.

TikTok trends in 2020

Currently, the app is especially famous for experimentation, sports competitions, and various stunts and dancing. Major companies are already following these trends - for instance, Sberbank invites famous ambassadors to their videos and thus launches challenges. One of their latest efforts, under the tag #SberLubimka, which was officially opened by the music artist NILETTO.

A large number of views and interactions are also gaining popularity with "before and after" and "real-life situation" videos. There are many examples of this in the Poposha account. Videos devoted to social problems are also starting to pop up and are becoming viral. One example is from a company called MTS who've raised funds to support seriously ill children through the competition "Generation M TickTocker". That could explain the popularity and unpopularity of some videos/vines. Vines on social issues are widespread; however, the demand for classic vines and lip sync videos, on the contrary, are low. These videos still exist, but they have fewer views. As an example, the profile of @ila.kuznetsova is declining. These videos still exist on the platform but boast a much smaller number of views and subscribers than any other.

Marketing your company on TikTok is not only an opportunity to obtain new customers but also a chance to increase the loyalty of your existing customer base making your product recognizable and even "viral." The low cost of advertising along with high coverage attracts more and more brands (and, consequently, advertisers) to the site. Therefore, don't hesitate to launch your first advertising campaign on TikTok because it will exponentially increase its mindshare and become globally recognized tomorrow!