By now, you’re more than likely familiar with TikTok. But do you know how to create a TikTok content strategy to leverage the popular platform for your business? In this post, we are going to explain why you need a marketing strategy for TikTok, and how to create one in 5 simple steps.
TikTok's Rise to Fame — Why You Need a TikTok Content Strategy
The popular social platform has quickly scaled to become a large competitor to existing channels like Instagram and SnapChat.The short-form video platform sees creators and brands publish content that’s both unique and engaging.
With over 2 billion downloads, the platform has seen staggering growth in overall engagement. As creators organically build large audiences, brands are now beginning to utilize TikTok within their own content strategies.
With such a ripe opportunity at hand, some of the world's leading brands are setting a precedent for others looking to utilize the platform. Companies like HiSmile, The Washington Post, and the NFL are paving the way and building large audiences.
As platforms like Facebook and Instagram continually become pay-to-play channels, TikTok’s main appeal for brands is the opportunity to build a large organic following.
This is exactly why you need to start thinking about TikTok content strategy for your business now.
As the platform continues to mature, there’s still a timely opportunity for brands to become early adopters. If you’re looking to integrate TikTok within your content marketing strategy, there are a few key insights you must consider before diving in.
On TikTok, the most engaging content is featured on the For Your page. This page is the equivalent to the Instagram discover feed and can heavily influence the overall engagement your content receives.
Landing on a spot on the for you page isn’t easy, of course. By following these actionable steps, however, you’ll increase the chance of your brand featuring on the for you page.
Here are a few tips for creating a TikTok content strategy — even if you're a complete beginner to the platform!
TikTok Content Strategy Tip 1 — Creating portrait content
Similar to other short-form video platforms, TikTok is built for mobile delivery — meaning content should be optimized for vertical viewing.
Although it’s possible to publish square or horizontal content across the platform, the end-user experience is not as engaging.
If you’re currently publishing content that’s not portrait, it’s possible to repurpose this by adding a frame around the video — optimizing it for the vertical format.
Creators like Gary Vee follow this strategy to cross-post existing content from Instagram or YouTube.
As a brand beginning to explore TikTok, cross-posting content will help streamline the initial time you spend creating. By reducing this upfront time, you can minimize the costs associated with discovering if the platform is a suitable fit.
TikTok Content Strategy Tip 2 — Publish High-Relevance Content Around Trends
Like all platforms, the timeliness of content can be a detrimental parameter.
By creating content around relevant TikTok trends, it’s possible to drive more engagement from users in both the trending and for you pages.
Some of the most popular videos across TikTok are user-generated challenges. These challenges are a fast way of gaining viral traction as millions of users actively participate by recreating an original video.
When a challenge is created, it includes a dedicated hashtag, allowing users to follow each submission. As TikTok displays a list of trending hashtags on the discover page, these challenges are organically promoted within the community.
Following trending hashtags is an effective way to build a content strategy. By understanding which challenges the community engages with, you can then create relevant content to capitalize on these trends.
It’s also important to consistently monitor featured songs across the platform. Music plays an important role on TikTok, influencing how videos can be discovered.
As users can discover content based on music selections, integrating a trending song can help drive more engagement from each post. When adding a song to your content, simply choose a track from the trending or featured playlists.
By including a song in a video, it will feature this post in the music library under this sound. When songs start trending on the platform, having your video featured under this playlist can be a powerful way to drive engagement.
TikTok Content Strategy Tip 3 — Engage with your audience
Similar to Instagram, TikTok’s algorithm allocates different weights to unique parameters with each post. One of these influential parameters is the total amount of comments a video receives. In fact, comments added from the for you page attribute a heavier weight than those added by your followers.
As the for you page showcases your content to new audiences, driving engagement with these new users is crucial.
Brands have found it effective to ask questions within their content, encouraging users to share their unique opinions. By also taking the time to respond to these comments, it can help drive additional engagement on popular videos.
TikTok Content Strategy Tip 4 — Use the Right Video Length
As TikTok videos replicate a similar experience to Instagram and SnapChat stories, users are more inclined to engage with short-form content between 5-15 seconds.
When adding a song to your video, it’s important to note that the audio will only play a 15-second snippet. Your content should aim to deliver value within this short timeframe.
TikTok’s algorithm will also prioritize content that drives video thru-plays, which is measured when someone watches the entirety of a video. As a best practice, it’s important to keep your video succinct and engaging.
TikTok Content Strategy Tip 5 — Use TikTok Analytics To Improve Your Results
TikTok has recently introduced account analytics for those who register as pro creators. The pro creator accounts are akin to branded accounts across Instagram.
With no public API, this new dashboard is one of the few ways to measure the performance of your content across the platform.
The analytics within the dashboard will uncover unique insights about the performance of your overall content strategy, including a breakdown of each post.
It not only reveals basic demographic data, but can also include insights about audience interests and engagement attribution.
By using the new analytics feature, it’s possible to follow a data-driven approach within your content strategy.
TikTok Analytics
If you were to analyze the data from a top-performing post, you can uncover what demographic of users were the most engaged. By understanding these insights, it’s possible to double down on creating content for this segment of users.
For some brands, using third-party analytic tools can offer a plethora of additional insights. Tools like Pentos allow brands to not only track more data on their own videos, but also uncover insights from their competitor accounts.
Like all digital marketing channels, brands should first identify if TikTok will add value to their existing content strategy. At this current time, TikTok is more suited for B2C brands targeting younger users.
Although TikTok is still in its infancy, the platform is beginning to introduce features specifically for brands, including; profile links, verification badges, and shoppable posts.
If you’re a brand looking to integrate TikTok within your content strategy, now is a great time to get started before the platform becomes saturated.
Bio:
Lachlan Kirkwood is a Digital Marketing and Conversions Specialist with a background working across tech startups and digital agencies. He’s responsible for utilizing the latest digital marketing strategies to enhance conversion-based outcomes. Lachlan is a passionate content creator, sharing his personal experiences with the industry on ClickThrough — a platform helping digital marketers connect with job roles they love.
