TikTok for Brands

January 10, 2022

Last update

1.10.2022

08 MIN.

15 Most Useful TikTok Marketing Tips in 2022

If you want to find out the most useful TikTok marketing tips in 2022, keep reading to discover everything you need to know about the app.

Bella Foxwell

Bella Foxwell

15 Most Useful TikTok Marketing Tips in 2022
Summary

So, you’re finally ready to join TikTok and you’re on the hunt for helpful TikTok marketing tips to get your started?

Well, you’ve come to the right place. And, I’ve got great news for you.

It’s easy to get the hang of TikTok and as long as your videos are creative and funny, there’s huge potential to grow a big, engaged following.

That’s because there’s more than 800 million monthly active users and an average daily view time of 52 minutes…

told you there was lots of potential! 🙌

And TikTok isn’t just for teens.

There’s tons of brands, celebrities, influencers and publishers pushing the boundaries and sharing super creative TikTok content.

So if you want to find out the most useful TikTok marketing tips in 2022, keep reading to discover everything you need to know about the app – including some examples to inspire you.

Be authentic to build your community

If you want to be successful on TikTok in 2020, then you need to be authentic.

Yes, I did just use one of the most overused words in the last few years.😬 However, being “authentic” is really going to help you build relationships with your audience.

Don’t push sales. Think about the fun, creative elements of your brand and the ways you can express those through TikTok content.

It goes without saying that the better you know your ideal customers and clients, the easier it will be to create content that they love and can’t resist sharing.

However, another way to get inside the head of the TikTok community is to spend some time on the platform, browsing through videos to see how people are using the platform.

Create a community around your unique content so that when the time is right to push your product/service, you’ll already have a fanbase excited to learn more about your offer.

New York artist Amber Vittoria uses her Instagram account as a portfolio for her beautiful artwork, whereas on TikTok she takes viewers behind-the-scenes, flipping through her sketchbook and drawing live.

Share stories and provide value

There’s lots of different kinds of TikTok you could create, but if you’re looking for specific suggestions then focus on telling a story and/or providing educational content.

In the same way that sharing value is key to growth on Instagram, if you share value on TikTok you will become the go-to resource in your industry.

And you get bonus points if you can add a fun spin to that value and education. 😉

The most successful TikTok accounts are those that show people how to use the products that they love.

Travel, fashion, interiors and food brands are all well suited to this tutorial-style content, but other industries are using this strategy successfully too.

For example, did you know that English Heritage is on TikTok?

The British charity that manages historic monuments and buildings has shared some brilliant TikTok content, including this video: Charle’s Darwin’s 5 top tips on how to work from home.

Good to know! TikTok recently invested £13m into the launch of #LearnOnTikTok, a new program that will commission hundreds of experts and institutions to produce educational content for the platform.

As for sharing stories, this is a great way to build trust with your audience.

If you’re a small business owner, for example, you could share TikTok content about specific experiences in your entrepreneurial journey, your typical day-in-the-life, or the things you love most about what you do.

Whatever story you decide to tell, just make sure it’s short and succinct and elicits an emotion in the viewer.

Ask yourself: will this inspire them? Make them laugh? Encourage them? Tug on their heartstrings?

Take a look at Helene Sula’s TikTok video about how she moved to Germany from the US without a visa as a perfect example of inspiring storytelling.

User-generated content

Since user-generated content is the basis of TikTok’s appeal and success, it may come as no surprise to hear that this is one of our 15 most useful TikTok marketing tips in 2020.

If you’re not a creator, but a brand or business, find ways to encourage your community to share videos of themselves using your products or services.

This kind of content tends to drive much better engagement than brand-generated content and will increase brand awareness without needing to push salesy TikTok videos.

Earlier this year, Converse teamed up with TikTok UK and challenged its fans to create content using the hashtag #ConverseAllStar.

This challenge offered Converse’s community the freedom to be as creative as possible and embrace their individuality.

To date, the hashtag has garnered more than 56m views on TikTok.

Use trending hashtags

TikTok videos that use trending hashtags are more likely to be discovered and have a better chance of success than those that don’t.

So, guess what? You’re going to use them!

However, remember that your TikTok caption is limited to 100 characters. That means caption plus hashtags – so you need to be strategic with the ones you use.

Use a combination of broad and niche hashtags to increase your engagement.

For example, a travel TikTok video might have generic hashtags like #tiktoktravel or location hashtags like #newyorkcity and #usa. In addition to those broader hashtags, include some more specific hashtags like #travelthrowback and #travelcouple.

Use trending songs

Just like with hashtags, using a trending song is a smart tactic to improve the success of your TikTok content.

Keep an eye on the songs used on the For You page as this will show you which music will give you the best chance of being featured.

Save any songs you want to use in a future video to your favourites. To do this, just click on the song at the top and under the name you’ll see a bookmark with “add to your favourites”.

Some of the most popular TikTok songs in 2020 (as rounded up by BuzzFeed) include:

  • “Laxed (SIREN BEAT)” by Jawsh 685
  • “Roses (Imanbek Remix)” by SAINt JHN and Imanbek
  • “Boss Bitch” by Doja Cat
  • “Supalonely” by BENEE feat. Gus Dapperton
  • “Stunnin'” by Curtis Waters feat. Harm Franklin
  • “Lottery'” by K CAMP
  • “ROXANNE'” by Arizona Zervas

Share original content

When it comes to what kind of content to share on TikTok, the possibilities are endless.

Depending on your brand personality and tone of voice, you can be funny, serious, poignant, meaningful, controversial – as long as your content is original.

Because that’s the best way to grow on Instagram.

Using trending hashtags and taking part in trending challenges is a good short-term tactic for exposure. However, the best way to grow your TikTok account is to share content you come up with on your own.

Start your own trend, share a song you’ve created or create a challenge unique to your niche/industry.

The TikTok world really is your oyster when it comes to original content… the more creative, the better!

Jimmy Fallon creates his own challenges that align to his brand and capitalize on current moments. The #SharpieChallenge during Movember and #ElfOnTheShelf challenge during Christmas 2019 are just two examples of original content that he then repurposes on other channels such as his TV show.

So be bold. Create a video you wouldn’t normally share on other platforms – or haven’t shared yet because it felt a little too “out there” or playful.

The beauty of TikTok is that its users are expecting this kind of content. They want silly, creative and fun. If your TikTok content makes you laugh, chances are it will make your audience laugh too.

Repurpose your existing content

Contrary to the tip above, if creating fresh content for TikTok just isn’t possible – don’t panic!

In fact, repurposing your existing content may be a good strategy to start with while you figure out your TikTok style and what resonates with your audience.

Because while it might feel tempting to jump on the TikTok bandwagon and take part in a trending challenge, it’s important to focus on the long-game.

Invest time and energy into establishing your brand presence and build a community around your product or service.

Start simple. Look at the other types of content you’re already creating and find ways to repurpose.

For example, are you creating blog posts, emails, YouTube videos or podcasts as part of your marketing strategy?

Great! Those could all be distilled into succinct 15-30 second TikTok videos.

You don’t want to show up on TikTok just to push your product or service. Nor do you want to show up once or twice for the sake of a challenge.

TikTok should be given the same time and attention as your other marketing channels…

… and that means thinking about how you can show up consistently and provide value to your audience.

If this is your priority first and foremost, you will build a loyal following of fans on TikTok that look forward to every new video you release.

But of course, you want to do this in a way that’s not going to be a huge timesuck – that’s where repurposing comes in. 😉

Psst: Don’t miss our article on repurposing content on social media for maximum results!

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, go and check out the king of repurposing content, Gary Vee.

His Content Pyramid model of creating one piece of long-form content (YouTube video, podcast, blog) and then repurposing it into multiple different pieces of shorter-form content is very inspiring (and a welcome relief to busy content marketers!).

The same rules apply to his TikTok content, which is a mixture of original and repurposed YouTube content.

Make the beginning attention grabbing

Why is it so important to make your TikTok video attention grabbing from the very start?

Because you want viewers to stay engaged and not swipe away!

So, get straight to the good stuff – don’t tease your community or leave them waiting 10 seconds before you deliver the value/humour/motivation.

Outline your TikTok videos so that they’re concise and value-packed from the very first second right through to the end.

Be the first to comment

One useful TikTok marketing tip when starting out is to be the first to add a comment to your video.

Many brands will post follow up information in the first one or two comments beneath their TikTok video.

This helps to spark conversation, which in turn helps to boost the reach of the TikTok video. As with any other piece of content, if you employ this tactic then make sure you reply to everybody that comments.

This builds trust with your community and will encourage others to join in and share their thoughts.

Keep your videos short

One of the ways to achieve big reach and potentially go “viral” on TikTok is to have people watch your video over and over again.

The best way to make that happen? Create succinct videos that pack lots of value into a short amount of time.

While you can share TikToks that are up to 1-minute in length, creating some TikTok videos that are around 15 seconds long (the same length as an Instagram Reel) will increase your chances of winning with the algorithm.

If you can get a TikTok down to 7-10 seconds, even better!

That’s not to say you shouldn’t share longer form TikTok videos. Why not combine both in your strategy?

As long as every video has a juicy story, an attention-grabbing beginning and an engaged audience that loves your content, then mixing up the length of your TikTok videos could be a great strategy to use.

Cross promote your TikTok content

You’re probably used to seeing TikTok videos being shared on Instagram and Twitter.

Before Reels launched, Instagram was flooded with them!

This means that it’s a good idea to cross promote your TikTok content to other social channels.

I’m a huge fan of repurposing content and working smarter, not harder. So, next time you create a TikTok video, save it to your camera roll and reshare on your Instagram account.

This will drive awareness to your TikTok account, increase engagement and grow your TikTok following.

Win-win-win!

To save your TikTok video to your camera roll, open a published video > tap Share > tap Save to Album.

If you have a TikTok video that is 15 seconds in length, you can upload this automatically to Reels.

You can also share to Instagram Stories – just don’t forget to add a clear call to action, encouraging your audience to check out your TikTok account!

Business strategist and Instagram queen, Jasmine Star, does this very well.

And, she doesn’t remove the TikTok watermark from her videos so viewers on Instagram can see her TikTok handle and easily go and find her on there.

Post frequently

Unlike Instagram, where I recommend posting 3x a week on your main-feed and 4-5x a week on your Instagram Stories, with TikTok you can afford to be more liberal with your posting schedule.

While I don’t advocate you burn out in the race to share as much content as possible, what I do encourage is that you try new things and experiment with as much TikTok content as you possibly can.

Try new trends or ideas. Don’t worry about making every TikTok “perfect”.

See what resonates best with your audience and be patient. Sometimes a TikTok video will take a few weeks to really take off and get pushed to more people by the algorithm.

So, give yourself the best chance of success by testing and learning, getting creative, and seeing what your community enjoys.

Hero Cosmetics, a direct-to-consumer startup that makes overnight skin patches to treat acne, posts frequently on TikTok.

Last year, the brand utilized TikTok in its ‘Get Ready with Me’ campaign, featuring 20 creators sharing their morning routines. The campaign was very successful, reaching 4.3m users and achieving a 12% engagement rate, compared to only 4.5% for Instagram.

Engage with others

In the same way that you would on Instagram, make sure you interact with others – especially anybody that’s engaging on your content.

Build relationships and get your content in front of new people by liking videos and leaving thoughtful comments.

Travel blogger Helene Sula revealed that some of her comments on TikTok videos on the For You page have gained tens of thousands of their own likes!

This brings a ton of new people back over to her TikTok account to check out her account and interact with her there.

So, never underestimate the power of the comments.😉

Tease other content

Last, but not least, our most useful TikTok marketing tip #14 is using TikTok to tease your other content.

A brand that does this really well is Netflix.

The video streaming company shows clips from trending shows and movies to build excitement in their audience and to encourage them to tune into Netflix.com.

There’s no fancy editing going on with most of these TikTok videos, it’s usually just lots of different clips stitched together or a short interview clip featuring two stars from a trending show.

And yet this is a simple but very effective way to increase traffic to their streaming site.

Keep an eye on your analytics

Want to get better at TikTok? Then keep a close eye on your analytics.

You can use TikTok’s inbuilt analytics as long as you’re a “Pro” account.

How do you make the switch? Head to Manage my account > Switch to Pro account > Select your industry > Your TikTok account will reload with the analytics section.

You can jump between Overview, Content and Followers to get a better understanding of your performance over the last 7 and 28 days, and which of your videos have trended the most during this period.

A quick word on TikTok ads

TikTok ads are a great way to increase awareness, leads and sales for your business.

If your target market is, or includes, 10-29 year olds, then you should definitely look into TikTok ads once you’ve established yourself on the platform.

Take a look at our incredibly in-depth (if we do say so ourselves!) article on TikTok ads, which walks you through the pros and cons of ads, and how to set them up step-by-step.

Conclusion

That’s it! Our 15 most useful TikTok marketing tips in 2020. If you’ve been thinking about whether now is the right time to join TikTok or not, I encourage you to go for it!

It’s the perfect place to flex your creative muscles and connect with an incredibly engaged user base.

Just don’t forget to be patient. You won’t necessarily go viral overnight. But if you try new things and be consistent, your efforts will pay off.

About
the writer
Bella Foxwell

Bella Foxwell

Copywriter @Iconosquare

Hey! I'm Bella. Super curious about any new feature released on social media platforms. I do have a preference for Instagram, even though each platform has its specificity ;)

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