TikTok has distinctly changed the marketing landscape as we know it. With its hyper-engaged community, addictive app design, and highly personalized algorithm, the short-form video platform is becoming a life-changer to business owners all over the world.
What started as an “app for Gen Zers” turned into a sensation that has become the perfect place to reach new customers and grow your business – fast.
TikTok can help introduce your business to a massive audience and has quickly spurred the creator economy to become a huge, underutilized force that brands can tap into.
With billions of users worldwide, small businesses can quickly establish a stronghold on their respective local markets. In other words, if you’re a small business in Massachusetts, you can use TikTok to market your business to targeted audiences as well as create an engaging online presence.
Is TikTok worth it for businesses?
Yes, if you’re willing to do the work.
TikTok’s audience is made up of all different ages and demographics; it’s not just teenagers. With hundreds of different subcultures, every niche from tarot card readings to financial and career advice has an engaged audience.
Moreover, there are serious marketing benefits to using TikTok for your small business:
Establish brand awareness
Everyone has heard one story or another of someone going viral on TikTok and going on to create a multi-million dollar business or career as a result. And it’s completely possible.
Posting consistently on TikTok gives you a high potential to go viral, whether that’s by hopping on a trend at the right time or, better yet, creating one. However, trends are not the only way to gain brand awareness.
You can partner with influencers that your audience trusts or run paid ad campaigns to put your brand on center stage.
Increase sales and website traffic
The beauty of social media is that if you create engaging content, your audience will flock to your website. Whether you offer a product or a service, good content is still king.
Using TikTok, you can easily increase sales and/or website traffic by showing the transformation your offer can bring to your ideal customers. (It’s worth noting here that you can only add a link to your bio after hitting 1,000 followers.)
Attract new customers
TikTok, like other social media platforms, is a great way to humanize your brand. Creating a relatable face to your brand online helps you forge strong relationships with new customers and nurture existing ones.
Not to mention, the app lets you apply SEO tactics, allowing you to leverage keywords, implement local SEO through hashtags and locations, and ultimately grow your local audience. If you’re a Massachusetts business owner with a brick-and-mortar business, this can be an extremely powerful strategy to increase your foot traffic!
Increase community engagement
When you focus on community building over marketing, you create an engaged audience. TikTok is therefore a powerful platform to reach a wide audience and grow your customer base while building an authentic relationship with them.
Using influencer partnerships, showcasing the team behind your brand, sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes, answering frequently asked questions, and more can all help your brand become more people-driven.
However, it is essential to know that TikTok requires real dedication. Users see the best success from posting engaging video content consistently, whether that’s three times a week or twice a day. Before jumping into the platform, you and your team should be prepared for the undertaking of taking regular video content during your work days.
How to get started with TikTok for business
If you’re ready to dive in, the first thing you need to do is create a Business Account. According to TikTok, a Business Account gives you “access to powerful insights into your audience and how they’re engaging with your content, as well as building valuable exposure for your products and services by driving traffic straight from your TikTok profile.”
This will allow you to:
- View real-time content performance analytics
- Get insights on your audience demographics
- Direct traffic to your website and product pages through dedicated call-to-action buttons
- Exclusive access to the Business Creative Hub
These resources will equip you with all the tools you need to create engaging content, measure your progress, and stay up-to-date with trends and video marketing best practices on the app.
Creating successful content on TikTok
Audience-driven engaging content is the key to high-performing content on TikTok. This means you need to step into your audience’s shoes and think about how you can deliver value in the form of education, entertainment, or something else
A great tactic to help you create successful content is to be an attentive consumer of TikTok videos. If something makes you smile, want to comment, or feel a strong reaction, take note of it! See how you can recreate something similar for your business or niche.
Additionally, you should be willing to experiment. Whereas apps like Instagram and LinkedIn tend to be more brand-driven, TikTok is more people-driven. This means you can experiment a little more freely with TikTok and it may actually benefit you.
Try different styles of videos, cadences, trends, and so on. If you start your page by experimenting across a wide range of styles, you can quickly start to gauge what type of content performs well with your audience.
If you’re ready, you can even put some ad spend behind successful organic posts to boost it and get more eyeballs on your account!
What to post on TikTok for your Massachusetts business
As a Massachusetts business, you’ll want to have a localized approach worked into your strategy, especially if you have a physical location.
This includes hashtags, location tags, and in-app community building!
TikTok generally prioritizes location and language when showing users content on the For You Page (FYP). In fact, you’ll notice that if you open your TikTok while traveling, your videos will slowly adapt by location.
As a local business, be sure to tag a location in a video and use hashtags or keywords specific to your local audience when relevant. Think, #BostonRestaurant or “Boston Small Businesses to Support.”
Additionally, connect with other local accounts. Whether it’s other businesses in your office building, restaurants in your area, influencers and content creators based in your locale, and so on, networking online is key to developing a community
Lastly, if you need some help getting started, here are some quick and simple content ideas to inspire your local business content on TikTok:
- Create a founder video introducing your business owner to your audience.
- Post a video about your journey and why you started your business in the first place.
- Share quick business-related tips with your audience while doing something relatable, such as cleaning your desk, cooking dinner, or using your product.
- Share your workspace with followers by creating a fun tour video.
- Hop on a fun trend and involve your team members!
- Create “before and after” videos to show a process.
- Duet or stitch someone else’s video to drop your two cents in a conversation related to your business.
- Show a day-in-the-life routine or vlog-style video.
- Use trending audio to showcase your product/service in an innovative way.
- Go live and answer FAQs in real time.
- Show off your local town or city! Be a tourist and help the algorithm and your audience understand that you are a local Massachusetts business!
Market your Massachusetts business on TikTok
As you can see, TikTok is power-packed with opportunities to grow and scale your business. Whether you are fully online, have a storefront or physical location, or something in between, establishing a localized digital presence is always beneficial.
Marketing your business as a “Massachusetts business” on TikTok will help you attract customers that resonate with you and can relate to you on topics unique to your area (like all the Dunkin’ iced coffees you’ll see even in 20-degree weather…).
By creating content that is both related to your business as well as a little outside it, you can create an authentic and engaging connection with your audience and ultimately help achieve your business and marketing goals.
This is a contributed piece published by Kavya Sebastian, founder of Kavya Creative Co., a copywriting studio for women of color. Kavya is an accomplished digital marketer with a passion for telling purpose-driven brand stories. She has worked with over 100 clients, with some being featured in publications like Forbes and Good Morning America. You can connect with her on Instagram or TikTok at @kavyacreative.co.
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