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TikTok influencer marketing is gaining more ground as both this social platform and influencer marketing expand.
The two are seemingly made for each other because both thrive on authenticity, creativity, and viral content.
There's a reason why everyone is racing to be on TikTok - the platform has more than 750 million users at the moment of writing this article.
And let’s face it; if the Washington Post is ravaging TikTok with its comedy skits, your brand can do it too.
You just need to find out where to start.
This ultimate guide to TikTok influencer marketing will tell you how to leverage TikTok in your next campaign.
We’ll take you through all the steps, show you examples, and discuss strategy.
Most people associate TikTok with a teen demographic, but that’s not entirely true.
According to Comscore, the 20-39 generation represents 46% of the social network's user base, while teens represent 32.5%.
That means TikTok has hundreds of millions of users with significant purchasing power.
Another advantage is that those people make purchase decisions according to influencers’ recommendations.
There’s another thing to consider:
Those younger generations will soon grow up to have significant purchasing power too. According to Forbes, this generation will shortly amount to 40% of all consumers.
And Gen Z hates traditional advertising.
Warning: The worst mistake your company can ever make on TikTok is to post ads that look traditional, like they came out of a print ad or a TV advert.
That’s why influencer marketing is best for TikTok. Content creators on this platform:
Sure, you can try creating a TikTok business account and promoting your brand in the traditional way. However, you won't have the same success as a personal influencer account.
That brings us to the following question:
Let’s see how TikTok influencer marketing works and how you can use it - with some practical examples.
The key with any TikTok influencer marketing campaign is to understand your audience and their needs, including:
These factors are essential because you can’t simply list your product features in TikTok ads. Instead, you have to focus on the benefits for your target audience - what do they gain? It's not about what you think you solve.
The thing is that each segment of that audience is interested in distinct advantages. At the same time, they all dislike traditional ads.
Here’s the solution.
Allow more flexibility and independence to your influencer partners. Remember that these content creators have broad, captive audiences that listen to them for a reason.
So, use their credibility, charisma, and expertise to your advantage.
Pro tip: Let go of the script, but don’t give up total control of your messages:
Finding suitable influencers isn’t always easy, even though TikTok is full of them. To find TikTok influencers, you could try to:
Warning: These methods above work well, but they take a lot of time. The problem is, after short-listing a few influencers, you’ll have to check their audiences to ensure they fit your target. Next, you’ll have to send them messages to see if these content creators want to work with you. Then, you’ll want to agree on a budget.
There’s a quicker solution, though:
You can try an influencer platform such as inBeat. inBeat, for example, reunites many content creators from different fields. These professionals have captive audiences and know how to use social media for marketing. And of course, our search engine is very intuitive; all you have to do is input your search criteria to narrow down on your choices.
Besides, inBeat’s influencer database is completely free.
Try it now, and you can get the right influencers in minutes.
That’s probably the most important question because you’re not advertising on TikTok for the sake of advertising. You want to increase your gains and expand your company.
Here’s how you do it.
First, ask yourself what types of content work well on TikTok. Your best performance indicator is share-ability. The TikTok videos that people—your people—share the most are the ones they resonate with. These clips can be:
It’s essential to know your target audience first to create appealing content those people will engage with.
Below is a rundown of TikTok content that works the best for a variety of different audiences. You can use these ads in combination with your influencer campaigns:
Influencer marketing ads should take the center stage in your campaign, though.
This video content should generate:
Pro tip: If you want to achieve these results, make sure the content created and distributed by your influencer is:
This type of content will soon become viral, which means your brand will become a trendsetter.
Start with your audience’s needs, beliefs, and problems to get it right!
Your influencer marketing strategy on TikTok will be very similar to your other campaign strategies. Here are the six steps to take.
This preliminary step will set the tone for your entire campaign. It’s also the cornerstone that will establish your success, so:
Set specific and realistic goals that fit your business objectives. For instance, you can:
These goals should be based on a precise sales funnel. One example is the Awareness-Consideration-Action model.
In the first step, you attract attention to your brand by using relevant influencers. In the second step, consideration, you have to engage your potential customers. The people that become loyal to your brand at this step will be genuinely interested in your products. Finally, the third and final step gets people to decide.
Don’t forget to set clear KPIs that tell you if you’ve reached those goals.
Research different types of influencers in terms of their:
Warning: You may think the number of followers is an important metric, but it’s not as relevant as the factors above. While it is something to consider, a content creator’s following count alone does not indicate their quality as a potential business partner for an influencer campaign.
Set clear guidelines regarding the posts you want these influencers to create and allow them enough creative freedom to sound authentic. You can highlight these details in your Influencer creative brief. Remember that your messages should:
Gymshark’s 66 Days: Change Your Life Challenge is one of the best examples. TikTok users had to pick a fitness goal and document their before-and-after progress. This challenge worked because:
The results speak for themselves, as Gymshark got:
Warning: Make sure these messages are FTC-compliant to avoid any legal issues.
Although TikTok takes center stage in this strategy, you can repurpose the content created for this social media platform. To maximize your UGC marketing efforts, you can repost user-generated content on other social media channels or business emails. You can mention your influencers on your website, or you can congratulate a specific customer at an in-person event.
The world is your oyster, so remember to leverage that content you’ve already created to:
As a result, you will become top-of-mind in your customers’ minds, reinforcing people’s purchase decisions. That means your loyal fans will always choose your brand instead of the competition.
It’s essential to measure any campaign’s results to see if you have reached your desired objectives. That way, you can continually optimize your strategies and improve success.
Honing your methods and your partnerships is essential, so remember to stay flexible and objective.
To simplify the process of tracking your campaign, you can use an online tool, such as the Pulse tracking software.
TikTok is one of the best channels to create engagement and become viral. It’s also a fantastic short-form video platform to funnel users into becoming loyal customers.
However, you have to know how the channel operates and understand your fans. That’s the only way to pick relatable and suitable influencers to address your target.
That’s challenging if you’re just beginning your TikTok journey. To ensure your campaign runs smoothly, you can reach out to an established micro-influencer platform, such as inBeat.
Plus, our comprehensive influencer database is free. You can try it today, and we can also schedule a no-cost call to discuss specifics about your influencer marketing strategy.
Try inBeat.