How to Use TikTok for Business in 2023: 5 Expert Strategy Tips
Michelle Leighton
Are you a business owner looking to boost your presence on TikTok? With over a billion active users, TikTok is a social media platform that cannot not be ignored.
However, creating successful content on TikTok as a business requires a different approach than traditional advertising methods. TikTok is known as a place for quirky, authentic content — but don't be fooled. This social media platform is much more than just a dance app for kids. Hundreds of brands, small and large, have found TikTok to be fantastic for increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and driving web traffic. But brands looking to turn the platform into another marketing channel must learn how to play by TikTok's rules.
In this blog post, I'll share my top five tips to help you build a successful TikTok account for your business. These are the most up to date TikTok tips and trends for your 2023 social media strategy, pulled straight from the mind of a seasoned TikTok content creator and social media strategist.
Let's get into it.
1. Respect Your Audience & Provide Value
The number one mistake I see businesses make on TikTok? They are creating for themselves.
Endless promotional videos, feature launches, and tacky graphics that flash “introducing a NEW industry standard.” It’s all the same – our business this, and our business that.
So how do you build a successful TikTok account as a business? By understanding this:
Audiences do not care about your business – until you give them reason to.
90% of consumers say that authenticity is important when deciding which brands they like and support. You know what doesn’t feel authentic? Constant advertisements and marketing buzzwords.
Let’s take a look at Zero Waste Cartel, an eco-friendly eCommerce brand. They have built a respectable following on TikTok, with multiple viral videos. What’s their secret?
Every video values their customers’ needs, as opposed to their own. Their strategy focuses on a “value-first” approach, where they educate viewers on how to make eco-friendly product swaps at home.
Now I'm sure you're wondering: how does this result in sales? They carry all the products they recommend!
By showing their products in action, and highlighting their benefits, viewers are more likely to say "oh my god, I need that for my house." This ensures that they generate leads and traffic for their website, without the need to create overtly promotional content.
2. Research Your Target Audience
Of course, how can you provide value to your audience when you don’t understand them?
As with any marketing strategy, you want to ensure that your content is reaching the people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services.
Here’s how to research your target audience on TikTok:
- Narrow down your “niche” or business category. For example, the freelancing platform, Contra, simplifies the process of building a portfolio and finding clients as a freelancer. Their niche would be “Freelancing.”
- Next, head to TikTok and search for “Freelancing” or “Freelancers” and filter the results by “Like Count” and “The Last 6 Months”
- Now you’ll be looking at the top videos in this category for the last 6 months. Take note of any common themes, topics, and pain points that these videos discuss.
Once you’ve reviewed the top videos in your category, you’ll have a better idea of what content performs well in your niche. For example, many of the videos in the freelancing niche touched on “becoming a millionaire” or lifestyle benefits of earning more money, such as buying a new laptop or iPad.
From here you can pull content ideas for your own account. In the case of Contra, perhaps they could do a multi-part series on “How to Become a Freelance Millionaire.”
3. Prioritize Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Did you know that TikTok is actually a search engine? It’s true. More and more we are seeing young people turn to TikTok to research their next restaurant, vacation or product purchase.
In fact, Google’s Vice President has stated that “something like 40 percent” of young people use TikTok over Google to do research.
This is fantastic news for companies on TikTok. Now you have another way to put your content in front of the right people – TikTok search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO refers to the strategy of including keywords in your content in order to make it more searchable. For example, if you were using TikTok for hotel marketing, you would want to be sure your content appears for popular search terms in the travel niche.
How do you find keywords on TikTok? Head to the search bar at the top of your “For You” page. Type in your root keyword, so for this example I’ll use “hotel.” Do not hit enter, simply let TikTok autocomplete the search, as seen in the picture below:
Here you have a list of trending search terms that feature “hotel.” Pull any relevant keywords from this list, and place them in your captions and on screen text. This will increase the discoverability of your account, because TikTok will show your video any time these terms are searched.
4. Create Evergreen Content
With search engine optimization becoming a core strategy for businesses on TikTok, evergreen content is now your best friend.
What is evergreen content? Evergreen content focuses on topics that are always relevant and useful, and are not dependent on trending TikTok topics or sounds.
Here is a comparison of evergreen vs. trending content:
- Evergreen topic: “How to Find Cheap Flights Online”
- Trending topic: “Travel Tuesday 2022 deals”
While both of these topics focus on travel deals, Travel Tuesday (which did in fact go viral on TikTok in 2022) would only be relevant to audiences for a limited time. TikTok trends are a great way to connect with viewers, but they are fickle.
Meanwhile, the evergreen topic will consistently bring in new viewers, without any extra effort from your marketing team. Any time someone searches for “cheap flights online” on TikTok, your business gains more views, engagement and potential leads.
In some cases, evergreen content can go viral many months after initially posting – proving just how much value an evergreen strategy provides.
5. Keep Up With the TikTok Algorithm
To build a successful strategy for posting to TikTok, it's important to understand how the platform's algorithm works.
On Instagram, your feed is primarily composed of accounts you follow, but on TikTok, the "For You" page is a collection of content based on your interests and previous interactions on the platform. This means each time you open TikTok, you'll see content from multiple new accounts, which is why this social platform has more organic reach than any other social platform.
Another factor to keep in mind is that the TikTok algorithm is constantly evolving. The platform is always experimenting with new features and updates to improve the user experience, and this can affect how your content performs.
This means that staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices is crucial for success on the platform.
Need help staying up to date? Why not hire an expert? Schedule a call with me today to start building the perfect TikTok strategy for your business.
