Nowadays, TikTok has without a doubt become one of the most powerful and well known marketing tools.
Although it is most commonly used among B2C businesses, that has gradually changed. Day by day, more and more B2B companies are considering its value, reaping its numerous benefits.
After all, it has been proven that when B2B companies leverage some effective marketing tips, they can skyrocket their efforts and rapidly scale up their growth on TikTok.
In the following guide we’re going to cover:
- Why TikTok for B2B companies is important
- TikTok marketing tips for B2B companies
- Examples of B2B companies crushing it on TikTok
Let’s get started.
Why is TikTok for B2B Companies Important?
As of January 2023, TikTok had approximately 113 million users in the United States, the country with the largest TikTok audience by far. Thus, it’s no wonder TikTok is an integral part of B2B marketers’ and business owners’ strategy.
Following up, we have gathered the most important reasons why TikTok can be useful for B2B companies.
Let’s begin, shall we?
Reason #1: It raises brand awareness
TikTok offers a wide range of opportunities for increased brand awareness, considering it has more than 1.1 billion active users worldwide, giving you a sizeable audience to target.
When methods such as hashtags come into play, your brand awareness can be amplified.
The TikTok algorithm allows users to watch videos based on some trending topics and relevant hashtags.
Thus, using a unique hashtag, B2B companies can gain more visibility on the platform and reach a bigger audience!
Reason #2: It generates leads
TikTok’s informal nature and the use of short-form videos, creates a fertile environment for brands and their audiences to connect and build trust.
According to Hubspot, informative and short-form videos rank first for lead generation and engagement.
This fact has been supported by studies that have shown that a person’s average attention span is 8.25 seconds.
From a TikTok video, viewers can be turned into potential leads, sign up to your mailing list and even go further down the marketing funnel and make a purchase.
Reason #3: It reaches your target audience
A common misconception is that TikTok is only popular and useful as a marketing means to a younger audience.
And while, as of 2022, TikTok usage among 20 and 29 year olds was approximately 56 percent, this leaves plenty room across other demographics.
On TikTok, brands can target large audiences by their behavior and interests on the platform.
Some examples are the types of video viewers watch the most and the profiles they tend to follow and engage the most.
B2B advertisers can tailor their overall content marketing strategy towards different audiences, based on some demographic characteristics such as age, gender, location and language.
Reason #4: It enhances brand identity
TikTok’s personalized approach to content sharing is one of its kind, giving business owners the opportunity to share their unique stories and vision.
The main objective of a B2B marketing strategy is to gradually make other companies aware of your brand identity, and the unique value your products can possibly add to their business.
As a company owner, your brand can utilize TikTok to share what key issues and pain points you try to solve for the consumer and highlight what differentiates you from all the other competitors.
To do so, you’ll need to evaluate your brand identity and authenticity, shaping and reinforcing your content marketing goals.
Since we talked about the importance of TikTok for B2B businesses, let’s see some useful TikTok marketing tips.
Expand your audience with TikTok marketing!
Book a free call to see how TikTok can multiply your sales
4 TikTok Marketing Tips for B2B Companies
There are numerous TikTok marketing tips for B2B brands to stand out from the competition.
Below, we have gathered and presented the most effective ones.
Tip #1: Use the edutainment method
Edutainment, is a method which derives from the words education + entertainment; involving the creation of video content that educates people but in a humorous way, which is perfect for TikTok, considering the platform is more “casual”.
This is something almost all B2B companies should take advantage of.
Thinking outside of the box and embracing your brand’s humorous side can contribute to evoking curiosity and engagement with your potential customers.
Following tactics such as using popular audio tracks and participating in viral TikTok trends, is a solid way to entice not only your younger audience, but all people despite age into connecting with your B2B brand.
Tip #2: Partner with influencers
What a better way to increase your brand awareness than harnessing the power of influencer partnerships?
As a B2B company, you can partner with TikTok influencers with big established followings to promote your products and services, reaching a much larger audience than doing that on your own.
You can seize the opportunity and seal the deal by leveraging the influence of these accounts, to communicate your message about your business.
To achieve that, you could partner with influencers for a sponsorship or a review of your product, so they share their experience about how your product works and how it solves potential business challenges.
On the lookout for potential partnerships, you can be more methodical and selective by reaching out to influencers who are already familiar with your product, enhancing the authenticity of your message to your potential customers.
Tip #3: Utilize TikTok ads
Previously, we talked about the importance of targeting the right audience.
B2B marketers can utilize TikTok ads to expand their reach with well targeted campaigns and boost their organic videos’ performance.
Similar to Facebook and Instagram Ad Manager, TikTok’s Ad Manager allows audience targeting by:
- Gender
- Location
- Age
- Interests
And more.
You can also create custom audiences and lookalike audiences to reach people like your existing customers.
There are six TikTok ad types, as we can see below:
- In-Feed Ads appear as people scroll through their “For You Page” (FYP) and you usually only have about 2-3 seconds to catch your audience’s attention before they continue scrolling, so you need to be creative!
- Spark Ads allow brands to boost their own posts, or organic posts of content creators with their permission, thus taking advantage of user-generated content.
- TopView Ads show up at the top of the “For You page”, 3 seconds after opening the app with a full-screen video duration of up to 60-seconds.
- Brand Takeover Ads appear immediately after opening the app and are a great way to raise brand awareness from your target audience.
- Branded Hashtag Challenge Ads are a great way to invite the TikTok community to join a trend created specifically for your brand, encouraging user-generated content through hashtags.
- Branded Effect Ads allow brands to design and curate their own filters and branded shareable stickers on the app, which can stay live for up to 10 days at a time.
Tip #4: Showcase how your product works
A great way to encourage your audience to buy your products is by showcasing how your product works.
For that matter, you can create short-form tutorials which will show how your product functions. You can also show works in progress or even behind-the-scenes glimpses of how your products are made, building a stronger connection with your audience and potential customers.
Furthermore, you can shift the focus on your customers, showcasing your product from their unique perspective and showing how it’s helping them solve a problem they face in their lives.
You can even create short video testimonials for that purpose.
Now that we presented some effective TikTok marketing tips, let’s see some examples of B2B companies that have taken their TikTok game to the next level!
Examples of B2B Companies Crushing it on TikTok
The brands below, relying on some individuality and creativity, have gained a sizable TikTok following, massively expanding their reach.
Let’s see how they achieved that.
Note: All data shown below are valid as of today, March 6th, 2023.
SAP
SAP is a software company that develops enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations.
SAP has approximately 10K followers on TikTok and someone might expect it to follow a more standard B2B content marketing strategy.
On the contrary, it shares TikTok videos with employees from behind the scenes and publishes news and information in a humorous yet informative way, captivating the audience.
As we can see, here we have an Edutainment example where SAP’s employees answer questions about the company in the form of a quiz. This is a great tactic to connect and be relatable with your audience.
Adobe
With over 380K followers, Adobe has undoubtedly perfected the art of B2B marketing on TikTok.
They regularly post highly engaging and informative how-to videos, equipping their potential customers with the knowledge to make the most out of their tools, and actively supporting the community they are trying to target and sell to.
As we can see from the screenshot above, here is an example of influencer marketing, with Adobe partnering with the singer YUNGBLUD.
Such contests where customers could win a cash prize having their design featured, are an amazing way for businesses to promote their products to a much wider audience in a creative way.
Let’s have a look at another example.
UPS
UPS is the world’s largest package delivery company and began more than a century ago. It has approximately 170K followers and almost 3M likes on TikTok.
UPS creates TikTok videos from a humorous angle, leveraging the power of trends such as ASMR, unboxing, reverse challenges and POV (Point of View).
It also has its unique hashtag #ThanksForDelivering.
Its marketing strategy is quite effective and builds connection and trust with potential customers.
Above, we can see an example of a TikTok trend that engages viewers and entices them to take action and choose their favorite character.
Bonus: What NOT to Do on TikTok
Apart from mentioning some important marketing tips and tactics every B2B business should follow, there are also some things that as a B2B marketer or brand, you should avoid doing on TikTok.
To begin with, it is vital that you don’t promote your products in every single video. While you may consider it an effective tactic, it’s not beneficial for your company to bombard your audience every single time with your existing or new products.
Moreover, you should also not upload videos in the wrong dimensions since audience engagement often depends on the quality of your video content.
As a rule of thumb, TikTok dimensions should be 1080×1920 for optimal results.
However, the right video dimensions aren’t the only specifications you should take into account. Keep in mind that when adding subtitles to your videos, they should be placed in the right area, in order to not be overlaid by the video’s description or buttons on the right.
What you should also take into account is that it is crucial that you don’t post inconsistently. TikTok recommends that businesses should aim to post 1-4 times per day to test how different types of content are received by their audiences.
Also, as we previously mentioned, trends are really important for your content strategy.
Thus, if you want to boost your brand awareness and generate leads, always keep in mind to never underestimate the power of trends, since they are the driving force for going viral!
Wrapping Up
To sum up, we talked in great detail about the importance of TikTok for B2B companies, some TikTok marketing tips, and examples of B2B brands crushing it on TikTok.
By integrating those best practices into your TikTok marketing strategy, you’ll be able to expand your reach, form solid connections, and increase your ROI.
If you are enthusiastic and want to learn more about how to manage your TikTok campaigns and overall marketing efforts, don’t hesitate to book a free call with us to discuss your needs!