Sales are, without a doubt, a challenge for marketers—no matter the industry.
B2B marketing has evolved from relying on a vast database and endless hours of cold calling to showing your true self online and developing genuine relationships with other brands.
Studies show that 75% of senior B2B buyers use online social media during the purchasing process. And 77% of B2B purchasers said that they would not even speak to a salesperson until they had done their own research.
This means that, since customers will only buy from B2B companies they are familiar with, having more channels than just your website to communicate with prospects is crucial.
And this makes us wonder.
Can B2B brands secure long-lasting partnerships via TikTok?
Read on to find out.
A guide on how to use TikTok for B2B marketing
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Tips on how to use TikTok for B2B marketing
3.1. Pay attention to what your prospects are complaining about
3.2. Partner up with key opinion leaders
3.3. Invest in TikTok ads
3.4. Measure your performance constantly -
Brands that are winning at B2B TikTok marketing
4.1. @adobevideo | Being a go-to source of inspiration
4.2. @grammarlyofficial | Identifying pain points
4.3. @mondaydotcom | Having fun with the content
Should brands use TikTok for B2B marketing?
Even though it is becoming seemingly popular among B2C brands, TikTok may not seem like the most obvious choice for B2B marketing based on the demographics alone.
And while some brands may still be reluctant to use TikTok because it is seen as a platform for Gen Z, some marketers believe it might be a very effective tool for generating leads.
The main reason they think so is that B2B buyers, just like individual consumers, are more likely to buy from a brand they recognize and identify with.
But as we’ve stated in one of our related articles, brands do not need to be on TikTok just for the sake of it.
B2B marketing’s objective is to make other companies aware of your brand and the value your products add to their business.
To do so, you’ll need to evaluate your brand identity and consider your target audience first. This will help you shape your marketing goals and develop a strategy that distinguishes you from other competitors on the market.
Basically, as long as it helps you reach your public and makes your target audience perceive you as a go-to source of information, TikTok should be a part of your social media marketing strategy.
If you’re still a TikTok newbie and would like to learn more about how to use the platform, we have answered all your questions here.
What is TikTok for Business and how can you use it?
B2B brands are learning that TikTok can offer more than just cute pet videos and dance challenges.
TikTok is, indeed, a very effective tool for business promotion.
You can reach a lot of potential customers by posting videos on TikTok regularly and you can also encourage and give them a reason to interact with your brand.
TikTok has taken extra care to appeal to start-ups by using various features—including hashtags, a user-friendly TikTok Ads Manager, or Shopify integration.
TikTok’s platform—TikTok for Business—will assist you in connecting and interacting with your audience. Users engaging with your content is the most crucial component of TikTok marketing.
And with TikTok’s business-dedicated features, it’s easy to leverage the platform to develop your brand, share your message, and grow your business.
TikTok for Business will walk you through every step of picking a goal, choosing your target, setting a budget, designing your ad, and measuring your performance—which sets it apart from the creator-focused platform.
You can use TikTok for Business to create TopView ads, in-feed Ads, brand takeover ads, branded effects, and branded hashtag challenges.
💡Tip for social media managers:
You can also use TikTok Ads Manager to connect with professionals who might use your service outside an organization.
There is a greater probability that a company will discover you and want to collaborate with you if they see you’ve gotten freelancers or creators fired up about your product.
Tips on how to use TikTok for B2B marketing
Unlike B2C, where jumping on trends and sharing content consistently is key, B2B can work a bit differently.
If you’re looking to rule the TikTok B2B market, we’ve compiled the best advice for getting started, crushing trends, and unlocking the potential of the B2B formula.
Take a look.
👀 Pay attention to what your prospects are complaining about
It’s critical to keep an eye on both your rivals and potential customers.
Sprout Social claims that if you search for #corporate on TikTok, you can find a subculture with a ton of entertaining content about corporate life.
Professionals are hurrying to adopt TikTok’s realistic style and are coming up with fun methods to express their frustrations with the workday.
All you have to do is pinpoint their issues and figure out how your offering may help.
It is also crucial to take a peek at your rivals’ strategies to set yourself apart from them and their offerings.
🤝 Partner up with key opinion leaders
As we said before, you, as a brand, want to be perceived as a go-to source of information by other industry experts.
And teaming up with key opinion leaders within your field is an excellent method to do so.
You can start by selecting a few creators or companies that you want to network and connect with on TikTok.
Watch their content and interact with their postings. If the occasion calls for it, you can even think of sewing one of their videos together with your own to offer your perspective.
You may increase your chances of being noticed by using TikTok’s features—Duet and Stitch—to engage with relevant creators that you like.
🤑 Invest in TikTok ads
TikTok is mainly designed for organic discovery.
However, there are occasions when it makes sense to spend money on paid ads.
If you are new to TikTok, you should allocate a small budget for the initial push.
This will enable you to connect with your audience in a manner that organic means might not be able to.
Not to mention paid ads allow you to test out various ad wording and creative options so you can determine which ones are most effective for your brand.
If you’d like to start experimenting with TikTok ads to reach more profiles, you might want to give our article—How to Create TikTok Ads And Setup a Campaign That Converts—a read.
📈Measure your performance constantly
Keeping track of your KPIs is as important for B2B as it is for B2C.
By constantly monitoring and evaluating your metrics, you may establish if your marketing efforts are leading you toward success or failure.
Using a TikTok analytics tool can help you improve every aspect of your social media content strategy by providing you with helpful information regarding the performance of your content.
The more interesting and engaging your content is, the more chances you have to secure B2B deals.
If you’d like to dive into metrics and see which content worked or not, TikTok Analytics provides insights on profile overview, followers data, and content data.
Alternatively, you might want to compare these 9 TikTok Analytics Tools for a Successful Social Media Strategy and decide which one best fits your needs.
Brands that are winning at B2B TikTok marketing
As a B2B brand, you can post clips on a variety of topics, such as product tutorials, industry insights, brief interviews with your internal specialists, guidance on how to solve a problem, or quick tips and tricks that highlight your leadership.
To get you inspired and see if TikTok is the place where you want to promote your business, we have listed 3 brands that are winning the B2B game at the moment.
You may use the following cases as a starting point for your future content:
@adobevideo | Being a go-to source of inspiration
According to research from Enlyft, more than 101K companies use Adobe Creative Cloud. Businesses with 1–10 employees and a revenue of $1–10 million are the ones who use the app the most frequently.
With over 300K followers and 1M likes, @adobevideo mastered the art of B2B marketing on TikTok.
How did it do that?
Adobe established itself as an authority in the creative market.
Videos showcasing popular design trends, feature overviews, and collabs with well-known professionals do the trick for Adobe.
Adobe also uses TikTok to share short-form engaging tutorials for creatives that want to turn their work into masterpieces.
The best part is that professional designers looking for new ideas and social media managers who want to create content quickly or learn to use the Adobe Suite can find unique assets on TikTok as a resource.
@grammarlyofficial | Identifying pain points
@grammarlyofficial uses a content mix, sharing both educational and humorous postings.
Their content is relatable and demonstrates the worth of their offering.
Grammarly differs from other SaaS companies in that it clarifies any common problems or incorrectly spelled words that executives or individuals might encounter.
If you’d like to learn more about Grammarly’s brand identity, you might like to read our brand analysis—Grammarly’s Marketing Strategy: How the Brand Succeeded in Becoming a Leader in Its Market.
@mondaydotcom | Having fun with the content
@mondaydotcom is the living proof that branded content is no longer an effective way to grab people’s attention.
According to the marketing and creative management platform Monday, creating a comprehensive marketing strategy is all about knowing your target audience, how your product fits into the market, and where to advertise.
On TikTok, @mondaydotcom’s strategy relies heavily on trending sounds.
They use the latest audios and adapt their content to show aspects of their work life in a fun and relatable way.
Last thoughts
TikTok makes it simple for small business owners to reach their customers, but it may also put you in touch with other small business owners.
TikTok is not quite as crowded as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube because it is still relatively new to the business sector.
Due to the lack of a developed influencer network and the fewer users vying for sponsorship and ad slots, it is also significantly less expensive to promote.
TikTok’s widespread popularity of the platform allows B2B companies to find their own niche audiences.
Using TikTok to establish your brand as the authority in your field could be the key to differentiating yourself from the competition and securing more deals.
And due to the short-video format, it pushes them to explain their solutions briefly and clearly.
Are you ready to give TikTok for B2B business a try?
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