So, you’re new to the idea of posting to TikTok, but realize you should be using it to gain potential customers. You know it’s a video-sharing app and you know you should be using it to promote your business, but you’re not too familiar with it or how to really get started, let alone how to gain a good following. It can be intimidating, we know. That’s why we’re here to help.
TikTok is the video-sharing app that’s taking over Generation Z’s feed. Younger audiences can’t get enough of TikTok and professional brands are quickly following their lead, racing to become video marketing leaders on the platform.
Getting started on TikTok is as simple as opening the app and posting a video with your favorite song or dance track. There are no official video marketing rules for TikTok, though you may want to follow a few guidelines to really get your videos viewed, liked, and shared. In fact, you can begin sharing video content immediately!
If you’re interested in getting started with video marketing or pushing your video marketing strategy for your business onto TikTok, we’ve got some video marketing tips to help get you started.
Without further ado, here are 10 tips to get started on TikTok:
1) Find your niche
There are many different areas and topics being posted about on TikTok. Some of these topics, considered TikTok Niches, have a cute name like “BookTok”. Niche spaces include topics like books and book reviews, cooking/baking, skits, lip-syncing, cosplay, and so much more.
To find your video marketing niche, search the hashtags and explore some of the video content that is being posted on that topic. Think about what makes that video special or why people would share it. Explore your “For You” feed, engage in content that you believe is relatable to your company and brand.
You can belong to more than one niche, too! By creating content for more than one niche, you’re casting a wider net.
However, it’s unwise to post niche content for the sake of posting niche content constantly. Focus on what you love, what your brand is and what you want it to be, and your video marketing niche will fall into place.
2) Get inspired by others
As you get more familiar with TikTok, it helps to watch other videos regularly. Explore the video content that’s being posted around a specific video marketing niche. You can browse by hashtags or channels on TikTok to find video ideas of what people are posting about. Find popular influencers and creators that have large followings to see what they do to be successful. While what works for each creator may not be what works for you and your brand, it’s worth understanding why each popular creator has such a large following. Are they keeping up with dance challenges or are they telling entertaining stories? What kind of hashtags do they use regularly? It’s all important information that you should be researching.
You don’t have to watch every video posted on TikTok, but if you find video content that is really inspiring to you it may be a good idea to keep an eye out for video marketing inspiration. You can video-market with video content inspired by other TikTokers!
3) Engage in the community
A part of being a successful video marketer on TikTok is having an established video marketing community. You can create a video and keep it as a video draft for future video marketing, or you can post now and engage with the video’s comments.
TikTok is really engaging because videos are posted quickly and people watch video content immediately — so there’s not much time for engagement within that period. Because TikTok is video-based, video comments are important to consider before posting a video. They’re the only way you’ll be able to engage with video content on TikTok aside from a Like. Likes are impersonal, but comments allow you to really get to know other creators and viewers.
When videos on TikTok, engaging with video content immediately after it’s posted is key to getting it on more people’s feeds. If you really enjoy video content that has been shared by another creator, comment on the video and tag that person in your video comment so they can see it! It really pays to have quality engagement within the TikTok community.
4) Post regularly
According to TikTok, users who post more video content see at least 30X more video views than those who don’t. Posting at least once a day is recommended by TikTok, but posting more can really boost your views and engagement.
The more video content you post on TikTok (and the video-based social video platform in general), the better chance you’ll have of growing your following and video marketing community. Consider posting two to three times a day to start! We know that can seem like a lot, but it will be worth the work to post so often so that you’re reaching as many potential customers as possible.
Also, it’s important to be consistent when posting videos. Posting near the same times each day really gets a consistent viewership. Making sure to post the same amount of times a day is great for grabbing more and more viewers. Different demographics are online at different times of the day- parents of young children are usually online more often after they put their kids to bed, people who work the 9-5 grind or are in school find time in the early mornings, lunch breaks, and after work to check their social media feeds, and so on. You can do research on the specific demographics to see when they’re more likely to log in and peruse their TikTok feeds.
When video marketers first join TikTok it can be hard to post video content regularly because video length is limited. The video must be at least 15 seconds long, but there’s no maximum time limit. If you find the video content that works for your brand, you’ll want to continue sharing video marketing best practices!
5) Be authentic
Remember that TikTok is a social video-sharing platform, so it’s important to be authentic. Video content on TikTok is video-marketing best practices, not video marketing for Dummies. Video content on TikTok should be video marketing made easy with a video that feels like video marketers are speaking directly to you!
Posting videos that you have to put a facade on for won’t get you very many subscribers. In fact, it might lose you followers if you aren’t truthful to your brand or services.
If your video content feels fake or forced, it likely won’t be successful on any social media platform, let alone TikTok. People on video marketing platforms like TikTok want video content that’s exciting, entertaining, and engaging.
6) Show up often
Every video you post has the chance of being viewed by someone new. If your video is exceptional, it’s possible that followers will see it more than once! This means that if you want to have a video marketing strategy on TikTok, being active on the platform is essential. Your video can be seen by people all over the world, and video views will be video marketing best practices. It’s important that you’re always available with more video content and engagements!
Comments will come in at any time. It’s in your best interest to pay attention and engage with video content when it comes in, if possible. Depending on your content and how you engage with your viewers, these comments can be good or bad, so it’s important to keep an eye on them, as they come in so that you can smooth over any issues your viewers may have.
If your channel takes off, it’s a good idea to have more than one person available to monitor and field interactions so that you can keep up with comments. It’s also important to make sure everyone who has access to the TikTok account has the same information in order to answer questions without confusion.
7) Get connected and stay connected
Your success as a video marketer on TikTok will depend heavily on your ability to establish connections and relationships with your viewers and other creators. TikTok is a community and users want to feel a part of something — so video marketers who take the time to connect with their video viewers and other creators on TikTok will have better results overall. Creators supporting other creators is
Most people use TikTok’s “Following” feature to help them stay connected with creators they enjoy watching. Every time you post a video, followers will receive a notification from your account. You should be able to follow creators and businesses you enjoy watching and can relate to, and other TikTokers should be able to follow your account if they enjoy your content.
8) Collaborate on video marketing content
Sometimes it can be more fun to video-market collaboratively! Two or more video makers can join forces to create video marketing content that is really unique, interesting, and engaging for followers. You can work together to come up with new ideas through online relationships or even work in-person and film together to appear in each other’s videos. A lot of current influencers like to collaborate and appear in each other’s videos in order to share followers.
8) Be unique
Just like your video marketing niche, make sure your voice is unique on TikTok. This will help drive video views and clicks to your website. Uniqueness can be applied to any part of your video- in content or editing! Using filters or creating content people haven’t seen before or has a twist can make your content stand out against your competition.
It can be hard to be video marketing best practices and unique at the same time, but it’s important not to try to fit in 100%. If you stick out among companies and channels that are similar to yours, video views will come!
TikTok’s “For You” feed is sorted by what users watch most, but TikTok also sorts video content by hashtags. Hashtags are keywords that accompany your posts. They let video marketers find video content that they might not have otherwise seen.
Hashtags are video marketing best practices! Don’t forget to use them when you post video content so that your video can be found by other video marketers, which helps expand your reach! You can also search keywords video marketers commonly use, like hashtags for “video
TikTok video content with more video views are video marketing best practices, which is why it’s important to use video marketing strategies like using hashtags to your advantage! Use relevant hashtags in your video titles and video descriptions so that your video can show up on TikTs feeds for these search queries!
10) Outsource to a professional video production company
If you’re video marketing best practices and video marking is outside of your video area of expertise, it might be time to consider outsourcing video content creation and management. C&I Studios is one of those companies that is ready, willing, and able to work with you for all your TikTok needs!
An outsourced video marketing team can help you with:
- building and growing your audience (brand awareness)
- video content (ideas, video edits, video updates)
- video management (commenting on videos, responding to comments, posting regularly)
- video analytics (assessing ROI, reporting to clients)
- new ideas to keep your channel fresh and relevant to the TikTok algorithm
- filming and content creation
A strong TikTok following is important for growth and engagement because it gives potential video viewers, but we know it’s a daunting task to many. That’s why we recommend asking for help if you need it!
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Anyone who utilizes video marketing knows how important it is to have successful video marketing campaigns. It’s important to pay attention to the current trends and stay informed on the newest and best practices for getting your video in front of not only your target audience but as many people out there as possible. Everyone is a potential customer!
If you’re still not quite sure how to approach TikTok, or video marketing as a whole, reach out to us at C&I Studios. We can’t wait to help you tell your story to the vast audience of the internet!
We offer more than just video marketing services, too. You can see all of the marketing support we offer businesses like yours here. We’ve worked with many companies to create amazing marketing material and campaigns, including TikTok videos, and we can’t wait to work with you!