How to use TikTok for business

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Here are a few facts:

As of April 2023, the platform had over 1.05 billion active users…

With over 1 billion videos viewed every single day!

It is now used by over 30% of the world’s active internet users and a quarter of all active social media users.

Quite simply, the platform cannot be ignored by anyone who is serious about marketing their business.

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Here are a few facts:

As of April 2023, the platform had over 1.05 billion active users…

With over 1 billion videos viewed every single day!

It is now used by over 30% of the world’s active internet users and a quarter of all active social media users.

Quite simply, the platform cannot be ignored by anyone who is serious about marketing their business.

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Who uses TikTok

If you research into the age demographic of the users of TikTok, you will find information that will tell you it’s predominantly Gen Z (16-24 year olds).

And it is true.  Currently approx. 60% of TikTok users are in that age range.  

However, that’s still a whopping 40% that are 25 and over (and our prediction is this number will continue to rise).  

That’s over 400,000,000 people in that older age range worldwide.

What does that mean for UK businesses?  

It is projected that there will be 15 million TikTok users in the UK in the next two years (by 2025).

Currently stats tell us that in the UK:

Ages 10-19 = 25% of users

Ages 20-29 = 22% of users

Ages 30-39 = 21.7% of users

Ages 40-49 = 20.3% of users

Ages 50+ = 11% of users

This is why all UK businesses should be looking to build TikTok into their marketing strategy moving forwards.

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Why TikTok’s format is so engaging

Anyone who is involved in marketing will realise that video is one of, if not, THE most popular formats for social media.

Short form video makes content super easy to digest and keeps the viewer engaged on the platform.

If you’ve never been on TikTok, believe us, it can be like falling down a rabbit hole!  Before you know it, you’ve lost half an hour, if not longer.

Great content means that you want more.  

You watch a video and then swipe up for the next… and the next… and the next.

The algorithm is trained by which videos you watch all the way through, and those you ‘like’.  

And it learns about you very quickly.

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How useful is TikTok for business?

TikTok provides an excellent opportunity for any business. 

But you must get your content marketing strategy correct.

If you do that, your content will be recommended to your target audience…

TikTok is one of the few platforms which genuinely wants businesses to be successful without paid advertising (although paid ads are an option too).

It provides an almost unlimited opportunity to build brand awareness for type of business, and positively excels if you have a B2C business with products you can demonstrate on the platform.

Whatever an individual’s interests are, they will find a range of content for them – fun, silly, educational, latest news updates, and SALES.  So why should they not be finding your business!

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Selling on TikTok

Business to Consumer 

Your target audience is sitting there… just waiting to see your videos or live streams.

To give you a few examples of how TikTok has changed the fortunes of businesses…

A breeder of Irish Wolfhound dogs now sells dog treats, accessories, and supplements through TikTok… completely changing their business. 

A small homebased make up brand exploded onto the scene and now have warehouses and production companies.  All because they had people applying their make up in videos.

An individual who made a hair extension piece for themselves, now manufactures, and sells through TikTok.

TikTok has its own shop which you can sell through, with everything from home gadgets to clothing, food, pet supplies… literally there is hardly anything that you could want that you can’t buy on TikTok… and the businesses are in the UK!  (There are international suppliers but its very obvious where the shop you’re interested in is based.)

Content creators (individuals with an account) buy from the TikTok shop and then show you on their stream what they’ve bought and what they think about it, linking the product to the post for others to buy.

You sell to one person, and they tell everyone about it!

B2C businesses… you need TikTok in your life.

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Business to Business Sales

If you have a product or service which can be demonstrated or shown on a video, TikTok is a great place to be.

And if your service doesn’t have a visible output that you can show people, don’t let that put you off using TikTok for business in your marketing activities.

We know many B2B businesses such as copywriters, social media managers, market researchers, HR consultants, and more who have gained new clients directly due to marketing on TikTok.

Remember people buy from people so showing up consistently on TikTok through video allows you to share your knowledge and expertise, but also your personality – all adding to the know, like and trust factors you strive for in your marketing.

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Winning formula

TikTok’s algorithm shows your content to the accounts which you like, interact with, and follow – and, more importantly, the other people who interact with those accounts!

For this reason, we recommend having two accounts, one personal and one business (they’re really easy to switch between with one click).

Business Account

Post regularly and consistently.

To get the best from the algorithm, interact each day with the content of your competitors. Like and comment.  

Interacting in this way means that their followers will see your content too.

Use #hashtags – your main keywords (the phrases your customers would search for) in your description of your video to get found in organic searches on the platform.  Believe it or not people are beginning to use TikTok like they use Google search!

Personal Account

Use your personal account to look at content around your personal interests.

You never need to post content on your personal account if you don’t wish to.

Keeping your interests away from your business account means that your business content will be seen by the right people and get more interaction.

Yes, more people might be shown it if you just had one account, but the chances are that the accounts you watch for personal interest are not your target audience (and neither are theirs).  If your content is shown to them, and they swipe past then that tells TikTok that your content isn’t interesting!  

Better to have a smaller audience of the right calibre than a huge one who pay no attention to your efforts.

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Your Content Strategy and Planning

Using TikTok for marketing your business is no different to any other platform.

If you need help with your marketing strategy, we are here to help.  Just visit our marketing training page for more info.

One really important thing to remember with TikTok is that you don’t necessarily need to spend hours yourself, or pay for someone else, to create and edit videos.

TikTok is very simple to use.  You can record a three minute video (filters are available if you’re having a bad hair day), pop on a title, create your captions, write your description, and publish, in literally five minutes.

Five minutes Monday to Friday to publish and then let’s add a further 10 minutes to check out some competitors content and interact with it.

In 15 minutes, you’ve achieved your TikTok marketing.

And… we’ll let you into a secret.  

There’s some low cost software called Repurpose.io which will automatically pull through your TikTok videos and then automatically publish them onto other platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn… it will even save them to your Google Drive.  (More importantly when it does this it removes the TikTok watermark, so your audience on each platform think you recorded it just for them.)

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Google’s new search engine

Google recently announced that its search function is changing.  It will not only return facts but now it will return opinions and other content on the subject searched for.  

This means that your social media content could well be returned in organic searches and Google will be crediting the content creator.

Your social media marketing has just become more important than ever before.

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Are you going to use TikTok for business?

Here at Example Marketing we love using TikTok in our marketing.  It enables us to reach an audience we may not otherwise reach.

Get in touch if you’d like to know more or want to book a call to discuss marketing training, content creation, or paid advertising on social media.

It doesn’t necessarily just have to be about TikTok for business.