This is why your company should have a TikTok account

OPINION: “We have a request,” said one of my daughters across the dining table. “Just don’t come with Tiktok.”

TikTok originated in China and today has an estimated 1.1 billion users, of whom 82 percent use it for at least 50 minutes a day.

TikTok used to be the playground for everyone under 20, but demographics are changing. While Generation Z makes up 60 percent of users, there are growing rates of users from “older” generations (which GenZ classifies as people born before 2000), including a decent 20 percent of users over 40.

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TikTok’s ability to locate and connect with your target audience is spectacular.

My target group is mainly small business owners over 35 years of age, so I wasn’t too dissatisfied with the ban. As I said earlier, it’s important not to get carried away with every shiny object in marketing.

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But as the age range changed and my desire to find new places to post my Instagram roles as a premature act of rebellion, I made an account and joined. Fortunately, they have now forgiven me and even give me tips!

Here’s what surprised me as a small business owner about TikTok:

1. The algorithm (a bunch of code that helps you customize your personal experience and what you see on TikTok) is amazing. It starts out by sending you a variety of different videos and then learns what you like and what not by taking into account the playback time, what you are most responsive to, and what you are sharing.

2. It’s very easy to accidentally get lost on the “wrong page of TikTok” depending on what you click. I ended up in a strange mix of topics due to my intense curiosity and it took me a long time to create a feed that suited me.

3. Although only about 20 percent of the people in my age group are on TikTok, that’s pretty much the age group I see the most because of the algorithm. It also means I don’t see a lot of dancing and lip-syncing.

4. I really enjoyed the quality of many creators who are able to deliver sharp, short, and striking content that I want to know about. I took away tips and tricks that I could apply to my own business

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If you have a product-based business, TikTok can lead straight to sales.

But I also felt very overwhelmed and was completely lost on what I should post myself. I’m almost 50, lacking time and not coordinating enough to fill my space with dance moves (and that’s not what my target audience wants either.)

As a service-oriented company, I see most of my activities on TikTok as raising awareness. (Marketers call this the “top of the funnel” or tofu). However, if you have a product-based business, TikTok can lead straight to sales, PR what marketers call Bofu – “down the funnel”.

I wanted to learn more about how TikTok works for product-based businesses, so I interviewed Tasha Miller on the MAP IT Marketing Podcast. She owns Jubly-Umph, a fully online pin and jewelry business in Victoria, Australia.

Tasha started using TikTok last October and had her first day of sales over $ 10,000 from TikTok orders in December.

“I went to dinner with a friend. Just before I left I posted a TikTok and it started in just a few hours. The orders came in. In the end, we got 400,000 views and $ 10,000 in revenue from that one post. “

Tasha first heard about TikTok on a podcast and “signed up for an account and did a little browsing.” She tried a few things, but nothing seemed to gel.

It wasn’t until after listening to another podcast about its effectiveness that she decided to get back on track. This time she tried an alternate method.

Tasha explains, “I know I had to do everything I could to learn so much about TikTok and see if I can get it to work for me. We had seen that some of the first had caught on a bit, and when I started seeing a few sales that mentioned TikTok, I knew I was on to something. “

Tasha now often gets comments on her TikTok videos about her orders. To create this, she often creates a video in which an order is being repackaged as new content for that customer. This further builds the relationship with this fan.

One of the things small business owners struggle with is what to post. Tasha worked with her marketing team to create a content plan with five core topics and ideas. “I go back to it every time I create content.”

She also uses a program called Trello to keep track of any ideas that come up during the day.

“I have lists within lists of ideas, including all scripts. Depending on what style it is, I sometimes just do them out of hand. But when I want to tell the story behind the drawing I actually write this out for myself and then use the timer on my phone to time it, trying to get down to about 15-20 seconds for me to edit the video below everything fits together. “

Tasha then takes the time to refine the content, including developing a catchy hook to attract people in the beginning.

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I now recommend TikTok to small business owners who sell products online.

Tasha’s business has grown as her lead role at Jubly-Umph is the designer, creator and face of the company. Content creation can be time consuming, but when you know that a video can generate thousands of dollars in sales, it makes sense to prioritize content creation.

She creates her videos directly in the app and often uses her work with the voice-over function. While TikTok encourages you to add a music backing track, Tasha recently left that out.

“Lately I’ve been experimenting with not adding music to my videos, just making myself talk. Tiktok uses every element in your video to target the right people. So if you choose the wrong music and a lot of people dance to it and you try to show them a video in which you are doing something, it doesn’t necessarily go with all of the other videos that were shown to that music. “

Top tips for TikTok beginners

Tasha suggests that you have a plan of action before you start creating. Otherwise you are easily overwhelmed. TikTok accounts work best when you stick to a topic or theme. I know this was a mistake I made early on and it meant I couldn’t achieve consistent growth.

Find a place to save video ideas. Tasha uses Trello. I tend to use the notepad feature on my phone. Whatever works.

If you have low tech skills and you feel stressed about creating videos, take an online course to study or have a willing teen show you how to use the editing features.

I use a lot of different platforms and find TikTok’s video editing to be very intuitive. It’s easy to trim, edit, and merge clips when you’re filming right in the app.

Don’t let trends stress you out, you have to do certain songs or effects. If you love doing it this is great. For Tasha with her products as well as for me with my service-based videos, our best reach is purely informational video content.

One of the things I discovered is that my longer videos (up to three minutes) tend to have longer lifetime value and higher engagement than the shorter ones.

Follow other people in your niche and interact with their content. I was surprised how committed the community is to TikTok. One of the things I love to do is respond to a comment on your video with another new video. This is a super easy way to come up with a content idea.

I also watch videos to see which ones pull me in with their “hook”. Since it’s easy for people to swipe past, you’ll need to come up with a three to five second hook phrase or action to keep track of. I write down the ones I like and change them for my videos.

If you want to make them, you can put them to good use. You can share them with your Instagram or LinkedIn stories, use them as a reel on Instagram (Tasha shares them as they are, I tend to remove the TikTok watermark as Instagram said they don’t have TikTok videos as Reels), share them on YouTube Shorts, and on Pinterest. Tasha also uses them for Facebook posts.

Be patient. As with any platform, it will take time. When you get anxious, avoid the “Nobody likes me and nobody buys from me” videos, take a nice, healthy break, and then come back with a positive attitude.

I now recommend TikTok to small business owners who sell products online. The app’s ability to locate and connect with your target audience is spectacular. The organic (free) reach you can get right from the start far exceeds any other social media platform I’ve seen. All you have to do is create content that will convert that ideal audience.

– Rachel Klaver is a marketing strategist specializing in lead generation and content marketing. She owns Identify Marketing, which works with companies to develop the strategy they need to better tell their story to the right people.