Influencer Marketing on TikTok: How to Develop Your Strategy

Sep 15, 2023
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The “platform that brings joy to millions” can also stick money in your pocket – if you know how to use it right.TikTok already had around 689 million monthly users around the globe in 2020. Today, it’s the most downloaded app on the planet, expected to hit over 1.2 billion active users this year.If your business is targeting Millennials and Gen Z, TikTok is the place to be.

Source: App Annie

By taking advantage of influencer marketing on TikTok, your business could tap into an enormous and quickly growing audience of hungry consumers.Keep reading to learn how to leverage influencer marketing to your advantage to boost your brand’s visibility and grow a loyal following.

Why is TikTok a Good Platform for Influencer Marketing?

TikTok is exciting, fun, and creative. It’s designed for mobile devices and gives people the content they want fast, with short video clips covering everything from trending dance videos to tutorials and lip-syncing.The platform’s unique and brilliant algorithm can show you the exact type of content you want to see. And it can make user-generated content go viral in no time.Influencers have quickly caught onto the numerous benefits the app offers consumers and businesses. Invested users have successfully grown massive audiences and connected with people in unique ways. Brands that partner with TikTok influencers can grow their business by targeting people in their specific niche.Working with the right influencers can get your brand and products in front of a whole lot of people online. Take Chipotle, for example. Their TikTok influencer marketing program has featured various influencers, including Zach King, Zahra, and Avani.

Source: @chipotle on TikTok

All in all, TikTok is a fantastic place to invest in influencer marketing for several reasons:

  • It has a vast global presence, with users in over 150 countries.
  • New businesses can raise brand awareness quickly.
  • Various functionalities can help you move prospects down the sales funnel to consider your offerings and convert your leads into customers.
  • Your business can get to know your audience better, form lasting connections, and engage in relevant conversations.
  • Showcase your creative skills (or test them out in front of a widely accepting audience).

How to Choose the Right Influencers for Your Business

First thing’s first – find the people you want to work with on TikTok to get your name out there. That way, you can start building a loyal and engaged following immediately. Follow these steps to develop your strategy.

1. Understand Your Audience

Before you can start marketing on TikTok, you need to have a deep understanding of who your target audience is.Who are you trying to get in front of? Who’s most likely to love your content and engage with your brand? Who will convert into a customer eventually? Building out buyer personas for your brand can help.Make sure you know:

  • Which brands they engage with (both competitors and non-competitors)
  • What types of influencers they already follow
  • Basic demographics
  • Common traits, goals, challenges, and pain points
  • How you can help solve a specific problem they face

2. Have Clear Goals in Mind

Why do you want to market on social media? What are you looking to put into the process and get out of it? Do you want to focus on building brand awareness? Do you want to test new products or services? Are you hoping to convert and boost sales and ROI?Your top goals will impact your influencer marketing strategies.

3. Follow the Sales Funnel

Understanding your sales funnel is another foundational step in building your TikTok outreach strategy and influencer campaigns.Your marketing funnel should look something like this:

  • Awareness: To attract your target audience and introduce your brand, try to work with more prominent influencers. Addison Rae (@addisonre), Charli D’Amelio (@charlidamelio), and Bella Poarch (@bellapoarch) are great examples, with millions of regular followers.
  • Consideration: After you’ve already attracted people to your business, you need to engage them. Look for medium-sized influencers – like Maryam Amaria (@maryam.amaria), Sandy Lin (@smallbusinesstips_), Ereka Vetrini (@erekasfood) or Katyaa Golden (@katyaagolden). In this stage, you want to narrow down your audience to a pool of people genuinely interested in considering what you offer.
  • Action/Decision: In the third stage, you’re seeking consumers who have already gone through the prior two stages. They know who you are and have already considered your product or service. Now, it’s time to convince them to convert or take a specific action. Look for smaller influencers with niche audiences for decision-stage campaigns.

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub

4. Consider Your Budget

Your budget will, of course, play a huge role in which influencers you work with and what types of campaigns you run.Factors that affect TikTok influencer prices will include:

  • Their reach
  • Their engagement rate
  • Your goals and expectations
  • How much effort you require of them
  • Ad placement
  • Agency fees (if applicable)
  • The number and type of posts

TikTok influencer prices can range anywhere from $5 to $10,000 per post.

5. Choose Your Influencers Carefully

Here are some extra pro tips to keep in mind while “shopping” for relevant influencers for your business.

  • The influencer’s audience and content should align with your brand and values.
  • Your target audience should already engage with and trust the influencer.
  • Their content should get high engagement consistently.
  • Their content should directly or indirectly correlate with your business or niche.
  • The influencer should be a thought leader in your industry (or in a closely related industry).
  • Being active on platforms outside of TikTok can be a good sign.

How to Scout Influencers on TikTok

Now that you know what types of influencers you’re looking for, it’s time to start your search. Here are three of the top ways to find relevant influencers on TikTok.

1. Discovery

On the main discovery page, you can enter specific keywords or industry trends to find influencers that may be a good fit for your business. You can also search hashtags, suggested accounts, and top videos.

2. Google Search

You can also hop over to Google to pop in your target keyword and then add “TikTok influencer” at the end.

Source: Google

3. TikTok Influencer Platform

You could also use a platform built specifically for connecting businesses with TikTok influencers. InfluenceGrid is a search engine that vets influencers and displays metrics associated with them, like followers, views, likes, and engagement rates.

Source: InfluenceGrid

How to Carry Out Your Influencer Marketing Strategy on TikTok

To build a successful influencer marketing campaign, we have a proven formula for you to follow. Include these essential elements when posting to TikTok to get in front of the right people and make an impact.Insider Tip: Don’t try to control every aspect of your influencer partner’s process. If you’ve done a good job choosing your influencers, they know what they’re doing. The smartest thing you can do is let them have the creative freedom to make a splash in all the right places.

1. Content

Like we just mentioned, make sure to give your influencers creative freedom to do what they do best. But also ensure they understand your goals and objectives. The content they create should disclose their sponsorship. Above all, the content should be authentic and relevant to your niche and target audience.Here are several types of influencer content to consider producing for TikTok:

  • Videos based on popular hashtags
  • Challenges
  • Tutorials
  • Voiceovers
  • Dances
  • Lip-syncing
  • Freeze-frame videos
  • Live videos
  • Paid ads
  • In-feed native videos
  • Brand takeover ads
  • Shoppable ads
  • Marketing ads

2. Production and Execution

Once you decide what type of content you want to create, it’s time to produce it! Remember that your TikTok videos should be high quality, and you should set music or sound to them. Edit your content before posting, and ensure it’s interesting, engaging, and fits your niche nicely.Including the right hashtags is also a vital part of making your content go viral. Hashtags can create a snowballing effect, bringing more and more people on board over time.

3. Monitoring

Don’t forget to measure your campaign’s results over time. You can track performance metrics like engagement rate, profile views, followers, likes, shares, and comments. Tracking which songs your followers listen to can also help you set the right tone in your posts.

4. Optimizing

Research standard benchmarks of strong performance on TikTok to know if you need to adjust your posts and ads to perform better. You should constantly be testing and optimizing your content to improve your channel’s overall performance.

Learn More About Influencer Marketing on TikTok

Want more expert tips on influencer marketing on TikTok? Check out these awesome articles.

Malene Hold
Head of TikTok

TikTok and social media expert helping clients leverage the power of viral concepts to grow their businesses.

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