Local business owners from New York to Paris, Texas (and everywhere in between) are learning the importance of TikTok when it comes to branding their business, selling their products and retaining their customers. Long ago, local businesses would send out a yearly holiday card or flyer an entire parking lot to advertise an upcoming sale – that’s no longer necessary. That’s because TikTok reshaped the way we do business – even local business. If you want to get in the game, compete with like-businesses, and find qualified customers, you’ll need to master TikTok and, of course, short-form vertical video. Lucky enough, you’ve come to the right place because SocialtyPro truly understands how to harness the power of TikTok for local business. So, keep reading for some handpicked tips and inspiration.
Identifying Your Goals: Defining Clear Objectives for Your TikTok Strategy
If you want to get the right results on TikTok, then you need to understand the importance of setting clear, attainable objectives. Objectives are essentially goals that your business sets in order to thrive. It’s best to have a few clear goals, rather than a laundry list of non-specific goals. A good objective for your business in general would be (as an example) to “sell 5,000 units” of a certain product, service, or software. When it comes to TikTok, your objectives will be similar. When it comes to finding reasonable goals to shoot for, just follow these simple steps:
- Step 1: Determine Your Business Goals. Is your business a service or a product? What are you selling? What problem does your business solve?
- Step 2: Determine Your Budget. Once you know the goals of your business, begin to determine the amount you can spend to achieve those goals with TikTok. What clear dollar amount are you willing to spend to achieve your goals? Are you going to place ads on TikTok? Are you going to hire social media talent to help bring awareness to your product?
- Step 3: Determine Your Timeline. When do you need this done by? Are you working within a stringent timeline? When does your budget run out?
- Step 4: Determine Your Target Audience. Who are your videos geared toward? Who are you trying to sell to? What does that demographic look like?
- Step 5: Determine Your Competition. Who is your competition? What videos are they posting on TikTok? How are they using TikTok to connect with your potential customers? What are they doing well? What areas are they deficient in?
Conducting Market Research: Getting to Know Your Target Audience on TikTok
Getting to know your audience on TikTok is easier than it sounds. That’s because with TikTok, everything you need to know is right at your fingertips. To conduct market research, simply find your competition and/or target audience on TikTok and observe them in their natural habitat. What kind of videos are they posting? How many followers do they have? Who are their followers?
You can identify your target audience by not only conducting market research, but also by utilizing TikTok analytics, and understanding hashtags. It would also be advisable to put together an audience targeting plan, which you can use to make things easier. This plan is all about how you’re going to target your audience. In other words, it’s what you’re going to do to gain the trust of your audience and get them to buy your product. To do that, keep this in mind:
- Consider your brand’s overall target audience. Instead of thinking about your target audience on TikTok, think about who your business caters to overall. Who buys your products or services? Think about the age range, location, and language of your business audience. Obviously your business audience and TikTok audience should be aligned.
- Stop thinking about “who” your audience is and instead figure out “what” they like. This is the key to cracking your audience on TikTok. Make videos they’d watch. Try not to sell to them. Instead, try to get to know them. Try to befriend them.
Analyzing Your Competitors: Learning from their TikTok Strategies
One of the best ways to analyze your competitors is to mimic their TikTok strategies. What videos work for them? Who are they following? Who is following them? These questions will provide insight into who your competitor is and how they operate on TikTok. Identify and understand their TikTok strategies and implement your own strategies using theirs as a guide.
Harness the Power of Short-Form Video for Local Business with SocialtyPro
So, now you understand that TikTok is necessary for business when it comes to branding, selling, and retaining customers. Local business owners need to utilize short-form vertical video in order to better connect with and maintain potential customers.How can YOU harness the Power of Short-Form video?
