If you think TikTok is an app just for the kids, it may be smart to think again. TikTok’s pre-pandemic user base was predominantly Gen Z, with an estimated 60% of TikTok users pertaining to this demographic. Nevertheless, Coronavirus has changed the lives of people around the world in many ways, including the way we use the internet.
Here are 3 reasons why TikTok is the future of marketing and why you should start considering its incorporation into your marketing strategy.
1. Coronavirus and the shift in the App industry
Coronavirus has shifted the way we do a lot of things, including how we spend our time online and our behavior in relation to the mobile app industry. People worldwide started looking for escapes that they could turn to that didn’t involve stepping outside. This escape took many forms, but collaborative and creative forms of expression dominated the scene.
This shift has resulted in TikTok surpassing 2 billion downloads worldwide, with over half a billion of those attributed to the months after Covid19 hit. In fact, in Q1 2020, TikTok had the highest number of downloads in one quarter than any app ever! According to the report, the previous record holder was crowned back in Q3 2016 for Pokémon GO.
With the platform’s explosive growth, there’s a chance that the scope for marketing to your customer base through TikTok has been made even more relevant.
In general, it’s advisable to look at your business operations in a long-term sense. That being said, the “kids” that you see on TikTok today are highly influential trendsetters that will potentially be part of your target audience somewhere down the line.
Psst, you Millenials out there that swore you’d never get TikTok, we see you
2. Attention of the audience & shift in consumer preferences
With people’s attention spans constantly decreasing, stats from hubspot estimate that, on a scale of thorough consumption to simply skimming, video content has the highest rate of thorough consumption, with 62% of people claiming they thoroughly consume their video content. Since the platform is optimized for consumers’ attention to be caught within the first few seconds of viewing, TikTok checks off both boxes: video content that is quickly and easily consumable. A Business Insider report states that “TikTok allows brands to show their product without over-saturating or exhausting their content”.
Additionally, the majority of people surveyed ranked video content as the type of content they want to continue to see more of!
3. Brand Identity- goes along with tips for marketers
Tips for marketers
As a marketer, it is important to thoroughly understand what kind of content your target audience is consuming on TikTok specifically. What they consume on various platforms is going to be substantially different from the content they will be turning to TikTok for.
Ps: it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be dancing or doing something funny! People turn to TikTok to provide them with educational content, as well. You could create informative, yet brief, videos that link to your website or Youtube channel where you go into further detail.
Allow people to interact with your brand by creating a challenge, with a report claiming that 35% of TikTokers have participated in a hashtag challenge, many of which initiated by brands.
We hope this gave you some insight on the ever-evolving world of digital marketing. We would love to hear the ways that you’ve been fitting TikTok into your marketing strategies, so leave a comment below or shoot us an email!
References
https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/tiktok-e-commerce-could-harness-hyper-engaged-gen-z
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1116267/tiktok-worldwide-downloads-quarterly/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-video-marketing-new-data
https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-marketing-trends-predictions-2020?r=DE&IR=T
https://bettermarketing.pub/how-to-use-tiktoks-hashtag-challenges-to-boost-your-brand-8197a5d507b9
