TikTok influencer Marketing – A Guide to TikTok Marketing in 2023

So, what makes TikTok an excellent platform for your influencer marketing endeavors?

It’s undeniable that TikTok has proven to have the potential to turn ordinary folks into internet celebrities overnight. Take Bella Poarch and her mesmerizing zoomed-in lip-syncing videos or seven-year-old Taqriq’s (AKA “The Corn Kid”) famous interview on the Recess Therapy web series, where his undying love for corn turned him into a beloved icon. Both transformed from unknowns into viral sensations due to the app’s unique algorithm, which capitalizes on great content and genuine moments shared. 

Influencers have caught on to how easy it could be to grow their following on TikTok compared to other social media apps such as Facebook or Instagram, where the algorithm is much more particular and limiting in terms of content, often making it hard for smaller creators to reach new audiences. As more influencers migrated to creating content on TikTok, brands also soon realized the app’s immense potential for boosting sales and brand awareness. After all, if so many influencers can become overnight internet sensations, why shouldn’t their branded content gain the same virality? 

However, brand owners soon discovered the difficulties in creating an influencer marketing campaign that adequately features their product or service while keeping the app’s emphasis on spontaneity and genuineness in mind. This is why hiring an influencer marketing agency is crucial to the success of any influencer marketing campaign, but especially for those created on TikTok.

Understanding the TikTok Algorithm

Unlike other social media platforms, TikTok allows micro-influencers and small businesses to grow their following and become popular very quickly, depending on how good the content they put out there is. The algorithm heavily rewards creators for producing entertaining, relevant content and focuses much less on the number of followers they may have at the time. 

This notion was relatively new and contradicted everything we knew about influencer marketing from advertising on other social media platforms. Those quick enough to adapt and utilize this to their advantage can create successful campaigns and grow their following immensely. Nonetheless, even today, many brands still neglect to consider these essential factors when building their influencer marketing campaign on TikTok.

Here’s what you should know about the TikTok algorithm:

1. The app places a significant emphasis on user interactions 

Similarly to Instagram’s algorithm, TikTok will personalize each user’s main feed based on their interactions with the content which was previously presented to them. This will depend on factors such as the user’s interests, likes, comments, demographics, and more. 

2. Quantity (sometimes) beats quality 

TikTok’s algorithm has turned the tables on most of what we have been taught about advertising. While it may seem unintuitive and contradictory at first, we have discovered that the app, unlike many of its competitors, can often favor creators who post more frequently than others. TikTok recommends posting 1-4 times per day to continuously share fresh and diverse content. Creators have even joked about how their most ‘casual’ videos have become their most famous. With this in mind, we now understand that capturing an authentic moment, however unpolished, has the potential to become as successful, and often more successful, than a carefully curated marketing campaign.

3. Timing is everything, but not how you think it is

What we’ve learned from advertising on apps like Instagram and Facebook about the best time to post advertisements becomes far less relevant when it comes to posting on TikTok. While there is some significance to posting times on the app, the focus should be on catching the audience’s attention with the right trend at the right time. 

The platform promotes spontaneous content that follows what’s trending at the moment. This is why it’s crucial to follow and learn about the most prevalent hashtag challenges, sounds, filters, and videos currently trending on the app. Brands that use these to their advantage in a timely manner will be able to reap the rewards of a successful marketing campaign. 

4. Turning rigid brand messages into fun and creative videos is key

There is no place for traditional marketing methods on TikTok. The less polished and raw your branded content is, the better. This is another factor differentiating TikTok’s algorithm from other popular apps. People often go on TikTok to relax or have a laugh after a long day. They also usually choose their favorite influencers based on how entertaining they are to watch. Therefore, brands that can find a way to convey their marketing messages creatively through their business accounts and influencer marketing campaigns on the app may have a leg up on the competition when building brand awareness. 

5. Going viral doesn’t require a hefty budget

There are currently millions of creators on TikTok, ranging from micro-influencers to macro-influencers, with many more joining daily. This can make matching your brand goals and budget with the right influencers quite a difficult task. As established, virality on TikTok is often achieved by the ability to create the right video at the right time. Successful influencers have mastered this technique to become successful, and brand owners should do the same. 

Plenty of influencers with a smaller following have created viral videos by simply showcasing their creativity and charm. This can apply to marketing campaigns as well. Take Duolingo’s simple yet hilarious take on the popular “BeReal” trend as an example. They’ve taken their signature owl mascot, Duo, and turned it into a viral meme that is now loved by many on the platform. This endeavor even encouraged some influencers to interact organically with their branded content without the brand having to spend a penny on a large-scale brand awareness campaign. 

So what’s the takeaway from all of this?

The TikTok algorithm is uniquely different from other popular social media apps, requiring both marketers’ and influencers’ creativity. To create a successful influencer marketing campaign, brand owners should find ways to humanize their messaging, make it accessible to new audiences, and even poke fun at themselves sometimes for an added touch of authenticity.

TikTok Influencer Marketing Strategies 

From dancing and hashtag challenges to pranks and life advice, there’s no limit to how creative you can be when advertising on TikTok. Let’s go over some influencer marketing strategies and techniques you can utilize to make your next campaign go viral:

Challenges 

Hashtag challenges are an excellent way for businesses to get involved in the app’s current trends. They are usually well-recieved by many, and there are always plenty to choose from. Incorporating a branded hashtag into an existing challenge or creating your own challenge or filter is a good starting point. Take e.l.f’s #EyesLipsFace campaign, which landed the brand a shorty award a few years ago. Using TikTok’s collaborative nature, the brand has found a way to connect with its younger audience in a meaningful way. 

Reviews

Having influencers review your product or service can also help put it out there for potential consumers. Although it’s a more direct form of advertising, it can give your audience a clear look and feel into what you’re offering them, which is something they’ll appreciate before considering making a purchase. The vital thing to keep in mind when using this strategy is to find influencers that will best represent your brand and its goals while still managing to capture the audience’s attention. A great example is this sponsored review of Kim Kardashian’s shapewear and clothing brand, Skims. The video reached over 3 million views, all while the influencer who posted it had less than 10,000 followers. In just 6 seconds, the creator demonstrated the shapewear’s transformative effect, which led to thousands of positive reactions and contributed to the brand’s online awareness. 

Educational

There are many forms of educational content on TikTok, from ways to solve common household problems, overviews of historical events, and videos teaching us how to cook, code, or even speak a new language. If used correctly, these can become opportunities for your brand to shine. Most products or services can be incorporated into educational content, but let’s take this skincare brand as an example. Dermalogica’s approach to advertising on the app focuses on collaborating with influencers who teach their audience about the importance of skincare. The brand cleverly incorporates its products and unique formulas in these influencers’ regular content cycle. This not only makes the content appear more natural for those watching it but also increases the brand’s authority in its field.

Food & Recipes

If your brand has anything to do with food, this category is a no-brainer. TikTok is booming with foodies who love watching and learning how to make new dishes at home. This is a great strategy for your brand to engage its target audience in fun and creative ways. A brand that does this exceptionally well is the ever-popular Mexican fast-food chain, Chipotle. The brand collaborates with and features influencers on its page to showcase signature dishes and present new ones in humorous ways. This resulted in a community of over 2 million followers who enjoy interacting with their content. 

Unboxing & Hauls

Who doesn’t love a good unboxing video? This trend dates back to the earlier days of YouTube but has since been reinvented on TikTok as well. Opening an aesthetically pleasing package is a major part of retail therapy, and watching the experience is no different. Apple has taught us that a product’s unboxing experience is no less important than its usability. Designing an intricate package can make your brand memorable and encourage potential customers to purchase. Find the influencers who will make the unboxing experience exciting. 

So what about hauls? They’re equally successful on TikTok and similar in genre to unboxing videos but usually feature a multitude of purchases. Let’s assume you own a clothing brand to demonstrate how to use this trend. A good option to go about a marketing campaign in this case would be to include influencers of all shapes and sizes who can help feature the brand’s inclusive size range and silhouettes. 

Vlogs

Taking a peak into someone’s life has always been fascinating. Influencers have made entire careers out of filming their everyday chores and putting them online, and TikTok has brought a whole new dimension to the genre with its creative features. Whether the product or service you offer is a coffee machine, a vitamin supplement subscription, or an online meditation course, there will always be a way to showcase it through a vlog. One example is this creator’s TikTok vlog, where she explains how Notion’s platform helps her stay focused when setting her intentions for the week. This subtly highlights the service’s best selling point, which is its ability to let users organize and fully customize dashboards and pages for their own unique needs. 

How to Find and Connect with TikTok Influencers

We’ve covered TikTok’s unique algorithm and the different ways we as marketers can utilize it to create an influencer marketing campaign that will resonate with our target audience, but the question of how to find the best influencers to work with remains.

While there are many ways to go about this process, we recommend focusing on finding a well-rounded influencer platform that will cater to your marketing goals. Most of the popular TikTok influencer marketing platforms offer services such as influencer discovery and recruitment, communication management, campaign tracking, audience analysis, and more. To get started, consider which services are relevant to your brand and consult with an influencer marketing agency to determine the campaign’s budget, scale, and KPIs. 

Finally, we should always keep in mind that TikTok influencers thrive on creativity and innovation, which is what made their audience fall in love with their content in the first place. This is also how influencer marketing campaigns become successful. So, no matter your brand’s genre or niche, there’s always room to make it fun and accessible. Granting the influencers you choose to work the creative freedom to mold brand messages into digestible and entertaining videos will ultimately pay off in the form of business sales and brand awareness.