7 key strategies for leveraging TikTok to expand your brand - Part I
With 2024 right around the corner, there's a unanimous consensus that TikTok is no longer exclusively for young audiences—it's a platform for everyone. It is imperative for marketers to harness it to avoid missing out on its potential.
In this publication, we delve into the most discussed TikTok trends that have piqued the curiosity of marketers. We share our proprietary research and analysis, coupled with our recommendations on how brands can position their TikTok strategies in the coming year and beyond.
1. TikTok Shop
TikTok is investing $500 million into TikTok Shop, its burgeoning online shopping beta in the United States. The allocated budget covers creator incentives, merchant discounts and the establishment of a delivery network. Inspired by Douyin's social shopping success in Asia, TikTok's leadership is looking to replicate that success in the United States. Inside sources reveal that TikTok's goal is to achieve the same shopping volume in the United States by 2028.
Nevertheless, despite the initial enthusiasm, TikTok Shop seems to be facing the classic "cold start" challenge, struggling to onboard American merchants onto its nascent platform. Several months in, fewer than 100 major merchants have jumped on the TikTok Shop bandwagon. This scenario mirrors past hiccups in U.S. social shopping, including challenges faced by Meta and other social media giants. For example, Instagram bid farewell to its Shop tab in February 2023, and Meta had to recalibrate its commerce plans due to sales falling short of expectations. Consequently, established brands are understandably cautious about diving into the TikTok Shop experience.
To tackle this obstacle, TikTok's team has been studying Amazon's website, identifying product categories with strong sales and proactively reaching out to successful sellers to encourage their participation on TikTok. For instance, Hoong, who joined TikTok Shop to sell her watercolor prints, saw remarkable success, surpassing her two-year sales performance from craft fairs and Amazon.
[Read more: Essence Makeup to host TikTok’s first-ever beauty awards show]
While TikTok Shop currently holds great promise for small businesses, dropshippers and resellers such as Hoong, larger established brands may find it prudent to adopt a more cautious, observant stance.
TikTok’s research has shown that users see TikTok as a cheap marketplace similar to Chinese company Alibaba and associate its products as inferior. TikTok is currently copying the growth strategy by Temu and Shein, two Chinese e-commerce companies that have found success in the U.S. by selling cheap products. Many employees in TikTok’s U.S. office are concerned that the value of TikTok’s brand and its associated TikTok shop products would be diminished.
Additionally, Popcorn Growth's conversations with creators in the United States have revealed reluctance among many to participate in TikTok Shop due to their preference for compensation based on flat fees rather than affiliate commissions. This contrasts with the common practice in Asia, where creators are often compensated via commissions.
2. TikTok SEO
While TikTok shopping is still an afterthought for most TikTok users, many are using TikTok as a search engine. This trend has even been noted by Google's senior vice president, Prabhakar Raghavan, who cited internal data showing that 40% of people rely on TikTok or Instagram over Google for search.
The platform is trusted by users due to its authentic content from creators. TikTok’s bite-sized video format meets the needs of all types of searchers—whether you’re looking for the most popular steakhouse in Chicago (specific search goal), or scrolling for this season’s beauty tips (product discovery) or just checking out travel destinations (seeking inspiration).
When you’re searching for information, the odds are that you want to watch, not read. Not only do our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text, but videos drive more shares and are simply more engaging. When text and video are both available to consumers, 72% prefer to watch a video to learn about a product or service.
[Read more: KVD Beauty partners with influencer Mikayla Nogueira]
TikTok knows this, and is constantly upgrading its search functionality—for example, most recently TikTok built a functionality that allows users to search keywords present in the comments instead of just the post.
While we are unsure of TikTok’s future in social shopping, we are bullish on TikTok’s imminent dominance in discovery-based commerce, where users end up buying products they didn’t even know they wanted after seeing them in videos.
In fact, our research shows that even for the bulk of TikTok shop purchases, it happens when a consumer first sees the product in a traditional, short-form TikTok video.
3. Diversity in every sense of the word
Beyond its fundamental importance, diversity makes business sense, and Popcorn Growth has data to prove it. On average, when minority creators post branded content, 15% more viewers watched full videos and the TikToks have 20% longer watch times.
In 2024, the definition of diversity will broaden substantially. True diversity encompasses individuals of varying ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, disabilities, genders, religions, cultures and sexual orientations. It also extends to those with diverse life stories, perspectives, backgrounds, experiences, skills and expertise. Diversity is no longer just about having a checklist approach centered on ethnicity or gender representation.
[Read more: Maybelline New York enters Roblox’s virtual world via makeup, music adventure]
For example, an Asian person who has just moved to the United States will have a different interpretation of your brand than an Asian person who has grown up here. Likewise, a single mom needs her voice heard, as much as the lesbian couple who adopted a child. Brands must consciously uphold their core values while embracing diverse interpretations of their brand.
TikTok's power lies in its ability to deliver hyper-personalized content, which in turn supports the push for genuine diversity. By collaborating with a diverse array of creators, each sharing your brand story from their unique perspectives, you can harness TikTok's potential. The more TikToks and stories you create, the better. Like Harry Potter's Sorting Hat, TikTok's algorithm delivers the right narrative to the right person at the right time, ensuring resonance and engagement.
