Category: Video Marketing

The Ultimate TikTok Marketing Guide for 2020

If you’re reading this article, I can almost guarantee that you have at least one account on social media. That’s because, according to Statista, in 2019, there were nearly 3 billion social media users worldwide. 

That’s nearly half of the world’s population!

Between platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and TikTok, the truth is that most people actually have more than just a single account. 

So, as a business owner, it’s important to understand that each one of these social platforms presents its own unique method for communicating and engaging your target audience.

TikTok has recently made its way onto the list of the world’s most popular social media platforms, boasting roughly 800 million active monthly users. 

Continue reading our guide to understand everything you need to know about using the platform to effectively market your small or medium-sized business. 

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a social media network where users can create short clips to share with their friends, family members, and followers. 

Although TikTok is often erroneously referred to as a “lip-syncing” app, the fact is that users are able to upload virtually any type of viders that they want. And today, users are able to scroll through millions of different videos on the platform, which can be easily searched and categorized using the app’s user-friendly interface. 

Additionally, user videos can be tagged with hashtags, which allows for a quick and easy way to group and search for videos. We’ll be discussing hashtags in greater depth a bit later on in this guide.

Finally, TikTok users also have the ability to interact with other users’ content, which makes TikTok exactly like any other social media platform, with the main exception being that it’s primarily designed for sharing videos, and not images or text content. 

Be sure to check out our very own TikTok video maker, the perfect web and mobile app to help you create sleek TikTok videos in under 3 minutes!

Why Your Small Business Should Be on TikTok

Although TikTok is recommended for kids as young as 13 years of age, according to OmniCoreAgency, nearly 50% of TikTok users are under the age of 34, with 41% being between the ages of 16 and 24. 

If your brand is selling products or services that are targeted at these younger demographics, being present and active on TikTok is a must! 

Additionally, TikTok boasts around 800 million active monthly users, with roughly 26.5 million of those located in the United States. So if your business plans on selling either globally or to the U.S. market, using TikTok is a great way to easily get your brand name in front of millions of potential customers. 

7 TikTok Statistics for 2020

To help you give a better understanding of why you should to be using TikTok, check out these rather impressive statistics: 

  1. TikTok boasts roughly 800 million active users from around the world every month.
  2. TikTok is recognized as the 6th most popular social platform currently available. 
  3. By the end of the first financial quarter of 2020, the TikTok app had managed to accumulate a staggering 315 million downloads. That’s the best quarter recorded by any app, ever. 
  4. This consisted of 500 million downloads in India, 180 million in China, and about 130 in the United States.
  5. Estimated about roughly $78 billion back in 2018, TikTok was once known as the most valuable startup company in the world. 
  6. On average, most TikTok users open the app about 8 times per day. 
  7. Roughly 60% of TikTok are thought to be part of Generation Z. By 2021, there will be about 74 million Gen Zers in the United States alone, making Gen Z one of the largest generations ever. 

How to Get Started on TikTok

Although you’re free to use TikTok however you choose, there are primarily three different ways that brands today are marketing themselves on the platform.

First, most brands work towards creating their own TikTok channels, which allows them to upload relevant videos for their audience to view. 

Secondly, brands can choose to work with influencers, who are already popular on the platform. This tactic is often used to help get content in front of an even greater audience, potentially reaching millions, depending on the influencer’s popularity.

And lastly, brands have the option to create paid TikTok ads in order to promote themselves on the platform. 

To help you understand what you can actually start doing today, let’s get to some of the most important strategies for marketing your brand on TikTok. 

Popular TikTok Marketing Strategies (That Actually Work)

The fact is that all social media platforms are extremely competitive environments for small and medium-sized businesses. 

Not only will your brand be competing with other similarly sized businesses, but you’ll all be grouped together with the world’s largest companies that are actively using these platforms to market themselves. 

However, although the competition might be fierce, that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to make a name for yourself on newer platforms like TikTok. 

In fact, with a little bit of hard work, determination, and knowledge about your target audience, you can easily start getting your brand name in front of the right people. This brings us to our first strategy: learning about your audience. 

Analyzing Your Target Audience

By now you know that roughly 40% of TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24. 

But knowing this fact alone isn’t enough. If you want to be able to create good quality content that your audience will actually enjoy watching, and will want to share, you need to know as much about them as possible. By analyzing and really learning about your target audience, you’ll be able to get a better idea of the type of content they enjoy. 

For instance, let’s pretend that you’re a eco-friendly clothing brand, and that you find out a large percentage of your target audience are concerned about the use of harsh, chemical dyes in modern fashion. In this scenario, one effective way to use this knowledge, would be to create a series of TikTok videos that explain what makes your clothing brand eco-friendly. 

In the end, it’s really simple psychology: by knowing about your target audience’s problems and concerns, and then showing them your solution to these issues, they’re more likely to trust you and find value in watching your content. 

Once you’ve studied your target audience, it’s time to get in gear and start actively creating your own content. But first, it’s also a good idea to check on your competitors to help you get a better understanding of what actually works and what doesn’t on the platform. 

Analyzing Your Competition

As with any type of marketing, it’s important to take a look at the type of content your competitors are publishing. 

Of course, it’s vital that you do not copy exactly what they’re doing. By examining what other similar brands are doing on TikTok, you’ll be able to get a better idea of the type of videos you yourself can start creating. 

Doing a competitor analysis is the best way to find out how your brand can gain a competitive edge in your industry. 

For instance, instead of only looking to see what other brands are doing, you also want to look for gaps in their strategies – the things that they AREN’T doing – which, in turn, you can START doing. 

Actively Creating Content For Your Audience

As much as it may seem obvious, you’re going to need to be regularly active on the platform if you’re planning on being successful at TikTok marketing. 

In other words, simply having an account and filling out your profile isn’t going to cut it; you’re going to need to actively create and share high-quality content in order to to gain new followers and broaden your audience.

When using TikTok, you’ll only have a short, 15-second time limit on the videos you can record and publish. However, users can chain those 15-second clips together to make a longer story video, which can be as long as a minute. Alternatively, TikTok users can also choose to upload longer videos. They just can’t be recorded using the app itself. 

The point is that there are virtually no limits on the type of videos you can create for your brand. The key to creating popular TikTok videos, as with any other type of marketing, is to create content that will hook the interest and engage your viewers. 

Therefore, you need to ensure that your videos aren’t boring, and that your content actually speaks to your audience’s problems, concerns, wants, and desires. 

In the end, it’s important to get creative, tell your brand’s story and be real with your audience. As you continue to create content and remain active on the platform, you’ll see that your audience on TikTok will continually grow. 

Content Creation Tool

If you aren’t a video pro and don’t have one on your staff – have no fear. One of the appeals of TikTok is that users create organic video content that they generally edit themselves. It’s meant for users from all levels of video experience.

Check out our Tik Tok Video Length & Formatting Guide for full insights on how to use TikTok’s native video creator. You can also use an app like Boosted for more options for filters, text, and effects. You can create all different types of video (tips, tutorials etc.) for your small business to share on TikTok. Here are some examples:

User-Generated Content

One of the best organic strategies any brand can use on TikTok is to get the platform’s users to create and share content for them, which is referred to as user-generated content.

User-generated content is most often used for promoting social causes. However, the same strategy can be used by brands, allowing them to easily leverage TikTok’s native users into creating and sharing content for them. 

To help illustrate how user-generated content works, let’s pretend that you’re the owner of a restaurant and that you’ve recently added a do-it-yourself option to your menu, where diners are allowed to customize their meals exactly as per their own dietary preferences. 

In this case, a savvy TikTok marketer might create a campaign, encouraging anybody that chooses the do-it-yourself option to post a short video of their very custom meal, tagging your brand in the description, along with using one of your brand-specific hashtags.  

According to Vidooly, this is exactly what a Chinese restaurant chain called Haidilao did. 

As a result, the chain managed to entice roughly 15,000 visitors to film their experiences, which resulted in more than 50,000 views worth of free advertising for the brand.

To grow like this, you’ll need to make sure that your followers are tagging their videos with your brand-specific hashtags. With that being said, let’s take a deeper look at using hashtags effectively to promote your brand on TikTok.

TikTok Hashtag Strategies 

Like most other social platforms, TikTok allows its users to tag their content with hashtags. The practice of hashtagging is most commonly seen on platforms like Twitter and Instagram, however, hashtags can also be used on Facebook, LinkedIn, and, of course, TikTok. 

When a user tags one of their posts with a hashtag, it makes it possible for other users to see that post anytime they search for that hashtag. 

Therefore, by using popular hashtags, brands are easily able to generate large amounts of organic traffic to their videos, making it significantly easier to reach new potential customers. 

But how exactly should you use hashtags as part of your overall TikTok marketing strategy? 

Start Tagging!

Understand that using hashtags is somewhat of a fine art. Just because you add a hashtag to one of your videos, doesn’t mean that it will automatically be seen by hundreds of thousands of other users. 

In fact, unless you’re using relevant and popular hashtags, your content isn’t likely to be seen by very many users. 

On the other hand, when you tag your video content with hashtags that are not only relevant, but are also popularly used and/or searched for by other users, you’re almost guaranteed to get your videos seen by a larger audience.

In order to cultivate your brand’s hashtag strategy, it’s a good idea to include some brand-specific hashtags along with your videos. For example, if you own a restaurant called Herman’s Eatery, you would start tagging your video with something like #hermanseatery.

That way, as time goes by, and you continue tagging your content with this brand-specific hashtag, any time a TikTok user searches for your restaurant, they’ll be likely to see all of the content that you’ve uploaded and tagged, without actually having to visit your profile page. 

In order to get people searching for your brand and its brand-specific hashtags, you’re first going to need to generate some interest in your company. How?

Hashtag Challenges

One of the most effective hashtagging strategies on TikTok is to create a hashtag challenge for your followers. Essentially, these challenges are the way that brands are able to get their followers to create and share user-generated content for them. 

When executed effectively, hashtag challenges have the potential to generate a significant amount of free content for brands. 

The aforementioned example of the Chinese restaurant chain asking their patrons to share videos of their DIY meals is a prime example of a successful hashtag challenge. 

In the end, however, it’s important to realize that, while some hashtag challenges go viral, not all of them do. In fact, many brands need to work with influencers and other popular public figures in order to get their hashtag challenges to become popular. 

Let’s take a look at one popular hashtag challenge by a famous personality that went viral. 

Successful TikTok Hashtag Challenge: Jimmy Fallon’s #tumbleweedchallenge

When Jimmy Fallon, the world-famous comedian, actor, and television show host, first started using TikTok, he wasn’t shy about creating a big splash about it. 

In fact, thanks to his branded #tumbleweedchallenge, Fallon managed to rake in roughly 87,000 reactions, and more than 1100 comments within the challenge’s first six days. To date, the #tumbleweedchallenge is said to have generated more than 30 million views worldwide. 

And what exactly is the #tumbleweedchallenge?

The #tumbleweedchallenge is a social challenge, where TikTok users were encouraged to record themselves rolling around on the ground like a tumbleweed, while playing country western music in the background. 

Users were then asked to upload their videos, and tag them with #tumbleweedchallenge. Here’s the original challenge video:

@fallontonight

Jimmy takes the TumbleweedChallenge! Show us your best tumbleweed!

♬ #TumbleweedChallenge – FallonTonight

Here are some great user examples:

@heyjjwolf

JJ & Gigi doing the #tumbleweedchallenge for @fallontonight @tiktok

♬ #TumbleweedChallenge – The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon
@dominictoliver

Can y’all do this?😂 #tumbleweedchallenge

♬ #TumbleweedChallenge – FallonTonight

Of course, because Jimmy Fallon is a celebrity, his challenge took off like wildfire, and you shouldn’t expect to see the same type of results so quickly for your small business. 

It’s important to take away the fact that Fallon’s challenge engaged his audience in a fun, interactive way, which resulted in millions of views. 

Paid Advertisement on TikTok

In today’s extremely competitive digital landscape, most successful companies on social media rely, at least partially, on paid advertisements to expand their reach and continuously grow their brands.

TikTok, like most other social media platforms, also offers this type of paid advertising. 

However, because the platform is still relatively new, TikTok advertising hasn’t quite taken off in the same way as Facebook or Instagram advertising has. But that’s not to say that running paid ads on TikTok isn’t a strategy worth looking into. 

In fact, the platform has already rolled out a few different forms of advertising, which some brands are already using to achieve massive marketing success

The Best TikTok Marketing Strategy for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

The most successful TikTok marketing strategies are going to involve a healthy balance of everything mentioned in this guide.  

If you want to use TikTok to effectively market your brand, you need to make sure that to consider all the different ways the platform can be used for your benefit, which includes creating your own content, encouraging user-generated content, using hashtags, and running paid ads. 

TikTok Marketing In 2020

Although TikTok is still a relatively new social media platform, there’s no doubting the fact that it’s already achieved massive success. In fact, with well over 800 millions active users worldwide, TikTok is thought to be the 6th largest social media platform. 

So, as a small business owner, especially if you’re selling products or services to younger adults or teenagers, it’s vital to think about signing up and using TikTok as one of your main marketing channels. 

And by following the tips and strategies that we’ve outlined in today’s guide, you’ll be well on your way to taking the world of TikTok by storm!

Additional TikTok Marketing Guides:

Boosted has been creating TikTok marketing guides for small business owners for quite some time: below is a compilation for your convenience.

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How to Leverage TikTok Micro-Influencers for Your Small Business

If you’re a small or medium business, you know the value of using social media to elevate your brand. Not only is social media a crucial platform for growing brand awareness, but it has also proven to be a commercial opportunity to boost sales.

Even though, in social terms, TikTok is still in its infancy, it’s currently growing as an important resource for many businesses. In fact, it’s the fastest growing social media site, with an estimated 800 million active users. If you are looking to stay ahead of the trend and reach new audiences, TikTok is the platform to embrace.

So how can you make the most of TikTok to reach out to both new and existing audiences? Working with micro-influencers (also known as the ‘nano’) is a great way to build your brand on the platform. They could have anywhere from 5,000 to 100,000 followers. They tend to have very targeted audiences.

Here’s everything you need to know about utilizing micro-influencers to grow your brand on TikTok as a small business owner. 

Content is King

As with all things social, content is the greatest asset in your arsenal. Engaging social media content is all about finding new and creative ways to keep up a dialogue with your followers. Creating great videos for your TikTok channel is one way of doing this. Another is getting others to do it for you, like influencers and fans. After all, growing your reach should be an important part of your social media marketing strategy.

Successful social media marketing is dependent on one important factor: using the right content the right way to reach the right audience.

The influence of influencers

In simple terms, influencers are people or entities with a sizeable following that are used by marketers to promote products and services. They yield great influence over their followers, impacting on their buying behaviour and otherwise. In TikTok terms, this can be new emerging talent in entertainment, vlogger-style personalities and more. Being a music-led platform, it does, however, tend to lend itself to more of a youthful audience.

Using influencers is a well-established tool on Instagram and Facebook, paving the way for the growth of TikTok influencers.

Micro or macro?

If you’re thinking of joining the TikTok party, you’ll need to think about what sort of influencer to approach for your brand.

Macro-influencers were the first breed of social media ambassadors. These influencers have hundreds of thousands, or even millions of fans across the world.

The micro-influencer in contrast, has a much smaller following. As mentioned above, they could have between 5,000 to 100,000 followers. The difference, however, is that they tend to have a much more niche audience.

Why is this important? In the age of tailored and personal communications, brands are increasingly trying to take a more human approach to marketing, rather than to try and appeal to the anonymous masses.

Some influencer examples

Let’s take a look at some TikTok micro-influencers on the rise. First is Giselle Ugarte (@mediabridgegiselle). She currently has 73.7k followers and creates impressive content in the niche of marketing and marketing strategy.

@mediabridgegiselle

Reply to @cleanthatup Let your people know you bring VALUE and that you CARE 🤟🏽 #marketing #growth #tiktoktips #newtotiktok #business #tiktokedu

♬ original sound – mediabridgegiselle

Yoga Before Coffee is another micro-influencer to watch out for. Specializing in yoga videos, she has a strong fanbase of 82.2k followers and is dominating that niche.

@yogabeforecoffee

Move move move #yoga #yogagirl #movement #yogafit

♬ Nightmare – BLVKSHP

In contrast, mainstream TikTok Influencers can have quite a huge following.

Take influencer Savannah LaBrant for instance. With a whopping 21.3 million followers on TikTok, she’s one of the big names in parent blogging. Interestingly, her TikTok channel has double the followers of her YouTube channel, proving the power of the platform. 

Over the waters to India, another mass-influencer is comedic actress Sameeksha Sud. The star has accumulated over 24.2 million fans on her page, enlightening them with plenty of fun sketches.

@sameeksha_sud

Mehndi ki mehek… 🔥 #teentigada #samkesitare

♬ original sound – sameeksha_sud

These are just a snapshot of some of the many thousands of influencers that make up the platform.

Five good reasons to start working with micro-influencers 

If you’re a business looking to grow followers or increase brand awareness on TikTok, a micro-influencer can be a great investment. In some cases, collaborating with one may even convert to sales.

Still unconvinced? Here are 5 good reasons to opt for a TikTok micro-influencer:

1. Trust and transparency

Social platforms have required greater transparency for brand collaborations over the years. Today you’re expected to use #Ad and #Spon to be more upfront from the get-go. 

One of the issues with using mainstream influencers is that some of the trust that they used to have is gone. Some of the big names have been accused of using their social media influence to make money, without any regard to followers. Many have also been called out for buying fake followers.

Micro-influencers on the other hand, don’t have the same reputation. They are considered to be more trustworthy, engaged and transparent with their followers. And because they remain widely undiscovered, they also have the ability to respond and interact with their followers – which is a very important trait in influencer marketing.

2. TikTok is a growing platform for businesses

With TikTok being relatively new, you may find you get more for your money. As a growing platform, now is a good time to find ambassadors to work with and build relationships with for the long-haul. Even big brands like Venus have been using it to great effect with influencers like Victoria Bachlet (3.4 million fans). 

@victoriabachlet

#sponsored Beating back to school stress with self-care from the #VeraBradelyxVenus collection, available at Target 💙 #ad

♬ original sound – tøffeē

3. TikTok wants you!

TikTok has just dropped a new and exciting feature – TikTok for Business. This makes it easier than ever to get your brand message out there and work with influencers on great content. The best part? You’ll be able to monitor your collaborated content more easily. 

4. Target your audience

The most compelling reason to use a TikTok micro-influencer is because of how targeted they are. While a macro-influencer can reach more people, it’s likely that the micro-influencer will reach more of the right users. And if you want to convert your content into sales, this is key.

There’s much science to back up the point that engagement is far more important than likes, so try and look for influencers with an engaged audience.

Here’s a great example of a smaller brand campaign, involving female gamer Candice, partnering with Run Around to her modest 25k fanbase. It’s interesting to note that it received 130k likes:

@candice867

Run Around Pt. 2 #ad #sponsored

♬ original sound – candice867

5. Save money

As you’d expect, you’ll pay a lot less for working with a micro-influencer than you would have with a mainstream one.  To give you some idea, companies have been known to pay anywhere from $200 to $20,000 for a branded video.

Quite often, TikTokers are given free rein to create whatever they want, as long as they mention the brand and #ad or #spon. Take for instance Maud who was used by Ritual Cosmetics to showcase their product. With 436k followers, it received over 25k likes.

@maud_vdv

Ben jij ook zo snel afgeleid wanneer je moet leren? 😅#insidemyhead @ritualscosmetics #spon

♬ original sound – maud_vdv

How and where to find influencers?

So, we’ve converted you to TikTok! Now what?

There isn’t a set menu of influencers to pick and choose from, meaning that you’ll need to do some research. A good place to start is with competitor brands, or those that align with your brand values. See who they are using and take note. If you can’t afford said influencer, look for others that follow them and are of lesser fame.

You can also use online search tools like Upfluence that do the hard work for you.

Conclusion

TikTok is a growing platform for small businesses. Now is a good time to get in early and find some great micro-influencers to collaborate with. A wise choice for your budget and good for your reputation, choose the right brand ambassador and you’ll see your audience grow.

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How Do I Get Video Ads on My Website?

Now that you understand the power of a mobile video advertisement maker is, you can move on toward the monetization aspect. Today, video ads are some of the most effective means to successfully generate greater conversion rates and build revenues for your site. Even so, including video ads on your site is slightly more complicated than simply embedding a few YouTube links across your web pages.

Scroll down to the end of this post to see how to get AdSense videos live on your site.

6 Technical Steps to Publish Video Ads on Your Website:

To make sure you’re getting the most out of your website’s video ads, you need to build the right foundation on your website. Follow these steps to guarantee that you’re maximizing your potential revenues and insights from every video ad you post on your website:

1) Sign Up for a Relevant Video Ad Network

While you can place your own videos on your site as ads, bigger revenues depend on the quality and variety of ads you display. As such, signing up for a video ad network is the easiest way to make sure you have a steady pipeline of ads. Networks such as Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) present you with an easy approach to placing ads and access to fairer prices due to their real-time bidding model. Keep in mind that you can sign up for more than one network.

2) Set up an Ad Manager to Keep Track of your Ads and Placements

DoubleClick for Publishers (another Google service) and similar applications make it easy to actually start placing your ads and creating spaces for them to be viewed. Ad managers such as DoubleClick (and now Google’s AdSense Manager) let you easily create ad tags, set up your ad buying, and keep track of how well each ad is performing. Most importantly, it automates the process of placing the highest quality ads possible on your website.

3) Make Sure You Have the Right Video Player for your Needs

On a more technical side, you need to make sure your website can properly handle video ads. If you’re using Google’s services, for instance, the company only accepts certain video ad formats (medium or large rectangles) for display ads, and they include a list of permissible sizes for your video ads on their guides for inserting videos in different parts of your site. For ads in your embedded videos, you’ll need to make sure you can integrate pre-, mid-, or post-roll ads.

4) Set up Your Pages for Video Ad Display

Once you have the right infrastructure in place, you’ll need to connect your setup services with your website. Set your ad unit on Google’s Ad Manager to display text and image ads (or only image ads), and you’ll start seeing ads displayed on the locations and pages you’ve permitted. Make sure your video players and display locations are functioning properly while adding the appropriate JavaScripts and tags to your back-end to start tracking your ad performance.

5) Select the Right Videos to Start Displaying Ads In

In addition to display ads, you can integrate ads directly into your embedded video player, giving you additional real estate for revenue. Even so, simply inserting pre- or post-roll ads won’t raise your revenues. The key is to find videos with larger viewership and virality to help get as many eyes on your ads as possible. In a similar vein, viral videos and those that are engaging—which keep viewers watching through the end—are more likely to earn you higher revenues per play.

6) Monitor Your Performance

Once you’re set up and displaying video ads, you’ll need to keep an eye on your performance to ensure you’re getting the most out of your webpages. Keep tabs on click through rates, viewership, and which ads are gaining more traction, as well as the videos and spots on your website that are delivering the best results. This will help you optimize your offerings and make your site more appealing to publishers and advertisers.

Getting started with video ads takes some time, but it can be well worth your while. With their growing popularity and revenue potential, integrating video ads into your site can help maximize your website’s monetization capabilities.

Adsense Video Ads: How To Add Them Your Website In 3 Easy Steps

Traditionally, Adsense publishers have been able to advertise on their own websites by using either text or image banner ads. 

And while these are still valid types of ads that can be used to advertise on a website, video ads are now available on the Adsense network. And, so far, video ads have proven to be significantly better at grabbing consumer attention, especially when compared to traditional text or image ads. 

With that said, let’s take a quick look at how to add Adsense video ads to your website in just three quick and easy steps. 

Step 1 – Ensure Compliance With Adsense Video Ads Policy

If you’re already familiar with Google Adsense, you already know that publishers need to adhere to Google’s Adsense Program policy in order to advertise with the platform. 

In addition to this policy, there are several video-specific policies, which advertisers must comply with, which pertain to video ad requirements. This includes the type of media player used, ad serving methods, as well as video format guidelines. 

Step 2 – Add Adsense Code To Your Site 

In order to be able to apply to run ads on your web pages, you’ll first need to ensure that you’ve added the Google Adsense code to your website. The Adsense code allows Google to track your ads and keeps tabs on who’s viewing and/or clicking on them. 

If you’re using WordPress to power your site, you can add the Adsense code to your site by using a plugin. 

Otherwise, you’ll need to add the code to your site’s HTML code manually.  

Step 3 – Apply To Adsense Network And Earn!

Once you have your website up and running, and you’ve added the Adsense code to your site pages, it’s time to apply to the Adsense Program to find out if your site qualifies. 

It’s important to understand that Adsense runs a pretty tight ship, especially when it comes to who they qualify as a publisher. In other words, don’t be surprised if your site isn’t eligible the first time you apply. 

If your application is denied, Google will give you a notification letting you know why you’ve been turned down. 

Otherwise, if you are approved, you’ll instantly be able to start displaying video ads on your site, earning money every time somebody views or clicks on your ads. 

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Video Marketing for Small & Local Businesses in 2020

Nobody doubts the amazing potential of small business video marketing, and how it can increase your customer base with an easy to implement small business video marketing plan:

Glossary (Click to scroll down):

  1. What Exactly is Video Marketing?
  2. 4 Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Local Businesses
  3. How Can I Improve My Small Business with Local Video Marketing?
  4. What is Small Business Video Content Marketing & Why Do I Need It?
  5. 4 Types of Video Marketing & Video Marketing Ideas for Small & Medium Sized Businesses
  6. How to Use Video to Benefit Your Small Business
  7. 3 Examples of Awesome Small Business Marketing Videos

After all, video drives a 157% increase in organic search engine results when embedded in your website, and 64% of consumers have said that video directly influenced their decision to purchase a product or service.

local small business video marketing tip

If you haven’t yet found yourself involved in the video content world and you’re a small business owner, now is the time. By 2021, video will represent 82% of internet traffic – which means that whoever doesn’t jump on board will be at a great disadvantage.

For those that haven’t yet delved into the world of video marketing, you may find yourself wondering – what exactly is video marketing? Do I need a video maker? And more importantly, how do I get started?

What Exactly is Small Businesses Video Marketing?

Video marketing is the buzzword that’s going around the business world like the whispered rumors in high school hallways.

But video marketing is much more than a buzzword. Today, it’s become the content strategy leader in the marketing world.

This is because video is versatile, relatable, and memorable – and is the best way to reach a varied audience with a short attention span (which is an increasing problem with younger generations).

There is no way around it – video is the content of the future. The earlier you get started on your video content strategy, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

So what exactly does video marketing mean? Video marketing is the use of video with a specific content strategy to help a small business get more customers, by having a specific goal in mind. Just as important as having corporate videos for marketing purposes, is the knowledge of what kind of content to create, in targeting local and sometimes national consumers, – and where to put this content.

You may find that the best video strategy for you involves an explainer video, which shows what your company does.

This great (and famous!) example by the Dollar Shave Club is a classic use of video marketing, to explain what the company is all about.

Notice the use of comic relief in a serious advertisement – don’t be afraid to make your audience laugh!

Alternatively, you may find that a tutorial video explaining how to use your product is your best use of video marketing.

Or, you may decide that your audience needs to better understand the industry you work in.

What’s most important to understand is that as a small business owner, there are countless benefits to video marketing, and you won’t know which types of videos best fit your business until you try.

And I’ll even let you in on a secret – there’s probably more than one!

small business owner video filming for marketing

4 Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Local Businesses

When you use video marketing for your small business, especially for small local businesses, you are doing yourself a huge favor – and the numbers prove it.

    1. When given a choice, over 72% of customers prefer to learn about a product or service by video instead of text. – In other words, out of all of the potential customers that your videos might reach, almost 3 out of 4 of them would already prefer to watch a short video about your brand, rather than having to read about it. 
    2. A viewer is 64% more likely to buy a product after watching a video. Because of the fact that most consumers already don’t mind watching a short video, showing them videos of your products or services in action is a great way to entice them to make a transaction with your company. 
    3. While only 20% of viewers will read the text on a page, 80% will watch a video. The truth is that today’s modern man is relatively lazy, especially when it comes to consuming information. So while reading a large wall of text will usually turn the average consumer away from learning more about a company’s products or services, showing them a short, punchy video about is almost guaranteed to grab their attention.
    4. The average person watches more than an hour and a half of video per day. In other words, for every single consumer that your brand comes into contact with on a daily basis, you have a huge opportunity to turn that interaction into a sale. That is, of course, only if you’re using video marketing as a tool to get your brand in front of the right people, at the right time. 
    5. Did you know, that aside from Google, YouTube is the second most popular website in the world?  This means that if your small business isn’t currently using YouTube as a marketing channel for your brand, you’re literally missing out on millions of opportunities, every single day, to interact with new, potential customers.
    6. According to Rialto Marketing, 81% of today’s modern businesses are using video marketing as part of their overall strategy. When more than three-quarts of all online businesses are using video, you can be guaranteed that it’s a strategy that works.

In the end, not only are videos more likely to capture your audience’s attention but as you can see in the statistics above, that audience is significantly more likely to buy products from you, if you provide them with videos about what you’re offering.  

How Can I Improve My Small Business with Local Video Marketing?

While video isn’t a miracle solution to all your business problems, video will absolutely allow you to empower and improve the position of your small business.

Video can be used for almost anything. Start by presenting yourself on your website – just the simple addition of an explainer video, telling the world about what you do can increase your chances of appearing on the first page of a search by over 50 times!

An explainer video (and really, any video content) is also a great opportunity to entertain.

Take for example this video by PadMapper. By taking the comic route,  they make sure the audience is captivated from beginning to end of the video:

Explainer videos, however, are just the beginning. There are dozens of uses of video to improve your small or local business, and this is where video content marketing comes in.

Thinking of a strategy, and knowing which types of content apply to your audience, is key to successfully using small business video marketing to your advantage.

What is Small Business Video Content Marketing & Why Do I Need It?

So what is video content marketing? Well, the answer to that question is that video marketing is what YOU make of it!

With the video marketing resources available today, there’s really no limit to what video marketing can be. You can create video ads for your product or services, you can introduce your company through video, and you can show the world testimonials of the loyal customer base that you already have.

You’ll find that easy tools are also within reach – and in the palm of your hand!

In recent years, video making has become more accessible even to the inexperienced, and can all be done on-the-go.

content video marketing film for small businesses

Gone are the days of relying on knowledge of complicated video editors – today in 2020, anyone can download a simple video maker app and get started with video content marketing on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

For those completely new to the video content world, there’s Boosted, which has a bunch of great video ad templates that are easy to use.

Using these tools, or a number of others (there are a lot of choices) you’ll be able to start off and develop your video content strategy. Also consider creating a vlog to bolster your video marketing efforts in 2020.

Read on to find out more about the types of videos you should be making, and how they’ll help you grow your small business!

8 Types of Video Marketing Ideas for Small & Medium Sized Businesses

The world of video marketing is endless – and there are many inexpensive ways to bolster your small business in 2020.

You can teach your audience about your product or service, you can teach them how to use your product, or how your service is necessary to them, you can use videos for testimonials to give your prospective customer a real-life perspective, and you can teach your audience all about you, and why your small, local business is important.

  1. Educational
    • Educational videos teach about something. Usually, when used in video marketing, these will either educate the audience about the company itself, or about something related to the company.
    • A good example is this video, about a day in the life of a Grainger employee. Under this category are explainer videos, along with other types of videos that aim to teach about something.
    • If you’re providing a unique product or service that is not well understood, an educational video is your first step to securing an audience and captivating potential customers.
  2. Product
    • Product videos highlight a product, often in creative ways. This allows viewers who have already seen something similar to still take interest – and will allow you to capture a spot in their mind.
    • Take this video in Blendtec’s Will it Blend? series, which instead of talking about yet another blender, occupies the mind of the audience with an eccentric idea – what non-traditional items can this super-strong blender blend?
    • Product videos, specifically those that are out-of-the-box, are a great way for small local businesses to differentiate themselves from the competition if they are providing a product or service that isn’t novel or unique. For example, a coffee shop with a great product video will have much better luck bringing in customers than its competitors (which it is sure to have).
  3. Testimonials
    • Testimonials are extremely important to any business – people are much more likely to trust a company if a peer, or someone having similar needs, recommends the business.
    • While written testimonials have been around for a while, video testimonials are the new trend. These more relatable stories that put a voice and face to the name, and create a story, have great convincing power.
    • For example, check out this video, Why I Love Working at Wayfair, which is a fantastic testimonial video for hiring.
  4. Instructional
    • Instructional videos will teach your audience how to use your product.
    • These are more relevant to products rather than services, but can be applied to the latter as well (for example, a video on how to book an appointment!).
  5. Team Bios
    • For effective SMB local marketing, it’s all about putting a face to a name. Bio videos show your audience that your company is staffed by real people who care about your brand and customers.
    • Bio videos are a mix of professional, displaying your team’s titles and expertise; and personal, highlighting their fun, quirky characteristics to demonstrate your human side.
    • You can also use videos to introduce your sales team or account managers, making it easier for them to build relationships with prospective customers.
  6. Tips and Tricks
    • These types of video are an excellent way to subtly establish your expertise in your field and show customers why they can trust your word.
    • For local business video marketing, this also makes you a trusted face, potentially helping increase your foot traffic from prospective customers who are simply looking for someone who can assist.
    • You can use these videos to complement existing blog posts to make them more engaging.
  7. Announcements
    • Announcement videos can help create anticipation and generate buzz around a new product you’re launching to encourage an audience beforehand.
    • You can create several of these as small, quick teasers to build hype and keep your brand relevant even during long quiet periods between product launches.
    • These videos can also help you demonstrate how a new product will improve upon previous versions or make your customers’ lives better.
    • They’re also excellent videos to include in your social media to acquire more followers and post viewers.
  8. FAQs
    • Regardless of your industry, customers will always encounter questions, and FAQ videos are a great strategy for creating an interactive experience and engaging with customers directly.
    • These videos can be short (even as short as 60 seconds) and help fill up your posting calendar during slower periods.
    • They also highlight how you’re willing to support customers, even if they haven’t bought anything from you.

Often, business owners assume their product is straightforward, or that the written instructions are enough.

filming video for small business video marketing

Take a minute to think back – when is the last time you sat down and read a user manual? Now think about how much more likely you’d be to sit down and watch a short video to learn about your new purchase, instead of trying to figure it out on your own.

How to Use Video to Market Your Small Business

  • Video allows you to approach a story from all angles, and will give you a variety of ways to tell different parts of your story.
  • Once you’ve made your goals clear in the customer’s mind, you’ll be well on your way to improving the position of your small business.
  • Using the different types of videos above which are relevant to your business, you’ll be able to more clearly communicate with your potential clients, and you’ll be able to tell them a clear story – which will then be easy to pass on to their friends, and allow you to grow your customer base!

Here are 4 ways to use video marketing to help boost your small or medium sized business:

  1. Integrate a Video on Your Landing Page
    • The great thing about video is that it gives you a flexible tool to spruce up any part of your broader marketing strategy.
    • Including a video in your landing page, for instance, helps keep visitors engaged for longer and can also lead to higher conversion rates.
    • In fact, having a video on your landing page can increase conversions by up to 80%, so make sure to create videos that can work across any of your online pages.
  2. Show Consumers How Your Product Works
    • Demo videos are one of the more popular forms of small business video marketing because they highlight how your product works instead of describing its functionality via text.
    • An Animoto study found that nearly 75% of consumers are more likely to buy a product if they’ve seen a video explaining it before making a purchase.
    • Take the time to craft a video that tells a story and shows how your product works in an engaging manner, and you’ll be rewarded with more views and better conversions.
  3. Post Videos on Social Media to Get More Views and Clicks
    • No matter what other channels you’re using, social media is still one of the most important.
    • When engaging in local video marketing, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram remain the first point of contact for consumers interacting with your business, and a cost-effective marketing outreach tool.
    • More importantly, adding video to your social media strategy pays off. 64% of consumers noted that Facebook has influenced a purchasing decision, and videos net you a higher engagement rate than most other types of content.
  4. Use Video to Generate Hype for Your Products
    • You’re not going to be putting out new products every day, and it can be tough to keep advertising the same items repeatedly. However, this doesn’t necessarily have to grind your marketing strategy to a halt.
    • You can use tools like Boosted to create short, engaging “hype” videos to generate buzz about upcoming events, product launches, or promotions to fill gaps in your marketing campaigns.
    • This keeps you at the front of peoples’ minds while helping your brand stay relevant.

3 Examples of Awesome Small Business Marketing Videos

If the examples above weren’t enough, check out some of these great video marketing campaigns that went viral, and how they helped various companies in different ways.

1. This funny Burger King commercial, that allowed users to interact and get a good laugh at the same time.

2. A Golden Grahams appeal to college students – a great demonstration of knowing your target audience.

3. This Australian Tourism campaign, which takes a clever and appealing idea to promote the tourism industry.

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Small Business TikTok Advertising Guide: Ad Formats + Examples

By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks

TikTok recently announced the launch of “TikTok For Business,” their new platform for brands looking to advertise on TikTok. TikTok For Business includes an e-learning center to help marketers learn more about the TikTok platform and their advertising options. TikTok offers four key ad campaigns, including: Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Video Ads, Branded Effects and Hashtag Challenges. Additionally, it’s a good practice for brands to collaborate with influencers when advertising on TikTok.

While most of the viral TikTok advertising campaigns are hosted by big brands with big marketing budgets, your small business can still test out TikTok ads. But before you get started advertising on TikTok, it’s important to make sure it actually makes sense for your company. TikTok users are usually a younger demographic – 41% of TikTok’s users are between 16 and 24 years of age and 66% of users are under 30. If your target customers are Millennials and Gen Z then TikTok is most likely a good fit! Keep reading for a complete breakdown of the different types of ad formats on TikTok and some examples of best practices. 

1. Brand Takeover

A Brand Takeover advertisement is the ad that a TikTok user will see in their feed first-thing, before they can view any user-generated videos. Brand Takeovers can be an image, GIF or a video which will then be able to link back to a brand’s website or a Hashtag Challenge if they are also running this type of TikTok promotion as well. While TikTok doesn’t officially release prices for all of their advertising campaigns, there can only be one Brand Takeover per day within each category so this type of advertising promotion might be too costly for a small business to test out.

TikTok put together a Brand Takeover case study from Too Faced – a makeup brand with an active TikTok presence. The goal of their Brand Takeover was to drive awareness and sales for one of their lip glosses among UK-based Gen Z women. The results of the brand takeover? 7.6M ad impressions and 1.3 million clicks! You can check the full details of the campaign here.

2. In-Feed TikTok Ads

Native Video ads usually appear sandwiched between users’ videos in the TikTok feed and will automatically run with the sound on just like a regular TikTok video. These in-feed video ads can be up to 60 seconds long and support several call-to-action options such as clicks and app installs. You have several options as well when it comes to ad placements like “In-feed.” “Detail Page,” “Post-roll” and “Story”. This type of campaign is likely the best option for small businesses with smaller marketing budgets. The minimum budget for a TikTok campaign is $500 and the minimum budget for ads is $50. You can learn more about the ad formats and prices here.

Here’s some in-feed ad inspiration from popular brands:

@user049594911

Do the Slurpee Shimmee! Once the Slurpee hits the spot, freestyle to the flow of that slurp!

♬ original sound – Sponsored Content – Sponsored Content

Bumble

GrubHub

3. ‘Brand Scan’ – Branded Effects

TikTok’s brand new AR effect is called “Brand Scan,” which offers 2D or 3D lenses that users can test out for themselves. Branded Effects allow TikTok users to apply these lenses to their own TikTok videos, allowing brands like MAC to let fans test out their latest lipstick colors. This advertising format is recommended to be used with a Hashtag Challenges to boost a brand’s engagement even more. While we don’t know the exact price, Digiday reported the Branded Effects cost around $100,000.

4. Hashtag Challenge

And finally, the most popular and fun type of TikTok ad campaign is a Hashtag Challenge! If you’ve ever scrolled through TikTok, you know the platform is full of great challenges and trends created by both users and brands. A Hashtag Challenge allows brands to promote their own challenge for users to recreate in their own videos. When brands host a Hashtag Challenge advertisement on TikTok, they will have a ‘page’ where their challenge lives and users can see the instructions for the challenge as well as all of the videos that have already been created as part of the Hashtag Challenge.

Unfortunately a Hashtag Challenge is likely out of the price range for most small businesses – reportedly there is a $150,000 flat fee for the first six days of hosting a challenge and possibly an additional cost of $100,000 – $200,000 to promote the challenge. While it might be too costly to host your own Hashtag Challenge, this doesn’t mean your small business can’t still participate and create your own challenges!

Burger King’s Hashtag Challenge

Burger King recently partnered with TikTok to host a TiKTok challenge called the #WhopperDance. TikTok users who participate in the #WhopperDance challenge will be given a discount code to redeem for a $1 Whopper. Some videos from the campaign:

@nathandavisjrndj

I can’t believe this worked!! 😱🤯  do the #WhopperDance to get a $1 whopper. @burgerking U.S. only #ad #dance #tiktok #music #fyp #foryou

♬ Whopper Dance – Burger King
@burgerking

move it for a $1 Whopper 🍔👯‍♀‍. learn the #WhopperDance from @lorengray. bk.com/whopperdance.

♬ Whopper Dance – Burger King

Aerie’s Hashtag Challenge

Once quarantine started, Aerie jumped on the TikTok bandwagon and hosted their first TikTok campaign: the #AerieRealPositivity Hashtag Challenge. Their challenge asks users to post a video sharing the three things they are thankful for right now. Some standout videos from the campaign:

@charlidamelio

share what you’re doing to stay positive right now by tagging @aerie and #aerierealpositivity #ad

♬ 100% Real Love – PopUpGirl
@denisemmercedes

Share what you’re doing to stay positive right now by tagging @aerie and #AerieRealPositivity #ad

♬ 100% Real Love – PopUpGirl

Need some additional inspiration to help you get started advertising on TikTok? Luckily, TikTok has quite a few case studies you can check out to get inspired. Head to their TikTok For Business page where you search their TikTok advertising case studies by industry, the type of ad and even filter to search by countries. Additionally, here are some TikTok advertising examples from brands like KIA, Colgate, Too Faced, Guess, Universal Pictures.  

Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.

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TikTok’s New Educational Initiative & What it Means for Small Businesses

By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks

TikTok has recently announced a new initiative — to the tune of $15 million — to partner with educational experts and institutions to produce bite-sized educational content for the platform. Celebrities such as presenter and mathematician Rachel Riley and actor Sean Sagar, as well as organizations including the University of Cambridge and various historical sites in England will be participating.

With more than 2 billion downloads since 2017, TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms on the market. If you haven’t joined the party already, read our post on How to Use TikTok for Business to find out why you should.

This announcement is big news for a couple of reasons — and there are some practical takeaways for small business owners. Let’s take a look at what this new initiative means for the platform, and for small businesses trying to make a splash on TikTok.

A shift to more professionally produced content

With universities and organizations putting out professionally produced educational videos, we might see a shift in the character of TikTok content. While the trend until now has been for even big brands to put out more rough-around-the-edges, relaxed kind of content, we may see some more polished videos entering the mix.

With $15 million invested in these educational videos, they are likely to have higher production value than most of the stuff we see on TikTok today. These videos will be seen as “the real deal” because TikTok will be promoting them widely, and that may cause people to associate the high production value with professionalism and reliability. This, in turn, may lead big brands to up their TikTok video game, too — and soon, all businesses that want to be taken seriously may decide to shift to more professional-looking TikTok content to boost their brand credibility.

We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out. But if you’ve been loving TikTok for the casual, fun feel and dread the idea of needing to invest more in your TikTok videos — don’t worry. Boosted has your back. Using the app, you’ll be able to turn your “raw” footage into more professional-looking video content in no time.

The micro-learning revolution

As technology has advanced and internet speeds have accelerated, it’s become so much easier to get an excellent education online. Online learning has already been around a while, with many colleges offering online courses and degrees, and major platforms like Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn attracting hundreds of thousands of learners looking to enrich their knowledge and even acquire extra credentials.

And with the explosion of popularity video has enjoyed on social media, we’ve also seen brands use video to bring educational value to their users — with explainers, tutorials, and other bite-sized educational videos designed to direct users into the sales funnel. More and more, people looking to gain a new skill are looking for instructional videos rather than articles. Experts have christened this trend “micro-learning.”

TikTok’s new educational initiative is the result of a marriage between these trends — boosted, of course, by the pandemic and the need it has created to transfer our social, professional, and educational pursuits online. TikTok noticed that users have been taking particular interest in educational videos: the hashtag #LearnOnTikTok has over 7 billion views and counting.

Here’s a taste of some recent #LearnOnTikTok content that’s been trending:

@caughtsnackin

Party rings rocky road! 🍭🥳 #recipe #snack #sweets #lunch #learnontiktok

♬ What If (I Told You I Like You) – Johnny Orlando & Mackenzie Ziegler
@brandon_baum

Tutorial Time… 🎉 Congrats to @bubblegum_grande for guessing how it was made! #tiktoktutorial #learnontiktok #behindthescenes #tutorial #magic

♬ Bullseye – Formz

What this means overall for small business owners is quite simple: educational content is hot! Producing educational videos has always been a good idea because it provides value to viewers and positions you as an expert in your field. But because of the younger demographic of TikTok, you may have assumed that that audience would be less interested in more serious educational content, and focused instead on the fun, silly stuff.

Well, it turns out that young people love to learn, too. TikTok users are actively seeking out this kind of content. Explainers, tutorials, and how-tos should definitely be on your social media schedule — and don’t forget to tag them with #LearnOnTikTok when you post them!

Action Items:

  • Keep an eye out for the new educational content and a possible shift to more professionally-produced content on TikTok. If you see that it gains momentum, consider polishing your TikTok videos as you would videos for other platforms. Once again — Boosted can help.
  • Jump on the micro-learning bandwagon! Produce plenty of educational content for TikTok, such as tutorials, explainers, how-tos, and tip videos.

Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.

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9 Brands That Are Killing It On TikTok (And What You Can Learn From Them)

TiKTok is the newest social media platform that is growing like crazy – it’s estimated that TikTok has over 800 million active users worldwide and the TikTok app has been installed over 1.9 billion times worldwide. Not only is it a popular app but the user base is super loyal with 90% of users using the app multiple times per day, according to official TikTok statistics.

With stats like these, it is becoming impossible for brands to ignore this rapidly growing platform. While some brands have been on TikTok since the start, some are just now joining the platform. We’ve taken a look at tons of companies that are on TikTok and have rounded up 9 brands that are killing it on the platform. Keep reading to see who the top three brands are on TikTok and what you can learn from each of them.

#1: NBA

With 11.2 million followers, the NBA is the clear winner when it comes to brands killing it on TikTok. They joined the platform early on in 2016 and recently with stay at home orders affecting the live basketball season and all of the NBA players, they are ramping up the platform now more than ever.

One of the reasons the NBA is doing so well? They have nearly unlimited content to post, whether they are posting old clips from last season, behind the scenes videos of the players, funny pranks by team mascots or TikTok videos created by their fans. One of their challenges that did well was #HoopsAtHome where they asked basketball fans to show off their own basketball skills at home. The challenge has over 4.2 billions views to date and is still going strong on the platform.

@nba

Check out @thetraeyoung and Zach LaVine playing #hoopsathome with their 4-legged friends! 🐶🏀 How are your hooping at home?

♬ original sound – nba

They also currently have a challenge called #DribbleToTheBeat going on right now that’s already at 1.7B views. 

@nba

@sergeibaka can #DribbleToTheBeat blindfolded with 2 basketballs! 🏀🎶 Pick your favorite sound and show us how YOU #DribbleToTheBeat

♬ Slam Dunk (Full) – Jonathan Paulsen

What You Can Learn: It The NBA is a great example of how beneficial it can be to be an early adopter on a new social media platform! Since they joined so early, they were able to grow their audience well before most brands had ever heard or or downloaded the app. And while you likely won’t be able to dedicate an entire social media team just to TikTok like the NBA does, you can still take a lot of lessons away from their TikTok videos.

For example, posting videos that show a more light-hearted, behind-the-scenes look at your company does really well and is a great way to provide your TikTok audience with relatable content they can’t find on any of your other social media platforms. Check out our blog here for additional content ideas for your brand.

#2 Chipotle

Next on the list is Chipotle, who won the 12th Annual Shorty Award for TikTok Presence. Chipotle joined TikTok after noticing their customers were already posting plenty of videos about their delicious burrito bowls on the social media platform. With nearly 750k followers already, Chipotle is doing a great job of trying a ton of different things on the platform such as re-sharing their customers’ TikTok videos, hosting challenges and even showing off a secret menu.

@chipotle

Come back for chips part 2 #foryou #guac #chipotle

♬ Pump – Valentino Khan

One of their best TikTok campaigns was their #GuacDance challenge where they asked fans to show off dance moves about how much they love guacamole to celebrate National Avocado Day. The challenge was one of the top performing branded challenges on TikTok with 1.1 billion views. 

@brentrivera

When guacamole is free @chipotle when you order online/in-app on July 31st😍 #GuacDance ad

♬ The Guacamole Song – Dr. Jean

What You Can Learn: Since Chipotle’s customers are mostly a younger demographic who were already posting about the brand on TikTok, it makes a lot of sense for Chipotle to be active on the platform. If your customers aren’t mainly Gen Z and Millennials, then TikTok probably shouldn’t be the main social platform for your brand to focus on. However, if your customers are already using TikTok and you aren’t on the platform already, joining in on a challenge like the #GuacDance is a great idea. 

Check out our guide How to Use TikTok for Business for more insights on how to get your brand started on the platform.

#3 Burger King

Taking number 3 on our list is Burger King, who just partnered with TikTok to provide their fans with a fun, innovative way to order a Whopper…by dancing on TikTok of course! Their new challenge called the #WhopperDance started mid-June and already has nearly 23 million views. Fans must first be following Burger King on TikTok, then once they post a TikTok video of them dancing to the catchy #WhopperDance song, Burger King will send them a special code to get a Whopper for just $1. 

@nathandavisjrndj

I can’t believe this worked!! 😱🤯  do the #WhopperDance to get a $1 whopper. @burgerking U.S. only #ad #dance #tiktok #music #fyp #foryou

♬ Whopper Dance – Burger King
@avani

do ya #whopperdance 🍔💯 follow these steps to get your whopper for $1 @burgerking U.S. only #fyp #tiktok #ad

♬ Whopper Dance – Burger King

What You Can Learn: By now, we all know that music is key to the TikTok experience and the best videos often have the best trending songs. Burger King created their own custom song just for this challenge but plenty of challenges do well with existing, trending music as well. If your brand is planning on participating in a challenge, or hosting your own, be sure to make a great song selection for your TikTok. 

Honorable Mentions

Although the following brands didn’t make it to the top 3, they’re also killing it on the platform with standout videos and challenges. Get inspired by their creative TikTok content below.

Nike

@nike

Mason in the front row seat 😎 #MagicBoots

♬ “WOAH!” – Cashino
@nike

Mbappé and LeBron for the ’oop! Grab a friend, land yours and tag #TheReplay

♬ Swish – Charles Stephens III, Stephan Sechi

Gucci

@gucci

It’s @celestemusicofficial getting ready for the #GucciFW20 fashion show #GucciTheRitual #outfitchallenge

♬ Absolutely Anything (feat. Or3o) – CG5

Amazon Prime Video

@amazonprimevideo

Why I’ll never be a homeowner. #jimmyoyang #gooddeal @funnyasiandude #primevideo #hottakesonly #standup #comedy #ghosts #hauntedhouse #amazonprime

♬ original sound – amazonprimevideo
@amazonprimevideo

Just enough data to FaceTime my friend’s dog. #forever #mayarudolph #primevideo #internet #data #facetime #videochat #tech #technology #amazonprime

♬ original sound – amazonprimevideo

Red Bull 

@redbull

no rails (ok maybe one) were harmed in the making of this video 😳 😬 #redbull #givesyouwings #wakeboarding

♬ Level Up – Ciara
@redbull

the AMAZING @rhiannan_iffland#dive #cliffdiving #adventure #redbull #givesyouwings

♬ Can We Kiss Forever? – Kina

Sephora

@sephora

Makeup fanatic check 🔥 @ryanbpotter #SephoraSquad #Makeup #MakeupChallenge

♬ makeup fanatic checkkkkk – cakedbybabyk

Aerie

@aerie

6 years of AerieREAL—so much more to come!#AerieREAL #Aerie #fyp

♬ Love Myself – Hailee Steinfeld
@charlidamelio

share what you’re doing to stay positive right now by tagging @aerie and #aerierealpositivity #ad

♬ 100% Real Love – PopUpGirl

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7 Tips For Small Businesses to Hack The TikTok Algorithm

With any new social media platform, it can be difficult to learn all of the best tips and tricks to improve your reach. But if you’re feeling extra lost about increasing awareness for your small business on TikTok, you aren’t alone.

Unlike Instagram, TikTok is known for keeping their algorithm top secret. They’ve never officially released details about their algorithm and how to expand your reach or increase video views so the platform can be a bit of a guessing game.

While we don’t know exactly how the TikTok algorithm works, we do know one thing for sure – getting a video onto the For You Page is the best way to increase views. The FYP page is similar to Instagram’s search feed where you can view an endless stream of trending TikTok videos curated for you based on your interests and past videos you’ve engaged with.

So what can your small business do to make the TikTok algorithm work for you and get one of your videos on the For You Page? Below are seven tips and theories to help your small business hack the TikTok algorithm:

1. Include Relevant, Trending Hashtags

The first tip to make the TikTok algorithm work for your small business is to be smart about the hashtags you are including in your post. It’s important to use trending hashtags that are relevant. TikTok makes it pretty easy to know which hashtags are trending – when you are searching for hashtags, TikTok will show you how many views each hashtag has and they will indicate which ones are currently trending with a little fire icon. Use trending yet relevant hashtags in every single TikTok caption to increase your video views.

@kingkhieu

🧠How To Choose Hashtags On TikTok (STEP BY STEP) #algorithm #tiktok #stepbystep #tiktokalgorithm #socialmedia #strategy #tactics #business #garyvee

♬ Lights Of Los Angeles (no Choir) – 8Dawn

2. Use Trending Songs

Music is key to the TikTok experience and you will quickly notice that you often hear the same songs used frequently. TikTok will show you which songs but the best way to get inspiration for songs is to quickly scroll through your TikTok feed. If you are noticing the same song being used over and over again this is a pretty good indicator that it’s a trending song and you’ll know what type of content to post with that song. If you find a video with a song that you want to use eventually, click on the music title at the bottom of the TikTok to ‘Add to Favorites’ to easily use later on.

@valerie_lisitsyna

Use these hacks to grow #tiktokgrowth #howtotiktok #tiktokhacks #tiktoktricks #tiktokgrow #tiktokbegginer #tiktokalgorithm #howtogrow #algorithm #tikt

♬ follow meee taytlaurel – taytlaurel

3. Participate in Challenges

While we are talking about trending songs it’s important to talk about challenges. Challenges are a fun way for people to recreate their own version of a trending video and usually these challenges each use a specific trending song. So to use two tips at once to beat the TikTok algorithm, try participating in challenges and using trendings songs! (Tip: Each challenge usually has a hashtag so don’t forget to include this also to increase your chances of ending up on the FYP.)

@yaboydiv

TikTok Algorithm Be Like… #newname #CoolRanchDance #jobtips #BestThingSince #algorithm #tiktokalgorithm #xyzbca #goviral #fyp #foryou #foryoupage

♬ original sound – r_tista7

4. Post in The Evening

There are some theories that show late in the afternoons or evenings are the best times to post to TikTok. This theory is based on when people are the most active on TikTok and therefore the most likely to see and engage with your video once it’s been posted. Luckily, people are spending a ton of time on the TikTok app with users reportedly spending 52 minutes per day on the app.

@_madydewey

Let me know your observations in the comments! Will gladly make a part 2! #howtiktok #algorithm #secrets

♬ original sound – _madydewey


5. Post Often

The more TikTok videos you create and post, the more chances you will get to end up on the FYP page. It can be hard to predict which videos will get the most views and sometimes it’s the videos you least expect to ‘go viral’ that end up doing the best. When you post often, you can begin to see which types of your TikTok videos perform best then you can keep making more that are similar to increase your reach on TikTok. Another reason to post multiple times in one day? TikTok reported that US users open the app eight times a day with sessions averaging 4.9 minutes in length.

6. Talk About Location

TikTok will show you videos made by people in the same city and country as you which is great for small businesses! Be sure to mention your location in your TikTok videos and captions. Also, don’t be afraid to make videos that only a local would appreciate, especially if your small business is trying to attract more local customers.

7. Never Delete Posts

An interesting theory we’ve come across on TikTok from several people who have had a video ‘go viral’ suggest never deleting a post even if it didn’t get many views. Some people have theories that deleting videos causes TikTok to shadow ban your account but that’s not the main reason to never delete videos. Once a TikTok goes viral, your account will have tons of new followers who will scroll through all of the videos on your account – so all of those old posts that didn’t end up with many views will get watched. Who knows, you might even have an old video start trending from all the new followers!

We hope these TikTok tips and theories help your small business make the TikTok algorithm work for you and increase the reach of your videos. Don’t forget to stay authentic and have fun with it! 

tiktok algorithm hacks

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41 TikTok Video Ideas For Small Businesses

By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks

So you’ve set up your TikTok account, watched a few videos and gotten to know your way around the platform…but now what? As a small business owner, you might be interested in becoming more active on this rising new platform, but you’re probably left wondering what type of TikTok videos you should be creating.

While there are many young users on TikTok, this social media platform isn’t just for teens to post pranks or dancing videos. You might be surprised to learn that there are a ton of great TikTok videos about entrepreneurship and small businesses. To help your small business get started on TikTok, we’ve done the research and brainstorming for you. Keep reading for 41 video content ideas that would be perfect for your small business to post on TikTok.

Get to Know You

1. Introduce Yourself: A great first TikTok video for small business owners is to introduce themselves. The more personal your business feels, the more people will be able to relate. Share your name, a few fun facts about yourself and a little about your business so people can get to know you as soon as they follow. 

@roserenewal

out here craftin’ nature into jewelry #smallbusinesscheck #handmade #artist #plants #fashion

♬ original sound – _alt.music_

2. Workspace Tour: Share your workspace with your customers! They will love to see where your products are created. Do you have a dedicated home office? Do you have a retail location? Do you work at your kitchen table? Showing off your workspace helps your customers relate to you even more.

@ktscanvases

where I work #fyp #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #officetour #smallbusinesscheck #foryoupage #onlinebusiness

♬ Buttercup – MixAndMash

3. Day in the Life: Take your followers along with you on a typical day as a small business owner! Show a few things that you do throughout the day; everything from the tedious things like paperwork and phone calls to the more exciting things like designing a new product line. This will help your customers understand what it’s really like to be a small business owner. 

@footsouls

Hey guys 👋🏽 here is a little behind the scenes of how we run everything episode #1 🤗 #dayinthelife #californiacheck #smallbusinesscheck

♬ original sound – footsouls

4. Success Story: There are lots of success stories on TikTok. What will yours be? Can you share your biggest achievement? Or what was something you accomplished in your small business that you are really proud of? Don’t be afraid to brag a little bit!

@bagsnob

How to turn your passion into a career #learnfromme #edutok

♬ オリジナル楽曲 – 🐷きょっちゃん🐽 – 🐷きょっちゃん🐽

5. Meet The Team: It’s nice for your customers to get to know you as well as the team that helps your small business stay afloat. Can your team members each do a video to introduce themselves? Or are you a family-run business? Let your customers get to know the people behind your business. 

@youngnailsinc

Squads all here 💯 #youngnails #teamYN #squad #YNsquad #ganggang #meettheteam #youngnailsinc @gregorysalo @raybracamontes4 @traceyreierson @hsalo27

♬ My Friends (We Get Turnt Up) – Mr. Hotspot

6. About Your Business Name:  Share how you came up with your business name! Most of your customers might not know the meaning of your company’s name. Share the story of how you came up with the name and what it means.  

@whatevalola

My name isn’t Lola… but here’s why I named my shop “Whateva Lola” 🌈🐶 #smallbusiness #doglove #fyp #shihtzu #puppy #storytime

♬ original sound – whatevalola

7. Meet Your Pets: Who doesn’t want to see cute animals on TikTok? Show off your furry coworkers in your TikTok videos. 

@ciaraturnerart

What a day of packaging orders looks like!! 💖 #fyp #foryou #smallbusiness #businesscheck #xyzbca

♬ Moon (And It Went Like) – Kid Francescoli

8. Community Service: As a local business owner you might be passionate about supporting your local community. Share a little bit about what you are doing to help out in your local community. This helps prospective customers understand what you are passionate about, which is sometimes a great differentiator in the market. 

9. Your Why: What keeps you going? You can share what’s most important to you in your personal life or the mission behind your small business. This helps your customers understand what you are most passionate about and what drives you. 

@kaileedespain

Story time 🖤✨ #smallbusiness #artist #tiktokartist #smallbusinesscheck #teachersoftiktok

♬ You – Petit Biscuit

10. A Favorite DIY: There are tons of DIY videos on TikTok and sharing one of your favorite DIYs is a great way for your customers to get to know you outside of work. Are there any DIYs you like to do in your spare time that you can share with your followers like how to garden, tie dye or draw? 

About Your Company

11. Packaging Orders: One of the most common videos for small business you might come across TikTok is how to package orders. There’s something satisfying about seeing how a business packs orders and your customers will love seeing what happens before they receive their order. 

@creeksidecustomcreations

small business packaging! #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #smallbusinesscheck #smallbusinessowner #tiktok #foryou #foryourpage #foryoupage #handmade

♬ original sound – beleves2be
@shopgirlscrew

Packaging orders! We appreciate each and every one of you 💕 #smallbusiness #smallbusinesscheck #hustle #entrepreneur #foryou

♬ Memories (Drinks Bring Back) – Ajay Stephens

12. Organizing Inventory: If you are a product-based small business you can show off how you organize inventory. This content could be helpful for other small business owners and helps your customers understand all of the hard work you do that they might not have thought about. 

@aliyah_solorio

All my new inventory has arrived. I can’t wait to show my new gloss collection #smallbusiness #businessowner #gloss #lipgloss #lash #lashes #supportme

♬ original sound – goalsounds

13. Listing Products Online: Something your customers might not think about is the work involved with listing a product online. Share everything that goes into creating the actual listing for your product. This could include the photoshoot, copywriting and some of the backend website work. Maybe you could even give your customers a sneak peek of a new product that is about to be released!

14. Product How-To: Have a great process for how you create your products? Teach your customers what goes into creating your products/services with a mini how-to instructional video.

@leniswims

Making one of my favourite sets today ❤️✨ #smallbusiness #smallbusinesscheck #handmade #slowfashion #fyp #fashion

♬ CITY OF ANGELS 24KGoldn Funk Remix – llusionmusic

15. Start to Finish Timelapse: It can be fun to watch something at high speed to see the entire process for how something is made from beginning to end. Show off anything you want in a high-speed timelapse: a day in your life, how you create your products or even how you decorate your front desk. 

@mandy.stathis

#smallbusinesscheck #customorder

♬ Small Business Check Custom Orders – threetwentynineco

16. Your Inspiration: Another type of video that does well on TikTok are inspirational videos. Share what keeps you motivated and inspired as a small business owner. This can be anything from your family, community service, your favorite treats and more.

17. The Idea: Was there a specific thing that prompted you to come up with the idea for your company? Share the story behind the inspiration or what happened when you first had the idea to start your small business! 

@footsouls

The story of how I came up with my business idea while working at Trader Joe’s ☺️ #traderjoes #smallbusiness #converse #smallbusinesscheck

♬ original sound – footsouls

18. Supplies Needed: A TikTok video idea you might not have thought about is sharing all of the tools that you need to run your business. For example, if you are a voiceover professional, share more about the type of microphone you use, how you sound-proof your room and how to read scripts. This content is helpful and interesting to fellow or aspiring small business owners and it also helps your customers understand everything that goes into your business!  

@faithdlandry

BE A CEO — found these on Amazon #businesscheck #smallbusiness #businesstips #ceoof #myaesthetic #relationshiptips #PlayWithLife

♬ original sound – faithxonesheep

19. The Best Sellers: Show off your best-selling products or services! Highlight one or two of your products that are most popular and explain why people love it. This would be a great video to post when you’ve recently re-stocked some of your best sellers. 

@popcosmetics

Our bestselling product Feather Brow Soap! 💜 #browsoap #brows #makeup #popcosmetics #browhack

♬ Physical – Dua Lipa

20. Product Displays: If you display your products in a physical location, share how you set up the displays. This is just as satisfying whether you are a baker styling desserts or a retail boutique displaying clothing or jewelry. 

21. Most Requested Service: Are you a service-based business? Share a quick overview of your most requested service and how it works. This will help educate a customer who might be interested in learning more or knowing what they will be getting if they sign on with you.

@popcosmetics

Our bestselling product Feather Brow Soap! 💜 #browsoap #brows #makeup #popcosmetics #browhack

♬ Physical – Dua Lipa

22. Show Off the Details: Have a product with amazing details? Share an up close and personal look of your products to show off what makes them so special. 

@imkarimedina

Up close and personal with our New Snake Necklaces! 🤩🐍 #goldnecklace #silvernecklace #jewelry #smallbusinesscheck

♬ original sound – sophiarossell1

23. Announce a Sale: Who doesn’t love a sale? If you are having a limited time sale on your website, store or have discounted your services you should definitely share this with your customers on TikTok. Be sure to provide them with a clear CTA on how to take advantage of the sale. 

24. How to Use Products: Do you products involve some type of learning curve or are there any helpful tips you can provide your customers? A great video content idea for a small business is to help educate their customers about how to use their products for the best experience. 

@rapunzille

How to style the Rapunzille “Star Struck Ear Threaders” 2 ways. #jewelrybusiness #jewelryhack #howtostyle #jewelrytips #smallbusinesscheck

♬ original sound – rapunzille

25. Stock Updates: Have you been working on a new product or service that is about to be released? Are you restocking one of your best sellers? Build excitement about any stock updates by announcing when the products will be available next.

@roserenewal

packaging orders: thank you so much to all who visited my shop today! next restock is 5/8 #smallbusinesscheck #handmade #jewelry #plants

♬ Swing Lynn – Harmless

Business Advice

26. How to Start: Before you started your business you probably would have appreciated content about how to get started. Sharing how to start a business like yours could help another small business owner and it’s also interesting for your customers to learn more about how you got started.

@ritaoffline

#smallbusiness #businesstips #smallbusinesscheck #hustlecheck #sidehustle #business #smallukbusiness #onlinebusiness #businesscheck

♬ Lose Control – Meduza & Becky Hill & Goodboys

27. Favorite Online Tools: Do you have any go-to online tools that are essential for you to run your business? Put together a TikTok video that shares the online tools you love to use and why they are so helpful.

@socialandstuff

Social Media tips! #socialmediamarketingtips #smallbiztips #smallbusinessadvice #smallbizlife #smallbusinesstip #tipsforinstagram #vancouvermom

♬ My favourite digital tools for business – socialandstuff

28. Obstacles You Overcame: It’s not easy being a small business owner and you’ve likely overcome quite a few obstacles in your entrepreneurial journey. Share with your customers some of the hardships you’ve faced and how you got through them.

@thesuburbanfarmhouse

How we started our small business #smallbusinesscheck #etsy #etsyshop #womenwhobuild #smallbusiness #homeproject #farmhouse #farmhousedecor

♬ Sonic the Hedgehog – Super Guitar Bros

29. What You Wish You Knew: Another high-quality type of video content a small business can share on TiKTok is something they’ve learned or wished they had known sooner in their journey as a small business owner.

@tiktokforbiztips

#smallbusinessadvice #businessadvice #businesstips #smallbusinesstip #entrepreneurlife #creativepreneur #brandcoach #brandphotographer #girlboss

♬ Classical Music – Classical Music

30. Mistakes You’ve Made:  Usually it’s not a common thing to draw attention to mistakes we have made but this is a great TikTok video to maybe help other small business owners avoid making the same mistake and it makes you more personal so your customers can relate to you even more.

@khang.wtm

entrepreneur Don’t make this mistake #tiktok #fyp #focus #business #entrepreneur #focuson1thing #mistake #businesstalk #businessmistake #hustle #khang

♬ original sound – khang.wtm

31. Show Processes: There are probably plenty of things you do everyday in your small business that you could show your customers a behind-the-scenes look while sharing tips for your fellow business owners such as sending out PR packages, printing marketing materials and more.

@jasvlogz

how i send out my PR packages 🥰 hope this helps some small business owners! 💛 #smallbusiness #smallbusinesscheck #skincare #skin #viral

♬ OBLIVION by HATSUNE MIKU – chonky.filas

For Fun

32. Share a Life Hack: TikTok is full of great life hacks! If you come across a life hack or business tip  video that you like, recreate it and put your own spin on it.

@westmain

Look more professional in 5 steps!#businesstips #smallbusinesscheck #smallbusinesstips #hustlecheck #shopify #howto #startabusiness #newbusinesscheck

♬ original sound – westmain

33. Ask For Follows: TikTok isn’t your main social media account, it’s totally acceptable to ask for your followers to also follow you on Instagram or Facebook for content. When asking your TikTok followers for a follow on another social media platform be sure to give them a good reason why they should follow you there also.

34. Something Satisfying: Who doesn’t love when a super satisfying video pops up in their feed? For example, if you are a baker can you share a video of a perfectly iced cake? Or if you are a chiropractor can you share a super satisfying back crack? You might be surprised how well these types of TikTok videos do!

35. Things That Just Make Sense: You might have seen the TikTok trend where people share things in their home that ‘just make sense’. A fun spin on this for small business owners is to share things in your business that make sense and help you run your business more smoothly.

@westmain

THANK YOU FOR 10k!! Should I start a YouTube to share business tips? #smallbusiness #randomthings #boutique #smallbusinesscheck #startabusiness

♬ 아무노래(Any song) – 지코 (ZICO)

36. Host a Giveaway: Just like you would host a giveaway on Instagram or Facebook, you can easily host a giveaway on TikTok as well. Just be sure it is easy for people to enter to increase the number of people who participate.

37. Share a Discount Code: Who says you can’t make sales from TikTok? If customers can easily order your products online, give your TikTok followers an exclusive discount code to encourage them to head to your website to redeem their discount code.

@shopbellaboutique

whenever someone asks how it’s like having your own #smallbusiness i love it! #smallbusinesscheck #jewelrybusiness #handmadejewelry #businesscheck

♬ original sound – endshumour

38. Photoshoot Tips: Do you take your own photos? Is there anything you’ve learned that could help another small business owner take better photos? This could be anything from how you style photos for Instagram photoshoots, how to the settings on a professional camera or the type of lighting you use.

@westmain

#howto #flatlay #flatlays #smallbusiness #smallbusinesscheck #photoshoot #photo #flatlayphotograpy

♬ original sound – westmain

39. Shout-Out to Other Small Businesses:  As a small business owner you know how important it is to support small businesses and how much it means to you when someone shows you support. Why not share the love? Give a shout-out to some of your personal favorite small businesses.

@bybusby

Small biz shoutout to mintmakerstudio cause look at these fab stamps 👏🏻#fyp #shopsmall #foryoupage #shophandmade

♬ When Will I See You Again – Shakka

40. Reasons To Shop Small: Help spread awareness about why it is so important to support small and local businesses and share your favorite reasons to shop small.

41. Say Thank You: And last but not least, don’t forget to say thank you to all of your customers, friends, family and local community members who help support your small business.

@baycreekandco

I can’t wait to get back to normal and open up Baycreek & Co! #womeninbusiness #entrepreneurlife #modernfarmhouse #homedecor #ourcommunity #boutique

♬ Hold My Hand – Jess Glynne
41 ways to get tiktok famous

Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.

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