Can you sell products through TikTok?

Posted by Damian Roberti on August 11, 2022

What exactly is this app TikTok?
TikTok is a social media site that enables users to produce, view, and share short videos (up to three minutes in length) about anything and everything, including lip-sync fights, sports highlights, memes, and more. Users have the ability to customize their videos by adding music, sound effects, messages, and filters. Additionally, users have the ability to cooperate with one another by "dueting" another user's movie or by reacting with a "stitch." Even while TikTok is vastly different from other social platforms, it shares a number of characteristics in common with those platforms. After the well-known video-sharing software Vine, which was renowned for its short-form videos, was discontinued in 2016, TikTok took over as the platform that was recognized for its hilarious, quirky, and occasionally just plain strange content.

And just like Snapchat and Instagram, TikTok provides its users with a variety of tools, such as video filters and stickers, in addition to user communities that are centered on hashtags and influential users. TikTok is a network that focuses around trends, dance challenges, or music, so it should come as no surprise that sixty percent of its users are members of Generation Z. Furthermore, engagement rates on TikTok are through the roof in comparison to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
But there's more to TikTok than just humorous jokes and videos of people lip-syncing. Recently, many companies have come to the conclusion that TikTok offers a significant amount of untapped potential in terms of promotion and product sales... In the year 2020, the platform known as "For Business," TikTok, was released. This allowed online retailers to connect their e-commerce businesses to TikTok in order to attract new audiences and generate additional sales. If you have a TikTok Business account, you will be able to create and manage TikTok advertising, synchronize your product inventory, and provide your customers with a streamlined buying experience.

Continue reading to gain an in-depth understanding of how to sell and market your items on TikTok if you are interested in targeting a younger demographic and believe that your company could profit from more exposure to a wider audience. Develop a Marketing Plan for Your Own Personal TikTok Account. When it comes to marketing on TikTok, one of the most attractive aspects is that you do not need to have the most followers or the most flawless material in order to go viral. In point of fact, this is frequently not the case at all. This is in contrast to feeds on other social media platforms, which give precedence to content coming from people and channels that already have a large number of followers. TikTok, on the other hand, challenges the established order by offering lesser-known content providers greater visibility on the platform. This affords all users, including commercial enterprises, the opportunity to be seen.

As stated in a recent news release TikTok's Discovery algorithm recommends material based on a number of variables, including user interactions (videos that you like, share, or comment on and accounts that you already follow). These user interactions are taken into account.
video information (i.e. captions, sounds, hashtags).
device and account settings include things like language preferences, location, and whether or not you are using a mobile device or a desktop computer, among other things.
Even though a significant portion of TikTok's original algorithm is still a mystery, the most important thing to keep in mind when developing an efficient marketing approach is to focus on the aspects that you are aware of. In a short amount of time, you will be able to generate brand awareness and enhance conversions if you are successful in getting your content included on the For You page of your target demographic. However, in order to accomplish this, you must first determine who exactly makes up your audience. Even while the majority of TikTok users fall into the younger age bracket, the platform nonetheless caters to a wide variety of specialized audiences. Try determining essential characteristics based on the following criteria in order to assist you in defining the ideal audience for your brand:

Age.
Gender.
Location
Occupation/industry
Interests and pastimes, including any favorite websites or products.
incentive for making the purchase.
How to Make Money with TikTok
After you have determined who makes up your ideal customer base, it is time to begin marketing your business and making sales. You will be able to connect your BigCommerce store to your TikTok account quickly and effortlessly thanks to the fact that BigCommerce has formed a partnership with TikTok. Here are eight steps that will get you started on the right path: 1. Create a new user account. To get started with TikTok, the first thing you need to do is download the app, make an account, and begin exploring the platform. If you currently have an account for personal use, you will probably want to create a different one for your business; nevertheless, you will be able to move between numerous accounts using the same login information.

This is good news if you already have an account. Following that, you'll need to think of a username that you'll use for your page. You should feel free to get creative with it, but you should also make sure that your handles are consistent throughout all of your social networks. This will make it easier for your clients to identify and recognize you. Last but not least, you should upload a profile photo, write a bio that provides a succinct explanation of your company, and connect your Instagram and YouTube accounts so that it is easier to navigate across platforms.
2. Upgrade to the "Pro" tier of your account. When you first sign up for TikTok, you will automatically be assigned a "Personal" account as your starting point. You will, however, need to upgrade to "Pro" in order to better advertise your brand and access tools related to analytics. "Pro" offers two sorts of accounts: a creator account and a business account. Choosing "Business" as your category of choice is a no-brainer if you're trying to drum up business for your company.

If you have this type of account, you may gain access to extensive analytics and monitor the performance of your page to determine which movies are successful and which ones you should remove from your collection. In addition, you will be able to include contact information as well as a link in your bio that directs readers to your web storefront, an Amazon storefront, or a Facebook business page. 3. Produce content. After you have successfully activated your account, it's time to get to the fun part: recording videos on TikTok! This is the point where you can really let the personality of your brand shine through. TikTok users prefer authentic, raw content, so don't be afraid to have a little bit of fun with it! If you find yourself stuck in a creative rut, try looking through your For You feed for some inspiration, and then come up with some ideas for how to get out of it. Get a piece of paper and a pen, and write down every thought you have, whether it's a good one or a bad one.

Even if one of your ideas isn't very good, it should still be able to assist you arrive at a better one. Even though the objective is to increase sales and advertise the goods you are selling, you should avoid coming off as too pushy. TikTok users are not fooled by this and will most likely scroll straight past your video. Instead, you should strive to maintain the user's interest in such a way that they will want to watch your movie multiple times and recommend it to their friends. TikTok will rank your video on the "For You" pages of other users' accounts proportionately to the number of views it receives on its platform. You may try including content that is humorous or engaging; for example, you could use a sound effect that is currently popular or a visually compelling video tutorial. Keep in mind that the maximum amount of time you have to capture the attention of the audience is three minutes; however, if you can accomplish so in even less time, that will be even more successful. Do you still require some creative stimulation? Check out the TkTok for Business Inspiration Center if you need ideas for your company.

4. Interact with the people who are watching you. The purpose of using a social networking app is to interact with other people, hence the name. Therefore, avoid isolating your TikTok business from the people who watch it! When consumers interact with your material by liking it, sharing it, or commenting on it, you should make sure that you are actively and consistently engaging in conversation with those users in the comment box. This will demonstrate to your audience that your primary objective is not to simply make a quick sale, but rather to engage in conversation with your clients and cultivate a sense of community around your business. 5. Engage in marketing through the usage of influencers. If you have ever browsed through Instagram or YouTube, it is probable that you are already aware with the concept of influencer marketing. It is possible to significantly increase both the number of clients you serve and their awareness of your brand with the assistance of influencers, particularly those who already belong to your target group. Furthermore, considering that 49% of customers base their purchasing decisions on the recommendations of their influencers, this marketing strategy is not one that should be ignored.

Try looking for terms or phrases that are related to your product on TikTok, and then look through the most popular that would be a good fit for your brand. This will help you identify a TikTok creator who fits within your niche. 6. Make advantage of content that was created by users. There's a good reason why the expression "TikTok Made Me Buy It" has become so common: the reason so many products become popular on TikTok is because an average user submitted a video of themselves gushing about a particular product. And many of these popular videos are not even sponsored advertisements; rather, they are merely organic content that is shared on the site until, before you know it, almost every TikTok member has purchased the goods. You can encourage your audience to post videos using your items by creating your own unique hashtag or issuing them a challenge. This is not only beneficial to your company since it is free advertising, but it is also an efficient approach to spread awareness of your brand and get more people familiar with the things you sell.

7. Investigate your alternatives for selling content on TikTok. You have the option of incorporating sponsored adverts into your marketing plan, in addition to organic and user-generated content. User-generated content is content that is produced by users. TikTok, to its credit, provides a diverse selection of tools and sorts of advertisements, each of which may be tailored to reach a certain demographic of users. You have a choice between the following two distinct kinds of advertisements:
Self-Service Ads: These types of advertisements appear in a user's For You page exactly like any other TikTok video, so they blend in and don't feel overly salesy. Self-Service Ads are a type of advertising that is provided by TikTok.
These advertisements consist of branded hashtag challenges, brand takeovers, branded filters, and Top View advertising, which are videos that appear within the first five seconds after a user opens the app.
Keep your audience interested. Utilize the Video Creation Kit provided by TikTok to quickly and easily produce your video advertisements. You have access to a choice of movie templates, and you can even produce videos by making use of the photographs you already have without having to be an expert editor.

8. Make the most of the resource center that TikTok provides. The "Small Business Resource Center" will be your best friend if you are just starting out with selling on TikTok. This is especially true if you are just getting started. Using this service, merchants are able to gain access to advertising templates, observe webinars presented by professionals in their field, and gain knowledge from other brands who have run successful advertising campaigns on TikTok. In addition, the resource center provides users with TikTok Pixel, a tool that collects data about customers who have interacted with their content and assists users in tracking and analyzing the effectiveness of advertisements.

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