In 2024, a social media strategy would be incomplete without including TikTok. The app is insanely popular, so businesses and brands leverage the platform to reach a new audience. When considering a marketing strategy, content is one of the key elements. The type of content will determine whether your account grows or not. 

However, understanding the right content to create on TikTok can be difficult. This is because you should keep creating outstanding content that your audience will love. Fortunately, creating content that TikTok will recommend to other users is possible with a good plan. This article will guide you in creating a content strategy for TikTok marketing.

Why You Need a Good TikTok Content Strategy

With the right content strategy on TikTok, you can achieve a lot of great results, such as:

• Reach a bigger audience and, therefore, increase your brand awareness.
• Sell your products or services.
• Build an engaging community.
• Get customer feedback.
• Promote products and services.
• Direct your audience to another platform, such as Instagram or YouTube.

Best TikTok Content Strategy for Brands

So, which content strategy should brands use on TikTok? There is no one-size-fits-all for creating a TikTok strategy. Ultimately, the best strategy should be the one that best aligns with your brand's values and with the needs and interests of the young audience that is most active on the platform. A good TikTok content strategy should also leverage the various TikTok tools and analytics to determine the audience's needs and provide followers with the content they need.

Key Pillars of a Good Content

A good content strategy should have a good balance between your content and campaign planning. According to TikTok, brands need to plan their content well in advance and launch their campaigns early enough. Your content strategy should fit into your bigger marketing campaign. When developing a good marketing plan, you should be clear on the following:

• Who do you intend to reach?
• The objective of your campaign. It should reflect the different stages of the buyer's journey, such as awareness, consideration, or conversion
• How will you measure the results, such as app installation views?

On top of the above, there are some key pillars of content creation you should lean on. These are:

Understand your audience

If you don't understand your audience, knowing the kind of content they will receive well can be difficult. Remember that trends are big on TikTok. Therefore, to understand your audience better, check the viral content in your niche. What are such content creators doing right?

However, this doesn't mean you copy other people’s content. Instead, it gives you an idea of the popular content on the platform and helps you know the key elements to include in your content. Take time to think of who your target audience is and their greatest desires, pain points, and fears. 

Think of what is preventing them from achieving their goals. The more granular you get concerning your target audience, the better you will understand your ideal audience. Consider what solution your business will provide to your target audience. What solution are you offering them? How do you think your products or services will help them?

Define your brand and business goals

Consider whether creating content on TikTok aligns with your overall business marketing goals. Set clear and measurable goals when you feel TikTok is the right platform. By defining your brand well, people can quickly identify with it because they can see your signature style. When they visit your videos, your viewers can quickly identify you. When defining your brand, consider the areas you are most passionate about, have experience, and have unique strengths. Is it an area in which you can easily create content over and over again without getting bored?

Consider your persona and unique ways of doing things that you want to highlight to the world. Remember that your business landscape will continue expanding, and your TikTok following will grow. Even when that happens, you should retain your authentic brand. When your brand shows authenticity, you will be better positioned to draw like-minded people to you. It will open doors for future collaboration with influencers and other creators. It can also open some growth opportunities for your brand.

With Gen Zs making the most of the TikTok audience, you must be very serious about authenticity. You can make your brand unique and relatable by leveraging user-generated content. These can be in the form of product testimonials, demonstration videos, and explainer videos. With such content, you can establish yourself as an authority and make people trust your brand.

As you see better results with your videos, invest even more to improve them. This could be by investing in better lighting equipment to make your videos clear. It may also require you to invest time and resources in new skills and participate in events and workshops.

Understand how the app works

Before creating videos, you need to get familiar with the app to understand how it works. This will ensure that you don't make any mistakes when creating videos. Besides, you can be assured of high-quality videos. Here are a few elements of TikTok videos you need to be aware of:

• Filters and effects. You can change many filters and effects for your videos. For instance, you can use filters to change your videos' color, brightness, and contrast. The app also allows you to add special effects, such as a green screen and slow motion.
• Adding music to TikTok videos. Music and sound are a key part of the TikTok culture. Choosing the right sound will significantly affect your videos and how viewers receive them. Therefore, select the right music for your videos. If you have original music you want to add, TikTok allows you to do so.

Understand the TikTok culture

When creating content, you need to realize that it takes time to see results compared to paid ads. Unlike other social media platforms, TikTok has a unique audience and content structure, and therefore, you can start by understanding its culture and trends. The good thing about TikTok is that it allows you to create different kinds of videos, from dance challenges to showcasing behind-the-scenes pictures of your products.

Understand how the TikTok algorithm works 

First, TikTok will showcase your content to a small group who will likely engage with it based on their past behavior. When they show interest in the content by viewing it in full, liking or commenting on the video, TikTok recommends it to more people. TikTok continues repeating the process, and if this happens so many times, your content goes viral. Therefore, ensure you create videos relevant to a specific audience. Follow trends and use them to gain the highest visibility.

Regularly create fresh content

On top of advertising on TikTok, you also need a strategy to organically grow your account. Start by having a well-branded business account showcasing your brand’s persona. You will use this account to showcase other aspects of your brand, such as your humorous side or being environmentally conscious. 

Take advantage of the different visual effects, filters, and other tools, such as music and audio effects, that can enhance your content. Use these effects to show the human side of your brand. Instead of being seen just like another brand, viewers need to consider you a friend they can relate to. This can also help build brand loyalty as you build genuine connections with your viewers. Here are a few elements of good-quality content:

Experiment with different kinds of content

Ensure that your videos have an outstanding introduction that shows what the content is about. Add clear and concise text at the beginning of your video to frame your audience's subjects. Include texts throughout the video, particularly when introducing a new subtopic and reinforcing main points.

You can include different types of content in your TikTok content ideas, such as:

• How-to videos, quick tips, and tutorials
• UGC content
• Multipart series
• Duets
• Funny skits

The Discover Page is a good place to get inspiration if you are running out of ideas. This can show you trending videos and what your competitors and followers are posting. Keep watching trends that align with your brand and posting videos relevant to your business offering. Do not be tempted to jump on the bandwagon because it is the trend. This may end up maligning your brand.

Once you know the kind of videos your audience wants to see, you must decide how often you plan to create and post such videos. When doing so, consider the image you want to portray with your TikTok account. 

Use stories in your videos

All great videos have one element: They tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. A good story should have a hook at the beginning that pulls viewers to it. Create a video using a format popular with audiences, such as:

• How-to videos.
• Step-by-step explainers.
• Illustrative stories.
• Questions to be answered in the video.

Use captivating language and high-quality visuals in your story.

Use TikTok in-app tools

It's important to create high-quality videos following the TikTok guidelines. According to TikTok, the best video formats are vertical videos that are at least five seconds long. The video format should have some captivating captions. You should also leverage different video effects such as duets, voiceovers, and freeze frames. These can be great features to help you boost your TikTok views. Not only do they encourage audience engagement, but they also captivate your audience.

When creating longer videos, there are certain features you can leverage to enhance your videos. These include

• In-app editing tools. You can use the enhanced editing features of the platform to edit sound clips, images, and texts directly in the app.
• Slitter. This tool can only be used on the TikTok website, not the app. It can help you cut your video to your desired length.
• Full-screen mode. If a video is filmed horizontally, this tool allows users to optimize the viewing experience by tapping the full-screen mode.
• Playback speed. This feature allows users to adjust the video playback speed to match their favorite speed.

It's also worth noting that TikTok can recommend longer videos on the For You page if they have key features such as high watch time, relevant hashtags and keywords, and more.

Create the right length of videos

While TikTok allows you to post videos with a maximum length of ten minutes, creating short videos is advisable as they will likely have a higher watch time. Longer videos can, however, be good for in-depth content. The most important thing is to ensure you capture your audience early enough with a hook and maintain their interest throughout the video. Some of the content you can use to create longer videos include educational, storytelling, and informative content.

Use Relevant Sounds and Hashtags in Your Videos

The right hashtags will be important in promoting your TikTok videos and brand. The good thing about TikTok is that it provides creators with a large library of sounds from which to choose their favorite music or sounds free of charge. While you don't have to add a sound to each of your videos, it is recommended when relevant to your content.

Besides, sounds can help you draw the audience further into your story. A good idea is to use trending sounds, as they can help you grow your reach. You can view some of the trending sounds using the TikTok Discover Tab. This can show you the trending videos and the hashtags and sounds they use.

Competitor Analysis

You need to consider whether your competitors are already on TikTok. It is not necessarily bad for you to find them on TikTok. It can help you better understand the type of content that works for your viewers and what does not. Use this knowledge to plan your content accordingly.

However, remember that this will also mean more competition for viewers. Therefore, you need to plan your content strategy accordingly. Take time to identify your competitors' strengths and weaknesses. Think of a unique angle through which you can present your content. On the other hand, if your competition isn't on TikTok, you should grab that opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.

Therefore, scope out your competitor’s profile on TikTok and check which one of their videos is getting the most views, engagement, comments, shares, and saves on TikTok. How are users commenting on their posts? Which of their videos seem to stand out from the rest? How can you include their best practices in your videos and avoid their worst parts? By using these considerations, it's easier to create better videos than your competitors.

Check Analytics

One of the ways to learn more about your viewers is by checking your audience analytics. This will show you how your audience reacts to your videos and what is or is not working. To see your TikTok analytics, open your profile and tap on Open Settings>Creator Tools>Analytics. You can view three types of analytics. These are:

• Overview. This will give you details such as follower count, profile views, video views, and impressions for the last seven days.
• Follower count. This will provide an overview of your audience, their region's activity level, and other details.
• Content. This can show you how your trending videos are performing.

It's easy to get carried away by one metric and start celebrating. For instance, you can get excited to see your follower count increase. However, this might not show you a clear picture. It's advisable to focus on your content engagement trend, as it will give you a better picture of how your audience engages with your content.

The videos in the For You feed are usually obtained from the last 90 days. While video engagement usually picks up in the few days they are posted, TikTok can continue recommending them as long as your audience engages with the videos. Ensure that you keep experimenting with different kinds of videos and be creative.

After checking your analytics and understanding what content your audience needs, you can focus on creating more videos that meet those needs. Ensure that your videos have relevant captions to help your audience discover them.

Understand the Best TikTok Posting Time

You need to identify a posting schedule for your videos. You can find this data in your analytics. Find out when your followers are mostly online and are most active. Once you do, you can try posting one hour before they come online. You also need a posting schedule to tell you how often you should post. A good idea would be to post twice a day: early in the morning and at night. Remember that not all audiences are the same, so you must experiment until you get the best posting time.

Have Room for Spontaneous Content

A content calendar can help you have an organized content schedule and avoid running out of ideas. However, you don't have to go out of your way to follow your content calendar strictly. Ensure that you leave some room for spontaneous content. After all, you can update your content schedule later. This will enable you to update your content strategy to add what is working and what isn't in your content strategy. You can then finetune your goals and keep new ones as your TikTok marketing journey evolves.

Engage with Your TikTok Community

There are two significant reasons why engaging with your followers is important. First, it helps you build a good relationship with your audience, grow your following, and meet other creators. Secondly, it will help you understand the most popular content type on the app so you can focus on creating similar types of content. There are several ways to engage with your audience. These are:

• Responding to comments. When they comment on your videos, respond to them. Also, like their videos and comment on their posts.
• Join TikTok challenges and groups. Another great way to be part of the TikTok community is by participating in TikTok challenges. Therefore, research the trending challenges and consider participating in them if they align with your brand goal.
• Connect with other creators. TikTok has various features, such as duets, that make it easier to collaborate with other creators. Therefore, use them to collaborate with other creators.
• Stay consistent. Consistency is a key requirement for TikTok's success. Therefore, make sure you post regularly.

Have Fun

It's important to ensure you enjoy what you do on TikTok so your enthusiasm doesn't fall even when the results aren't as fast as expected. Besides, the TikTok app was created to have fun first. The best way to have fun is by creating content in a niche that you are passionate about.

Conclusion

TikTok is arguably one of the most popular apps right now. Everyone is jumping on board. Therefore, you want to use the platform to market your products and services. When creating a TikTok marketing plan, an important part you should pay attention to is the content. The right content strategy will put your content in the eyes of the right audience, increasing the chances of TikTok videos going viral. By following our guide, you can be assured of a good strategy to help you get noticed and even go viral