Is TikTok Right for Your Brand? 4 Questions to Ask Before Getting Started

Is TikTok right for your brand?

With 1 billion monthly active users, a growth rate of 8 new sign ups per second, and sky high levels of engagement, it makes sense that you may be feeling some pressure to jump on the TikTok wagon.

But, before you start posting just to be “on TikTok”, it’s important to make sure you have the resources to optimize the value of TikTok, and whether it’s going to pay off for your brand.

Here are four questions to ask yourself before giving in to the TikTok FOMO.

P.S. Learn more about Loomly’s TikTok integration here!

Manage all your social media accounts in one place.

Craft, schedule, & auto-post content to all your social channels, then track analytics and manage interactions from a single, easy-to-use dashboard.

1. Is TikTok right for my audience?

If you want to put your brand in front of a younger, mainly female audience, joining TikTok is a no-brainer. As of April 2022, 75.5% of TikTok users worldwide were aged 18 to 34. And 56% were women.

Overview of TikTok's Ad Audience by Age and Gender July 2022 DataReportal, showing a majority of younger, female users

But does this mean you should forget about TikTok if your target market is mainly male or over 35?

Not at all.

25% of the platform’s global user base (242.6 million) are 35+ years old. In fact, there are many older creators, like 92-year old Grandma Droniak (4.8M TikTok followers), who have taken the platform by storm and become viral sensations.

A recent study found families increasingly use TikTok together in the same way we congregate around the TV. So, if your product or service has a wider appeal, TikTok could enable you to hit several demographics at once.

Tax preparation software TurboTax, for instance — a product that’s of interest to anyone who needs to file taxes — has run a tremendously successful TikTok account:

The same goes for online business insurance provider NEXT , bookkeeping software Quickbooks , and energy supplier Iberdrola . All three brands appeal to a broad range of demographics — including older men — and their TikTok campaigns still exceeded expectations.

2. Is my product or service visual? If not, how can I make it visual?

TikTok is a visual platform, so it lends itself best to brands that have products or services they can show off easily.

If you’re a cafe or restaurant, for instance, you could whet your audience’s appetites with clips of your food, like Taco Bell, Chipotle, or The Bailey Bakery do.

A visual product or service certainly makes creating TikTok content easier, but if you’re willing to think outside the box and adjust your content’s tone for TikTok, you can still be extremely successful.

3. How will I need to adjust my brand’s tone?

When Nielsen asked 8,000 TikTok users why they logged on to the platform, the single biggest reason they gave was “to lift their spirits”.

TikTok is, first and foremost, a place to have fun, feel good, and be your true self. And that means heavily produced, overly slick content doesn’t necessarily do well. The best performing content is authentic, light-hearted, and a bit rough around the edges.

Above all, TikTok is an entertainment platform, so brands with products and services of all types can reach massive new audiences if they’re able to create interesting, funny, or engaging content.

The Washington Post, for instance, shifts away from straightforward news stories to make humorous creative videos. This example attempts to report two news stories at once: the UK’s new Prime Minister, and the Harry Stiles vs. Chris Pine fiasco:

The Washington Post, among many others, are proof that even a “serious” brand can have a successful alter-ego on TikTok if they’re able to shift to entertaining content.

4. Do I have enough time?

The big question for any marketer: do I have the bandwidth or resources to manage another social media account?

While you won’t necessarily need to post once per day, you shouldn’t jump into any new platform if you’re not going to be able to post consistently. Otherwise, you won’t be taking advantage of TikTok’s high engagement rates and audience-building opportunity.

Between March 2021 and 2022, Conviva studied 1,500 TikTok brand accounts to see who the top performers were.

The results were clear.

Brands that had a regular posting schedule and stuck to it, gained an average of 527,000 followers. And those with the biggest follower growth posted 7.1 times more often than other brands.

Graph from Conviva showing increased follower growth with more frequent posting on TikTok

Source: Conviva

So, is TikTok right for your brand?

If your brand is visual and your audience is predominantly females under the age of 35, you certainly better be on TikTok yesterday.

However, TikTok’s audience is rapidly diversifying and its content is reaching all types of people in all corners of the globe.

If you’re willing to think outside the box, you’re able to deliver a more authentic and entertaining tone, and you have the time and resources to post consistently, you by all means can take advantage of TikTok’s extremely powerful opportunity to build brand awareness.

By the way, follow Loomly on TikTok! (We’re just getting started too…)

Marketing, Social Media

Loomly Blog