It’s no secret anymore that TikTok is an essential part of a brand’s digital strategy. With over one billion users, many companies are rushing to get on the platform. However, not making a strategic entrance to the channel is a recipe for TikTok disappointment. In this blog we’ve compiled some of the most common TikTok Marketing mistakes we see.‍

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Not Checking If Your Audience Is On TikTok

While TikTok’s user base continues to dramatically increase, this doesn’t mean your target market is necessarily on the platform. It’s crucial to check what your audience looks like and if there are similar brands on the platform as your own. The best way to do this is to search existing content using hashtags to find out what’s already being used and how it’s performing. Based on your findings, you can better assess if making the leap to TikTok is a useful allocation of your time and resources. 


Not Taking Advantage Of Influencer & User-Generated Content

TikTok’s content is much less polished than what you may be used to seeing on Facebook and Instagram. Creativity is key when deciding how to get the attention of new fans. The good news is that you don’t have to do it all by yourself. By utilizing influencers and user-generated content, you can get your message seen by much larger audiences. Influencers are important tools to help promote your brand and even jumpstart trends and branded challenges. Find one with a large following with high engagement rates for best results. Additionally, don’t think you need to reinvent the wheel with each piece of content. Sometimes the best marketing campaigns are giving popular TikTok campaigns your own spin. 


Recycling Old Content On TikTok

Each social platform has its own flavor and nuaces, so don’t expect to be able to recycle your old social content here. The best content we see typically was created with TikTok in mind. Users can tell when something wasn’t created for a TikTok audience. In fact, users don’t want to hear your sales pitch and see your marketing materials. TikTok is a place of fun. TikTok content should be creative and showcase a more personal side of your brand. It’s also crucial to take TikTok specs into consideration like using vertical video and knowing where to place your text on the screen for optimal performance.


Not Utilizing TikTok Ads 

TikTok ads are a much newer frontier compared to other social platforms. However, this doesn’t mean they should be discounted. In fact, the opposite is true. Since the ad network is still new, brands can likely get better results compared to Facebook and Instagram ads where the market is much more saturated. Each brand performs differently on the platform, so ads are definitely worth testing out to see how your audience reacts and what type of content is ideal.


While we’ve listed some of the top mistakes we see on TikTok, the biggest one by far is writing the platform off completely before exploring it. Yes it may be a new and scary social platform, but that’s no reason to not move forward with it. By reading through this article you’re already doing your homework on TikTok and moving in the right direction.


At TikTok Marketing Agency we focus solely on TikTok. We’re here to help brands navigate the platform in order to create comprehensive TikTok strategies that get you in front of a brand new audience. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions. We love to talk TikTok and how it can be a staple to your marketing efforts