If you’re an Amazon seller reeling from the impacts of global logistics issues earlier in 2022 or fighting for survival amidst rising costs, you can’t afford to ignore TikTok. While the social media giant may be synonymous with comical skits and dance videos, that’s not all it has to offer. It’s also one of the fastest-growing social media platforms, making it a great way to build brand awareness and grow a loyal community in 2022 and beyond.

This in-depth resource guide will walk you through how to use TikTok to promote your Amazon FBA business and boost sales in 2022. 

Why Amazon Sellers Should Use TikTok for Marketing

TikTok currently has slightly over 1 billion users, with 1.8 million predicted by the end of 2022 — making it an excellent platform to reach a wide audience. But besides the platform’s large number of users, here are some more reasons why TikTok should be part of your marketing strategy:

• TikTok users spend at least 1.5 hours watching videos on the platform daily.
• TikTok ranks as the second-largest app when it comes to consumer spending, only behind YouTube.
• Most TikTok users are below 34, with the largest age bracket comprising users between 13 to 24.

These numbers show that TikTok is an excellent platform to reach consumers with a high purchasing power and a great way to reach an engaged audience — particularly if your Amazon FBA business targets Generation Z consumers. And guess what? Businesses can achieve far better organic reach with TikTok in its current state, so if the platform suits your ideal market, now is the time to act on this transformational platform.

How to use TikTok to Promote Your Amazon Business

Now that you know why TikTok should be an integral part of your marketing strategy, here’s how you can leverage the platform to grow your Amazon FBA business.

Create and Optimize Your TikTok Business Profile

You’ll first need to create a TikTok business account to get up and running with TikTok. Once you create your account, don’t rush to post content. Instead, set aside some time to optimize your profile and create a social media marketing strategy that can help you achieve long-term success on the platform. Start with the basics of account setup, including filling in important information in your bio.

• Fill in your brand name. Ensure you keep your brand name consistent across all social media marketing platforms. It’s wise to set up a business account, altho some creators say a standard account offers more reach and better sound options. 
•  Describe your brand in the bio section. However, the description shouldn’t exceed 80 characters.
• Use emojis in your bio to humanize your brand or describe your products. If your Amazon FBA business sells cosmetics, you may want to include a lipstick emoji (💄).
• Upload a clear profile picture describing your brand. Generally, your business logo is a good choice.
•  Add a call-to-action (CTA) to your website.
• Get creative and make your bio stand out with the limited character count available. Add a short and creative USP (unique selling proposition) to tell your audience who you are and how you help people.

Optimizing your TikTok business profile will not only allow visitors to learn what your business does but may also encourage them to follow you. So, spare some time to complete it before you start posting content. 

Determine Your Niche

Identifying your target audience is crucial to creating content that resonates with your audience and growing your following on TikTok. While TikTok is mostly considered popular among generation Z, it would be wrong to write it off as a gen Z app. All ages and demographics visit the social media marketing platform for education, entertainment, and as a search engine to discover relevant content.

To unlock your audience, you can select the followers’ tab. Under it, you’ll find useful insights about your followers, such as their interests and gender. Once you check the followers’ tab, consider checking your audiences on other social media marketing platforms and look for any crossover on TikTok. Your audiences across platforms may be similar, but they also may range significantly depending on what social media marketing app you’re referencing.

Understanding your audience is crucial to your overall social media marketing strategy because the buyer persona helps you carve out the best content to consistently dedicate to your audience.

Once you have a solid understanding of your audience, you can start looking into the types of content they are likely to find appealing. 

Conduct a Competitor Analysis

Are other businesses similar to yours on TikTok? If they are, studying what they’re doing successfully and adopting similar social media marketing strategies could be an excellent way to grow your audience and boost sales.

When studying your TikTok competitors, here are some key things you should look out for:

•     Their posts with the highest and lowest engagement.
•     Hashtags. You’ll want to find low search volume hashtags to maximize your discovery on the For You Page.
•     The times when they post content and the frequency.
•     Their responses to comments on posts. Comments are an integral part of the TikTok platform and help boost engagement and community. You’ll want to ensure you can reply to comments promptly or ensure your social media marketing manager is equipped to do so.

Analyzing these important insights will help you determine what’s working for your competitors and discover what type of content may be effective for your audience if similar.

Create Engaging Content

We know, we know. In 2022 the social media marketing buzz phrase of the year is “provide value.” But, what exactly does providing value really mean?

High-value content comes in a few forms, but the best two ways of thinking about it are in terms of education and highly resonating content. These types of content are commonly known to draw new audience members into your marketing funnel.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to leveraging content creation on TikTok. Instead, you’ll want need to try various things until you discover what works best. One thing we can say about TikTok content is that consistent posting in 2022 will help boost your content to the For You Page, where content is funnelled out to users. Try posting 3 times a day when you first join if that’s within your means. Be realistic, and above all, keep consistent.

Follow these best practices when creating TikTok videos:

Keep it concise and limit the number of parts: TikTok offers a 3 min video option now. Remember that audiences tend to hold short attention spans, and if not properly hooked into your content, they may not return if you don’t get to the punch line.

Use relevant and lower volume hashtags: Hashtags can increase the visibility of your TikTok videos. Leverage lower volume hashtags under TikTok’s Discover tab to maximize your content and account visibility.

Use trending music: TikTok is renowned for making songs go viral — even long forgotten songs. You can find trending sounds by tapping on sounds at the top of the screen. Save trending sounds so you can leverage them in upcoming posts.

Shoot high-quality videos: While you won’t need to get Christopher Nolan to direct your videos or expensive equipment to produce them, you’ll need to create quality videos to engage users. You can achieve this by shooting in a well-lit environment and preparing a short script before you start shooting.

Tell a story: This is where a little bit of marketing experience and copywriting can go a long way. If you have a riveting story, tell it! Use text to add copywriting hooks to stop the scroll and engage users. TikTok is a search engine; telling compelling stories will help you connect with your audience and provide the valuable information they seek.

Create suspense:  If possible, don’t reveal everything in one video. Instead, leave some mystery to encourage your followers to comment or request a follow-up video.

Post regularly:  Don’t post content sporadically. If you want to grow your TikTok audience, try to post content as frequently as possible. Our founder Christina trialed posting three times a day in July of 2022 and found great success. One of her TikTok videos garnered 500,000 views in less than 4 weeks of posting content consistently 3 times a day.

Interact With Other TikTok Users

Social media marketing platforms are a two-way street, and TikTok is no different. Like other social media marketing platforms, you’ll need to interact with other users on TikTok if you want them to engage with your content and grow a loyal following. You can engage with other users by:

•     Replying to audience members’ questions and comments on your videos.
•     Liking, sharing, and commenting on your follower’s posts.
•     Holding and participating in live streams.

Doing these things will not only help you grow your audience on TikTok but also humanize your brand. However, be sure to leave thoughtful comments on other users’ posts rather than generic “great video” comments that may come across as inauthentic. We all know how much we’ve come to hate spam comments on other social media marketing platforms. Come across as genuine as possible.

This is also a great conversation to have with your social media marketing manager. Be sure to explain what types of comments are on brand and what voice you hope to achieve. Brand messaging is a thing on any social media marketing platform, and TikTok is no exception.

Leverage Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a big deal on TikTok, and many brands have reaped significant returns after partnering with influencers on the platform. For instance, Dunkin Donuts saw a 57% rise in app downloads after partnering with social media megastar Charli D’Amelio.

However, you don’t need to partner with a big-budget, high-profile celebrity to grow your brand on TikTok. With a modest budget, you can partner with nano or micro-influencers in your niche and get great results.

To find great influencers to work with, you can do the following:

Search on TikTok Discover: You can find influencers within your niche by keying in specific keywords or hashtags related to your niche in the search bar.

Perform a Google search: You can also quickly find TikTok influencers within your niche by conducting a Google search. For example, if you run a cosmetics business, you can search for “Tiktokers who talk about skincare” to get a list of influencers within the niche.

Partner with a marketing agency: If you’re hard-pressed for time, you can partner with a marketing agency to help you find suitable influencers. This option may require a bigger budget, so be prepared.

Check the Creator Marketplace: TikTok’s creator marketplace is a hub that allows businesses to connect with influencers and collaborate with them on marketing campaigns. Once you create an account on the marketplace and it’s approved, you’ll be able to search for influencers, view an influencer’s performance metrics, and contact influencers you want to work with directly. 

Leverage TikTok Advertising

While partnering with influencers and regularly posting engaging content are great ways to grow your audience on TikTok, you may also want to explore TikTok ads.

Many brands have achieved significant success after advertising on the platform, so investing in TikTok ads may be worthwhile if you want to reach a broader audience. Trial and error may be your best friend, or you can opt to hire a social media marketing manager who specializes in TikTok ads. 

Final Thoughts

The day and age of the digital dawn is now. We can’t say this enough: As an Amazon seller, you can’t afford to neglect TikTok. It’s a rapidly growing platform and an excellent search engine that can help your Amazon business skyrocket reach, engage new leads, and boost traffic to your Amazon FBA listing. What’s not to love?

Thinking of joining TikTok but feeling stuck? Did you know that Christina Ink crafts comprehensive social media marketing strategies tailored to you and your audience? We do the market research and content curation, so you don’t have to. Get our free 30-minute social media marketing strategy call today. Contact us today.