We all know that TikTok has taken the world by storm in recent years. It is quickly becoming one of the most popular choices for its unique disposition. TikTok users from across the glob are creating TikTok for business in an effort to really stand out. Reaching your target audience has never been easier than with TikTok videos. However, you still need to compile a social media marketing strategy and learn the best way to work with the TikTok algorithm and ensure users can discover your TikTok business account in the process.
Whether you’re just getting start using a TikTok account or you’re trying to learn how to really amplify your TikTok business account, we’ve got you covered. Check out our 9-step guide to help you best learn how to use TikTok for business accounts and discover all the ways that you can be successful in the process.
There’s so much to learn!
1. Establish Goals for Your TikTok Business Account
What do you hope to accomplish with your TikTok profile? Before you start just making TikTok ads or haphazards creating content, think about your goals as you use TikTok for business. Ideally, you should make a TikTok strategy. You can create a social media strategy if you use multiple social media platforms. The idea here is to understand your goals so that you can use TikTok for business in a way that is going to help you reach those goals.
A lot of TikTok influencers and TikTok business accounts will buy Tiktok likes with SocialsUp or other methods to give their new content or their TikTok presence a boost. We will talk about that more later.
As you start creating your goals, think of your content calendar. When and how often will you create videos and upload a TikTok video. Your content strategy should be detailed enough to discuss the type of high quality content you will make, how you want to reflect your brand personality, and how often you will post videos.
Using TikTok for business requires you to keep in mind this is a professional page and the goals you establish really should be geared towards users interested in the business you have to offer. Use those goals and analytics tools to really start leveraging TikTok and capturing a vast audience through this marketing channel.
Here are a few key performance indicators that can be part of your goals:
- Follower growth
- Engagement rates
- Conversion traffic
- Increased shares
All of this will make a difference towards reaching your goals. That TikTok content strategy will be your guide to all things TikTok marketing!
2. Create a TikTok Business Account
If you have a personal account, it’s really best to separate that from using TikTok for business. Some people merge the two, such as influencer marketing who mostly operates as an individual. It’s important to realize the value of TikTok for business, so even if influencer marketing is what you are focusing on, you should use TikTok for business to make that happen.
So a business TikTok account is the first step to everything for business on the TikTok app. Business accounts have so many more tools available to you because they are designed for business needs. You can actually switch your account to a business one if you started out with an account that is personal. TikTok for business will have some access personal profiles simply do not.
- TikTok advertising
- Targeting and tracking
- Analytics
You can see just where the TikTok algorithm is placing you and then work ensure your content calendar is loaded with things that will best the algorithm and stand out! On a TikTok business account, you can post your website link and share more details in your bio. This gives people a quick place to go when they want to purchase or further engage.
Don’t just set up a generic profile and call it good. Follow these steps to ensure you appeal to potential customers.
- Make sure you have a business landing page
- Upload a profile photo that reflects your brand
- Include some hashtags that are branded
- Put up a website link
- Create a quality TikTok bio
Having a good bio, a quality profile photo, and links to your store or website are the most important elements of establishing your TikTok for business account and profile. Other TikTok users will use these to identify with you and ensure you’re not a fake profile.
3. Define the TikTok Users That Make Up Your Target Audience
As you create content for this business account, you really need to make sure you understand your target audience. Standing out with the TikTok algorithm really involves getting people to engage with you and that comes from making your TikTok for business meet the needs and desires of your target audience. If you don’t understand that audience, your business account is not going to be successful or experience growth that you need.
You’ve done the hard work of establishing that TikTok profile, now who do you feel is the right audience to attract to this profile? In your strategy, define who the target audience is and be very clear about that. Then, create content that applies to the content strategy.
One thing to keep in mind is that TikTok is most popular with Gen Z and Millennials. Now, can there be other generations on there? Absolutely! But these are the largest groups of people on the app. Even with these generational lines, there are still tons of different types of people in the app and none of them are exactly the same.
Get to know these things about your audience:
- Behaviors
- Interests
- Content preferences
Now, develop a content strategy that encompasses these details and create stuff that is going to resonate with the people you determined are your audience.
For example, if you are a travel blogger, your target people are probably not going to be avid video gamers. It’s going to be people who love travel or want to travel. Maybe even those who dream of travel and like your insight because they can hope to one day use that blog post about visiting Rome.
On the other hand, a person who shares great recipes for their audience probably isn’t going to appeal to the people who just want to watch funny pet videos all day. Do you understand the power of a target group of people for your audience now?
4. Follow the Trends
TikTok has constantly changing trends that are incredibly popular. In fact, users will pick up on a trend they like and search for content that goes with that trend. Not every trend is going to apply to you so don’t jump on erratic trends just to try to boost sales.
Instead, be aware of the trends and when something does fit for your engaging content, then put it to use! There are so many trends that cycle through constantly, like these ones:
- Challenges
- Trending sounds
- Hashtags
- Stitches
- Reactions
At any given time, you can likely find at least a dozen different trends. Find the ones that fit and be engaged in using them. People will love it and you might even capture some new followers who find your organic content because they were looking for a specific trend.
Participating in trends from time to time will be a valuable way to increase engagement on your TikTok videos and ensure as many people as possible get to see them. You never know when a trend you jump on is going to be the very thing that makes you go viral.
One last reminder – only use trends that align with your brand’s identity. Otherwise, it might have the opposite effect.
5. Keep It Authentic
Creating organic content and inducing people to engage and interact with you really stems from being authentic. People can tell when you create a video and you have to present yourself as something you’re not for that video to work. Again, it’s like going to have the opposite effect of what you really want. This can easily go along with following trends that don’t really fit your brand. It’s a poor choice to be successful.
If you want to create engaging content, always stay authentic with your engaging videos. From how to videos to bloopers, the idea is to drive traffic in your favor, right? Even your profile photo needs to be authentic and fit your brand. Authenticity is pretty much guaranteed to boost engagement and it’s great!
Yes, it can take time to attract people, but don’t change who you are to try to draw people in. That’s only going to give you a temporary high. When you are authentic and you reveal this to your followers, they remain loyal to you across the board.
Be relatable, be real, and focus on engaging and authentic videos that showcase your brand’s personality. Don’t be afraid to tap into user generated content content either. You can use this type of content to do stitches or reactions, but you can also use it simply to engage and interact with your audience so they can see that their content matters to you too.
Building a business brand on TikTok really comes from building relationships. These digital relationships are taken seriously. Take the time to hone them and nurture them. Let the world see who you are and what you have to offer. If you decide not to be authentic, this is realistically only going to hold you for so long. Eventually people will see through it or you will run out of ideas to maintain the ruse.
Try some storytelling to connect on an emotional level. Be willing to experiment with some different things while you get established and discover what resonates. You can do a variety of content and remain authentic. Here are a few ideas:
- Branded storytelling
- Bloopers
- Behind the scenes clips
- How to content
- Tutorials
- User generated content
- Voice overs
The sky is the limit!
Be you. Be authentic. Be real.
6. Work With TikTok’s Algorithm
Instead of being angry at the algorithm for hiding your content or being difficult to work with, try learning how it operates and just working to capture its attention. There are a lot of little things that appeal to the algorithm here, just like on other social media or even on Google searches.
It’s content optimization. Learn the things that appeal to the algorithm and then work in that capacity while still being true to your brand. The algorithm doesn’t have to be your enemy. You just have to learn how you can work alongside it and really stay on top.
If you aren’t that familiar with the algorithm, it’s ultimately the boss of where your content ranks. This boss is going to determine how visible your content is and whether or not your videos get shown on someone’s For You page.
So, how do you impress the algorithm? Well, it really goes right along with everything else we have been recommending here. Be authentic, be engaging, know the trends, and work with a desire to reach your targeted audience. All of these things are what the algorithm is scouring for.
Getting engagement such as the following are also going to trigger the algorithm and boost your visibility:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- New followers
- Page views
- Views
This tells the algorithm that your content is trending. So, you need to take action to make it trend, right?
When you post, try some branded hashtag challenges and make sure you use those hashtags. Things like this simply associate you with a popular trend and challenges other people to use your branded tags to draw attention to your content and your profile.
When you create videos, always include video captions. This is something that is going to help categorize your video content so that it doesn’t fall into a generic box and just get lost among the masses of content out there. These captions tell the algorithm what kind of content it is so it can sort it into others in that category.
You need to be clear and you need to be consistent. All of these things are going to matter to the algorithm. When you start to make a name for yourself, much of the growth and establishment is going to start happening organically. You just have to get it started.
7. Influencer Collaboration
A quick way to get noticed and get some traction on TikTok is to collaborate with other influencers. Not all of the influencers will even give you the time of day, but if you can find one or a few that resonate with your brand, it can be incredibly beneficial for you.
Here’s the thing. Influencers have already established a following. They have people that listen to what they have to say. So if they represent your brand or your business, it’s automatically going to benefit you. People are going to check you out because they trust that influencer to point them in the right direction.
Don’t just run out and find random influencers. Again, the random approach really doesn’t help you very much. Instead, focus on finding some influencers that align with your brand and the standards of your brand. Consider influencers who would have a similar targeted audience or even who fit into your targets. That’s a great place to start the search.
Some influencers will require payment to collaborate, but there are also influencers that will work with you for product or service so take those things into consideration. Consider this avenue a partnerships. It’s mutually beneficial because your brand gets exposed to their audience. At the same time, they are getting engagement from your audience and people are watching to see what they have to say about your brand.
This partnership could be unlimited. If you’re able to partner with multiple influencers, just think about the reach that might get you. It’s astronomical!
8. Invest in Engagement to Give You a Boost
We spoke extensively about the algorithm and being authentic. Getting engagement and getting noticed can be difficult sometimes. Your hard work will pay off eventually, but there are times when you simply need a boost. The good news is there are services out there designed just for this that can give you a great boost.
We mentioned this briefly above with the option of buying engagement. Did you know that influencers, athletes, and even famous people sometimes buy engagement because it helps boost a post for visibility purposes? That is the biggest advantage to spending a little bit of money on followers, likes, comments, etc. It’s all about a quick boost in visibility.
What you need to keep in mind is that this solution is not meant to give you long-term or permanent results. It’s meant to be a booster so you need to use it as such. This is one of the fastest ways to get some traction on TikTok and you can choose any type of engagement that you want. Maybe you just need some views. Perhaps you’re trying to increase followers. Whatever you need, you can find a quality company to provide it for you.
Now, let’s talk about safety for this one. This approach sometimes gets a bad reputation because there are companies out there that would exploit you or take your money and never deliver. The key is to find a trustworthy, reputable company that can do it right. So take the time to do your homework before you just drop money. Focus on getting high-quality engagement and not just random engagement.
Here’s a few tips:
- Always check that the site and checkout process will be secure
- Make sure they have packages that fit your needs and budget
- Check for customer guarantees and money-back guarantees too
- Read the fine print to make sure they only utilize real, genuine users to deliver (never bots or generic profiles)
- Check out their reputation and reviews/ratings
- Never provide passwords for service delivery
A quick look at the website will usually speak for itself. They should have everything you need to know to proceed easy to find. There are some really great companies out there with longstanding reputations. We recommend finding one of those before you purchase.
9. Get Involved in TikTok Ads
Finally, TikTok advertising can help your content get seen by more people. Try running a TikTok ad so you can get used to the concept and see how it works. You have a lot of control over the details. On a business profile, you have access to the TikTok ads manager where you can set up ads and establish the parameters. You can even try brand takeover ads and see if those are your style.
Take a targeted approach, get to know the options, and then utilize them to promote to a wider audience than just your typical followers. This will help pull in more followers and more traffic. It does require an investment, but you can make it fit within a budget that works for you.
TikTok has several different types of ads, including these:
- In-Feed Ads
- Branded Hashtag Challenges
- TopView ads
TikTok clearly defines each of these so you can get to know them and how to properly use them. When you run an ad, you will set up targets for your audience, including demographics, locations, and interests. You can be broad, but we recommend trying to fairly specific so you get targeted responses in the process.
Conclusion
Make the most of your TikTok business account with these 9 steps that are designed to help you understand all the ins and outs of this type of profile. Get to know what your audience looks like and how you can appeal to them, spend some time truly understanding TikTok, and don’t be afraid to invest in yourself to get a boost or attract more people.
Remember that it can take some time to establish yourself so just keep putting in the hard work and you will get there. We believe in you!
