With over 400 million active monthly users, TikTok is officially the king of social media. But despite its popularity, TikTok isn’t necessarily a great place to build your business. The platform is highly competitive, and it’s filled with brands trying to grow their audience. That’s why it’s essential that you know exactly how to market on TikTok — and not just for fun.

If you were to look at the top performing videos on TikTok, you’d notice something peculiar. Though they may feature high-quality content, the success of these videos often depends on something more than just the content itself. In many cases, the videos also contain a slick combination of popular themes, snappy dialogue, and a cheeky grin from the male lead.

4 Tips for Marketting on TikTok

Since there’s a lot of competition on TikTok, you’ll need to take more than just content into consideration if you want to stand out above the rest. Here are four tips to help you master the art of marketing on the platform:

1. Create compelling content

The first and foremost rule of marketing on any social media platform is to create compelling content. On TikTok, this simply means that you need to provide value to your audience by offering something new and useful to them. When you do this, you’ll naturally engage with the audience because they will see your content as having value.

In the example below, Spredfast provides valuable information about SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click) for small businesses.

The content in this example is relatively simple and straightforward, but it provides a valuable lesson in the process of marketing on TikTok. The video starts off simple enough — it presents a few sentences about SEO followed by a short animated video.

Though this content is rather straightforward, it still manages to make the viewer interested in the topic because it provides some value. Nowadays, viewers are often inundated with content and don’t have enough time to sit down and consume large amounts of content in a short amount of time.

As a business owner or marketer, you should constantly be thinking about how to provide value to your audience. Remember that the goal of content marketing is to attract, engage, and retain a target audience, not just to push products.

When you provide value to your target audience, you’re more likely to gain their trust and be able to sell your products or services to them. If your target audience doesn’t see your content as having value, then it won’t do you any good to try and sell them products or services. On the other hand, if your target audience does consider your content valuable, then it’s certainly worth your while to try and monetize it.

2. Consider the size of your audience

When deciding how to market on TikTok, the first thing you need to do is consider the size of your audience. Like with most social media platforms, the size of your audience on TikTok will determine the type of content you should produce to attract more users. If you have a small audience, then it may be best to produce high-quality informative videos.

If you have a large audience and want to produce more engaging content, then it’s a viable option to produce shorter, snappier videos with a combination of both text and images.

If you don’t have a large audience yet, then don’t worry about it too much — consider that once you do, you’ll have to prioritize marketing on the platform accordingly. For now, learn how to market on TikTok and enjoy the benefits of an engaged community of interested users.

3. Customize your user experience

The next step in the process of marketing on TikTok is to customize your user experience. When you do this, you’re altering the way your audience interacts with the platform — be it through text, audio, or video.

There are two main ways to do this: you can either make the platform more personal to your audience or make the experience more commercial.

Make the experience personal by creating separate pages on the platform for your different categories of users. For example, you could have a private group dedicated to discussing SEO strategies or a public group where you can share videos with your audience. Creating multiple groups means that you can have personal, cross-platform experiences for your audience.

4. Monetize your content

The last step in the process of marketing on TikTok is to monetize your content. When you do this, you’re taking your content (which may potentially be valuable to your audience) and turning it into money. There are many different ways to monetize your content, so you can choose the one that suits your needs best.

The most popular way is to integrate affiliate marketing into your content strategy. When you do this, you’re essentially getting paid when someone clicks a monetized link or buys a product that’s promoted in your content. If you decide to go this route, then the most popular website building tool to do this is WooCommerce.

There are many different ways to make money on a website, so find one that suits your needs best.

Make sure to read our guide to the most popular affiliate marketing platforms so that you know which one to integrate into your website.

Avoid these common mistakes when marketing on TikTok

Now that you know how to effectively market on TikTok, you need to avoid making these common mistakes:

1. Thinking that views will bring in money

The first and foremost mistake that you need to avoid when marketing on any social media platform is to think that views will bring in money. When you do this, you’re actually thinking about the wrong metric — your product or service needs to be the one profiting from the engagement, not you.

This is a mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs make when they get their first taste of online marketing campaigns. Though it may be tempting to think that more views will translate into profit, this needs to be avoided. Engagement on social media platforms brings in money only when the platform makes money from advertisers, and views usually don’t translate directly into cash.

2. Marketing to everyone

With so much competition on the platform, it’s essential that you target your audience effectively. When you do this, you’re not marketing to everyone, you’re marketing to a chosen group of people.

It’s a common mistake for businesses new to the platform to assume that everyone on the platform has the same interest as them. Though the general public may like what your product or service offers, this doesn’t mean that they want to hear about it — especially when there are already so many similar products on the market.

If you want to succeed on the platform, it’s essential that you figure out who your audience is and what they want. Once you do this, you can create content that will connect with them and allow you to grow your audience.

3. Publishing frequently

Frequent publishing on the platform is another common mistake that entrepreneurs make. Though it may seem that constantly putting out content will get you views and engagement, too much posting hinders your growth as a business.

When you post frequently, your audience will start to feel like you’re just trying to be topical and aren’t providing any value. When you do this, you’re losing out on the opportunity to grow your audience and engage with them on a more personal level.

4. Not considering brand safety

Last but not least, we have brand safety. When you get your first taste of online marketing or PR, you’ll likely be asked to consider brand safety by your clients or prospective clients. When you do this, you’re essentially asking yourself, “Am I providing enough value to my audience that my brand’s reputation won’t be damaged by what I say or do? Will my content benefit my brand or will it hurt it?”

This is a legitimate concern whenever you have a prominent brand associated with your content. Though you want to ensure that your content benefits your audience, it’s essential that your content doesn’t damage your brand’s reputation. For this reason, make sure that your content provides enough value that it doesn’t taint your brand’s reputation.

To sum up, if you want to succeed on the rapidly growing platform of TikTok, then avoid these common mistakes and you’ll be able to reap the benefits of an engaged audience.