How to Start Selling on TikTok

EBUYSOURCING

03/14/2022

What is TikTok?

If you think TikTok is just a platform for Millennials and Gen-Zers to do lip-syncing clips, it is more than that. Actually, it has become the most downloaded app in the world and recently reached nearly 1 billion active users per month globally. Life hacks, comedy clips, vlogs, and countless interesting short videos are being created by users and professional creators.

In fact, users are addicted to it, they spend an average of 53 minutes every day scrolling through random videos. As a consequence, TikTok has the highest engagement compared to other major social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. People are never tired of looking for and sharing trends, products and services, which provides a great opportunity to promote your brand awareness and sales. Although TikTok has a lot of potential for business, it hasn’t been widely accepted by marketers, only 10% of them are using its ad tool in 2022. Considering the relatively low competition, it is more likely to be cost-effective.

In this guide, you will learn every step to start selling on TikTok.

1. Creat an account.

The first thing you need to do is download the app and select create an account. It will be set to a personal account by default, you should switch it to a business account. A business account provides you with several advantages, including user insights, tracking, engagement, and advertising solutions.

2. Create your brand’s bio.

To impress people who click on your profile, make sure you describe your brand in a creative way. Speak in their language, use emojis to grab young TikTokers’ attention. Besides that, add a link, contact information in your bio, and don’t forget to add a CTA (Call-to-Action), which contributes to directing them to your landing pages. So you can sell your products or interact with them.

A TikTok business account is required if you use ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce. As TikTok Business Center is not available on the TikTok app, you have to find it on your web browser. Another benefit is that it also gives you access to the TikTok Ads Manager.

3. Start creating killer content.

First, creating interesting and creative content is the key to intriguing younger generations. To do that, you should dive into it and create a couple of hours of resources so that they can be well-edited into a 30-second video. If you don’t have any ideas about what you should do, take a look at your competitors’ content and learn from them.

For people who have a tight budget to set up a filming space with enough props, hiring a third-party filming team is more recommended. Let the professionals do their job, so you can spend more time on marketing and services. Then upload these videos on a regular schedule, the more often you upload, the more likely you will get followers. If you just post every 3 weeks, there is no way you will get many followers.

Once your video is uploaded, try to actively engage with your followers. Like or reply to their comments, and encourage them to share your video.

Last but not least, don’t forget to cross-promote your content on other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc.

4. Make use of paid advertisements.

TikTok provides varying types of ads for marketers to choose from. Each type of ad has its own benefits, and you should choose wisely based on your specific demands.

In-feed video ads only appear within your feed, like other normal videos. In this ad, you can embed a link to a website or a product page.

Brand takeovers are full-screen ads displayed when you open up the TikTok app. You can not only add a link leading to your landing pages, but also a hashtag challenge to drive mass brand awareness. In fact, brand takeovers are not for beginners, because they take over a specific category for a day, which definitely will cost you a whole lot of money.

You might have seen some funny hashtag challenges a couple of times. TikTok also offers a great opportunity to launch a sponsored hashtag challenge. A sponsored one will be put on the discovery page for a week, which can drive more traffic and engagement compared to an organic one.

Topview ads are kind of like in-feed ads, they both show up on for your page. The major difference is that top view ads only appear as in-feed videos after 3 seconds of scrolling through random posts.

Usually, these paid ads are quite costly. If you don’t have much money to spare, consider brand effects. It allows you to create your own custom filters, stickers, and lenses, so users can engage with your brand in an indirect way.

5. Partner with influencers.

Nowadays, influencers with a large number of followers can make a huge difference in marketing. Some of them even have thousands of loyal fans who treat them like superstars. And you may find that these fans are willing to spend a lot of money on the products promoted by influencers. So don’t hesitate to partner with influencers. Instead, you should do research on the most popular influencers in your targeted category based on the number of their followers, their creativity, their charges, etc.

Once you have negotiated contracts, let them promote your products or services in their own way. Livestreaming, videos, hashtag challenges, and any other formats as long as they work.

The most important goal is to build a long-term partnership with influencers, so they can regularly help your brand reach its potential audience and boost your sales.