Are you a B2B marketer? Have you been questioning whether TikTok is right for your brand? TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to create short-form content videos of up to three minutes, and with its intelligent algorithms, gives users the opportunity to go viral and boost their reach quickly.
TikTok has previously been associated with trending dances and comedy stints, so where can you fit in? TikTok has seen massive growth over the past few years and now has over 1 billion users worldwide.
TikTok enables brands to express personality through short-form videos. So, why should you use TikTok for B2B marketing? How can TikTok marketing benefit your business? And what B2B companies are currently using TikTok for marketing successfully?
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Should you use TikTok in your digital marketing strategy?
Many B2B companies have reservations when it comes to marketing on TikTok. It’s known for its Gen Z audience where the most popular ‘viral’ videos consist of dance routines or trending sounds. However, this isn’t necessarily the case anymore.
In June 2020, 64% of active users were between the ages of 10 and 29. Today, 42% of users are between the ages of 30-49 which demonstrates a significant shift in the age groups that now use the platform.
This opens an opportunity for B2B marketers, as they have an increased chance of reaching their target demographic. TikTok as a platform is ideal for filtering with regards to your audience, as the algorithm presents videos for everyone based on their interests on their FYP (for you page).
For example, if someone shows an interest in videos about DIY tips, TikTok will display DIY videos on that user’s FYP. Therefore, if you are a business that sells DIY products, your videos could appear on these users’ FYPs.
TikTok has several features that could benefit a business, such as:
Management Tools
TikTok’s management tools can track ad performance, metrics, and demographic information on their audiences. Tracking features such as these are valuable as they provide actionable insights into campaign performance and how your company can improve when it comes to targeting your audience. TikTok also has a post scheduling tool, which is great for planning content in advance that will reach your audiences at popular times, such as the weekends or evenings.
Under the management tools is the creator marketplace. This tool matches your company with influencers that line up with your industry, budget, and goals to simplify the influencer processes and keep everything in one location.
User-generated persuasion
TikTok has a highly intelligent algorithm that is designed to boost videos that gets a significant number of views and likes. As a result, this gives your company an increased chance of going viral or favoured by your target audience.
The stitch and duet features, can encourage user-generated content of people reacting to your videos and reposting them, further increasing exposure by boosting the original post.
Engaging content
65% of the population are visual learners, which means TikTok is a fantastic platform to showcase how your products work, resonate in the minds of viewers and generate interest. Creating a fun, enjoyable persona on TikTok engages consumers and will increase your chances of good reactions, boosting you up the algorithm and once, again, maximising exposure.
Humanise your brand
TikTok presents the opportunity for you to express your creativity and develop a personality that humanises your brand. B2B marketers often find it a challenge to express individualism, but TikTok could help to break that mould. People buy from people, and humanising your brand will encourage sales by building a relationship with your core consumer groups.
Perfect for boosting small businesses
TikTok is a great platform to drive brand awareness. If you can create a video that resonates with your audience and has a large number of views and impressions, you can significantly increase your following.
If your B2B business is still quite small, TikTok provides a fantastic opportunity to increase reach, exposure and recognition quickly. Use hashtags, such as #smallbusiness, to drive awareness of your small business on TikTok to find target audiences in those communities and partake in campaigns that will explain your products or services to them.
How can I be successful on TikTok?
Post regularly
The TikTok algorithm favours accounts that post regularly as these accounts are likely to bring traffic to the site. This doesn’t mean you need to post every hour but we suggest a consistent posting schedule that has a minimum of 1-2 posts per week, which will give your followers reason to come back and check your account for new posts.
Keep your videos short and sweet
Users have an average attention span of 8 seconds, so to make sure you grab the attention of users, you will want to make sure your videos are short and straight to the point to get more views.
Stay on trend
Make sure you keep an eye on what is trending in your industry on TikTok. Joining in on trends and using trending audios will boost your videos and engage users which will in turn increase your number of views.
Utilise hashtags
Similar to trending audios and videos, certain hashtags will be trending at certain times. Keep an eye on what hashtags your competitors are using and what hashtags have been used on viral videos to increase your chances of boosting your reach.
What B2B brands are successfully using TikTok?
Although TikTok is still very much B2C focused, there is still a community of B2B businesses that use TikTok to market and do so successfully. Here are two examples:
Shopify
TikTok and Shopify are official eCommerce partners. Shopify provides a selling platform for businesses that use TikTok to sell products and services. Additionally, Shopify uses TikTok to post video updates of industry trends and news that attracts small business owners and start-up companies.
Adobe Creative Software
Adobe Creative Software uses TikTok to create video tutorials of the software in action. Adobe relies on user-generated content to further promote their tutorials and present the capabilities and ease of use of their software.
Conclusion
TikTok is a powerful social media platform that is potentially underutilised by businesses. It offers many benefits, that may not suit all types of businesses. It’s worth an initial check on whether your target audience are on TikTok, and if it would be beneficial to incorporate this into your marketing strategy.
For those that have recognised they’re missing an opportunity on TikTok, whether this is for brand awareness or selling, our tips and tricks can help you set up quickly and with the right type of videos, get in front of your audience.
If you are unsure how to get started on your B2B TikTok journey, or you are struggling with the creative aspect TikTok requires, get in touch with our team. We are one of the first agencies to partner with TikTok which means we can support your business with advertising on this fast-growing platform.
If you would like to know more about how we can help you with your TikTok marketing, drop us a message at team@modo25.com or message us on socials.
