Are you thinking, “Can’t TikTok be used for marketing?” TikTok is a very popular SNS that allows people to easily post videos, especially among the younger generation. People tend to think of TikTok as just a tool to enjoy posting and watching videos, but recently, a variety of businesses are using TikTok for
marketing
. If you use TikTok well, you can use it as a very effective customer acquisition tool.
So this time, we will explain the benefits of using TikTok for marketing, as well as how to actually use it for marketing. Please read this article and try using TikTok for your business.
What is Tiktok?
Before marketing using TikTok, let’s first understand what kind of medium TikTok is.
A platform specializing in short videos
TikTok is a video sharing service operated by China’s ByteDance, and is a platform that allows users to create and post videos for smartphones. Although it is now possible to post videos of up to 10 minutes, many people create and post videos that are around 30 seconds long and send them out to many users as short videos. It is used by many people as a platform specializing in short videos.
When Tiktok first entered Japan, it had a strong image as an app where young and beautiful girls could post dance videos, and it was popular among young girls in their teens and twenties. However, dance videos are now just one type of content, and now there is a wide range of content, including useful information for daily life, gourmet information, videos of animals and children, and
recruitment marketing
and public relations activities for companies. .
A feature that allows anyone to create unique videos
TikTok is full of features that allow anyone to create unique videos.
You can add your favorite background music to the videos you shoot, use special filters included in the app to smooth out skin, and edit faces to make you laugh. Many people may think that editing is a little difficult, but since templates are provided within the TikTok app, anyone can easily do everything from shooting to editing to posting. Editing is easy because it’s a short video, but Tiktok’s strength is that anyone can create unique videos.
The number of monthly active users in Japan is approximately 9.5 million.
TikTok already has approximately 9.5 million monthly active users in Japan. Although it is still inferior to active users on other platforms, the cumulative number of downloads was 2 billion in April 2020, and since April 2020 it has been surpassed by YouTube only once, but other than that it has been downloaded every month. Top downloaded app. It has been announced that the number of monthly active users worldwide will exceed 1 billion in 2021, and it is likely that the number of monthly active users will continue to expand from here. TikTok is growing its active users at an incredible rate, making it a platform brimming with possibilities.
What are the benefits of using TikTok for marketing?
We have confirmed the reasons why TikTok is popular and why it attracts so many people’s attention, but from now on, we will explain whether it can actually be used for marketing, what benefits there are when using it, and how to use it for video marketing. Masu.
High diffusion power
The advantage of using TikTok for marketing is its high virality.
SNS such as Instagram and Twitter are basically SNS where you can send messages to your followers. In other words, initial accounts with no followers can hardly deliver information to anyone. On the other hand, on TikTok, regardless of the number of followers an account has, by posting a high-quality video, it is possible to spread it to many people even with 0 followers. From there, you will need another video to spread the word even further, but the good thing about TikTok is that the hurdles for posting videos are not that high. You can easily post short videos, and you can easily edit and post using templates. The advantage of TikTok is that even initial accounts can quickly spread the word.
Can be spread overseas
TikTok can be widely spread not only in Japan but also overseas. As mentioned above, TikTok has 1 billion users worldwide. The number of TikTok users is increasing explosively in Japan, and the same can be said around the world. In other words, since the number of TikTok users around the world will continue to increase in the future, by sending messages overseas, you can efficiently spread the word to people overseas. Companies that are already doing business overseas are using TikTok to approach overseas users. For those who want to do business overseas, the benefits of using TikTok can be said to be very high.
Can be used as a lead to other customer acquisition channels
TikTok has a good user response rate, so it can be used as a conduit for other customer
acquisition channels
. It is said that TikTok users are more likely to take actions such as searching after watching videos and other content.
In other words, by posting the product/service you want to advertise or your company’s name at the end of the video, you can direct people to search or view your company’s
website
. Since TikTok users have a high probability of taking action, we may be able to expect higher effects.
Points to note when using TikTok for marketing
Although TikTok has many advantages when used for marketing, there are also some disadvantages. That means there is a risk of flaming. While TikTok has the advantage of being highly viral, it can also cause a lot of controversy due to its extremely high virality. Videos that go viral are not only spread on TikTok, but also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., and are seen by many users, leading to a significant damage to the company’s image. Even if you don’t care that much about it, things that others find “uncomfortable” can lead to an uproar. In order to prevent the risk of a commotion as much as possible, when posting a video, be sure to look objectively to see if there is anything that you find offensive. It would be a good idea to have multiple people check it.
How to actually market on TikTok
We have talked about the advantages and disadvantages of using TikTok for marketing, but now we will explain how to actually market with TikTok.
Operation with a business account
First of all, in order to increase awareness on TikTok, it is essential to operate it with a business account. When you open a business account on TikTok, there are various benefits that make using TikTok advantageous, such as being able to analyze posted videos and followers, and being able to write information such as the official website. Of course, it is necessary for marketing purposes, and by using the analysis results to analyze the fields that users are interested in, it is possible to create and disseminate content that is likely to be of interest to users. . Be sure to open a business account, as it will be necessary to design leads to other customer acquisition channels. Business accounts can be set up for free.
Utilizing TikTok ads
There are still few companies that have entered TikTok advertising, so it is highly recommended that you take advantage of it. There are three main types of TikTok ads, so we will explain each one.
launch ad
A launch ad is an ad that is displayed when you start TikTok. Launch ads are limited to one company per day, but they are effective ads that catch the eye of many users and easily lead them to external sites.
Infeed ads
In-feed ads are ads that appear in the middle of a video. Since it blends in with other videos and plays in full screen, there is not much difference from videos that are not advertisements. Therefore, users often watch the video as an advertisement without realizing it is an advertisement. You will be able to get people to watch it without much hate, and it will be easier to lead them to other platforms.
User participation advertising
User participation advertising creates your own hashtag. This is an advertisement that allows users to spread awareness by using hashtags. The hurdles to participate are low and you can spread yourself to many users. If you don’t know which ad to start with, why not try using user participation ads, which have a lower barrier to participation?
Post a video that understands the algorithm
In order to spread awareness on TikTok, it is important that your posts appear in the recommended section. To achieve this, the key is to understand TikTok’s
algorithm
, create videos, and post them.
It is speculated that the mechanism by which posts are spread on TikTok is as follows.
- Displayed in the recommendation column of about 100 people
- AI determines response rate, viewership rate, etc.
- If the response is good, the next number will be 200 people, and if it’s even better then 500 people.
AI determines that posts that users respond to and posts that take a long time to view are high-quality posts. If your post is judged to be of high quality, it will be displayed in the recommended column of many users.
The criteria for AI to judge a high-quality post are as follows.
- Average play time
- Playback completion rate
- Like and comment rate
- Share rate
- Profile view rate
- follow rate
- Number of downloads
The average playback time and playback completion rate are particularly important, so when creating videos, keep in mind “how to get users to watch to the end.”
Posts that interest viewers
Of course, AI evaluation is important, but it is the user who actually views the page. Think objectively about what you can do to get users to watch your video or take action, and then devise some ideas. It’s a good idea to create something that will leave an impact on the first impression, increase the amount of information, and create something that makes the user think, “Wow!” Also, it is important to appeal to the user’s emotions. If you make people empathize by saying, “I’m sure” or “I understand,” or if you make them think that “that applies to me too,” you’ll be more likely to attract the interest of viewers.
Guide to other customer acquisition channels
TikTok is used to spread awareness by taking advantage of its overwhelming power to spread. Once the number of followers has increased to a certain extent, you can set the destination of other customer acquisition channels such as Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube on your profile and start guiding them. By spreading awareness on TikTok and guiding users to other customer acquisition channels to further interest and educate users, users will become fans who will purchase your products and services.
If you want to direct customers to other channels, it’s a good idea to write about the benefits of going to the destination in your profile text, or end the page in a way that makes them curious about what happens next, such as “Continue here.” Just prompting them in a video can make a big difference in how users react. Please give it a try.
summary
This time, we explained the benefits of using TikTok for marketing, as well as how to actually use it for marketing. TikTok is now used by many users, but we have come to understand that we have entered an era where it is used not only for viewing, but also as a marketing method for businesses. It is expected that TikTok will continue to update and become a more sophisticated platform. Of course, you can enjoy browsing, but it might also be interesting to take a look and see if you can use it in your own business.