- Launch a brand on TikTok and start selling: how-to guide
- Published 06/10/2023
- 10 min Read
- Written by Anastasia Zaichko
Table of contents
Thanks to TikTok’s arrival in the digital landscape, the way of delivery of video content to social media users has significantly changed. Over the years of TikTok’s existence, hundreds of brands have been leveraging the short video platform in original ways.
However, starting a successful TikTok account is not as simple as it may seem. The points are that more and more brands and creators saturate the platform, and it becomes quite challenging to stand out. Plus, TikTok’s community resists everything that is too “salesy”.
If you are among those hesitating whether to launch a brand on TikTok or not, let the Famesters influencer marketing agency help you understand why TikTok can be an effective part of your marketing strategy, as well as how to pre launch a brand and sell your products or services on TikTok.
WHY SHOULD BRANDS JUMP ABOARD THE TIKTOK TRAIN?
Unlike other platforms whose mission statements revolve around connection and community, TikTok’s mission is straightforward: to entertain and bring joy. The platform emphasizes its focus on short-form videos, creativity, and capturing everyday moments:
“TikTok is the world’s leading destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter in everyday life. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones.”
TikTok presents an avenue for brands to initiate conversations mostly with Generation Z, but not only with this age group. While TikTok originally attracted younger users (13-24 years old), its user base is diversifying. As of 2023, 61% of its users are aged 25 and above. For context, Facebook, which started predominantly with a younger age bracket, now has an average user age of 25-34. TikTok has amassed over one billion active users in just six years, a milestone that took Instagram 12 years.
Source: Marketerhire
The most attractive advantage about TikTok is certainly its engagement rates. The short-video platform’s engagement rate is an impressive 5.96%, surpassing both Instagram (0.83%) and Facebook (0.13%). This rate signifies that brands can not only reach but also genuinely interact with their audience on TikTok. Ad content on TikTok looks and feels native, making it more effective.
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Summing it all up, TikTok provides an unparalleled advertising opportunity with rapidly diversifying demographics, boasting its high engagement rates. However, to be effective on TikTok, brands need a unique approach tailored to the platform, and different from traditional social media marketing.
Further in this article you’re going to learn how to launch a new brand on TikTok, and also how to start selling your products via the platform. Leverage Famesters’ expert knowledge in favor of your brand: we are happy to share our experience with you.
UNDERSTANDING THE TIKTOK’S ALGORITHM
The TikTok algorithm curates content for individual users’ For You Pages (FYP), ensuring a unique and personalized experience. While the exact workings remain elusive, several factors influence the algorithm. Regard the following rules:
Rule #1: Regular posting
Consistent content posting boosts brand visibility and is favored by TikTok’s algorithm. The more you post, the more visibility your content gets.
Rule #2: Foster engagement
Content that garners likes, shares, and comments is prioritized on users’ For You Pages . Even if users follow your brand, lack of interaction can reduce content visibility on their FYPs.
Rule #3: Retain viewer attention
The TikTok algorithm favors videos watched completely from start to finish. To rank higher, you should craft content that captivates viewers from the onset and maintains their interest to the end.
In essence, the TikTok algorithm aims to deliver a tailored content experience to each user. Certainly, the TikTok algorithm changes over time. If you stay attuned to changes, strategize content based on these rules, and foster user engagement, you are going to have more chances to make your presence on TikTok visible.
CREATING A PROFILE AND IDENTIFYING YOUR BRAND’S UNIQUE VOICE
TikTok provides Personal and Business account options. For brands, the Business Account is more advantageous, offering specialized marketing tools like the Web Business Suite, Commercial Music Library, and Business Creative Hub.
For brands on TikTok, establishing a unique voice and message is crucial for differentiation and building a strong community. The tailored approach helps brands connect more effectively with their audience and harness the potential of the platform. Let’s take Ryanair as an example of a brand establishing its unique voice within the app. Ryanair’s success on TikTok stems from its emphasis on engaging and humorous content prevailing over hard sales. The brand has been making use of a creative TikTok plane face filter.
TikTok challenges brands to capture attention in mere seconds. And Ryanair demonstrates success in this, with a consistent TikTok style centered on three elements: humor, captions, and videos often under ten seconds. Their creative strategy often draws from community insights and timely situations.
PLANNING YOUR TIKTOK MARKETING STRATEGY
To launch your brand effectively on TikTok, it’s crucial to combine timing, relevance, creativity, and consistency. By crafting a solid TikTok content strategy, you can anchor your brand, ensuring alignment with your goals.
Identify 3-5 main content themes, or pillars that represent your brand. For example, if you’re a fitness brand, pillars could be workouts, nutrition tips, success stories, and fitness challenges.The best TikTok content either educates, entertains, or both. Think of ways you can provide value to your audience, whether it’s through tips, tutorials, or simply making them laugh.
Your TikTok organic content strategy will be successful if you are bearing in mind the following points.
Posting time and frequency
Post when your audience is most active. Use analytics to discern optimal posting times. To maintain an organic presence, post at least once daily. The quantity directly affects account growth, with top brands like NBA as examples. By now, the National Basketball Association is the most followed account in sports, having posted more than 2,700 videos.
Content quality
Content on TikTok should be fresh and authentic rather than overly polished. Quick videos are more likely to engage your audience. Plus, remember that Gen Z don’t like straight-forward advertising , and they are not pursuing to be someone else. Your content should be subtle and not salesy.
Sounds
Soundtracks play a pivotal role in the TikTok experience. More than 90% of TikTok users say that the soundtracks that accompany the videos they watch can either make or break their experience.
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
Trends
Engage with trends early and ensure they align with your brand’s image. For authenticity, stick to trends that represent your brand genuinely.
TikTok trends typically have a short lifespan of 3-5 days. Engage with trends before they flood the Discovery page. For a broader view of content beyond your niche, set up a secondary, blank TikTok account. Use this secondary account to browse the For You Page, spotting recurrent patterns in actions, music, text, or hashtags. Once a relevant trend is identified, promptly craft and post your brand’s unique take on it.
Descriptions & comments & hashtags
Quality descriptions and active commenting can boost engagement and visibility as well as the use of niche and relevant hashtags. Hashtags, both trending and branded, are essential tools on TikTok for reaching and engaging with audiences. They categorize content, facilitating discoverability, and can lead users to explore a plethora of related videos. While popular hashtags can boost visibility, they also bring increased competition. Notable examples include #duet, #TikTokDance, and #LearnOnTikTok, among others.
Understanding audience
Know your audience’s preferences and engage your followers with resonant content. Continuous experimentation is encouraged. You can utilize TikTok analytics as well as use external tools to keep track of your performance indicators to have deeper insights. If you turn to the Fameters full-cycle influencer marketing agency, we’ll start exactly from a thorough analysis of the market you need to win, your target audience’s behavior & perception, your competitors’ strategies and performance. We aim to build a solid base for your successful campaign.
Niche content
TikTok supports niche content, offering both reach and engagement. The platform’s design caters to specific interest communities. “You’d expect niche content to have less reach but a higher engagement rate, but the reach and impressions of niche content still does phenomenally well on TikTok, compared to any other platform. This tells us that being niche on the platform is highly effective”. (Source: The Drum)
By following these guidelines, brands can effectively leverage TikTok for organic growth and meaningful audience engagement. If you want to get more advice on how to launch a brand and enhance its visibility on TikTok, then move to the following step.
COLLABORATING WITH TIKTOK CREATORS
Partnering with relevant TikTok influencers can boost brand visibility organically. Authentic content by creators resonates more with audiences, leading to trust and engagement. TikTok influencers can provide value like entertainment, education or inspiration, rather than pushing products overtly.
Influencers play a significant role not only in product discovery but also in affecting purchase decisions. 21% of social media users between 18-54 years have made purchases based on influencer recommendations. This influence is even more pronounced among Gen Z users, with 32% admitting to making purchases due to influencer endorsements, indicating a stronger impact on this generation compared to others.
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
One of the tendencies is that relatability becomes a key factor in content consumption. 63% of marketers find relatable content most effective. As trust in influencers wanes, those who are relatable are becoming more popular. A study by Matter communications showed 61% of consumers prefer relatable personalities, while 43% lean towards expert personalities. Meanwhile, the preference for celebrity personalities has dropped, with only 11% favoring them, down from 17-22% in 2020. This decline is probably due to the perception that celebrities depict unrelatable experiences.
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A very good example of successful collaboration with influencers is Crocs footwear experience: the brand effectively utilized TikTok creators to boost its promotion by launching the #ThousandDollarCrocs hashtag challenge. Promoting their new line, they collaborated with carefully chosen TikTok creators to share videos of them wearing Crocs, as if they had paid a thousand dollars for them. Videos were backed by a Post Malone track. The challenge’s success was amplified when Crocs teamed up with Post Malone directly, resulting in the hashtag going viral, the shoe line selling out, and an 18% increase in followers.
The success of such partnerships hinges on the mutual fit between the brand and the TikTok creators. Selecting the right creator involves considering their audience and content alignment with the brand. Brands should build genuine relationships with creators by treating them as partners and giving them creative freedom. If you need help in identifying the right creators for your influencer marketing campaign and in strengthening relationships with TikTok influencers, don’t hesitate to contact the Famesters agency where a team of dedicated experts know very well how to make your brand stand out on TikTok.
TIKTOK SELLING OPPORTUNITIES
After setting up your TikTok profile, it’s crucial to link your ecommerce shop or list products. Platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Square Online, WooCommerce, and Ecwid can be integrated with TikTok, allowing you to:
- Sync your store’s catalog to TikTok, adding a shopping tab to your profile
- Insert direct product links in videos to facilitate purchases
- Enhance ad efficiency with the TikTok Pixel for tracking website visitors
Shopify users can easily integrate by installing the TikTok app from their dashboard, further simplifying ad management.
Source: shop.tiktok.com
BENEFITS OF TIKTOK SHOP
- Huge audience ready to buy: TikTok boasts 1 billion active monthly users, with each spending an average of 95 minutes daily. The hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit has received 71.9 billion views, signifying the purchasing intent of users. 92% act after viewing a product on TikTok.
- Simple setup: establishing a TikTok Shop is straightforward, although crafting captivating content, essential for sales, might require more effort.
- Minimal commission fees: TikTok’s present commission fee is 2%, which is considerably lower than Amazon’s 8%-15%, for example.
TikTok not only offers a vast audience but also provides a convenient and cost-effective platform for businesses to showcase and sell products.
TikTok Live Shopping phenomenon
The pandemic significantly accelerated the growth of live shopping on social media. From March 2020 to July 2021, global live commerce purchases surged by 76%. Livestreams have a conversion rate ten times higher than other e-commerce formats.
Initially originated in China and more popular in Asian countries (by now), livestream shopping is steadily spreading across the US and European countries. The US live shopping industry is projected to be worth $35 billion by 2024. In comparison, China’s live shopping sector is already deeply ingrained in its social shopping culture, and is expected to reach $400 billion. Around 45% of China’s online shoppers are engaged in livestream shopping.
TikTok, with its roots in China, excels in livestream selling. TikTok Live Shopping is a feature allowing brands to present their products in real-time livestreams. Users can interact with brands, purchase items without exiting the app, and enjoy an experience reminiscent of TV shopping channels, but with a modern twist targeting younger consumers.
Read more on the topic:
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
TikTok live shopping events will be especially successful in partnership with the platform’s content creators. Inviting TikTok influencers to represent your brand will lead to even more engagement and sales boost. With TikTok live shopping, your conversion rates are sure to go higher, and return rates are going to decrease.
Thus, live shopping has become a logical step in brand-influencer relationships. Live shopping perfectly fits into influencer marketing campaigns, as TikTok content creators are exactly those ideal presenters able to host your live events.
MONITORING YOUR PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
For a brand to thrive on TikTok, it’s vital to monitor and refine performance metrics. While TikTok offers basic in-app analytics, broader insights may require looking beyond these. Key metrics to track include engagement, follower growth, hashtag performance, top posts, and optimal posting times. Although TikTok’s analytics are still evolving, a brand profile offers important metrics like reach and engagement. Employing influencers can help track sales via affiliate links.
Here at Famesters we love doing all the tasks for you – from thorough planning to complete monitoring and reporting. Contact us to discuss how to launch your brand on TikTok, and architect the end-to-end influencer marketing campaign on the most engaging social media platform.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR BRAND LAUNCH ON TIKTOK
TikTok’s short-form video format is becoming a dominant trend, with other major platforms emulating its style. For brands seeking growth and staying current, establishing a TikTok presence is increasingly essential. Success on TikTok is a blend of creativity, strategy, and genuine content. The journey is about connecting with the audience in every content piece, making the brand authentic and recognizable.
However, despite the best-laid plans, being adaptable is essential on TikTok due to its ever-changing trends. Brands must align with popular challenges and trending sounds to boost visibility and fit into the TikTok algorithm. Another crucial element of your success is partnering with relevant content creators. This is where the Famesters full-cycle influencer marketing agency is ready to help you. Influencer marketing on TikTok needs transparency and clear metrics. The Famesters professionals use a specter of analytics tools and marketing AIs to back up every figure, suggestion, and decision with actual data. We make your TikTok influencer marketing campaigns transparent and easy to evaluate. Contact us if you want to make your brand a trend via TikTok.
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