Written by
Mackenzie TaylorPosted last year
In just a few years, TikTok has joined the top three leading marketing platforms, alongside Facebook and Instagram for B2C businesses. The “TikTok made me buy” trend clearly indicates the power TikTok has in influencing purchases. So why should B2B brands be left out?
At Flick, we’re dedicated to helping brands of all kinds leverage the power of social media. So, in this article, we’re going to show you how you can use TikTok as a B2B business to boost brand awareness online.
What is TikTok B2B Marketing?
TikTok B2B marketing helps you connect with your customers on a more relatable level and showcase your brand values. You can show how your solution can benefit their business more personally. TikTok has the power to help B2B businesses achieve a more substantial online presence, so why not use it?
You might not pair TikTok with B2B marketing, but don’t rule it out yet! Plenty of B2B businesses have made a name for themselves on TikTok, and it’s a great way to showcase a different, more casual side of your brand. Plus, TikTok’s platform—TikTok for Business can help you build deeper connections with your target customers, so use it to your advantage!
Why Use TikTok for B2B Marketing?
Great for driving brand awareness
According to Sprout Social, short-form video content is currently the most engaging and consumed type of content. TikTok, the go-to platform for short-form video content, is a fantastic way for B2B businesses like yours to get the recognition and engagement you desire.
Leverage UGC
According to research by Stackla, 79% of people report that UGC highly impacts their purchase decisions compared to other advertising sources. And guess what? User-generated content (UGC) is a big part of TikTok. It is viewed as authentic and fits the interactive style of TikTok videos that people love so much. As a B2B business, you can encourage UGC for your brand through TikTok by leveraging existing content related to your product through duets and stitches.
Reach and connect with a broader audience
With over 1 billion users monthly, TikTok is a great platform to reach new customers for your products and services. Since the platform has a casual nature, it also makes it easy for brands to connect with their audience.
How To Use TikTok for B2B Marketing
Now that we’ve established how TikTok can be great for your B2B marketing strategy let’s get practical. Let’s take a look at some actionable steps you can take to help you succeed at B2B TikTok marketing.
Adjust Your Brand Voice
Adjusting your brand voice doesn’t mean changing your company’s core values. It’s more about how you present your brand in public spaces. Keep in mind, your brand voice isn’t static. You can adjust it to suit a specific audience or platform. After all, what works for you on Instagram isn’t going to work the same on TikTok. With TikTok, it’s best to adopt a more casual tone in your content while still showing the value of your brand.
The team at Semrush has mastered the art of using popular but outrageous search queries to adjust their brand voice and gain content inspiration. Their TikTok videos often showcase real people looking at the camera and include humorous elements that make the brand more relatable to their audience.
@semrush The rudest thing in the world #seo #searchengineoptimization #seomarketing ♬ The Office Kelly Kapoor How Dare You – millennigals
Create Organic Content
TikTok loves organic content, so you should target it to increase your brand reach. TikTok content ideas can be difficult to come up with so here are some useful ways you can create organic content for your B2B business:
- Educational videos around your product – Tutorials tend to perform really well on TikTok, and what better way to get new customers on board than by demonstrating different ways your B2B product or service can be used. The best part is you can engage your audience and inform them in just 30-60 seconds, as opposed to long tutorials, which can have significantly higher drop-off rates.
- Announce new feature updates/ products. TikTok offers a great platform to share any exciting news related to your brand, without simply relying on your website or email marketing. You can leverage the power of trending TikTok songs for these types of videos to help expand your reach.
- Show how your customers use your products. As a B2B business, it’s often hard to showcase how your product works. Fortunately, TikTok provides you with a platform where you can do just that! You can showcase your product from the perspective of your customers as another way of relieving your customers from overtly promotional content. Include short videos of customer testimonials or share how customers use your product or service through UGC.
@shopifynah, today’s the day.♬ Cartoon Eye Blinking Sound – Anna
Shopify uses TikTok to share tips on productivity, business, and how best to use their service. What works best for them is that their content showcases the perspective and experience of Shopify vendors, making the platform much more relatable to real people. With over 130,000 followers in just two years, they’re clearly doing something right with their content.
Get Creative
At the moment, TikTok is the source of viral online challenges that have a massive ripple effect. You may have noticed that they often have a unique hashtag associated with them. Starting your own hashtag challenge that relates to your B2B business could help you gain some visibility and reach a much wider audience.
You could also take a leaf out of Smartsheet’s book by recruiting talent from across your business, so you always have people willing to participate in TikTok videos. Smartsheet’s social team does a great job of showcasing a behind-the-scenes look into how their brand operates. What makes them interesting, is that they draw inspiration from the abundance of TikTok videos available, and you can too.
@smartsheet I just got back from vacation yay! #corporate #wfh #wfhlife #corporatelife #corporatetiktok #brandtok #smartsheet #projectmanagement ♬ الله المستعان – عبدو تشان
With Flick, you can also organize and manage your hashtags from your TikTok videos over to your Instagram. Why is this so beneficial? Well, it allows you to grow your following and gain more platform recognition.
Be Authentic, Not Polished
As a B2B business, you may be used to posting on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn which demand quite polished content and a neatly curated feed to express what your brand is about. With TikTok, you’re going to have to break out of this mold because the audience isn’t worried about polished content.
Your focus should be on making your content authentic. Different audiences you want to attract will be looking for brands that showcase their real and somewhat vulnerable side.
Create videos that your audience can relate to. “POV” videos have gained some popularity on TikTok and they feature a text overlay description of a relatable situation and someone in the video depicting a humorous scene of the situation.
@grammarlyofficial It would be so awesome. 🥲 #ItWouldBeSoAwesome #WritingTips #WritingAdvice #Typos #Captions #GrammarTips #Grammarly ♬ original sound – Spider.Geek_
You can use this trend to show situations your target audience is likely to experience. These videos aren’t promotional, they just help your audience bond better with your brand. Grammarly has done this well by showing the experience of those who use their service. They’re often humorous shorts, which highlight some of the ways Grammarly is used, which makes it incredibly easy for other users to get involved. Not only is this a great way for Grammarly to get UGC, but it also makes their content feel much more authentic.
Collaborate With Influential Creators
TikTok has no shortage of influential accounts in a variety of different niches, B2B included. These accounts have garnered an impressive following because of their quality and engaging content.
Search for influential businesses, that may use or be familiar with your product, and reach out to them to find out if they would be willing to collaborate with you on TikTok. Generally, this works out perfectly for both parties, as you can leverage each other’s audience, gaining more brand reach in the process. It’s a win-win for everybody!
Invest in TikTok Ads
Yes, we previously mentioned that the TikTok algorithm is primarily suited for organic discovery. But, if you feel like you may need an extra push to get started on TikTok as a B2B brand, investing in paid ads isn’t a bad idea.
With paid TikTok ads, you’ll be able to reach your target audience in a much quicker way than if you only relied on organic means. You’ll also be able to test out different ad wordings and creative styles to find out what works best for your brand.
Post Regularly
Don’t be alarmed, but posting even once a day on TikTok is not enough if you’re trying to get the attention you want as a B2B business. You should aim to be posting 1 to 3 times (or more!) per day. This may seem almost impossible because you might doubt your arsenal of content ideas but TikTok videos are short and sweet.
Remember, your videos don’t need to be heavily edited or perfect, they can be raw and authentic. Your videos can range from 5 seconds to 30 seconds, but according to TikTok, those between 21 and 34 seconds perform the best.
Wrapping Up
As TikTok focuses on short-form video content in its own unique way, as a B2B brand you can breathe new life into your social media marketing strategy. Through TikTok, you can achieve more engagement with your audience and do it in a fun and creative way while showcasing your product’s value.
Looking for more ways to grow your online reach? With Flick’s Instagram Hashtag Finder, you can gain more traction for the TikTok content you share on your Instagram stories. This way, your TikTok can also help you gain more Instagram followers. Still not convinced? Try it for free and see for yourself!
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