There are few worse feelings as a content creator or social media manager than spending an entire day planning, shooting, and editing a TikTok video only to have 38 people watch it. To add insult to injury, the first video you see from someone else, which took no time or effort, went viral with 2.5 million views. (In case it’s any consolation, there are downsides to going viral, too.)
Of course. (Hopefully, that didn’t trigger any PTSD.)
You know what? It’s okay. Unless you’re selling a course that promises millions of views to anyone who pays you $299 (ACT NOW!!), hoping to go viral isn’t a successful strategy. Instead, build your TikTok marketing strategy on best practices that will eventually pay off.
What is a TikTok Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy for TikTok (or any other social platform) is your digital plan to crush it for your client, brand, or personal brand. Define your audience, lay out your goals, and figure out how you’ll measure success — among other things. It keeps you focused and chugging along among an angry sea of engagement, trends, ROI, influencers, and data.
Continuing with the nautical theme, consider your digital marketing strategy as that shining beacon from a lighthouse along a rocky coast. It’s guiding you to the shore — and saving you from shipwreck.
Here are a few steps to help build a TikTok marketing strategy.
Step 1: Know Your Audience
We all know TikTok tends to skew young. No cap. (My apologies – this [redacted age of author] won’t do that again.) However, that doesn’t mean you can just assume “young people” are your audience on the platform. You need to know for sure. Dive into TikTok analytics to find demographic data like gender breakdown, age, and location of your current followers.
From there, you need to determine if that’s the audience you’re truly trying to attract with your content. If not, part of your strategy includes a plan for finding the eyeballs (or buyer personas) you want.
Oh, and one last thing: TikTok also shows you the most common times your audience is active on the app, which will be helpful later.
Step 2: Set Your Goals
What you want to happen on TikTok will likely align with your overall business goals. We’re talking about things like increasing brand awareness, more conversions in the TikTok Shop, and strengthening your audience loyalty/sentiment, just to name a few.
If you’ve never put pen to paper to write out goals, start by using the SMART framework:
- Specific: Goals should be well-defined and clear.
- Measurable: Goals should be trackable using metrics available through TikTok or other tools for analytics.
- Attainable: Goals should be realistic. Don’t set yourself up for failure with a goal that was never achievable in the first place. Budget and staffing concerns are huge here.
- Relevant: As mentioned earlier, goals should align with your overall business objectives.
- Time-based: Evaluate goals within a timeframe. Depending on the goal, it might be a month-long sprint or a year-long journey.
After a few goals are listed, you can now determine your KPIs (key performance indicators). These are the metrics you’ll use to measure success. For example, brand awareness KPIs on social media might include gains in views, follower growth, and more web traffic from your TikTok profile.
Step 3: Conduct an Audit (or Two)
Before you get too deep in the weeds, it helps to take a step back and consider what’s working (and not working) with your current TikTok marketing strategy. First, take a look at all the stuff in your profile bio:
- Is your username and profile photo consistent outside of TikTok?
- Does your description list keywords to help find you?
- Is the link in your bio associated with your most important goal?
From there, take a cold, hard look at your content:
- Which videos get the most views or engagement?
- Why?
- Which videos flopped?
You’re looking for overarching patterns here.
Finally, examine your posting consistency. Do you notice any patterns when you post more or less frequently?
You’ll likely also want to run an audit on your competition, which can be incredibly fun. Who doesn’t love to snoop and spy on what others are doing? (Get some inspo for your content while you’re at it, too!)
Step 4: Create a Content Strategy
There’s…a lot that goes into a TikTok content strategy. The good news is you already defined your goals, so now it’s time to match those with the content you’re creating — while keeping the audience’s needs or wants in mind. Developing a content strategy is all about understanding the bigger purpose of why you’re creating TikTok videos in the first place.
You can attack this challenge on TikTok in any number of ways. It’s often helpful to align the type of videos you already create (or want to create) with your goals and KPIs. Let’s say an increase in brand awareness is your goal, and a higher organic reach is the KPI to measure that; you might pick and choose a trending topic/challenge on TikTok to participate in or use trending audio with your videos.
Tutorial videos can build brand authority, while behind-the-scenes videos can put a human face on an otherwise faceless brand account.
You’ll also want to know the logistical tactics that improve chances of success for TikTok content. To start, how often you post matters. Advice runs rampant here – some tell you to post several times a day, while others say you should post a couple of times a week.
In reality, this depends on your resources. How much content can you realistically create in a given time frame? A one-person shop can’t scale content the way a five-person team can.
However, developing a content calendar can help you maintain consistent progress with your shooting and editing processes. More importantly, it can hold you accountable for posting regularly (at peak times for your audience).
You’ll also want to consider a few more factors.
Every second matters
Watch time is the most powerful metric on TikTok, so you have to hook your viewers immediately. This may mean changing your editing style. For example, you might use the first few seconds to promise what you’ll deliver in the next 60 seconds, use faster-paced cuts, create eye-catching graphics, or showcase your best shots right off the top.
Optimize hashtags and keywords
TikTok is one of the last remaining social platforms where hashtags still matter. Resist the temptation to use that day’s most popular hashtags, though. Your content will get lost in the mix. Instead, focus on a tidy blend of relevant and niche hashtags to help someone find your content. The same goes for the keywords in your video description.
Engage, engage, engage
If someone in your audience posts a comment, replying can boost visibility with others. Even better? Use ethical TikTok automation to auto-reply to specific questions or comments — or use keyword-based DMs to drive leads and conversions.
Step 5: Crack the Piggy Bank
One of the biggest myths in our industry is that social media marketing is free. That might be true for the typical user, but not the creators. Whether hiring people to create videos, calculating time on projects, buying your equipment for in-house production, running TikTok ads, or working with TikTok influencers, money is always involved.
Part of your TikTok marketing strategy should involve a realistic budget for video creation and promotion. While you don’t have to break the bank here, these are a few key points to keep in mind:
- You often get what you pay for when hiring videographers and/or equipment.
- If you can’t afford a large-scale TikTok ad campaign, promote one (or a few) of your highest-performing videos. Doubling down on organic success can significantly affect reach and engagement.
- If you sell products, TikTok Shopping Ads integrate seamlessly with the TikTok Shop, allowing users to buy directly on the app.
- Find nano- or micro-influencers in your community to work with on TikTok. They often have a ton of credibility with their, albeit smaller, audience — and cost much less.
Step 6: Measure and Adjust
The analytics you pay the closest attention to will likely tie back to the goals/KPIs you’ve set. In general, though, here are a few of the most powerful metrics to track on TikTok.
Watch time
As we already said, watch time has the most substantial impact on organic distribution on TikTok. The longer your audience watches your videos, the more likely they will reach a bigger audience. If your watch time struggles, you focus on your hook in the first few seconds.
Shares/saves
These metrics typically show that the audience found value in your content. A share means they think their audience would benefit by seeing that video. A save means they want to come back to the video at some point when they need it.
Traffic sources
Meaning: how people found your videos. If the For Your Page (FYP or the main feed on TikTok) is a primary source, the algorithm picked up your video, which is amazing. If your views come from search, your caption keywords are of utmost importance.
If you’re running ads on TikTok, some of the most important analytics are CTR (click-through rate, or the percentage of viewers who clicked when they saw your ad), CPC (cost per click, or how much you’re paying for each click, which measures ad efficiency), and the number of conversions (how many sales, sign-ups, or important actions were taken because of the ad).
Time to Get Started
Everyone is going to have a different marketing strategy on TikTok. These suggestions are merely that — suggestions. They’re not hard and fast rules, but they will get you off the ground and running so you can start finding (and measuring success) on TikTok.
And as always, Manychat’s TikTok automations can help make your life much easier.