If there were any app that was ✨ not like other social media apps ✨ it’d be TikTok. Its casual, fun, and off-the-cuff nature makes it one of the best places to find your tribe and build a community.
And it’s also great for monetization. TikTok offers various ways to earn money, whether you’re a creator or a small business. The app has crossed $15 billion (yes, that’s a B!) in lifetime global consumer spending across the Google Play and iOS App Store.
But as great as TikTok is, it can also be overwhelming. Determining a niche, staying on top of trends, understanding the algorithm, experimenting with various content types…there’s a lot to do. How do you string all of these pieces together?
Enter: This TikTok marketing guide. In this article, I’ll break down everything you need to know to form a successful and sustainable TikTok strategy. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve signed up on TikTok today or are a seasoned user — you’ll find help here. We’ll cover:
- Why TikTok marketing is worth your time (even if you don’t speak to Gen Z)
- How to navigate the various old and new features of TikTok
- How to build your TikTok marketing strategy
- Various ways to earn money using TikTok
- Best practices to create TikTok content
Got your favorite beverage ready? Let’s begin! 👇
What is TikTok marketing?
TikTok marketing is the process of using TikTok to promote your brand, product, or service. So, if you’re a food creator, you might use TikTok videos to share recipes. A food brand might use TikTok to talk about its products. And a nutritionist might use TikTok to share informational content about food and how she can help.
Your TikTok strategy can include three aspects:
- Organic marketing: Consistently post videos, carousels, and stories to grow your following. This also includes creating trending content, going live, and interacting with your audience.
- TikTok ads: You can run a TikTok advertising strategy by using the TikTok ads manager.
- Collaborations: If you’re a brand, you can run TikTok influencer marketing campaigns or share user-generated content to collaborate with creators. If you’re a TikTok creator, you can collaborate with other creators or partner with small businesses.
If you’re just starting on the platform, begin with an organic TikTok strategy. When you see some progress, start adding collaboration and ads in the mix. In this article, we’ll focus on organic marketing efforts since it’s the foundation of the two other aspects.
Why TikTok marketing is worth your time (even if you don’t speak to GenZ or Alpha)
There’s often a misconception that TikTok marketing is only beneficial if you want to reach a younger audience. And while it is true that a majority of TikTok users tend to skew younger, the average age of a TikTok user is climbing.
“You can find all different audience types and segments on TikTok. It’s just that those groups might be slightly smaller than others,” says Jade Beason, founder of the social media agency, The Social People Agency.
“I encourage people not to rule out social media channels based on age demographics because everyone can still find success on the platform.”
She also suggested thinking about it this way: Let’s say your ideal audience is between 35 and 44 years old. And TikTok has over one billion users, of whom 19% fall into your target audience. That’s still 190 million people fitting the age description of your potential customers.
Another common objection around TikTok marketing is that it’s too saturated. It seems as though all your competition has already hijacked TikTok — among all the noise, is there a place for you?
Turns out, this is a false perception. Data shows that the most active 25% of U.S. adult TikTok users produce 98% of content on the platform. That means about half of all U.S. adults on TikTok have never posted a video themselves.
And the best part about marketing on TikTok is that it doesn’t need you to create overly polished, neatly edited, aesthetic content. TikTok thrives on casual, unplanned, spontaneous content. Creators who film casual chats in parked cars — as if the idea just occurred to them en route — are a great example. Compared to other social media sites, TikTok has less pressure to be perfect. You can just set up your camera and start recording.
If that weren’t enough to convince you, maybe these statistics would:
- 45% of TikTok users say they’ve continued searching for more details about a product or service after discovering something on the TikTok app.
- Another survey found that 1 in 5 participants have purchased something they saw on TikTok.
- And 30% of people said they’ve bought something from the TikTok Shop in the last year. The majority of these were people between the ages of 35-54, aka not the most active user demographic of the app.
Conclusion: There’s still a lot of potential to grow on TikTok, even if you’re starting today. And TikTok can not just help you build brand awareness, but also convert your followers into real customers.
Before we dive into how you can create your TikTok marketing strategy, it’s important to understand how the social network actually works. We’ll cover that in the following section.
Understanding TikTok: How to build the right foundation
Before you begin using TikTok for business, it’s essential to understand the basics. Like how a TikTok account works, the kind of content you can create, and how to navigate the platform.
Once you’ve understood these 101 tactics, you’ll have a strong foundation to build your strategy.
1. Create a TikTok business account
TikTok has two types of accounts:
- A personal account (sometimes also called a creator account). This type of account is for content creators, public figures, and users who just want to watch and interact with TikTok content.
- A business account is for people and brands looking to use TikTok to promote their business or services. It has access to additional features like advanced analytics, auto-replies to DMs, access to the business creative hub, and more.
The only con of the TikTok business account is that it allows you to access only the commercial music library for your videos.
You can’t use all sounds available (even if they are used in another post) — they must be cleared for business use. Original sounds are usually okay to reuse, but some tracks might be copyrighted.
To verify if a sound is okay for you to use, look for the “Approved for business use” label on TikTok. Or you can also go and search for your desired music/sound in the commercial music library.
TikTok advertising options are also limited to business accounts only. If you plan to run TikTok ads in the future, it’s worth creating or switching to a TikTok business account.
By default, you’ll create a personal account on TikTok when signing up. Here’s how you can switch to a business account:
1. Log in to your account and go to your profile.
2. Tap on the Menu icon to go to your Privacy and Settings.
3. Go to Manage Account and switch to a TikTok business account.
4. Answer a few questions about your business (like the category) and you’re done.
Note: The navigation might look slightly different if you’re using the TikTok desktop app or browser version. In all devices, you’ll find the option to switch to a business account in the settings.
2. Set up your TikTok profile
Once you create an account on TikTok, the next step is setting up your profile with the following elements:
- Profile picture: If you’re a creator, your profile image should be a photo of yours that shows your face. If you’re a brand, your profile image will likely be a clear photo of your logo. The profile picture should be high-quality and similar across all your social media accounts so people can easily recognize you.
- Name: You can add your or your brand’s name in the name field. But you can also use this area to add a little bit about your niche. For example, you can add “remote work” in your name field if you create content in that niche. The name is one of the first things someone sees when they land on your TikTok profile. Having a phrase that establishes what your content is about can be extremely helpful. The name field is also searchable in TikTok SEO (more on that later) — adding a phrase about your niche can help you show up in search results.
- Username: Your username can be your name or your company’s name. But you can also get creative here! For example, if you’re a food creator, you can have a “naomicooks” username. That said, it’s best to keep your username consistent across all your social media accounts so your audience can easily find you.
- Bio: Your TikTok bio is the place to tell people who you are, what you do, and how your TikTok content can help them. If you’re a creator, also add your email to your bio so brands know where they can reach you.
Laura is a good example of how to optimize your TikTok profile.
- Her profile image and username are consistent across all her accounts
- Her username isn’t just cheeky, it’s also the name of her website
- She adds “healthy vegan recipes” in her name field, making her account easily searchable
You’ll notice she has also added a link in her bio — TikTok only allows this once you have over 1,000 followers on your business account. The only exception to this (if you don’t have more than 1,000 followers) is proof of business registration.
Once you start posting regularly on TikTok, you can also pin up to three posts on your profile. These posts can be:
- An introductory video about who you are, how you can help your audience, and what inspires you to create content on TikTok
- A video that’s part of a content series to engage people who visit your profile to watch more of your content
- An underperforming video that is useful for your audience (and could use some love!)
- An old video that’s relevant now — for example, soup recipes you posted a while ago that people might want to recreate in the winter
- A popular video that would encourage people who visit your profile to follow you
It’s a good idea to keep rotating your pinned posts to the most relevant ones. This way, you can also experiment and see what works best for your account.
3. Understand the various content types (and their best practices)
TikTok isn’t as versatile as Instagram when it comes to content formats. But it isn’t too far behind either. There was a time when video ruled TikTok. And while it’s still the most loved content type, it’s not the only one. Here are the various content types available on TikTok and how you can make the most of them:
TikTok videos
To no one’s surprise, videos are one of the most creative and lucrative types of content on TikTok. Our analysis of over one million posts found videos get 18% more views than text posts and 7% more than photos or carousels.
But you’ll notice the race between these content formats is not that far apart! Carousels and text-based posts are still worth experimenting with because they’re catching up to videos soon.
Videos you create using the TikTok app can be up to 10 minutes long, and videos you upload to TikTok can be up to 60 minutes long. So, what’s the best TikTok video length? Our research found videos longer than 60 seconds tend to get at least 43.2% more reach and 63.8% more watch time than shorter videos.
“What works well tends to change quite drastically on TikTok. Before, short videos worked well because it was easier to get people to watch your videos on a loop,” says Jade.
“But now, TikTok likes to recommend longer videos because it’s better for TikTok to keep people on their platform for longer. So, these things will change constantly.”
Best practices for TikTok videos
- Experiment with various video lengths. The best way to understand the ideal TikTok length for your account is to experiment with multiple lengths and see what performs best. The perfect video length might also vary depending on what’s in the video content. You might find how-to videos perform best when they’re longer. In contrast, product review videos work better when they’re shorter.
- Use features like duets, stitches, and reply videos. TikTok has various creative ways to elevate your video content. You can create a duet with other creators, stitch your video to another creator’s video, and share a video reply to one of the comments on your posts. All of these are excellent ways to make your video content more interesting and engaging.
- Add trending sounds to your videos. Where relevant, add trending sounds to your videos as they get pushed by the algorithm more. Here’s a detailed guide about how you can find trending TikTok sounds while they’re still popular.
TikTok carousels
TikTok carousels are like photo albums or slideshows where you can add up to 35 images in one post. It’s rumored that TikTok is pushing carousels — creator economy expert, Lia Haberman, said they can get 2.9x more comments, 1.9x more likes, and 2.6x more shares than video posts. But this was in 2024. In 2025, our study (mentioned previously) confirmed that videos still reign supreme — although only by 7%.
“I’m a big fan of carousels — and I think they’re still underrated on TikTok. Someone once called it “swipe-left storytelling,” and that’s stuck with me ever since,” says Lia.
“This isn’t your average photo dump. I’ve seen creators, brands, and even government agencies use carousels in really intentional ways to tell a story across multiple frames. It’s a great format for tutorials, cliffhangers, or anything that benefits from a sequence.”
Best practices for TikTok Carousels
- Use carousels to tell a story. Like Instagram carousels, TikTok carousels are a great content format to share an engaging story. You can highlight how you started creating content, share a product tutorial, or simply share a brand-adjacent story that keeps your audience hooked.
- Ensure your carousels are easy to read at a glance. People are scrolling through your carousel post fast. Ensure each slide you add is easy to read, has a decent font size, and isn’t too crowded with graphics.
- Maintain brand consistency. Visuals are a great way to reinstate your brand’s colors, fonts, and logos. Create a template for your carousel and stick to it. This will not only make content creation easier, but also allow more and more people to remember your brand.
TikTok text-only posts
TikTok launched text-only posts in 2023 to help users who prefer text-only content to create more on the platform. TikTok launched it at nearly the same time as Threads was released and Twitter rebranded as X.
While text-only posts aren’t a top-performing content type on the platform, you can still experiment with them to see if your audience likes them.
Best practices for TikTok text posts
- Add some pizzazz to your text posts. While TikTok text posts are textual, they are still shown on the platform as a visual. Use stickers, music, and background colors to add a pop to your text posts.
- Use text posts to collaborate with other creators. You can tag accounts in text posts on TikTok and even allow Duets. Use these features to collaborate with influencers or fellow creators on the platform.
- Keep it short and snappy: Even if it is text, users still scroll on TikTok at whip speed. Write short, concise, and engaging text posts rather than long ones.
TikTok Stories
TikTok Stories aren’t all that different from Instagram Stories: You can share photos or videos that stay visible only for 24 hours. People can see them in their profile, inbox, and the For You and Following feeds. They can also reply or react to your stories.
Best practices for TikTok Stories
- Share behind-the-scenes content: Stories are famous for casual, unedited, day-in-the-life content. Your followers love to peek behind the curtain — create more candid content for TikTok Stories.
- Create story-exclusive content: Creating content exclusively available on stories for 24 hours can encourage more of your audience to follow you and seek out your TikTok content proactively.
- Use stories to generate buzz: Share limited-time offers, a sneak peek into a sale or upcoming video, and an inside scoop on important announcements using stories. TikTok has also recently launched Flip Stories to add hidden content inside your stories.
TikTok Live
TikTok Live is exactly what it sounds like: You set up your camera, click the red button, and go live to interact with your audience in real-time. You have to be over 18 and have over 1,000 followers to go live on TikTok.
Best practices for TikTok Live
- Go live when your audience is online: You want to go live when a majority of your audience is already scrolling on TikTok. Check your analytics to learn more about when your target audience is online and schedule your live during that time.
- Promote your live in advance: Inform your audience multiple times about when you’ll be going live and what you’ll be doing in that streaming session. This will help create buzz around the TikTok live and encourage more people to show up.
- Offer something exclusive in live: Explain why people should join your live video. Offer exclusive discounts, answer frequently asked questions, or show a new product update. The more incentive your audience has to join, the more people will tune in to your TikTok live.
TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop is an e-commerce feature where you can display your products in a storefront and create shoppable posts on your TikTok account. You can also sell using this channel on your live stream.
Currently, this channel is available only in a few markets:
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- The Philippines
- Singapore
- Thailand
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Vietnam
Best practices for TikTok Shop
- Partner with affiliates: TikTok Shop works better when you partner with influencers to create content around your products. These influencers act as affiliates and take a cut of each sale they bring in.
- Offer exclusive discounts: Exclusive discounts give people an incentive to buy from your shop immediately.
- Go live: You can go live on TikTok Shop to talk more about your products and share the story behind your brand. Do this as often as you can to build brand awareness and encourage more people to explore your products.
TikTok Bulletin Boards
TikTok Bulletin Boards are a one-to-many messaging channel that allows you to communicate with your followers without the hindrance of an algorithm. It’s like a group broadcast channel between you and your TikTok community. Yes, they’re almost exactly like Instagram Broadcast Channels.
Bulletin boards are in the baby stage — they haven’t yet been rolled out to all creators and businesses.
Best practices for TikTok Bulletin Boards
- Encourage your audience to join your bulletin board: Your TikTok followers have to choose to be added to your bulletin board. Promote it in your TikTok content and ask your community to join your channel. If you can, offer an incentive to join — like an exclusive video every month.
- Use TikTok Bulletin Boards to promote other types of content: Bulletin boards are an excellent way to bypass the algorithm and reach your audience’s inbox directly. Use this space to share new videos you’ve posted and remind your audience about when you’re going live.
- Ask for your audience’s opinion: Even if your followers can’t respond directly to your bulletin board messages (yet), you can still ask your audience to participate by asking them to react with specific emojis — like testing a content idea with a thumbs up or down.
4. TikTok analytics
If you’ve already been posting on TikTok for a while, check your analytics to understand:
- The demographics of people you’re reaching (and whether they match your target audience)
- Where they find most of your content (search, For You page, Following feed)
- What queries do people search for to land on your TikTok posts
- When exactly in a video do you lose your audience
You can find all of this info (and a lot more) inside your analytics. Dig through the numbers regularly to understand what you need to tweak in your strategy.
For example, if you find that most viewers stopped watching a video in the first few seconds, you may need to spend more time working on your hook. Or if you find a majority of people discovering your posts using a particular search term, you can double down on it.
5. A brief explainer of the TikTok algorithm
The TikTok algorithm is what dictates what users see on their For You page. And I won’t lie: The TikTok algorithm is a little elusive and more complex compared to other social media platforms. But even a basic understanding of the algorithm can help you stay in the platform’s good books and avoid getting shadowbanned.
A new user on TikTok who has just signed up is asked about their interests and shown videos based on what they select. If they don’t choose anything, they’re shown popular videos on the platform and content that a similar audience demographic liked.
Once the user starts to interact with content, TikTok starts noticing behavioral patterns, the creators they engage with, and their device and account settings to refine the For You feed.
Here are the three core signals that the TikTok algorithm uses to recommend content to its users:
- User interactions: TikTok notes the kind of content users like, comment on, share, and watch till the end. These engagement signals help TikTok understand what type of content and creators a particular user likes.
- Video information: This includes details like captions, hashtags, sounds, and more. TikTok uses this info to understand what the video is about and present it to the right audience.
- Device and account settings: This includes things like a user’s language preference, device type, and country. TikTok says these factors have less weightage in the recommendation system — they’re primarily used to ensure that TikTok’s system is optimized for best performance.
Now, all these signals aren’t created equal. “A strong indicator of interest, such as whether a user finishes watching a longer video from beginning to end, would receive greater weight than a weak indicator, such as whether the video’s viewer and creator are both in the same country,” TikTok says.
It’s unclear how much weight is assigned to each signal. And these aren’t the only elements driving the FYP. The algorithm is also influenced by actions such as following a creator or searching for something specific in the Discover tab. If someone marks a video as “not interested,” the algorithm also takes that into account.
But the good news is, TikTok has confirmed that a high follower count isn’t a direct factor in the recommendation system. This means you have a ton of potential to grow on the platform, even if you don’t have a lot of followers just yet.
Remember: The TikTok algorithm keeps evolving as user preferences change and the platform adds new features. You don’t need to be daunted by it, though. Try to stay on top of TikTok’s updates, but keep your primary focus on creating quality content that your audience will find helpful and enjoyable.
6. Ways to make money on TikTok
There are various ways to make money on TikTok — regardless of your follower count. Knowing the multiple methods to monetize your TikTok presence can help you form more accurate goals and work toward them from day 1. Here are a few popular ways creators can earn money on TikTok:
- Creator Rewards Program: The TikTok Creator Rewards Program helps you earn money by creating engaging content. You get paid based on the number of views your videos get, although the actual amount varies based on factors such as video length, engagement, and region-specific performance. You need at least 10K followers to join the program. Currently, the program is active in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, and Brazil.
- TikTok Subscriptions and video gifts: TikTok offers various creator tools to help you earn money on the platform. For example, you can provide subscriptions to your audience to access exclusive content on your profile. Or you can get video gifts during TikTok Live from your audience that you can encash later. You can also pair these with methods like virtual tip jars. Your TikTok community has various options to support your work.
- Partnering with brands: You can partner with brands as a TikTok influencer to promote their products via a sponsored post. Affiliate marketing is another great way to collaborate with brands. Share content about the products you already use and get a small cut from each sale coming through your unique link or discount code.
Learn more ways to earn money on TikTok in this video:
If you’re a brand, making money on TikTok = boosting sales using your brand presence. This is also relevant if you’re selling products as a creator. Followers (and watchers) will turn into customers if you continue creating excellent posts that build trust and brand awareness.
But if you want a more direct approach to boosting sales on TikTok, TikTok Shop is a great tool. You get a shop page to feature all your products and can also add relevant product links to your videos to redirect them to your shop. You can even partner with affiliates to promote your products within the shop.
It’s worth remembering, though, that setting up and seeing success from this channel takes a lot of effort and resources from your marketing team.
“TikTok Shop is a whole beast within itself. I don’t think brands realize the level of set-up, seeding, and promotion you have to do,” says social media consultant and expert Kendall Dickieson.
“I would ask first if you can handle your own inventory to ensure you can manage shipping effectively if a video pops. TikTok Shop requires its own support as a channel.”
If you’re looking to build your TikTok Shop, the best time is when you’ve already seen some organic success via marketing on TikTok and have the resources to support it.
Similarly, you can also dive into TikTok ads once you’ve created and aced organic content on TikTok.
After understanding all of the above things, you have a decent idea of how TikTok works. The next step is forming a strategy that translates all the theoretical knowledge into action.
How to create your TikTok marketing strategy in 6 steps
TikTok has the power to shift your personal brand or business into the fast lane — it’s true. And while we’re big fans of experimentation, it’s better to have TikTok as a part of a well-formed, cohesive strategy. The following sections will share how you can create a TikTok marketing plan for your brand step-by-step.
1. Determine your niche, audience, and goals
To niche or not to niche — that’s often the question social media marketers and creators have about TikTok. Because the vibes are chill-er than other platforms, do you even need a defined niche for your account? Why can’t you post whatever you like? The reality is there’s a lot of merit in having a singular or a handful of connected niches.
Take the case of Kirsti Lang (Senior Writer at Buffer) — she grew her following by 1,000% (you read that right!) in just 30 days. One of her primary takeaways was how having a niche — even a broad one — helps immensely in getting more followers.
“If you do find a video you enjoy or find helpful in your FYP, you may tap over to the creator’s profile to see if there are more,” she says. “And if what you find there is a hot mess of all sorts of unrelated things, you’re going to bounce back to the FYP without tapping ‘follow’ real fast.”
Pssst…want to learn more tactics to grow a following on TikTok? Watch our video.
You don’t need your niche to be narrow. Have a relatively broad niche that can fit multiple content pillars. This way, you aren’t too restricted in your creativity. For example, if you’re a productivity creator, your pillars can be:
- helpful productivity tools
- remote work hacks
- productivity techniques
Once you’ve defined your niche, the next step is defining your target audience. Who is the person who’d be interested in your content? What are they trying to accomplish? What are some things they might be struggling with?
To continue our above example, people interested in productivity content might be knowledge workers battling procrastination, software overwhelm, and a never-ending to-do list. They need help creating systems that keep them organized and sane.
Having a fixed audience in mind can help you empathize and come up with more content ideas. You can also check whether your content is reaching your audience by checking your TikTok analytics (more on that in upcoming sections).
Once you know your niche and your audience, the final step is determining exactly how you’re going to use TikTok to help your potential audience and reach your personal goals.
Continuing the same example, a productivity creator might aim to make money on TikTok by doing authentic brand partnerships with tools they use. This way, they help their audience and fulfill their own goals, too.
If you’re a brand, your goals for TikTok need to be aligned with your larger business goals. For example, if your business goal is to increase brand awareness, your TikTok strategy needs to contribute to that goal.
“TikTok is really great for driving awareness,” says Jade. “Even if you aren’t growing at a wild rate on the platform, you’re still probably reaching a lot more people if you’ve got a new account than you would be on other platforms with a brand new channel.”
Whatever goals you set, ensure that they are SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This means you don’t plainly aim to ‘get more followers’. It’s not just vague, but also not 100% in your control. Instead, aim to ‘post 3 times a week for the next 3 months to build a loyal community.’
Having a niche, audience, and goal in mind will help simplify the next (and often the most daunting) step: creating content.
2. Decide your post cadence for TikTok
One of the biggest barriers to creating content (on any social media platform) is not knowing what to post. But when you follow the first step of defining your niche, understanding your audience, and setting actionable goals, you’ll have an overflow of content ideas. Hurray! 🎉
And the best part is, each TikTok post you create will have an intention behind it — it won’t be a shot in the dark. You’ll know how your post idea fits your niche, benefits your followers, and helps you achieve your goals.
I recommend storing all the content ideas you get in one place so you have a singular place to work from. My preferred choice is Buffer’s Create space because:
- It’s easy to organize ideas using tags (use them for your content pillars!)
- It’s super easy to jot down an idea even if I’m on the go (using the mobile app)
- It’s within my social media management tool (aka, Buffer), so I can take one idea from draft to publishing quickly
You can also use spreadsheets or your Notes app to store your TikTok post ideas. The goal is to have a repository to pull from whenever you sit to create content.
It’s no surprise that every social media platform wants you to show up consistently. According to our research, creators who posted at least once a week for over 20 weeks get 450% ( 🤯) more engagement per post than those who posted fewer than five times across the same period.
But what does it actually mean to post consistently? How often should you post on TikTok? The ideal frequency is to post one to four times a day. But this isn’t set in stone (and is unrealistic for most creators and business owners). It’s more important to share quality content that actually helps your audience than to focus on boosting the volume of your posts.
“Consistency beats everything,” says Kendall. “Doesn’t matter if that’s four times a week or seven times a week.”
That said, there is some benefit to posting more on TikTok compared to other social media platforms — especially in the beginning when you’re learning the ropes. “TikTok is a volume game,” says Jade. “If you want to figure out what works for you and your audience, share a lot of content varying in formats and lengths.”
An easy way to post more content is to repurpose it. If you already have a YouTube strategy or if you already post Instagram Reels consistently, you can repurpose that short-form video content and carousels for TikTok. Instagram Reels and TikTok videos specifically work very similarly.
“I do notice if a piece of content performs significantly better on our TikTok, it will usually also do significantly better on our Instagram,” says Ian Evans, part of the organic social media team at tl;dv.
He frequently repurposes content from TikTok for Instagram (or vice-versa). “I can’t tell you which one will get more views, but if a video does better on one platform, it’s very likely it’ll outperform the other, too.”
Another way to stick to consistent posting is content batching — create a schedule of your week, dividing your days into various ‘themes’ for scripting, recording, editing, and filming your content.
When you batch your content in advance, you’ll see plenty of benefits:
- You don’t have to get camera-ready every day (comfy PJs for editing, scripting, and scheduling days)
- You can enter and stay in that ‘deep work’ zone while filming and editing your content instead of constantly context switching
- You create a reliable library of posts you can schedule instead of relying on motivation to shoot, edit, and post something on TikTok each day or week
3. Schedule your TikTok posts in advance (for the right time)
Okay, you’ve decided how often you’ll post and created content in advance. Now, take your productivity up a notch by creating a content calendar and scheduling TikTok posts in advance.
A content calendar is a document that tells you which posts will go live on which platforms at what time. This means you don’t have to scramble to find the right video whenever it’s time to post.
If you’re interested in learning more about what a social media calendar is, how it can help you make your workflows more efficient, and how to create one, watch this thorough guide:
To make it even more powerful, schedule your TikTok posts in advance. This way, you don’t have to post manually each time. Once you schedule a post, it’ll go out automatically at the date and time you’ve set — like magic. ✨
You can schedule your posts using the TikTok Studio app, or you can use a tool like Buffer. If you use Buffer, it also acts as your one-stop content calendar for all your social media accounts.
Choosing Buffer (or any other social media management tool) has a lot of benefits over native scheduling:
- You can cross-post on multiple platforms at once
- You can use Buffer’s AI assistant to refine your captions
- You can store hashtags, write captions, and schedule posts in a single tab
- You can browse through the template library when you’re stumped for content ideas
- You can collaborate with your team (has different access levels for all types of roles)
Lastly, Buffer is the only social media management tool that has habit-building features like Streaks to help you post regularly.
When you cross that 1,000-follower mark and want to add a fancy link in your bio, Buffer can also help you create that within minutes.
When you start scheduling your posts on TikTok, the question you might encounter is: Should I just schedule my posts for…whenever? Not really. If you’ve already been posting for TikTok for a bit (and reaching the right audience), you’ll find when your audience is the most active inside your analytics.
But if you’re new to TikTok, you might not have enough posts to get accurate info about when your audience is online. Until then, rely on the findings from our comprehensive study of over one million posts. The best time to post on TikTok is Sunday at 8 p.m., followed by Tuesday at 4 p.m. and Wednesday at 5 p.m.
If you want to understand more about where this data came from, find the best time to post for each day, and find the best day to post, watch our detailed video on the topic:
Let’s say you decide to post twice a week and batch content for the next two weeks in advance. Now, that doesn’t mean you never have to open TikTok again or create a new video. TikTok thrives on trends and spontaneity. The next section will show you how you can leave room for trending content in your calendar.
4. Jump on relevant TikTok trends and use duets or stitches
Trending content isn’t going to make you gain a million followers overnight. Yes, you may go viral with it sometimes, but you still need a majority of your posts to be evergreen content.
To begin with, there are three kinds of trending content on TikTok:
Now, the line between these three types is a little blurry. You’ll find most TikTok trends almost always need a specific audio to participate — like the ‘Take a look at my girlfriend’ trend (the cutest one of all, in my opinion).
Your calendar should balance trending and evergreen content. Test how a few trending audios perform for you, jump in on popular trends, and participate in niche-specific trends.
The easiest way to stumble across these trends is to use TikTok regularly. The platform automatically shows trending content on nearly everyone’s FYP. You can also find the “Use template” option and create trending content easily and quickly using templates.
You can’t really create trending content in advance (or schedule it for later) because trends are time-sensitive. If you want to hop on the bandwagon, you need to do it while the trend is still popular.
That said, stay true to your brand values and only jump on trends if you can make them your own.
“The trends that have most benefited my business are the ones I personally had an emotional reaction to,” says Alice Kim, founder and CEO of PerfectDD, who generated $25,000 for her business using TikTok in a month.
“There are plenty of trends on TikTok, so find the ones that speak to you. If you miss one, it’s okay — there will be another one to hop on to.”
Another thing you should leave room for in your content calendar is duets and stitches with other creators.
- Duets are when you create a video side by side with another creator
- Stitches are when you take a snippet from someone’s video and follow it up with your own
You can use duets and stitches to share your take on a popular opinion or offer a solution to a common problem.
“Some of our most popular videos lately have been duets or stitches with other women complaining about the exact problems that we’re trying to solve,” says Alice.
TikTok features are designed for collaboration and community — use them to your advantage. Plan out as much content as possible in advance to stay consistent, yes. But don’t forget to still use the platform regularly and participate in conversations using trends, duets, and stitches.
Even beyond this, TikTok is a place where you want to be more raw, spontaneous, and vulnerable (scary, I know). It’s what people connect with the most.
“Many of my most popular videos haven’t followed trends at all. Instead, it’s just me talking to the camera about why I started the brand and why I make the business decisions that I do,” says Alice.
“Usually, I’m barely wearing makeup, don’t have my hair done, and haven’t planned a script. It may feel unpolished while filming, but it makes me more relatable and trustworthy, leading to more engagement on TikTok.”
Speaking of collaboration and community, let’s move to the next step of forming your strategy.
5. Engage with your audience regularly
Social media is a two-way street. Engaging with your audience is a crucial part of growing on any channel. It doesn’t just turn your followers into a community, it also makes the whole job a lot more fulfilling.
“It helps the brand feel real. It reminds us that even if we’re on different sides of the phone, there are still people here,” says Ian. “I know when I comment on my favorite creators’ posts, when they respond, I’m like, ‘oh, they saw me.’ It builds that community feeling so much faster.”
The easiest way to communicate with your audience is by replying to their comments and messages. With the Q&A feature, you can easily spot questions in your comments.
“Open the dialogue with your audience as much as possible,” Jade recommends. “Respond to comments and questions on a regular basis so people know that your content is the place where you’re not just speaking at them, you’re speaking with them.”
You can also reply to a comment with a TikTok video to show your audience you’re listening to them!
@tiktok Want to reply to a comment with a video? Now you can! Available now for all users!
TikTok comments can also help you create more authentic content because it shows you what your audience actually wants. “Rather than just creating content that is engaging to my audience, I also look for ways to engage with them,” says Tiffany Yu, who landed $160k in brand partnerships and a book deal using her TikTok account.
“Early on in growing my channel, I not only made sure to try to respond to most of the comments, but I would also respond to questions with video replies.”
Kendall also saw a big uplift in organic performance using reply videos while working with D.S.& Durga.
“Some of the videos were getting 20K+ views, 15K+ views, 10K+, when normally the videos were getting ~2K views on a good day and a few hundred otherwise,” says Kendall. “I pick the best comments based on what I know people ask the most across other platforms as well, or where there is an opportunity to educate them on something important to the brand.”
Beyond comments, duets and stitches are another way to reach new people and communicate with your audience and fellow creators. For example, if a customer has created a negative product review for your brand, create a duet or stitch with the video to address their concerns (in addition to responding to them privately).
You can also invite your audience to stitch or duet with your videos. Ask them to share product reviews, suggestions, opinions, and more. Make them feel included and use these features to deepen your relationship with your audience (and conduct some market research in the process).
With bulletin boards and stories, you can also create more opportunities to interact with your audience. Ask them to react to a story or a message and invite them to DM you, too.
6. Measure your performance and hone in on what’s working
Your analytics are a great place to understand what content is resonating with your audience and where you can improve.
For example, if you notice one video has a lot more shares and saves, dissect why. Does it share unique information that’s not readily available? Is it something people would want to reference later and share with their friends? What are the comments like — can you create more adjacent content around the same topic?
And you don’t have to stay limited to your own analytics. Practice competitive analysis using the Creator Growth tab to understand how other businesses or creators in the same niche have grown, which are their most viewed posts, and more.
You also need analytics to understand how close you are to reaching the goals you set in step one. Set aside time every month to dissect your performance — check the analytics under each video and how your account did overall.
Remember: Data isn’t just quantitative. If you’re regularly interacting with your audience, you’ll also have qualitative data to supplement your numbers. If a topic regularly gets more traction than others and your audience asks lots of questions on it, it might be a signal to turn it into a content series. Use both qualitative and quantitative data to understand and report on your TikTok performance.
6 best practices for a successful TikTok marketing strategy
The steps above are great to provide a direction to your efforts. Once you’ve set that solid foundation, you want to move into more advanced steps that help you refine your strategy. Here are six tried-and-tested tactics s tot help you do just that.
1. Create a video content series
A content series is when you create episodic content about a subtopic in your niche. For example, you can make a “thrift store finds” series as a home decor creator. The excellent thing about episodic content is that it keeps your audience coming back for more.
“It can be difficult to build a community on TikTok because people are so used to seeing so many different faces and creators in one scrolling session. So, you need to create content that keeps people coming back to check in on how the story is developing,” Jade explains.
“If you’re in the process of buying a house, provide updates on that process regularly. This will make people feel connected to you and they’ll follow along instead of just getting a dopamine hit from one post.”
Take the ramen brand, immi. They’ve transformed one of their content series into an account of its own — @ramenonthestreet — that’s how popular and loved it was!
@ramenonthestreet “Not all love is good love.” IG: @onlyydon streetinterview interview nycstreetinterview ramenonthestreetinterview hopecore publicinterview smilecore motivation wholesome lifeadvicetiktok immiramen ramen LifeAdvice healingtiktok love romanticlove selflove
“While testing different formats on the @immieats account, I noticed that the interviews performed exceptionally well. This organic success inspired us to create a separate account for the series,” says Emely Alba, former senior TikTok Strategist at immi.
“At first, we saw no traction, but then, nine months in, we had our first viral video. It was a testament to the power of organic growth and the impact of our strategic experimentation.”
Nine months sounds like a long time, and content series might take longer to show results — especially when compared to trending content — but they create a strong and lasting impression. Instead of getting a few one-hit wonders quickly, you get a loyal army of true fans in the long term.
“Creating an original social series takes time and patience,” says social media consultant Rachel Karten. “That’s why most brands revert to the quick dopamine hits of trends.”
TikTok also makes it easy to organize your content series via its playlist feature. Using playlists, you can create a neat feed of your series in the right order so someone new landing on your profile can watch them without missing a single video.
Content series are a great way to dig deep into a topic your audience cares about and involve your audience to be a part of your journey.
Analyze your analytics and comments to understand which topics your audience has the most follow-up questions about, what they are most interested in, and create a series around it. It doesn’t need to be complicated or a never-ending series.
For example, you can create a playlist about:
- FAQs about your product
- various use cases of your product
- the behind-the-scenes work you do to make your products
2. Use TikTok SEO to improve your content’s discoverability
Over two in five Americans use TikTok as a search engine. The good news: Your content doesn’t need to rely on the FYP or Explore page alone to get discovered. People can also find you in their search results.
The even better news: It’s easy to optimize your TikTok posts for SEO to rank higher in search results. Start by thinking about what your target audience might be searching for when they look for products or services like yours. For example, if you sell products that help remove acne, your audience might be typing “how to remove acne,” or “best products that help calm acne.”
Next, start typing broad terms related to your niche in the TikTok search bar. To continue our previous example, you can type “acne” and TikTok will auto-fill a lot of the popular search terms people use related to the term on their platform.
You can use these search terms in your content, and also use the content that shows up as inspiration. Once you click enter on any search, you’ll also find the “Others searched for” section on the right. These are also related keywords to your primary phrase.
Organize all the keywords you find for your various content pillars and sprinkle them where they fit naturally in your captions, hashtags, and video subtitles. Make sure to use a bunch of related keywords (without stuffing them) along with the primary keyword.
You can check the effectiveness of your SEO optimization efforts using your analytics. Under “Traffic sources,” you can see what percentage of your followers discovered your content in search results and even some of the top phrases they used to find you.
Optimizing your videos for content is a little thing that goes a long way to make your content more discoverable. It’ll take you a little bit of extra time to search for keywords and add them to your content, but the payoff is worth it.
3. Think beyond going viral
TikTok is famous for helping creators and businesses go viral. And while that’s excellent news, you also want to make the most of that virality.
“Virality is great — but it’s only a door-opener. To turn that spike into something sustainable, you need to be ready when people click back to your profile,” says Lia. “That means making sure everything you’re doing on social ladders up to your bigger goal — whether that’s growing followers, driving newsletter signups, or monetizing your affiliate links.”
She recommends having a clear bio, engaging in comments, and pinning your best content to capitalize on your small window of fame. “Pin strategic content to showcase your best work, explain who you are, or provide next steps,” she suggests. “Engage in the comments, pin the best ones, and reply to some comments with a video response. Post the version that never made it out of the drafts or a follow-up quickly while attention is still high.”
Going viral is a great feeling — but remember that it’s fleeting in nature. Your TikTok strategy can’t survive on virality alone (and neither should virality be your only goal). Create content that’s helpful, entertaining, and shareable. And if it goes viral, stay prepared so you can make the best out of it.
“Brands like Alexis Bittar, MERIT, and Gant might not be going viral every week — but they’ve built a sustainable, engaging presence that consistently delivers on its promise,” says Rachel. “People say ‘I love this brand on social’ not ‘I love this post on social.’. That’s worth a lot.”
4. Treat TikTok like a TV show
Storytelling is fodder for TikTok growth. Your audience on TikTok needs something to come back to (as we explored in the content series pointer) — characters, plot lines, current updates, etc. Your TikTok presence needs to be instantly recognizable and jog your audience’s memory in a scrollable feed of gripping videos.
“If Instagram is your brand’s TV channel, TikTok is your brand’s TV show. Try a focused, repeatable format or storyline,” says Rachel. “The way the algorithm works is that when you watch one piece of content from a brand, it will start serving you more content from the brand. In order to retain viewership, that next piece of content should feel within the same world as the video that hooked them.”
The best way to keep your audience hooked to your stories is to make them relate to your characters. Shape them around the problems your follower faces, write the jokes they’d just ‘get’, and speak their language.
“Create content that makes your audience feel seen and that gets in front of their eyeballs — people will start sharing. Then, two or three months later, you can get much deeper in the jokes because you’ve learned more things reading your comments,” says Ian, who has multiple relatable (and hilarious) characters as the stars of the tl;dv TikTok account.
@tldv.io What is Product Marketing #productmarketing #techstartup #corporatehumour
“Somebody called it asynchronous crowd work: You put something out there, you see what comes back, you try again with a slightly deeper joke, you put something out there again, and the cycle continues. After six months of doing this, you can get quite deep into a character.”
For your next series or videos, challenge yourself to create a video from your audience’s perspective. What would make them feel seen and heard? What would they find funny because it’s relatable? If that works, go deeper! This is the true ‘get to know your audience’ practice.
People scroll on their For You page faster than they click ‘skip intro’ on Netflix. To stop their scroll, an attention-grabbing hook isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.
And luckily, a hook is more science than art. You can ace it if you know the right formula. It needs harmony in these four elements:
Spend more time designing and refining your video hooks for TikTok. Leverage psychological techniques like curiosity gap, fear of missing out (FOMO), and identity triggers to grab the attention of your audience.
6. Prepare for TikTok’s uncertain future
TikTok’s future in the U.S. is…rocky. “Nothing is likely to happen overnight, but it’s still worth monitoring the situation and having a contingency strategy ready — just in case the landscape shifts quickly,” Lia says.
The first thing you want to do is back up all your TikTok posts to prevent losing your hard work. You can always repurpose that content for other social media channels. The next thing is to grab your key performance analytics. Lia also suggests reviewing contracts if you’ve collaborated with influencers.
And lastly, consider joining some TikTok alternatives. “Diversify your presence. Reels and YouTube Shorts are the clear alternatives, but don’t overlook Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, X, or Facebook — they’re all investing in short-form video,” Lia recommends. “Even if you’re not posting yet, secure your username on other major platforms.”
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
TikTok marketing is ever-evolving
Marketing on TikTok is about adapting more than anything else. As the platform adds new features, retires old ones, and changes the algorithm, you need to weather the storm — no matter what comes your way.
What makes it easier is treating TikTok not like a chore, but a fun task on your to-do list. It’s low-pressure, allows you to be yourself, and doesn’t punish experimentation. When you look at TikTok as an avenue to be more creative and find your tribe, you’ll find it much easier to grow on the platform.
An easy way to make TikTok fun is to automate the manual tasks — like posting regularly — so you can focus on interacting with your audience and creating content. Sign up for Buffer (at no cost!) to manage your TikTok marketing efforts.
