A Marketer's Ultimate Guide to TikTok in 2022

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TikTok is the latest social media platform to take off and its growth doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. From viral videos of cats and dogs to unique challenges and trends – TikTok has enough content to keep people entertained for hours.

The more people use the platform, the more companies start to wonder how they can use it to reach their target audience.

While some brands have already found a way to leverage TikTok to promote their products, others are still trying to find their opening into the platform. Luckily, those companies can learn from others who have come before them.

In this article, we’ll take a look at everything you need to know about TikTok and marketing to your target audiences through the platform.

Here’s a quick look at the main topics we’ll cover:

• What is TikTok?
• Who is using TikTok?
• Does marketing on TikTok work?
• Five ways to leverage TikTok to reach new and existing audiences

Let’s start with the basics. What is TikTok?

TikTok is a video-sharing social media platform that first surfaced in 2016.

It allows users to upload, share, and watch 15-second videos on any and every topic. The platform uses personalized experiences to share the most relevant videos to audiences to keep people engaged and interested.

Within just a few years, it became one of the most popular social media platforms available, and in 2018 it surpassed Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube in downloads from the Apple App Store.

In early 2021, it was ranked as the 7th most used social network in the world. Meaning that in just a few short years, the platform went from brand new to something nearly everyone was engaging with.

It’s easy to understand why the platform attracts so many different users. There is continuously new content being uploaded by content creators across hundreds of different topics and interest areas.

From paradise to fashion to politics and everything else in between — TikTok has something for everyone to enjoy.

What audience groups are using TikTok?

So who exactly is using TikTok?

This is an important question to ask when considering diving into the world of TikTok marketing. You need to clearly understand who you’re targeting and how to best connect with them.

TikTok is a great channel to reach younger generations on a large scale. It also has a good mix of male and female users, which means you can reach more than one target market with the platform.

Here are a few important statistics around the demographics of the audiences who are using TikTok:

• 53% of TikTok users are male, and 47% are female
• Just about 50% of the uses are under the age of 34, and 32.5% are between the ages of 10 and 19
• There are nearly 100 million monthly active users from the USA alone

Knowing that TikTok is a channel used mainly by Millennials and Gen Z, you’re not going to want to use this platform to promote products the same way you would Facebook. Creating content with these audiences in mind is very important and will help you succeed with your marketing strategy.

Does TikTok marketing work?

TikTok presents marketers with a new, exciting way to connect with both new and existing audiences, but it’s still a relatively new concept.

That may have you wondering if marketing on this social platform works. Well, we’re here to tell you that it does, and it is something you should be incorporating into your marketing strategy if you’re looking to reach Millenials and Gen Z audiences.

It’s been shown that TikTok produces higher engagement rates from app followers than other social media platforms. This means that you will have more chances to connect with your audiences and actively engage with your content.

Of course, when you’re first starting, it may take some time to get into your groove and start to see those numbers grow – but you won’t be disappointed if you stick to it.

The platform has grown exponentially over the last few years and doesn’t show signs of slowing down. So by getting your foot in the door and working to improve your marketing strategy, you’ll be able to stay ahead of trends and keep your audiences engaged.

5 Tips on How to Leverage TikTok To Reach New and Existing Audiences

TikTok is a great marketing avenue to connect with new and existing customers.

By consistently creating entertaining and engaging content, you can keep existing customers engaged. While developing ads and working with high-profile content creators and influencers can help you reach an entirely new audience group.

There are a number of different strategies you can leverage to help make your TikTok ventures successful. In this section, we’ll take a look at five different ways you can leverage this constantly growing platform to reach your audiences and create a successful marketing strategy.

1. Don’t Make It All About Selling

One common mistake that brands make when jumping into the world of TikTok is that they make their content focus too heavily on selling products.

You read that right — TikTok isn’t the platform for pushing your sales pitch.

If you’re looking to start marketing in the world of TikTok, you need to create content that is caused by entertaining your audiences, not necessarily pushing your products on them. When users realize your content is simply an advertisement, they’ll just keep scrolling by.

Creating fun and engaging videos that entertain audiences without feeling too much like a sales pitch can be easy for some brands. At the same time, it might be a bit more challenging to find the right balance for others.

Whatever the case is for your brand, it’s important to remember that when you’re creating content for TikTok, it should be fun, entertaining, and easy for your audiences to watch.

The right content strategy can help you reach new audiences through engaging content and keep your existing audiences interested. But when done wrong, it could result in poor engagement results across the board.

2. Tap Into Existing Trends Happening on the Platform

If you’ve ever used TikTok, you can quickly notice that there are certain trends that content creators are tapping into.

Whether it’s dancing to a popular song or trying the next big social media challenge, there’s always something new trending.

Here are a few examples of TikTok trends that have gone viral that you could tap into:

• The Vogue Challenge
• Turning DMs into inspirational quotes
• The I’ll never forget you challenge
• I was busy thinking about

This presents you with a unique opportunity to jump in on the bandwagon and gain some additional traction for your videos. To ensure your content is tagged to the trend, you’ll want to make sure to use the trending hashtag so others can easily find your content among the many others out there.

The tricky part about tapping into the existing trends on TikTok is that you have to react quickly. If you don’t produce something within a day or two, the community will be on to a new trend and your content will likely get lost in the shuffle.

Staying ahead of these trends will help you to attract new audiences by appearing in their feeds and when they click trending hashtags.

3. Partner With Popular Content Creators and Influencers

TikTok is a great platform to tap into influencer marketing to get your products in front of a larger audience.

In 2020, there were over 106 thousand TikTok influencers worldwide and that number has likely increased drastically over the last year.

That means, that no matter what industry or focus area your products are in, there’s at least one popular influencer in your space. You just need to listen to your audiences and figure out who you should start building partnerships with.

Here are a few tips to help you choose the right influencers for your business:

• Find influencers who already connect with your target audiences
• Find influencers who are consistently creating highly engaging content
• Find an influencer that already promotes content that is related to your brand
• Find an influencer who is a thought leader in your industry

Working with popular content creators and influencers is one of the most effective ways to market your brand on TikTok. You can easily tap into their engaged audience base and get your content in front of their followers.

4. Stay Consistent With Your Posting To Keep People Engaged

You can’t just post one or two videos to TikTok and expect to see amazing campaign success.

One reason for that is it will take time to learn what resonates with your audiences and get the hang of creating content for the platform.

If you’re only posting one or two videos here and there, you’re not creating enough content to learn about what’s working, what’s not, and what your audiences are really interested in.

Another is that it often takes time for brands to start to build a following and increase engagement – It’s not going to happen overnight. You need to consistently post new content that grabs the attention of your audiences and makes them want to continue seeing your videos.

Once you do start to gain traction with your videos and learn what works with your audiences, stick to it. Consistency in the types of content you’re posting is just as important as staying consistent with your posting cadence.

Having a consistent brand style, tone, and voice will start to build brand awareness and help new and existing audiences quickly identify your brand.

5. Use Ad Campaigns To Reach New Audiences

You do have the opportunity to use ads to target new audiences on TikTok. The platform has its own unique algorithm for paid content that brands can tap into.

Understanding your target audience on a deeper level will allow you to create advertising content that is customized based on their persona and interests. Once you know who to target and with what content, you can target them in a number of different ways.

These are the different kinds of TikTok ad products you can leverage:

• In-feed ads
• Branded hashtags
• Top view ads
• Branded effects
• Brand takeover

Your ads can be driven by two main targeting options: interest and behavioral targeting.

Interest targeting allows you to select specific interest areas that are relevant to your target audiences and the platform will show your ad to those users. In comparison, behavioral targeting shows your ads to people based on their real-time behaviors on the platform.

Both advertising options are great ways to connect with new audiences and re-engage existing ones. They will help you get your content in front of the right people at the right time and help you increase campaign success.

Build TikTok into your marketing strategy this year

So there you have it. TikTok is the social media platform taking the world by storm, and it’s an avenue you should consider including in your marketing strategy.

By finding ways to connect with your audiences and create entertaining content on the platform can get your brand in front of more audiences and keep them engaged in the process.

If you haven’t already thought about integrating TikTok into your marketing strategy, 2022 is the perfect time to start. Once you get in the groove and figure out what content types work best for your audiences – you’ll wish you did it sooner.