How to Use TikTok to Start Promoting Your Products Online Today

11 min read

Have you ever found yourself asking, “What is TikTok?” This social media platform allows users to create short videos on just about every topic imaginable. TikTok offers short videos like fuzzy puppies running upstairs to how to fix your pool pump. They have motivational videos, poems, tips, and highlights of all your favorite sports and events.

If you can think of it, TikTok probably has a video on it. With 1 billion monthly active users, you can see why TikTok is a great place to connect with potential consumers.

We know that learning how to sell online can be intimidating; that’s why we have created this guide to get you started. At Ecwid, we want you to feel empowered and supported as you charge ahead, selling your incredible products to your people online. This blog is written to show you how to utilize the app to increase sales and help your audience using social media tools like TikTok.

Why TikTok?

TikTok videos are less than 60 seconds long. Videos can have special effects, filters, and music or voice-overs. In 2020 TikTok outperformed significant players like YouTube, Netflix, and Tinder for top mobile apps worldwide. With over 1 billion active monthly users, primarily between the ages of 10-29, you can be a brand or company of any size and successfully capitalize on TikTok.

People pay attention to and use their TikTok regularly, up to an hour a day scrolling through videos and products. Millions of viewers mean millions of dollars in buying power.

Build your audience and community

Using tools and data from TikTok, you can browse content that already exists and explore what other pros in your niche are focusing their attention on.

Understanding who you are speaking to can help you narrow the kind of content you need to use on your TikTok to help build a large, loyal audience. Including cool features like filters, communities, and sponsored hashtags that help in connecting to your people online.

Grow your online presence

Remember to share easily consumed content and be sure to keep the entertainment value up. Creating a relationship with your viewers is essential. While you may only have a few seconds to grab their attention as they scroll by, by creating beautiful, useful, and entertaining content, viewers are more likely to share and interact with it.

As more people watch your creations, TikTok will encourage others to view them by promoting them on their “for you page.”

Tools and analytics

The Sounds library allows creators to add parts of songs or dialogue from popular shows, movies, and even other TikToks. TikTok Pixel can help you to track your customers’ buying journey. Consider placing your pixel on your website, in your store, and on ads.

TikTok offers a whole resource center where you can understand the app in greater detail. From webinars to success stories, TikTok is ready to help you connect with your people.

Types of Accounts

Personal accounts are for viewers, the people you are getting to look at your products, consumers looking for your unique approach to their pain points.

Creator accounts are for daily posting, growing your audience, including detailed analytics about your viewers and their habits online. With the creator account, you can monetize views after 10,000 followers. This is run through a program known as the Creator Fund.

Business accounts are a bit different. While there is no creator fund for business accounts, you still get all the analytics, performance tracking, engagement data, and advertising opportunities.

How to Start Promoting on TikTok

Your first task is to download the app from your device’s respective app store and create an account. You will more than likely want to create a business account from the start. When creating a business account and setting up ads, you will need to connect with a TikTok rep to confirm your account. Once you’re set up, start exploring the app to get a feel for it.

Utilize your bio space

Your TikTok bio allows you to introduce what you do, your brand, your store, and your products to your people. Because your bio is the first place most people check out when they drop by your page, you will want it to be on point. Keep it simple, use your keywords, and make it accurate.

You can add your website or a direct link to your ecommerce store. Remember to try to match your business name on all of your social media handles. Don’t forget to do profile pictures and connect your Instagram and YouTube.

If you’re looking for a free but powerful link-in-bio tool, check out Linkup. It lets you easily create a mobile-friendly page with links to all your social profiles, work, content, and even products. This is especially beneficial for brands, artists, content creators, and influencers, as your followers can easily buy your products or merch directly from your TikTok link in bio.

Advertising options

Self-service ads are ads in the feed; they blend in and don’t look like clunky advertising or sales pitches. They will appear on the users’ “for you page.”

Ad manager on TikTok is for business accounts. With the ad manager, you can start building your campaigns right away. This option includes branded hashtags, challenges, brand take over, branded effects, and what TikTok calls “TopView” ads. You can set a goal for your business like increasing brand awareness, website and store traffic, interactions, or sales. Narrow down your audience with filters for age, gender, hobbies, and interests.

You can also pay for ads or partner with influencers to help support your store by sponsoring content on their pages. Use sponsor branded hashtags, and be sure to make videos connect to your online store so your customers can buy directly from your videos. Remember to add your TikTok feed directly on your website and utilize all of your Amazon referral links.

Create useful, entertaining, and valuable content

Yes, you can and should use hashtags—search hashtags related to your content or business and evaluate how these people are connecting with their audience. The use of popular hashtags and sounds that are already gaining traction can get you tens of thousands of views on your products.

User-generated content (UGC) is created by the viewers on the TikTok app. These are the people that make the videos go viral. These people are organically using your products or services and sharing their experiences with other TikTok users. Be creative with your content and encourage people to share their personal experiences with your products and services.

Creating challenges or other interactive content will help your customers connect to you and each other on a deeper level. Adding a call to action will help direct viewers on the next steps. Dropping in some discount codes or sales in your bio can help drive conversions. Let your creative juices flow.

Influencers are people who already have a large following. Connect with and hire these people to help make your brand or store more accessible to your target audience without feeling like a used car salesman. You are looking for genuine, organic interaction between you and your customer.

Get Personal With Your Audience

Don’t be afraid of emojis. These can be an easy way to increase conversions in your online store because they are fun, colorful, and draw attention to your products and services. Livestreams and videos that have educational or valuable content will resonate better with your TikTok audience. Recent industry reports suggest that the younger generation of customers has an aversion to direct advertising and sponsored ads, so focus on helping rather than selling.

Engage, communicate, interact. TikTok offers a unique algorithm that allows pages with minimal to no followers to still go viral. Put out good entertaining content, and the readers will come.

Also read: How to Make Money on TikTok Guide

Grow With TikTok Today!

We hope we’ve helped you navigate the initially complicated questions of exactly “what is tik tok?” At Ecwid, we want your sales on TikTok to feel effortless and look flawless, so we have designed a platform for exactly that. We understand that technology can be overwhelming and complex.

Because selling everywhere is crucial for your business to thrive in the future, we help you set up selling with ease on all your platforms and locations.

Whether it’s in-store, at marketplaces, or on social media, we keep all of the channels and platforms you are selling on neatly organized and managed. If you are ready to get started selling on social media platforms like TikTok, let us help you get started for free today!

Sell online

With Ecwid Ecommerce, you can easily sell anywhere, to anyone — across the internet and around the world.

Get started

May 1, 2021

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.