TikTok branding tips that help a start-up business

Whether you have been running your own small business for a while, or you are just thinking of beginning your own start-up, you’ve probably seen that TikTok is a key method for marketing yourself to future customers. This social media app has grown exponentially in usage over the past few years, and though TikTok doesn’t disclose its user statistics officially, one estimate published in Forbes puts the amount of users at 1.5 billion currently.

With so many people on the platform, it’s a great place to reach out to those who might be interested in engaging with your product or services, no matter what type of business you have. The founders of Custom Planet started the business while still at university, and here, the brand offers some advice on how to market your start-up on TikTok.

Do your research

The first thing you’ll need to do, is do some research to establish what your competitors are doing on TikTok and what their audiences are engaging with. This will help to show you what types of content your competitors are creating, and which ideas are making an impact with your target demographic. For instance, food and drink businesses might be seeing more audience engagement by creating recipe videos, while a beauty brand might be creating popular makeup tutorials.

Make a note of any brands in your field whose content you particularly like and analyse some key principles that they maintain on their TikTok account to see what you can learn. It’s also important to make sure that you are avoiding being too similar to other businesses in your industry, as you’ll want your brand to stand out and draw the attention of potential customers.

Once you’ve finished your dive into the relevant TikTok brand accounts, you should feel that you have a pretty good idea of the different types of content that are becoming popular, and any key ideas that might be useful — these might be the use of bright colours, micro-influencers, or collaborations.

Form a consistent brand

When presenting your business on social media, it’s very important to have consistent branding in order that you are instantly recognisable. As well as having eye-catching branding on TikTok, you should make sure that any logos, fonts, and colour schemes also match on your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and website. This way, your start-up will look more professional and customers will be able to follow it easily across the web as they look you up.

Choose a colour scheme and stick to it, and make sure that your logo and fonts are all ready to go before starting your TikTok account. As well as this, your branding should extend to your content: decide on the personality you want to convey prior to posting for the first time. Having a consistent background (such as always filming tutorials in the same studio) gives your account a more professional look, as does keeping to the same personality consistently. This will help to make your videos instantly recognisable, which is important on TikTok, where content is consumed so quickly. Whether you prefer to do slick product videos, or fun behind-the-scenes content, stick to what you feel is right for your brand.

Pay attention to trends

One of the best things about using TikTok to further your business is that it’s much easier to go viral on this platform than on many others, and this offers you an opportunity to reach new audiences and engage people who might not know about your start-up. To make the most of this, it’s useful to pay attention to TikTok trends and features as they happen. Doing so means you can make relevant content to work productively with the algorithm so that more people see your posts.

Some trends that it’s useful to look at are particular songs or sounds, memes, dances, and industry-specific trends such as tutorials. You should also read TikTok’s updates on any new features they bring out, as apps generally boost content that makes use of their newest features. All these small points can add together to help you get noticed.

Encourage user-generated content

User-generated content is extremely important on social media, as it allows you to get customers onboard with telling people about your brand. So, create a hashtag for the name of your business or your product, and encourage customers to post and review every time they engage with your start-up. You might even reach out to particular influencers and ask them to review your product or service.

This will create more of a buzz around your start-up, and you can also ask to repost the customer videos on your page, giving you more fun content for your account. Creating your own hashtag will also mean that when this hashtag is searched, all of the content connected to your business will be brought up, making you easier to find.

Get your content seen

Once you’ve planned out your content and are satisfied that your branding is consistent, it’s time to look at how your content is going to get found on TikTok. This will involve mainly using the right hashtags so that your videos will reach people interested in your field. It’s important to concentrate on using relevant and specific hashtags rather than just using as many hashtags as possible, so take the time to narrow down your choice to ones that will be very specific to your audience.

You can also experiment with what time and day of the week you post your content, as well as scheduling it to keep up with a more frequent posting schedule. Posting more frequently, and posting when most of your audience is online, will all help to get your content seen by the people who might be interested in it.

“Starting a business can be somewhat intimidating, and part of this is getting all of your social media accounts ready. When planning your marketing, TikTok should be an important part of it, as this social media app is only growing in popularity and presents an excellent way to reach potential customers and maintain relationships with existing ones.

“So, take the time to not only create a coherent brand online, but also to keep things fun and friendly on TikTok. User generated videos and behind-the-scenes content from your start-up will often cultivate more of a connection on TikTok than polished product shots. You might even focus on making all your videos yourself, talking about the process of starting your business, especially at first. This can in fact help to keep your brand relatable and entertaining.”

• Andrew Dark, Director and Co-Owner of Custom Planet

About the brand

Custom Planet was founded in 2008 by Andrew Dark and John Armstrong while at university and has grown to become one of the leading printwear providers in the UK.

They are based in Newcastle upon Tyne, and offer industry-leading expertise in clothing customisation, including specialist knowledge in screen printing, digital printing, and embroidery. They provide high-quality products, excellent craftsmanship, and outstanding customer service.

To find out more, visit: https://www.customplanet.co.uk/