Have you ever heard about the “TikTok made me buy” trend? A lot of B2C brands find their home thanks to the impact of TikTok on the customer buying journey. But how about TikTok for B2B brands? Is TikTok suitable for these companies?
With the right approach, this shoppertainment platform will be profitable for B2B e-commerce and it will be missing if you don’t invest in this new playground. In this article, we will let you through all the different sides of TikTok for B2B marketing. Keep reading for this in-depth guide!
Why use TikTok for B2B?
As the name suggests, B2B (Business-to-business) marketing refers to all the marketing strategies or content created by one business to target another business. In the era of technology, different social media platforms have created a perfect condition for businesses to work together towards a common goal or purpose.
TikTok is recognized as a powerful B2C marketing tool, but have you ever used TikTok to promote your brand to other B2B companies? In that case, you have made a great choice because TikTok is such a valuable channel. Let’s discover some benefits of using TikTok for B2B marketing.
Drive brand awareness
TikTok is a new playground that has become a powerful awareness driver. With a billion active users, you can broaden your audience and spread the story of your brands. TikTok is now available in over 150 countries and has been downloaded over 210 million times in the United States. If you intend to target small brands, TikTok will be the perfect platform for you!
Otherwise, TikTok is a place where brands jump on TikTok trends and make their own by inserting their identity. Therefore, thanks to various TikTok trends, you have a winning chance to get to know other businesses to collaborate with.
Chance for creative ideas
A lot of brands find their home on TikTok by trying their best to get more creative ideas. This shoppertainment platform offers a wide range of features for brands to succeed as creative. It means that all the brands have many creative solutions by sticking with TikTok.
Here are some tips to inspire your brand’s creative process:
- Explore TikTok with an open mind
- Create organic content
- Focus on some guiding principles: authentic, creative, entertaining, and curious.
Connect with your audience
It has been easier than ever to connect with your audience via TikTok. From different TikTok Ads types to other features, TikTok allows brands to discover other businesses that align with their goals and their audience.
In case you want to interact with other brands, you shouldn’t miss out on these TikTok features:
- TikTok comments: You can comment on other brand videos to build a business relationship and make your account in front of a new audience.
- Live shopping: Inviting a brand to be a co-host of your TikTok live stream is an amazing method for B2B marketing.
Inspire feelings
TikTok users who are interested in a product or service actively seek credibility and authenticity. Consequently, you can leverage TikTok to share your company’s background stories, communicate your organization’s values and philanthropic initiatives through short videos, and captivate viewers’ attention by evoking their emotions.
5 Best B2B TikTok video ideas to boost engagement
Now you have known how to master TikTok for B2B marketing, here are some ideas to make your TikTok go viral:
Share new product releases or feature updates
TikTok’s short-form videos provide an excellent tool for announcing exciting news, such as the launch of new products or updates to existing features. You can create a brief video showcasing the new product or feature accompanied by energetic music to generate excitement among viewers.
The informal nature of TikTok means you don’t have to create a full promotional video specifically for the platform. Instead, you can compile video recordings demonstrating the tool or feature in action and enhance them with TikTok features like music, voiceovers, and text overlays. This allows you to effectively communicate your announcements in a creative and engaging manner on the platform.
Show what goes behind the scenes
Utilize the informal nature of TikTok videos to provide glimpses of work in progress or behind-the-scenes activities. This approach effectively involves your audience in your company’s journey, demonstrating a commitment to transparency and building an authentic connection.
You can share videos showcasing your team’s workspace, the production process of your products, or preparations for upcoming events. A creative way to offer a behind-the-scenes experience is by sharing “day in the life of…” videos, where a team member takes the audience through a typical day in their role.
Here are some innovative ideas to get inspired on your next TikTok video, try to show:
- How are your products made?
- Which brands participate in this business?
- How to film and edit your video?
By sharing these behind-the-scenes insights, you make your audience feel involved and foster a sense of authenticity. It also demonstrates your dedication to transparency, creating a stronger connection with your viewers on TikTok.
Share valuable tips and interesting facts
TikTok users have a strong interest in acquiring new knowledge. In fact, 84% of users utilize the platform as a source for discovering and learning new things. This is why you’ll come across numerous TikTok videos sharing tips, tricks, hacks, interesting facts, and advice across various fields. Similarly, you can leverage TikTok to inform and captivate your audience by providing practical tips and enjoyable facts that demonstrate your expertise and establish your authority in the industry. A TikTok video can serve as a prompt for viewers to explore the complete story on your blog, which in turn may entice them to join your mailing list for additional resources. Moreover, educational content on TikTok can aid your existing clients in maximizing the benefits of your products or services.
Leverage funny content
Remember that humor is always your best friend on social media platforms, and TikTok is no exception. Don’t hesitate to show a brand image that doesn’t maintain a professional vibe as usual.
Show how your product work
On TikTok, users not only enjoy humor but also have a great interest in exploring and discovering new things, including products. In fact, TikTok is 1.7x more likely than other platforms to be used as a tool for product discovery. And users on the platform are 1.5x more likely to buy something immediately after discovering it on the platform.
Even in B2B marketing on TikTok, it’s important to remember that B2B buyers are still consumers. To take advantage of the platform’s product discovery aspect, you can showcase demo videos to educate people about your product. This can include demonstrating its features or creating videos on how to use certain tasks with your product. For instance, Microsoft shared a demo video on how to clean up unread emails on Outlook.
Best B2B tiktok examples to be inspired
After discovering all the necessary things of TikTok for B2B marketing, it’s time to learn from some amazing examples!
Adobe
Adobe has achieved excellence in B2B marketing through TikTok’s vertical video format and social shorts, garnering nearly 3 million likes. They actively engage and promote the community they aim to reach, creating captivating how-to videos and empowering their customers with the necessary knowledge to maximize the potential of their tools.
Reason for Success: Adobe took their commitment a step further by launching a groundbreaking small business campaign on TikTok. This relatable approach of creators with small businesses and granting a generous $10,000 to the finalists influences.
Zoom
Zoom is one of the outstanding b2b TikTok examples. In order to align with the lively atmosphere of the social platform, Zoom regularly shares amusing tutorials, brief tips, and clever hacks that align with their overall social media marketing strategy. These Zoom videos serve to enhance communication, foster connections, and enhance teamwork.
Reasons for Success: Zoom’s success on TikTok lies in its ability to strike the perfect balance between humor and professional communication, making it one of the standout B2B examples on the platform. By infusing their content with wit and levity, Zoom effectively captures the attention of its target audience, demonstrating the practical applications of its services in a relatable and engaging manner.
Square
Square, renowned for its innovative card readers and comprehensive financial solutions, has emerged as a trailblazer in B2B marketing on TikTok. Leveraging the platform’s dynamic and engaging nature, Square has effectively showcased its services while spotlighting the success stories of its customers.
Reasons for Success: Their TikTok videos showcase small businesses and creators utilizing their products, highlighting real individuals who have already chosen to collaborate with them. Additionally, their distinctive style incorporates ASMR sound techniques, emphasizing various actions within their videos, resulting in a captivating and recognizable experience for returning viewers, effectively stopping the scroll.
Mondaydotcom
Mondaydotcom utilizes popular music as the cornerstone of their TikTok video strategy. Their team consistently incorporates the latest audio trends and employs humor to depict aspects of their professional lives. Monday, the marketing and creative management platform, emphasizes the significance of understanding the target market, positioning one’s product in the market, and selecting appropriate advertising channels as vital elements of a comprehensive marketing strategy.
Reasons for Success: Mondaydotcom succeeds by infusing fun into its content, captivating its audience, and demonstrating that traditional branded content may lack impact. Moreover, its strategy underscores the significance of staying current with platform trends and innovatively making a brand entertaining on TikTok. Social media strategists can follow suit by experimenting with trending sounds and relatable content elements to effectively engage their target audience on TikTok.
Shopify
Amazing approach toward B2B TikTok marketing is one of the main reasons that make Shopify become the most popular online e-commerce platform. A little bit different from other brands, Shopify creates TikTok content about entrepreneurship stories to inspire independent business owners.
These content topics reflect all the unique points and also Shopify’s target audience: small business e-commerce. After two years of building a TikTok account with relatable content, Shopify now attracts a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners. They stick with the Shopify TikTok account for productivity tips, advice, and reviews.
Reason for Success: Unlike many other brands, Shopify understands the importance of resonating with its target audience on a personal level, and thus crafts content that speaks directly to the aspirations and challenges faced by small business owners. By sharing valuable insights, practical advice, and engaging anecdotes, Shopify establishes itself as not just a provider of e-commerce solutions, but as a trusted partner invested in the success of its customers.
Grammarly
Grammarly – an advanced writing assistant is definitely the TikTok for B2B marketing example you shouldn’t miss out on. This application has always focused on all the content that underlines the value of their product.
Indeed, Grammarly has put all efforts to create funny videos like jokes about grammar mistakes to attract their audience and call action to their product.
Reasons for Success: Grammarly stands out from other SaaS companies by addressing common problems and correcting incorrectly spelled words that executives or individuals might encounter. This approach underscores the significance of identifying pain points and providing valuable solutions in social media marketing. Social media strategists can emulate this strategy by recognizing their target audience’s challenges and crafting content that addresses those pain points, effectively demonstrating how their brand offers solutions to their audience’s problems.
Smartsheet
Smartsheet – software as a service offering for collaboration and work management has made a wonderful TikTok for B2B marketing strategy. They get ideas and relatable content directly from their application and also from different TikTok videos of their partners, customers, etc.
Moreover, Smartsheet recruited volunteer content creators from across their businesses. It’s a way of using influencers to raise brand awareness. At the same time, they leveraged behind-the-scenes videos that show how people and organizations accomplish their work.
Knowing the TikTok algorithm, Smartsheet has never forgotten UGC (User-generated content). They usually use TikTok Duet and react to videos about Smartsheet to connect with their audience. Otherwise, Smartsheet encourages users to create videos about their products by commenting on other creators’ videos to receive a replying video.
Reasons for Success: Understanding the nuances of the TikTok algorithm, Smartsheet prioritizes user-generated content (UGC) as a cornerstone of their strategy. Embracing features like TikTok Duet and reacting to videos about Smartsheet, they actively engage with their audience authentically and interactively.
Moreover, Smartsheet encourages users to create videos about their products by actively participating in the TikTok community. Through strategic engagement, such as commenting on other creators’ videos and offering replies, Smartsheet fosters a sense of community and collaboration while amplifying their brand presence on TikTok.
How to master TikTok for B2B marketing?
If you are sure that TikTok for B2B marketing is really suitable for your business, let’s discover the way to win this powerful method!
Collaborate with KOL
KOL (Key Opinion Leader) is a person or organization who shows expert product knowledge and influence in a specific sector. They are also trusted by a lot of people and have significant effects on customer behavior.
Collaboration with KOL is a great way to effectively spread awareness, and trustworthiness and also change the feelings about your brand. You can work with influential business owners or brand accounts so they can promote all the unique points of your products. Showing how to use your items and their huge benefits will excite your B2B audience about your business.
There are so many different ways to partner with TikTok influencers. Try to ask them to create a funny video introducing your product or offer them a product to give away to their audience, you will find success!
Before incorporating influencer marketing in your TikTok marketing strategy, keep in mind some secret tips:
- Don’t restrict the freedom: Let TikTok influencers use their own style and voice.
- Repurpose content to share in your TikTok profile.
- Define the message that you aim to spread.
Match TikTok insights
Creating video matching with TikTok insights will make the TikTok algorithm recommend your video to more and more B2B brands. Therefore, you have a winning chance to improve your B2B TikTok marketing strategy and make business connections.
Run TikTok Ads
It’s very smart if you invest in TikTok Ads from the beginning step! As an advertiser, you can rapidly build brand awareness and attract your potential customers by accessing a broader audience.
Moreover, through different TikTok Ads formats, you will succeed in building and maintaining customer loyalty. And don’t be so worried if you own a small brand with a small budget to run TikTok Ads! This platform always continues to expand its advertising options with more creative formats.
If you still wonder how to leverage TikTok Ads in your marketing campaign, try our comprehensive ad tracking and marketing attribution software – NestAds! NestAds simplifies the process of understanding customer interactions with your content across various platforms with its comprehensive journey mapping feature.
Additionally, NestAds provides a detailed analysis of each creative’s performance, enabling you to extract actionable insights directly from your existing data. Get ready to maximize the impact of your ads and unlock the full potential of your marketing efforts with NestAds today!
Announce new partnership
Creating a video that puts the spotlight on partnership announcements is such a great way to attract new partners. It is a good option in your marketing strategy by showing your success in business development.
Post videos consistently
To establish your niche and develop your brand’s voice on TikTok, it’s recommended to post content 1-3 times a day, choosing from different content categories. Consistency in posting helps viewers anticipate what to expect from you and enables you to improve your content creation skills and understand the platform better.
Consistency is valuable for both new and existing viewers, as it demonstrates your brand’s active presence on the platform and engagement with the audience. By commenting, dueting, and responding to users, you show that your brand values feedback and listens to its community.
Consistent posting also enhances your content quality by allowing you to experiment slightly within your chosen content categories. Actively using the TikTok app, scrolling through the For You Page and Following page, and engaging with other users’ content helps you grasp the platform’s dynamics and create content that resonates with its audience.
Leverage your TikTok strategies for B2B
Leveraging TikTok strategies for B2B marketing opens up a realm of opportunities for brands to experiment and connect with potential partners. This platform offers a unique space to not only build brand recognition but also to establish robust connections with your target market, ultimately playing a pivotal role in securing more business opportunities.
For those seeking inspiration before embarking on their TikTok marketing journey, a comprehensive guide on TikTok marketing strategy serves as a valuable resource. This guide provides a step-by-step approach to crafting an effective marketing strategy tailored to TikTok’s dynamics. It also offers invaluable tips and insights to ensure the success of your TikTok marketing endeavors. Whether you’re a newcomer to the platform or looking to enhance your existing presence, this guide equips you with the tools and knowledge needed to make a lasting impact on TikTok.