TikTok is a wildly popular social media platform. Over 1.5 billion people use it to create and view bite-sized, short-form video content. These videos are fun and easy to consume, creating an enjoyable experience for all of its users.
But while TikTok may be fun, using TikTok for business is serious stuff. You need to be strategic to increase your chances of going viral, reaching the correct audience, and hitting your goals—through both organic means and TikTok advertising.
Unsure where to start? This beginner’s guide will walk you through an eight-step process on how to best use TikTok for business.
Why use TikTok for business?
Cost-effective social media marketing
TikTok gives you a great bang for your buck. Getting started with TikTok is relatively cheap and easy, and TikTok has the highest engagement rate of any social platform, has huge viral potential, and provides an excellent, cost-effective opportunity for marketers.
Vast audience reach
TikTok has been the fastest-growing social media platform ever, hitting its 1.677 billion active user milestone faster than any other social network. This presents you with the perfect app for reaching a massive, highly engaged audience that’s ready to consume your content.
Targeted advertising
According to TikTok itself, some 68% of users find TikTok ads to be one of the most unique forms of advertising. This can be a huge asset to your team—users aren’t as likely to suffer from ad fatigue and zone out your promotional videos as on other platforms.
TikTok users are reportedly also 1.5x more likely to make a purchase based on a product or video they watched on TikTok. So not only are users interested in watching your ads, they’re taking action because of them.
Real-time interaction
TikTok also offers live streaming capabilities, meaning you can interact with your followers in real time. Plan a live video, decide what you’ll do (i.e., Q&A, or behind-the-scenes while you make your products), and then let your audience know when you’ll be going live. You can even create a recurring plan for when and how often you want to go live to give yourself a regular chance to communicate with your customers in the moment.
How to use TikTok to promote your business: 8 steps
Excited to get started on your up-and-coming TikTok strategy? Follow our basic eight-step guide to discover how to use TikTok for business.
- Create a TikTok business profile
- Fill out your TikTok profile
- Get to know TikTok
- Pinpoint your goals
- Create a TikTok content strategy
- Start creating TikTok videos
- Engage with your audience
- Track your TikTok performance
1. Create a TikTok business profile
First, you need to create a TikTok business profile. You have two options for profile types: business and creator.
While creator accounts get access to more audio clips and monetization features, you’ll want to opt for a business account. This is because you get access to more important business features, like:
- Advertising
- Business suite
- Lead generation tools
Plus, creator accounts can’t add a link in their bio until they hit a certain follower count. As a large or small business, that bio link leading to your website—where people can find your products and services—will be a key component of your strategy.
To create a TikTok business profile, follow these steps:
- Download the TikTok app onto your smartphone
- Open the app and follow the prompts to create a new account. This will automatically be a personal/creator account, but we’ll walk you through switching to a business account.
- Head to your profile by tapping Profile in the bottom right corner of the navigation bar, then tap the hamburger menu (three parallel lines) in the top right corner of your profile.
- Tap Settings and privacy from the small menu that pops up.
- Tap Account at the top of the settings menu.
- Tap Switch to Business Account, then follow through each of the tabs as it walks you through what to expect from your new business account.
- Select a category that represents your business industry, then tap Next.
- Add a business email so your followers and customers can get in touch with you and tap Add.
- Add a bio (up to 80 characters), or tap Skip for now. We’ll cover more about writing a great bio in the next step.
2. Fill out your TikTok profile
Complete your TikTok profile so new followers know exactly what type of business you run and what you sell or offer. There are four main areas that you need to fill out:
- Profile picture
- Bio
- Website link
- TikTok shop
Your profile photo should be a high-quality image of your business’s logo for the best brand recognition and awareness.
You only get 80 characters for your bio, so you need to use them wisely. However, TikTok users are anything but formal, so you can have some fun with your bio.
Here’s a great example from automation tool Zapier: “Automate your work. Watch more TikTok”—this tagline perfectly sums up how Zapier can help its customers, while also providing a fun (and relevant) end goal: watching more TikTok content.
The next area to fill in is your website link. While you can use this area to lead customers directly to your homepage, TikTok is a lot like Instagram in that this is the only link opportunity you’ll have on the platform.
If you want, you can use a link-in-bio tool that can help you create a mini landing page with multiple links. This way, you can link to your website, important sales pages, and other social media platforms.
Finally, if you run an ecommerce shop, you’ll want to set up your TikTok shop so you can use the platform to make money for your business.
3. Get to know TikTok
Before you move onto anything else, take some time learning how to use TikTok to reach your audience.
Start by scrolling through your new For You page and watching the different types of videos that appear. Tap the search icon in the top right corner and scroll to see recommended searches based on what’s popular. See if you can pinpoint patterns and trends in the videos you’ve seen.
Then, open the recording part of the app and play around with it. Test filters, editing features, and more to get a good idea of how to create content on the app.
Do some research to better understand how the TikTok algorithm works and who your target audience will be on the platform. A basic understanding of TikTok’s demographics and which subset(s) of your user base are likely on the platform can help create content.
Remember that TikTok typically caters to a younger audience, so you’ll find a lot of millennials and gen Z on the platform.
4. Pinpoint your goals
What are you hoping to achieve on the platform? Before you start building out a content strategy, you need to know why you want to have a presence on this platform.
Common TikTok goals include:
- Brand awareness
- Brand personality
- Sales from TikTok shop
- Building influencer relationships
- Customer engagement
You can choose more than one goal, but understanding what you’re hoping to get out of the platform can inform the way you create content. For example, if TikTok shop sales are going to be a primary goal, you’ll want to put a heavy emphasis on content that features your products so you can link to them.
Or, if you’re looking more for brand awareness, you might focus on content using popular sound bites in a funny and engaging way (but still relates to your brand or industry), rather than heavy mentions of your product or service.
5. Create a TikTok content strategy
Now it’s time to create your TikTok content strategy. Plan out different types of content you want to create.
There are so many different formats and ideas to use for inspiration—and you don’t have to create them all yourself. Work with TikTok influencers or content creators as a part of your influencer marketing strategy to get fun user-generated content you can share on your feed like Crocs did.
Other TikTok content ideas include:
- Create a comedy skit
- Share holiday or time-sensitive content
- Jump on trending sound clips
- Incorporate your brand personality and show a bit of humor
- Promote your products or services
- Share educational content that informs your audience about your product or your industry
- Create a photo carousel with background music instead of a video
- Use TikTok features like the ability to stitch or duet existing video
- Incorporate relevant filters into your content
- Participatein TikTok challenges (you can even create your own branded hashtag challenge)
- Incorporating stickers into your video content
Next, create a content calendar so you can pre-plan a week or month or so at a time. TikTok recommends posting 1-4 videos daily to maximize your potential reach, especially as you grow your account. So, you want to brainstorm plenty of content ideas.
As part of your TikTok marketing strategy, you’ll also want to discuss whether you plan to build influencer partnerships or run specific marketing campaigns on the platform. Consider whether you plan to use TikTok ads or focus exclusively on organic content.
6. Start creating TikTok video content
You don’t need a huge film production setup to make great TikTok content. You can easily create engaging content just with your smartphone. And for many videos—especially those including filters—you can film and edit entirely inside of the TikTok app.
TikTok offers several in-app editing tools like:
- Cutting/trimming
- Templates
- Text overlays
- Stickers
- Special effects
- Filters
- Captions
- Sound clips
- Voiceover
Or, you can use a third-party video editor to help you make even more creative TikTok content, especially if you plan to repurpose it across other platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
Descript’s TikTok video editor is one such option for creating amazing videos that stand out in your audience’s TikTok feed.
You can:
- Add background audio you can’t get in TikTok
- Record a professional voiceover
- Play around with additional sound effects that can make your content more fun
- Insert transitions
- Add text overlay
- Make sure your video is accessible by adding captions or subtitles
Video captions and hashtags are just as important for showing up in user feeds as video itself. Include hashtags that are relevant to your video and industry, so you can reach a new audience on the platform. Include captions that provide additional context or include a call-to-action so more people can access your content.
7. Engage with your audience
Engaging and interacting with your audience is also a key component of using TikTok for business and can be a great way to convert new customers.
Scroll and watch other videos within your niche. Search for people that may be interested in your product or service, then comment and like their content.
Check out this video as an example. Beauty company Ulta left a comment saying, “This is how I will live my life now.” The comment has generated hundreds of likes and likely even more views, letting people know that Ulta is active on TikTok and increasing the chances that a potential customer will click over to their profile and follow them.
Make sure you’re responding to comments on your own videos as much as possible, in addition to perusing the platform for content to engage with. There should be two parts to your engagement strategy: one for getting discovered on the platform and one for engaging with your followers.
8. Track your TikTok performance
Finally, pay attention to your TikTok performance. Use your TikTok analytics to get an idea of your top videos so you can create similar content. Your analytics can also show you metrics like:
- The best times to post your videos
- Your likes, comments, and shares
- Follower growth
- Follower insights
- Conversions in TikTok shop
- Live streaming insights
Adjust your strategy based on what you discover within your TikTok analytics. You can even use a marketing tool to help you build reports to share with your team.
Create video ads and content in a few clicks with Descript
Want to create amazing TikTok content that goes viral and increases your business reach? Take advantage of Descript’s TikTok video editor. You can create videos that entertain your audience and impact your bottom line using features like:
- Studio Sound to improve audio quality
- AI Voices to fix mistakes in your speech
- Templates and tutorials to format your content for TikTok
- Add subtitles to your video content
- Choose from a library of royalty-free stock music
Learn more about how Descript can help your marketing team level up its video content and reach a wider audience.
Using TikTok for business FAQs
Is TikTok for business free?
Using TikTok for your business is completely free—unless, of course, you plan to invest in ads. Ads do require that you put a set budget behind them.
What are the disadvantages of using TikTok for business?
Businesses with a more serious niche or an older customer base may not be able to create engaging video content as well as others. Plus, it can take a while to grow your reach, which can be discouraging. But if you stick with it, you should be able to build an engaged audience.
How do you use TikTok effectively?
- Create a strong hook
- Use relevant hashtags
- Add filters
- Jump on trending sounds
- Edit your video properly
Keep videos short
