TikTok has become a popular marketing platform for businesses in recent years. After seeing exponential growth during the pandemic TikTok is home to over one billion monthly active users.
With so many eyes on the video-sharing app it can be a goldmine for businesses who want to increase brand visibility and awareness. And, we can’t forget about TikTok Shop which allows businesses to sell their products via their own in-app store with the potential of increasing brand revenue.
It’s no secret that the short-form landscape video has taken over, we can’t seem to stop scrolling!
Combined with TikTok’s impressive audience, this means that the app is MUST for small businesses who want to reach new customers and continue to expand.
What are the benefits of using TikTok for business?
TikTok has become an important tool for small businesses to promote and sell their products and services. With 73% of small business marketers saying that they feel the platform has helped them reach new customers.
Having changed the lives of small businesses around the world, a presence on TikTok can come with an array of benefits including:
- Boost brand awareness
- Strengthen brand credibility
- Reach a larger audience
- Increase creativity
So when it comes to marketing a small business on TikTok how do you go about it?
Creating an account for your small business and learning how to navigate it can feel daunting, but just think of the benefits it can bring.
If you’re looking for inspiration for your TikTok marketing strategy, we’re here to help. Check out these small businesses who are taking TikTok by storm:
Hair Syrup
Can you believe this viral brand began by accident?
After struggling to find natural pre-wash hair treatments on the high street, Lucie Macleod decided to create her own. With a handful of followers, Lucie posted a haircare tutorial showing her using the pre-wash treatment and it blew up – receiving over 500,000 views and thousands of comments.
Now Hair Syrup is a thriving business, having sold thousands of products to people around the world, and is a firm favourite on TikTok.
So what’s their TikTok marketing strategy? To prioritise educational and user generated content.
From mistakes to avoid when hair oiling and hair hacks, to the benefits of product ingredients and how to tutorials, the brand posts a range of value-led content. This type of content is a great way to increase brand visibility and build authority proving to an audience that you know your stuff!
An increasing number of brands are incorporating UGC into their marketing strategy, with 87% of businesses using it to share more authentic content with their target audience.
Hair Syrup began with UGC content and understands its importance in their marketing strategy. The brand leverages image and video based UGC to demonstrate the ‘before’ and ‘after’ effects of their products.
Earlier this year, we were lucky enough to chat to Lucie about Hair Syrup’s presence on TikTok.
Hair Syrup is successful on a number of social media platforms, what do you think makes it especially successful on TikTok?
Lucie – When it comes to haircare, it’s become such a trend over these last few years that people are very conscious about things they’re putting on their scalp and in their hair. I think buying from a small, indie business can feel safer and more reliable, I think that’s contributed to the success.
I think timing too, I came onto TikTok and blew up at a time when everyone was on the platform and just loving small businesses. We were in the middle of the pandemic, people were sitting at home spending all their time on their phones.
There was this real small business boom with founders sharing their own experience too.
On TikTok, we’ve created a sense of familiarity and closeness with our audience who feel like they know me and have watched the business grow. I think that the relationship with our audience and authenticity of being a young business owner is important too.
You’ve had videos go viral on TikTok, how do you find this impacts Hair Syrup’s brand awareness and sales?
Lucie – Massively! I mean every single time a video goes viral you know you’re going to have an influx of sales. I had a video go viral about one of our products and within a couple of days we sold about 4000 bottles of it which is crazy.
Urban Outfitters, Superdrug, LookFantastic, Beauty Bay, Sephora. Every big retailer has reached out to me or we’re stocked with them and every time I have a meeting with them, they say I’ve seen your brand on tick tock.
It’s the best thing for brand awareness and visibility. There’s a huge correlation between if your video goes viral and a boost in sales!
Partner in Wine
Lucy Hitchcock is a self-proclaimed wine enthusiast who set out on a mission to create a product that kept wine cool on the go, and so Partner in Wine was born.
The Partner in Wine insulated bottle and tumbler is a must for many and can be found stocked in Selfridges, Oliver Bonas, and Liberty London.
In March 2021, Lucy took to TikTok to share her business story and it changed the trajectory of her business. Lucy’s video went viral, receiving over 900,000 views, and generated over £30,000 after Partner in Wine sold out. Not long after, Partner in Wine confirmed its first stockist (with more to follow) and moved into a fulfilment centre.
An essential part of Partner in Wine’s TikTok marketing strategy is its founder who’s remained the face of the brand as it’s grown. Lucy creates playful, humorous videos that showcase her love of wine and the products she’s created. By doing so an audience can see just how much she believes in her business and are able to connect with her on a personal level.
We spoke with Lucy about what led her to TikTok and that viral video!
Lucy, what made you decide to post content on TikTok?
Lucy – I first heard of TikTok and did a few videos to entertain myself, but after that kind of gave up.
My first business is a marketing and branding consultancy, I left my job when I was 23 to set that up. Then when I started Partner in Wine, I was using it to try and test strategies, it was my best case study!
I’d seen other people going viral on TikTok, I’d seen the platform work well for other people, and thought I want to give this a go. I thought it was so interesting that people could sell so much through one platform. I watched how people were doing it and what they were saying. I thought if I could just tell my story and intrigue people, maybe it’d go viral and get in front of millions of people and it did.
How would you say TikTok has impacted Partner in Wine?
Lucy – My first viral video, I spent hours editing it and wondered whether TikTok would show it to anyone. In the end I thought to myself, I’m just going to post it because it doesn’t need to be perfect.
I posted it and forgot about it.
By the end of the next day I’d had a few more sales than usual but nothing crazy, the morning after I woke up to hundreds of Shopify notifications and thought it was from some of my clients’ websites. I took a closer look and noticed the amounts were the price of a Partner in Wine bottle with shipping, I logged in and there were thousands of pounds worth of sales.
Then I remembered I’d posted the video on TikTok. The video had hundreds of thousands of views and it was going up by the second along with sales!
The results from that single video were that my sales had increased by 1700% overnight. I sold a product every two minutes for three days consecutively until I sold out, and I had my first five figure sales day which lasted for three days straight again until we completely sold out. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced!
Selfridges got in touch that afternoon, which is something I’d always wanted, and that was only seven months after I launched the business. Oliver Bonas, Urban Outfitters, Liberty London, Daylesford, and all the press I received came from TikTok.
PERL Cosmetics
Although we may not realise it, the condition of our skin and mental health go hand in hand. 98% of people living with a skin condition felt that this had negatively impacted their mental health and wellbeing.
Isobel Perl created PERL Cosmetics to bring joy back into people’s skincare routine with customisable products that worked for their skin. Isobel knew how detrimental a positive skincare routine can be after having struggled with anxiety and depression.
PERL Cosmetics uses TikTok to grow organically, creating transparent content that engages and develops trust with an audience. Isobel’s honesty when it comes to owning and building a skincare brand, and what goes into her products has helped build brand credibility and community.
Jumping on popular trends can be a good idea if you want to reach a wider audience and put yourself in front of new potential customers. Isobel’s use of trends that related to her niche, as a female small business owner, and constantly keeping up with any engagement meant she was able to get PERL Cosmetics on people’s for-you page.
Isobel paid attention to when her audience was most active and posted consistently at these times so TikTok was more likely to push her content increasing the chance of views and engagement.
We had the chance to chat with Isobel about PERL Cosmetics, its success on TikTok, and ever-changing strategy.
PERL Cosmetics has a large following on a number of social media platforms, but what do you think makes the brand stand out on TikTok?
Isobel – Authenticity is what I think does best for us.
I think getting the brand across in a way that resonates well for our audience. And, just being a founder as well as the really raw and honest content that you wouldn’t necessarily feel okay to post on Instagram because it can be, you know, pretty pictures.
So yes, I feel like the unfiltered stuff works really well for us on TikTok. And it’s also an avenue that gets us that gets us closer to our audience.
The content that’s performed well and gone viral recently has been the stuff where we ask our audience to help us. Like what should we do, have we made a mistake or what would you prefer?
I feel like that works really well, because it brings our audience along on the journey of building the business and makes them feel like they have a say in what’s happening. I think that works well on TikTok.
Have you adapted or changed PERL Cosmetics TikTok strategy over time, if so how?
Isobel – 100%
TikTok has changed so much since we started.
I remember you used to be able to create ASMR videos and those would just go viral, that still does happen but not as much and it’s so hard to go viral now.
I think for us we use TikTok as a way to share what’s going on in the business rather than a way to promote products, that’s the strategy we adopt. We want to nurture our audience and engage with them.
It’s a great platform to build brand awareness and trust, even engagement through people commenting and sharing. I love reading the comments to see what people are saying, you can see a lot of brand advocacy in the comment section.
Amor Lashes
Wanting to make women feel ‘beautiful and confident’, Bristol-based Lucy Pearce started Amor Lashes from her living room.
Lucy began by buying and selling strip eyelashes, but knew she could do more and wanted to expand her business.
Back in 2021, Lucy launched the UK’s first DIY lash extension kit. This meant customers could apply their own eyelash extensions from the comfort of their own home. Lucy pushed herself out of her comfort zone and posted on TikTok. After posting about the eyelash extensions and how to use them online, the product went viral!
Amor Lashes continues to grow having built a loyal community of lash lovers and boasting over 138,000 followers on TikTok. In 2023, the brands QuickLashes were named The Independent’s ‘Best Buy’ and featured in British Vogue, Glamour UK, and Vanity Fair.
Amour Lashes uses TikTok to boost brand exposure and build community by posting relatable, authentic content. Lucy and her team post unfiltered, ‘FaceTime’ style content that’s easy to identify with and shows what it’s like behind the scenes at Amor Lashes.
Lucy and her team love the products they sell and use them on a daily basis, so they leverage this to create educational content showing their audience how to use and remove the products and answer any questions.
We know we’ve said it before, but building brand community is key for any business. And, Amor Lashes have used TikTok to build and nurture a dedicated community who are invested in the brand, its products, and the team.
During the run up to Black Friday, Lucy took the time to chat to us about her TikTok journey.
Lucy, what would you say is the main advantage and disadvantage of TikTok?
Lucy – I feel like the main advantage for us is definitely community and being able to show the human side of the brand.
What’s really special is that we’ve built a community that we nurture, educate, and love to engage with. TikTok is amazing for exposure, you’re able to reach people who’ve never heard of your brand.
I wouldn’t say I find anything a disadvantage. Maybe if you create a viral video you can get a lot of negative comments, but there’s nothing you can do about that.
If you could go back to the beginning of your TikTok journey, is there anything that you would change?
Lucy – I held back from posting content because of my personal insecurities, I was so frightened to show my face online and put myself out there.
I think it’s natural to be a little self conscious or worry about negative comments, but sometimes you just have to push yourself because you’re the only one missing out.
If I could go back I’d love to have more belief in myself and post on TikTok sooner.
Whilst we can learn so much from these small businesses and their marketing strategy, remember it’s not one size fits all. What works for one brand won’t necessarily work for another, it’s dependent on your brand and its needs.
Feeling inspired? If you’re looking to build a strong social media strategy that works for you, look no further.
From community marketing to creating killer content, you’ll cover it all in our brand new course Master Your Social Media Strategy. Become a Girls in Marketing Member to access this course and so much more!
