TikTok is where the action is for brands wanting to go viral today. So many brands have found viral success on the platform, purposefully or accidentally, and there is no other platform that may be as useful to businesses seeking to connect with millennials and Gen Z.
However, finding success on TikTok goes beyond the savvy use of hashtags and having fun content to share. The nuances of the TikTok economy involve finding a winning product, creating engaging content, mastering the algorithm and avoiding the mistakes that have tripped up brands in the past.
Here are some strategies for navigating the often chaotic world of TikTok viral marketing.
Navigating TikTok Trends
Navigating the ever-evolving landscape of TikTok takes agility as a marketer. One must be willing to closely monitor popular hashtags, challenges, content formats and opportunities to authentically engage with one’s audience. It can be a job in and of itself.
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Finding a product that will be successful on the platform is often the first step in leveraging TikTok trends. To hit on the right product, one must consider the TikTok demographic — one in four TikTok users is under the age of 20 and over half are female.
Performing a deep dive into what is currently trending on the platform can be a good place to start in landing on the right product to sell. Products that do well on TikTok tend to be fun, problem-solving and easy to create content with. For example, products such as carpet scrapers, headphones, sunset lamps and even a rapid egg cooker have all gone viral on the platform. Products that meet the “viral criteria” typically have videos with over 500,000 views, 50,000 likes and/or over 1,000 comments.
While doing your in-depth research, you should look for hashtags popular with sellers and content creators such as #tiktokmademebuyit. Diving down the rabbit hole of hashtags like these will show you exactly what products people are going crazy over.
Ecommerce Growth with TikTok
Today’s consumers have short attention spans and are constantly on the lookout for the next big thing in viral content. To make a splash on a platform like TikTok that caters to this kind of consumer behavior, you must become adept at creating content that quickly showcases why your product deserves to go viral.
TikTok users may want quick, often quirky content, but this doesn’t mean they are not highly engaged. They can turn even the most innocuous-seeming products into viral sensations overnight, creating incredible brand awareness for the business.
The TikTok algorithm is tailor-made for entrepreneurs, prioritizing views over followers. This means even businesses brand-new to the platform can land in front of consumers if their content is appealing and they are presenting the right product for the TikTok demographic.
To get the most out of TikTok use, entrepreneurs need to make their products easy to buy. It isn’t enough that the content is engaging if it does not compel someone to hit the “buy” button. Brands should supply easy-to-find links to their ecommerce sites or their LinkTree. On TikTok, users will often put this information in their bios.
TikTok also offers seamless shopping feature integrations on the platform, which allows users to buy products immediately through shoppable ads and in-app checkout. What you provide on the backend can be just as important to your ultimate success as what you show in your short-form video content.
Avoiding Mistakes on Your Way to Virality
No matter how easy a platform may make it for entrepreneurs, no perfectly executed business strategy exists. However, by carefully planning one’s approach to TikTok, business owners can avoid some common missteps.
Any solid TikTok strategy should take into account these rules:
- Engagement is king: The more engagement you can get from your content, the more the TikTok algorithm will push your content to the top of “the page” to receive more views;
- The For You page is prime real estate: Landing on someone’s For You page should be a primary goal of any business seeking to make sales through TikTok. It is a way of gaining many views without having any followers;
- Quality is more important than quantity: There is a common misconception that one has to post a lot on TikTok to go viral. The great thing about TikTok is that the algorithm prioritizes quality content over quantity of content. One doesn’t have to post several times a day to go viral. Instead, focus on creating high-quality, engaging content that sells the benefits of their product;
- You don’t have to overuse hashtags: This is another quality versus quantity issue. It’s more important to use a few relevant hashtags than to cram as many hashtags into your post as possible; and
- Keep an eye on analytics: Data such as watch time and how many people watch your entire video are important to deciphering which content resonates with your target audience and which may be falling flat.
TikTok represents a new landscape for marketers and businesspeople seeking to see their products take off, and ecommerce has played an essential role in building TikTok into the social media powerhouse it is today. By pivoting marketing strategies to include TikTok, entrepreneurs can reach their target audiences where they are and make their products viral successes.
Alex Fedotoff is the Founder of Ecommerce Scaling Secrets and the owner and operator of ecommerce brands aggregator D2C Brands, which has a portfolio that includes brands such as EQYL, Meilen and others. In his ecommerce career, Fedotoff has generated over $100 million in revenue, profitably using paid advertising and influencers.
