TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world. The short-form video-sharing platform has been the second most downloaded-app in 2022. In 40 countries, it was the most downloaded app. Overall, Tiktok’s reach covers more than 150 markets and 35 languages.
This makes TIkTok an incredible marketing tool for Ecommerce brands. The app has more than 1.67 billion active users globally. Alongside wide reach, TikTok offers high engagement as well. It has the highest in-app time spent among all social media platforms.
TikTok is a highly effective marketing channel for several stages of the funnel. Especially if your products cater to a younger audience. The majority of TikTok’s advertising audience is between 18 to 34 years old.
Let’s see how you can incorporate TikTok into your Ecommerce marketing strategy. We will discuss how this app can play a crucial role during different stages of the customer’s journey: Brand Awareness, Sales and Customer Engagement.
Using TikTok for Ecommerce Brand Awareness
TikTok is only a video-sharing platform. Audiences use TikTok for several different purposes. One such purpose is brand discovery. 35.1% of the TikTok audience uses the app to research and discover brands. Furthermore, people are also using TikTok as a search engine. This makes it an effective tool for Ecommerce businesses to raise brand awareness.
The best way to build brand awareness on TikTok is through content marketing. However, you need to understand the consumption behavior of TikTok’s audience. The majority of users turn to TikTok for funny and entertaining content.
This gives you a chance to showcase your brand’s personality in different ways. You can create engaging short-form videos that flaunt the witty and humorous side of your Ecommerce brand. But, you do not have to limit yourself to entertainment. People also watch tutorials and life-hack videos on the app.
You can create short video tutorials about different ways to use your products. This can work wonders for beauty and cosmetics Ecommerce brands. Make-up and skincare tutorials have received billions of views on TikTok.
Aside from content type, there are two crucial aspects that you should consider to maximize the reach of your content on TikTok. These are hashtags and trends. Both of these are intricately linked.
The right hashtags will help your content reach relevant audiences. While capitalizing on TikTok trends will help you piggyback on the popularity of trending hashtags. You can use this hashtag discovery tool to maximize the reach of your content on TikTok.
This tool will also help you research popular trends. You can base your content strategy on these trends. It will help you ride the wave of already popular content formats to shoot up your brand’s reach.
Using TikTok for Ecommerce Sales
TikTok has emerged as a powerful social commerce platform. 41% of users purchased a product after discovering it on TikTok. Additionally, 67% of the buyers said that TikTok inspired them to purchase the product even when they had no plans to buy it. The influence of TikTok on purchase decisions is evident from the trend #TikTokMadeMeBuyit. The hashtag has received more than 60 billion views.
Tiktok also offers several options to Ecommerce brands for social selling. The platform has three native formats for in-app shopping: Product Showcase, Shoppable Videos, and Live Shopping.
You can use TikTok to showcase your products within the app. You can also create an active Ecommerce store on TikTok itself. However, shoppable videos and live shopping give you better reach to promote the products.
You can combine content marketing and direct sales with these two formats. People can enjoy live or uploaded videos and purchase the products if they like them. But, keep in mind the content and the products must be relevant to one another.
You can also use the Live Shopping format to hold sales events with offers and discounts. However, it is necessary to keep the content fun and engaging. Remember, TikTok is a place people visit for entertainment, not sales pitches.
While these formats allow people to buy products, you will need an order fulfillment system to process the order for shipping. TikTok itself offers integrations with several Ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Square, Woocommerce, and more.
Using TikTok for Ecommerce Customer Engagement
The influence of TikTok does not end with purchase. You can use it to create a variety of post-purchase experiences for your customers. And TikTok users actively engage with brands. 79% of TikTok users tag the brand when creating how-to tutorials using the products. This format of user-generated content (UGC) further increases your brand’s reach. TikTok has the 4th highest rate of audience engagement from UGC campaigns.
You can further boost customer engagement by creating challenges and contests. You need to design events that encourage your customers to create content using the products. These types of challenges have the potential to go viral.
Ecommerce brands can also use TikTok to run a referral program. You can create a challenge that encourages the users to pass on the challenge to other people. Then you can offer rewards to the original content creator. For inspiration on how to design these events effectively, exploring successful referral examples can offer valuable insights.
You can also merge online and offline channels by using QR codes. Use your product packaging to initiate the TikTok challenge. You can encourage your customers to upload unboxing videos of the product using the QR code. The same strategy can work for initiating contests and challenges.
Ecommerce brands can use TikTok for post-purchase content marketing as well. You can create tutorials and guides in a short-video format. Then you can redirect your customers to these videos to help them understand and use your products.
Conclusion
TikTok has plenty of applications for Ecommerce marketing. You can use it to engage people at every stage of the customer’s purchase journey. But, as with all social media platforms, TikTok also has its unique characteristics. You need to embrace the organic and paid formats of marketing on this platform to engage with its users.
AUTHOR BIO:
Carl Torrence is a Content Marketer at Marketing Digest. His core expertise lies in developing data-driven content for brands, SaaS businesses, and agencies. In his free time, he enjoys binge-watching time-travel movies and listening to Linkin Park and Coldplay albums.
Twitter - https://twitter.com/torrence_carlLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/torrence-carl
For more on how to make the most of your TikTok content, read on our tutorial on how to embed your TikTok feed on your website.