Just when you thought social media had peaked, along came TikTok. This platform seemingly skyrocketed overnight, becoming an insanely popular app for both businesses and consumers alike. From challenges to tutorials to memes, TikTok is the cream of the crop in the video marketing trend.

If you've been struggling to determine how you can make TikTok work for your business, check out this step-by-step guide.

Outline Your Goals and Success Metrics

When it comes to marketing your business, you should always look before you leap. Taking time to outline your goals and success metrics is an effective way to ensure you're making the most of your efforts. These goals should pertain to both launching your TikTok account, as well as working it into your overall social media strategy.

For example, you should make a research about TikTok video length and format goals to help you understand the framework of your content. Setting goals for posting frequency and gaining followers will also give you something to strive for. Determine the ultimate goal of your TikTok page— is it to build brand awareness or yield conversions?

Create an Account

Once you've taken time to understand what you hope to accomplish, create an account. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create a TikTok account for your business:

1. Open the TikTok app on a smartphone.

2. Tap the notification or profile tab to launch the sign-up prompt.

3. Sign up using an email attached to your business.

4. Add a birthdate - this can be the launch date of your business or an arbitrary date.

5. Choose whether you want to receive a confirmation via phone or email and enter the relevant information.

6. When you receive your confirmation code, enter it into the confirmation field.

7. Create a password and confirm. You'll be prompted with a reCaptcha. Click the checkbox, and you're done. 

Once you have your account set up, edit your profile to match the rest of your social media branding. This step is important for brand consistency and awareness.

Develop a Content Strategy

One of the benefits of TikTok is that you can generate content on the go. While this flexibility is handy, it's still wise to have a content strategy in place for planning purposes.

Outline how often you plan on posting and what those posts will consist of. For example, you might decide to offer a blend of tutorial videos, behind-the-scenes snapshots, and monthly challenges. Creating a content strategy will help you determine how much content you must create and curate to develop a consistent posting schedule.

Create and Curate Content

When you use TikTok, you'll either create or curate content. Creating a bank of videos in bulk is a fantastic way to start building a following and generating interest.

While original videos are a great approach to TikTok, sharing curated content is also beneficial for connecting with an audience. This approach also helps your business save time and money on marketing efforts by capitalizing on user-generated content (UGC). Sharing UGC not only fills your content calendar but adds social proof and trust to your business.

For example, sharing a video of someone modeling your latest clothing line shows your audience that real people have purchased your products and are satisfied with the results. Consider this an interactive form of an online review.

Analyze and Adapt

As with any marketing campaign, flexibility and logic are a must. Take the time to analyze the results of your efforts against your goals and milestones. Take a deep dive into what's working and what's falling flat. This approach will help you make data-driven decisions and adapt your efforts to better connect with your audience.

By taking a strategic, well-planned approach to using TikTok, your business can connect with new customers and exciting opportunities.