How to market on TikTok in 2023?

Marketing on TikTok has become essential. When it was launched in 2016, the social network had an exclusively entertaining vocation, and attracted a very young audience. It was difficult at the time to imagine brands like Gucci, Carrefour or Allianz publishing TikTok videos. However, the platform is developing rapidly and becoming part of the habits of a growing and diversifying audience, thus attracting companies from all sectors of activity, regardless of the age of their target clientele. In 2023, TikTok is thus an effective tool as part of the company's digital marketing strategy.

Why use TikTok in marketing?

Using TikTok in marketing helps deliver branded content to an audience of over a billion users, and leverage the power of video media in marketing. Having a presence on TikTok in 2023, moreover, helps build credibility for a business.

If TikTok is still mainly used by the population aged 18 to 24, many companies are taking over TikTok as part of their marketing strategy when their target audience is older. This is the case, for example, of major luxury brands, reputable health insurance companies or even supermarket chains. Companies have an interest in using TikTok in marketing because:

• Gradually, TikTok's audience is aging, new older users are signing up, convinced by the success of the platform.
• Today's TikTok users are potential customers for the company in the medium term, the company is already capturing their interest.
• The company present on TikTok is attracting a new, younger customer segment.

It should also be noted that as the platform has evolved, videos on TikTok are no longer exclusively entertaining content. By way of illustration: cosmetics brands publish educational tutorials, the Musée d'Orsay (France) broadcasts videos of temporary cultural exhibitions. In this context, a brand can use the social network regardless of the interests of its audience, while remaining consistent with its positioning.

The advantages of using TikTok in marketing are numerous:

• TikTok has a large audience, and the engagement rate is very high on the platform: the social network claims that 92% of users take action after watching a video.
• To reference videos, the TikTok algorithm values the quality of the content more than the notoriety of the user account. Smaller businesses, as well as new businesses, have as many chances of performing on TikTok: creating a trendy and original video makes it possible to go viral, regardless of the financial and technical means deployed. Some videos also get millions of views even though the accounts have no subscribers.
• With a TikTok Enterprise account, a company has access to analytical tools for measuring and monitoring performance. These key indicators allow him to effectively refine his marketing strategy, in real time, and to refine his knowledge of his audience on TikTok.

Concretely, a company can use TikTok for various marketing purposes:

• To increase its online visibility, establish its brand awareness and attract new customers, thanks to video, which is a very effective marketing medium.
• To create a link of attachment to the brand and to increase the loyalty of its customers, by regularly offering content that interests them and by communicating with subscribers in the comments of the videos.
• To improve its conversion rate. TikTok reports that users of the social network are 1.5 times more likely to immediately buy a product or service discovered on the platform.

How to use TikTok in marketing?

To use TikTok in marketing, you must create a Business account. The platform then offers several methods for using TikTok in its marketing strategy: publishing organic content, advertising and integrating commercial solutions.

• Publish organic content

To use TikTok for free for marketing purposes, in a classic way, a brand regularly creates videos adapted to its target clientele, and broadcasts them from its account with relevant hashtags to increase their reach. The TikTok algorithm suggests content to an audience, whether or not they watch the video to the end, once or more, and whether or not they interact with the video. The better the video performs, the more it is relayed on the platform, by users who share it and by TikTok in the "For you" feed on the audience's homepage. Gradually, the brand's account gets more views and engagement, and thus gains followers.

To make things easier for businesses, the platform provides creation support tools. The Creative Center, for example, provides advanced information on current trends, to be inspired by them, so as to create content that appeals to the TikTok audience. Video Templates are also a creative solution that makes video editing easier. A brand can also entrust the production of its videos to an expert, within the framework of the Creative Exchange.

To publish high-performing, even viral, organic content, a business can consider influencer marketing on TikTok. To this end, it initiates collaborations with influencers. It can also partner with renowned TikTok creators and knowledge of the company's industry, identified through the Creator Marketplace solution. The UGC method, for User Generated Content, is another alternative in the context of influencer marketing on TikTok: brand ambassadors create and broadcast videos themselves that promote the company's products or services.

• Advertise

Like other social networks, TikTok markets advertising campaign solutions. TikTok Ads offers several ad formats:

1. In-Feed Ads displays the ad video in vertical format, in full screen and with sound, in the user's feed. Content can be shared and commented on, and redirect to the brand's website.
2. TopView also allows you to see your video displayed as the first publication when the user's application is opened. The impact is thus all the stronger.
3. Branded Hashtags Challenge works differently: the company invites its community to create videos with a specific hashtag. This ad format does not directly promote a product or service, but helps build brand attachment and increase audience engagement.
4. Spark Ads, an advertising format developed in 2021, allows you to promote your organic videos, but also high-performance organic content published by well-known creators, who may or may not mention the brand. By displaying them in In-Feed or TopView, the company improves its reach.
5. Branded Effects lets you create branded visual effects to apply in videos. The company then offers its subscribers to use the effects in their videos, the brand is thus promoted by the subscribers.
6. Promote is an advertising tool offered by TikTok to promote an organic video in a simple and fast way.

• Integrate commercial solutions

TikTok allows a company to offer its products for sale directly on the platform. In this way, the user discovers, learns and buys the product on a single online medium: the customer journey is fluid, without interruption, the company increases its chances of closing the sale. This way of using TikTok includes sales but also product marketing, supported by video.

Recently, TikTok has been developing various business solutions:

The hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit generates a page of numerous results: users present on video the products discovered thanks to the platform. This is an opportunity for the company to publicize its offer, and leverage recommendations from the TikTok audience to generate interest and increase sales.

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