TikTok users include all demographics and seemingly every interest. The app has over 1 billion monthly users who spend upwards of 90 minutes daily on the app, opening it eight times, according to Business of Apps.
Savvy marketers can take advantage of the opportunity with content tailored to TikTok’s features and strengths. Engaging viewers in the first few seconds of a video is crucial to success, as is experimenting with formats that appeal to your audience.
Here are eight tactics to try.
TikTok Ideas for Merchants
Show, don’t sell. Create tutorials, recipes, and tips that showcase your products in real life. The CEO of Oath, a health food merchant, demonstrated a recipe with feta cheese.
Demonstrating recipes can help sell the ingredients.
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Partner with creators. Sixty-five percent of TikTok users say they rely on reviews and creator recommendations to make purchase decisions, per TikTok. Retailers can use TikTok’s Talent Manager Portal to connect and negotiate with those creators.
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Tap into niche communities. TikTok users create communities around topics; two of the most popular are #BookTok and #CleanTok. Find a community that fits your product range and create content for that niche. Here’s a #CleanTok example.
Sync with communities — such as cleaning — that relate to your products.
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Tap into hashtags with shopping intent. TikTok users also generate hashtags helpful for product promotion. Examples include #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, #MustHaves, #TreatYourself, #ShopWithMe, and #GetReadyWithMe. Brands such as Tarte cosmetics now offer product bundles based on trending items.
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Use trending audio. The top songs on Spotify often originate on TikTok, proving the platform’s power. Syncing your videos and transitions to a trending song can result in more viewers, as can lip-syncing to trending audio.
Lip syncing to trending audio can attract viewers.
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Replicate a trending format. This is another easy way to benefit from the latest content trends, this time with a visual format. TikTok’s “Trends” portal is a helpful (and free) discovery tool to find what’s popular.
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React to trending content. TikTok’s Duet and Stitch split-screen tools allow users to create a video beside another. It’s a handy way to benefit from trending content. It’s best to react to brands and creators you know — and be sure to credit them.
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Try a list. The ever-popular list format can include tips, dos and don’ts, product recommendations, and more. Try mentioning the last item at the beginning of the video to keep users watching to the end.
Lists can include tips, dos and don’ts, and product recommendations.
