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TikTok Marketing Strategy, Part 2
CPG MBA
June 20, 2023
Last week, we talked about the rise of TikTok in product marketing and how to use the platform to effectively grow your brand. This week, we’re taking an even deeper dive into the world of TikTok influencer marketing, teaching you how to build partnerships that reach hundreds of thousands of consumers and continue to drive sales long after your initial investment.
Let’s get started.
How do I find influencers?
Finding the right influencers for your campaign can be tricky. You need to consider their following, their audience’s relevance to your brand, how much they would want in compensation for their reach, etc.
Maybe most importantly, though, is finding a creator that puts significant effort into engaging with their followers. You’re better off finding someone with less followers but more engagement and an authentic love of the product than a mega influencer without either of those things.
Here are a few ways to get you started on your search:
Manual Search
A great and simple way to get the ball rolling on finding influencers is doing a simple manual search on TikTok. Look for brand-relevant hashtags, find trending content and creators, and reach out to them directly, either through the app or through contact info you find in their link in bio.
TikTok Creator Marketplace
TikTok actually has its own official platform for finding and collaborating with influencers called Creator Marketplace. With Creator Marketplace, you can easily search for creators by location, category, followers, views, and more.
Upfluence
For brands with a bigger spending budget, Upfluence can be a good option for easily finding well-known influencers that align with your brand. Upfluence uses creator and follower data to help you find the best matches for your campaign’s needs. They even have tools for campaign monitoring and ROI tracking from affiliated sales.
How do I pay them?
Paying influencers for their work is done in a number of different ways:
Free Product
For companies that are just starting out, simply sending out free products to influencers can be a great way to gain traction on TikTok. While this method may not be as successful with large, established creators that are used to major brand deals, it’s a great way to get your foot in the door.
Additionally, free products are almost always included in the lump sum and commission payments listed below. After all, influencers need your product in-hand in order to make content!
Lump Sum
One of the most common methods of payment is a lump sum amount for creating a video. Price varies depending on the influencer, and negotiations are almost always possible. Platforms such as TikTok Creator Marketplace and Upfluence both allow for price negotiation within their interfaces.
Commission
If you find an influencer who is a fan of and/or wants to become a regular user of your product, providing them with a shareable discount code and commission on associated purchases is a great way to build brand presence while simultaneously driving direct sales.
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Which payment method you choose will be largely dictated by your brand’s budget, the influencer themselves, and the platform/method you use to communicate with the creator. You may also end up using any combination of these methods.
How should I track my campaign?
So, you’ve established a relationship with an influencer and the campaign is off to a good start… or at least you think it is. How can you tell? Well, it depends on which payment method(s) you used above.
For Free Products / Lump Sum Payments
Unfortunately, there isn’t a method to measure exact ROI in these scenarios, especially if you’re working with a micro-influencer. Two things you can do are:
Track increases in people talking about your brand using social listening tools like MightyScout. Since many TikTok influencers repost their videos directly to platforms like Instagram, it’s worth tracking any jumps in discussion there as well.
Use UTM tags for links you give your influencers to use in their bio. This way, you can track how much web traffic on your site can be attributed to specific creator pages.
For Commission Payments
If your influencer is likely to drive direct sales, it may be worth giving them a unique discount code to share with their followers. That way, you can track discount code uses over the duration of your partnership.
Some final words…
With TikTok’s ever-growing popularity and its increasing significance in ecommerce, the platform has become a critical part of any successful brand marketing strategy. And, whether you like it or not, working with influencers to promote your product is a crucial part of developing product awareness, boosting engagement, and driving sales.
This is the future of CPG marketing.
Until next time,
The CPG MBA Team